Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Do people have established limits or budgets or just wing it like me (and pay the price later)?
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12:51:22pm
I use the "Rule of Thirds" to determine when I have spent too much on stamps. When I get the third notice that my electric bill is overdue and my juice will be cut off shortly, I stop spending. 
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When my good lady makes comments I remind her that her new (secondhand) sewing machine cost more than all the stamps I have ever bought or am likely so to do. It was also more than the $7500 that her car cost. But that's her hobby, makes for expensive quilts.
Now to look at the auctions without feeling guilty.
vic
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i can answer in two ways...what i spend on average is a trifle compared to other expenses..that being said if the chance of a lifetime shows up..i am ready to go "all in" !
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I am a firm believer on budgets for everything and everyone....else. Stamps are necessities and don't belong in budgets.
But I have a self control mechanism - my wife. When she starts noticing, I take my foot off the pedal.
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My wife and I each have a fixed but generous budget for personal expenses. We each get $350 per month to spend as we please, but that has to cover ALL personal expenses from haircuts to clothes to books to sporting goods to booze to gifts, including Christmas presents. I often have to decide if I want a stamp or a coin or a new golf club or a new mask and snorkel or a massage or a nice bottle of wine. Sometimes I choose to set money aside for a bigger purchase. I have an envelope where I stash unspent money to save for a big purchase like an expensive stamp or a dive trip.
We also have an envelope where we each contribute $20 twice each month starting in March to have the money to make an annual trip to Cincinnati and get box seats for the ATP (tennis) tour stop there in the fall. It's something we both wish to sacrifice for and it's nice to work on something together like that. This is our 4th year saving for that trip.
I have no idea what she spends on shoes or decorations or spa trips or tennis lessons, but I know what the total is. She has no idea what I spend on stamps or coins or golf or SCUBA, but she knows what the total is. And we're both fine with that.
Lars
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We do no have a budget..just try to use common sense..i do not maintain a yacht or go on mountain climbing trips to Tibet..we just both collect and enjoy stamps and going to stamp and postcard shows !
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Our only rule is that if we are going to buy something over $100 we let the other person know and they have to agree to the purchase. So far the rule has worked really well and we never bicker over the budget.
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I've always been good with money. We don't have expensive tastes, don't go on lavish vacations and have always bought good used cars. We saved most of our lives, managed to pay cash for two kids' college educations and have passed down conservative values to them. My eldest paid cash for a two year old car and recently got engaged. She and her fiancee are balancing out how to have a conservative wedding so they can buy a house.
I've never taken money out of my family's mouths for hobbies. I know plenty of guys who did. Anything I spend is after all the bills were paid. I just did my taxes, downloading my bank accounts into a spread sheet. I don't have my hobbies broken out but I spent a bit over $4000 on eBay / Paypal last year. That does include things like car and computer parts I bought on the 'bay. I do find it a bunch easier to sit here and click than to go out in the real world to search for stuff.
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Got about $250 a month disposable income. Unfortunately, I also have credit cards, so I'm working on July's budget right now!
Will try to cool it for a few months, but when one of the stamps that are on my wish list shows up, all bets are off!
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We have new members in our club who really want to learn about stamps...but they are not going to learn overnight ..so its kind of a shame when members bring in really great bargains to auction at 10 or 20 percent of catalog and the new folks do not have the experience to benefit from it. Its all relative i guess..when i started collecting the large kaisers yachts seemed unatainable.
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05:53:40pm
I have no specific stamp budget. But I remember being young, going to sea and making some excellent money, much of which was spent in sailors dives for things that are but distant memories.
When I restarted the stamp hobby that changed (Thanks to Tokelau stamps #s 1-3)and I can point to sets I bought fifty years ago.
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Yes Sir...I hear that every month, after my lovely wife balances the checkbook., followed by a good hard slap on the side of my head
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The only money I spend on stamps is at the post office when I want to mail a surprise card to my wife.
That's my story over the years and I'm stickin' to it.
k
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I honestly try to manage my collecting this way:
1. I am a hunter / killer when it comes to acquiring stuff I want. I will search, dig and dicker to get what I want at the best or no (trading) price.
2. I make a HUGE effort to control my scope creep and sell what I can to manage scope and generate revenue for purchases.
3. I do try to acquire things that have some ultimate value - as well as the pretty and collectible - I do have grandkids after all.......
4. I put a whole lot of time and energy into encouraging the hobby - because I think it still has meaning and value.
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06:32:36pm
@khi Right, Kim!!!!...and I work at the North Pole 364 days a years and only leave one day each year.
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Budget is limited only in that I do not spend more than 50% of what I sell in a given month.
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cdj1122 said,
"But I remember being young, going to sea and making some excellent money, much of which was spent in sailors dives for things that are but distant memories."
Alas, I never went to sea, at least not as a member of a ship's company, which is why I joined the navy in the first place! But, Charlie, curious minds want to know exactly what you spent money on in "sailors' dives". I assume that you were giving money to nuns or perhaps to an orphans' fund. I certainly was a charitable sailor: I clearly remember (well, not so clearly, actually!) pawning my camera and taking friends on a cultural tour of bars in Henoko, Okinawa. There were young ladies in each of those bars who clearly needed conversion, so I donated money to their education, and they in turn gave us refreshing drinks. Let's see: there was a tumbler of sake in one bar, a "typhoon fifth" of Japanese beer in another, and, I think, a brandy alexander in another, and a whisky sour in one more, and…actually, I don't remember much of anything after that!
boB
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"Budget is limited only in that I do not spend more than 50% of what I sell in a given month."
Back in the good ole days of eBay, I was selling off my auto dealer brochure collection. I'd spend a Saturday listing these one at a time, only to refresh every hour or so and see that most of what I had listed already had bids. Not like today at all.
Once Paypal came in, my profits sat there, so it was only fair to throw those profits back into the 'bay! So I bought a lot of expensive stamps in those days...after all they were free!
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@bobby
"and I work at the North Pole 364 days a years and only leave one day each year."
I always believer everything Kim says, so that means Bobby, you still haven't delivered on my list for Santa. (maybe it's that list thing again!)
For spending on stamps, I admit that as my work/business picked up, I spent more. I used to limit my spending to what I realized from sales but as I rarely sell now, I find that I'm in for a surprise every month when I see my PayPal payments! I don't use a budget for stamp purchases, and I don't necessarily have an amount in mind when I get the itch to buy. I'm a seller's dream if the item is right!
Peter
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07:47:43pm
" .... a cultural tour of bars in Henoko, Okinawa. There were young ladies in each of those bars who clearly needed conversion, so I donated money to their education, and they in turn gave us refreshing drinks. ...."
One of my favorite ports of call when I was on the CGC Buttonwood was Naha. There was a place called "The Tea House of the August Moon", obviously after the earlier movie and even earlier novel.
The best part of Naha was that it was a small port and when we visited there was no 3,000 man aircraft carrier or squadron of other Navy ships in the harbor. Each time we were sent to Yokosuka for R&R we would stop at Naha either on the way north or the return leg.
It was there that I enjoyed my first Oriental romance and it seemed real, for sure.
Once while in the Carolines, near Yap or Koror the pivot pin on our cargo boom cracked and we were sent to Naha for repairs and dynamic testing. It took about two weeks for a part left over from WW II to be found in the dusty corner of some semi-abandoned supply room of the Duluth Iron Works where the ship had been built almost twenty years earlier, and sent to Okinawa to be installed.
We were glad to be getting ready to sail again, but sad to be leaving when in the middle of the dynamic weight testing the "new" pin also cracked so we were condemned to remain there while a new one was forged in Japan and shipped south to Naha. What sad faces the crew had, at least the single guys, as we contemplated a second payday and a few more nights exchanging cultural traditions and heritage with the self appointed representatives of the Orient.
I also made a small bundle as by the time we left about half the crew owed me most of their next payday. In those days a five dollar bill was enough to have a good time and perhaps have some coins left in the morning. I happened to have gotten a Tax refund before leaving Honolulu and was often asked to lend a shipmate $5 for $7 on payday. Payday could be two days or two weeks away and the 40% was offered, never requested or demanded. So each payday I'd collect my pay and then sit in the crew's mess and at times receive more than double that from thankful borrowers, and if we were to stay in port for more than one weekend the money would be lent out just as easily to be returned at further profit the next time the Eagle paid up.
I only wish I had invested more of those dollars in stamps.
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Bob pawned his camera? Seriously? For a night out on the town? What were you thinking? Hahaha
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I often find myself "lost" in my hobby. My curiousity and desire to obtain these small bits of sticky paper have often gotten me in trouble with the Mrs. (and the bank).
Do people have established limits or budgets or just wing it like me (and pay the price later)?
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
25 Mar 2015
12:51:22pm
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
I use the "Rule of Thirds" to determine when I have spent too much on stamps. When I get the third notice that my electric bill is overdue and my juice will be cut off shortly, I stop spending.
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
When my good lady makes comments I remind her that her new (secondhand) sewing machine cost more than all the stamps I have ever bought or am likely so to do. It was also more than the $7500 that her car cost. But that's her hobby, makes for expensive quilts.
Now to look at the auctions without feeling guilty.
vic
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Auctions
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
i can answer in two ways...what i spend on average is a trifle compared to other expenses..that being said if the chance of a lifetime shows up..i am ready to go "all in" !
Login to Like
this post
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
I am a firm believer on budgets for everything and everyone....else. Stamps are necessities and don't belong in budgets.
But I have a self control mechanism - my wife. When she starts noticing, I take my foot off the pedal.
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
My wife and I each have a fixed but generous budget for personal expenses. We each get $350 per month to spend as we please, but that has to cover ALL personal expenses from haircuts to clothes to books to sporting goods to booze to gifts, including Christmas presents. I often have to decide if I want a stamp or a coin or a new golf club or a new mask and snorkel or a massage or a nice bottle of wine. Sometimes I choose to set money aside for a bigger purchase. I have an envelope where I stash unspent money to save for a big purchase like an expensive stamp or a dive trip.
We also have an envelope where we each contribute $20 twice each month starting in March to have the money to make an annual trip to Cincinnati and get box seats for the ATP (tennis) tour stop there in the fall. It's something we both wish to sacrifice for and it's nice to work on something together like that. This is our 4th year saving for that trip.
I have no idea what she spends on shoes or decorations or spa trips or tennis lessons, but I know what the total is. She has no idea what I spend on stamps or coins or golf or SCUBA, but she knows what the total is. And we're both fine with that.
Lars
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Auctions
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
We do no have a budget..just try to use common sense..i do not maintain a yacht or go on mountain climbing trips to Tibet..we just both collect and enjoy stamps and going to stamp and postcard shows !
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this post
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
Our only rule is that if we are going to buy something over $100 we let the other person know and they have to agree to the purchase. So far the rule has worked really well and we never bicker over the budget.
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
I've always been good with money. We don't have expensive tastes, don't go on lavish vacations and have always bought good used cars. We saved most of our lives, managed to pay cash for two kids' college educations and have passed down conservative values to them. My eldest paid cash for a two year old car and recently got engaged. She and her fiancee are balancing out how to have a conservative wedding so they can buy a house.
I've never taken money out of my family's mouths for hobbies. I know plenty of guys who did. Anything I spend is after all the bills were paid. I just did my taxes, downloading my bank accounts into a spread sheet. I don't have my hobbies broken out but I spent a bit over $4000 on eBay / Paypal last year. That does include things like car and computer parts I bought on the 'bay. I do find it a bunch easier to sit here and click than to go out in the real world to search for stuff.
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this post
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
Got about $250 a month disposable income. Unfortunately, I also have credit cards, so I'm working on July's budget right now!
Will try to cool it for a few months, but when one of the stamps that are on my wish list shows up, all bets are off!
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Auctions
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
We have new members in our club who really want to learn about stamps...but they are not going to learn overnight ..so its kind of a shame when members bring in really great bargains to auction at 10 or 20 percent of catalog and the new folks do not have the experience to benefit from it. Its all relative i guess..when i started collecting the large kaisers yachts seemed unatainable.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
28 Mar 2015
05:53:40pm
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
I have no specific stamp budget. But I remember being young, going to sea and making some excellent money, much of which was spent in sailors dives for things that are but distant memories.
When I restarted the stamp hobby that changed (Thanks to Tokelau stamps #s 1-3)and I can point to sets I bought fifty years ago.
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01:10:59pm
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
Yes Sir...I hear that every month, after my lovely wife balances the checkbook., followed by a good hard slap on the side of my head
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
The only money I spend on stamps is at the post office when I want to mail a surprise card to my wife.
That's my story over the years and I'm stickin' to it.
k
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
I honestly try to manage my collecting this way:
1. I am a hunter / killer when it comes to acquiring stuff I want. I will search, dig and dicker to get what I want at the best or no (trading) price.
2. I make a HUGE effort to control my scope creep and sell what I can to manage scope and generate revenue for purchases.
3. I do try to acquire things that have some ultimate value - as well as the pretty and collectible - I do have grandkids after all.......
4. I put a whole lot of time and energy into encouraging the hobby - because I think it still has meaning and value.
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
29 Mar 2015
06:32:36pm
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
@khi Right, Kim!!!!...and I work at the North Pole 364 days a years and only leave one day each year.
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
Budget is limited only in that I do not spend more than 50% of what I sell in a given month.
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
cdj1122 said,
"But I remember being young, going to sea and making some excellent money, much of which was spent in sailors dives for things that are but distant memories."
Alas, I never went to sea, at least not as a member of a ship's company, which is why I joined the navy in the first place! But, Charlie, curious minds want to know exactly what you spent money on in "sailors' dives". I assume that you were giving money to nuns or perhaps to an orphans' fund. I certainly was a charitable sailor: I clearly remember (well, not so clearly, actually!) pawning my camera and taking friends on a cultural tour of bars in Henoko, Okinawa. There were young ladies in each of those bars who clearly needed conversion, so I donated money to their education, and they in turn gave us refreshing drinks. Let's see: there was a tumbler of sake in one bar, a "typhoon fifth" of Japanese beer in another, and, I think, a brandy alexander in another, and a whisky sour in one more, and…actually, I don't remember much of anything after that!
boB
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Approvals
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
"Budget is limited only in that I do not spend more than 50% of what I sell in a given month."
Back in the good ole days of eBay, I was selling off my auto dealer brochure collection. I'd spend a Saturday listing these one at a time, only to refresh every hour or so and see that most of what I had listed already had bids. Not like today at all.
Once Paypal came in, my profits sat there, so it was only fair to throw those profits back into the 'bay! So I bought a lot of expensive stamps in those days...after all they were free!
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08:46:44am
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
@bobby
"and I work at the North Pole 364 days a years and only leave one day each year."
I always believer everything Kim says, so that means Bobby, you still haven't delivered on my list for Santa. (maybe it's that list thing again!)
For spending on stamps, I admit that as my work/business picked up, I spent more. I used to limit my spending to what I realized from sales but as I rarely sell now, I find that I'm in for a surprise every month when I see my PayPal payments! I don't use a budget for stamp purchases, and I don't necessarily have an amount in mind when I get the itch to buy. I'm a seller's dream if the item is right!
Peter
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
31 Mar 2015
07:47:43pm
re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
" .... a cultural tour of bars in Henoko, Okinawa. There were young ladies in each of those bars who clearly needed conversion, so I donated money to their education, and they in turn gave us refreshing drinks. ...."
One of my favorite ports of call when I was on the CGC Buttonwood was Naha. There was a place called "The Tea House of the August Moon", obviously after the earlier movie and even earlier novel.
The best part of Naha was that it was a small port and when we visited there was no 3,000 man aircraft carrier or squadron of other Navy ships in the harbor. Each time we were sent to Yokosuka for R&R we would stop at Naha either on the way north or the return leg.
It was there that I enjoyed my first Oriental romance and it seemed real, for sure.
Once while in the Carolines, near Yap or Koror the pivot pin on our cargo boom cracked and we were sent to Naha for repairs and dynamic testing. It took about two weeks for a part left over from WW II to be found in the dusty corner of some semi-abandoned supply room of the Duluth Iron Works where the ship had been built almost twenty years earlier, and sent to Okinawa to be installed.
We were glad to be getting ready to sail again, but sad to be leaving when in the middle of the dynamic weight testing the "new" pin also cracked so we were condemned to remain there while a new one was forged in Japan and shipped south to Naha. What sad faces the crew had, at least the single guys, as we contemplated a second payday and a few more nights exchanging cultural traditions and heritage with the self appointed representatives of the Orient.
I also made a small bundle as by the time we left about half the crew owed me most of their next payday. In those days a five dollar bill was enough to have a good time and perhaps have some coins left in the morning. I happened to have gotten a Tax refund before leaving Honolulu and was often asked to lend a shipmate $5 for $7 on payday. Payday could be two days or two weeks away and the 40% was offered, never requested or demanded. So each payday I'd collect my pay and then sit in the crew's mess and at times receive more than double that from thankful borrowers, and if we were to stay in port for more than one weekend the money would be lent out just as easily to be returned at further profit the next time the Eagle paid up.
I only wish I had invested more of those dollars in stamps.
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re: You spent HOW MUCH on stamps??????????
Bob pawned his camera? Seriously? For a night out on the town? What were you thinking? Hahaha
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