Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Seeking advice on which of these would be the best way to try to sell a collection of about 2300 stamps from Austria mounted on Scott specialty album pages:
(1) a general dealer who offers to buy all kinds of collections?
(2) a dealer who specalizes in Austria, like R. Schneider?
(3) an auction house like Apfelbaum?
(4) putting it on consignment to a dealer who sells to collectors, like Don Lewis' Country Collections?
There are 1600 regular issues and about 700 back-of-the-book issues, mostly semi-postals, postage due stamps. newspaper and military stamps. The 2300 total includes 200 to 300 duplicates, often mint and used of the same issue (for maybe 15 years, there are actually duplicate pages, one for mint and one for used). The collection was given a catalog value greater than $2,200, but I don't know what year's catalog that was based on. The pages run through 1994. Many of the mint stamps are hinged, although some are in mounts. There are five empty mounts, but I don't think these were items removed since they are pretty much low-value issues. The highest value may be in the back-of-the-book issues, as I noticed a used Scott #25 "Offices in the Turkish Empire" which is valued at 72.50 in the 2014 catalog. There are 13 stamps from Lombardy-Venetia, although my Scott catalog doesn't provide enough information to identify whether they are reprints.
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Hi David,
Welcome to Stamporama.
Are the stamps from Austria in one of the binders on the shelf? Are the rest of the books/binders collections or literature?
I am not familiar with R.Schneider but if you are and are comfortable with him see if he will buy or take your collection on assignment. If this a collection you built you might check with the dealers you purchased from in the past.
As far as an auction house like "Apfelbaum" be careful. As Thumper once said "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all." There are other auction houses that would take you collection, Dutch Country Auctions in Wilmington, Delaware.
Let us know what you decid and how you make out.
Vince
Vince
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Vince -- Thanks very much.... The Austria collection is not on the shelves in my picture... as it is the first of my 20+ nations that I'm going to try to sell. The one-sided pages are in pristine condition and the collection is housed in a huge brown binder. I have been told there was a brief time when Scott Specialty albums came in brown binders but haven't been able to confirm that.
In the picture, all are albums with stamps except the two on the right of the lower shelf... those are stock books, mostly with a topical collection of flags on stamps, and a modest collection of George VI colonials.
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Do you have a figure in mind that you would not take less than ? If you do it pretty much eliminates auction houses as a viable alternative. Results can be disappointing.
A dealer will probably not add much value for the album and pages. Few collectors will pay a premium for them - they should but they often have already committed to a certain type of album and would not want to switch.
Just trying to pass along some things discovered in the last 30 plus years as a collector and part time dealer.
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What do you mean by specialized? You have a lot of one stamp per issue albums which to me do not really work well for specialization. I am thinking of where you would collect shades or varieties, etc. Most of the specialized collections I have seen come in stockbooks or stockpages or home made pages.
If you have an advanced, specialized collection as I am describing and hinting at your best bet would be to go with an auction house that is in that country or that specializes in that country. It may do well as a specialized collection in its own right.
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David
You came to the right place to ask for advice but like others have said beware of auction houses. You'd be lucky to get 30% of retail value for what you have. I suggest you stick around and get more involved with the hobby before you make any decisions to sell. You may find out you enjoy being a philatelist. If not post some more detailed pictures of what you have and you'll get some honest buyers I'm sure of it.
Jeremy
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I would like to highlight a comment made by Antonio: this sounds like a country collection, not a specialized collection. That's not meant to be derisive, but to call it more accurately.
If it is specialized, it would likely have varieties or cancel studies beyond what would find in Scott or Yvert or.....
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If $2,300 is somewhat accurate then there is probably not enough catalog value to bother with any dealers or auction firms. Take a bunch of pics and put it on Ebay with a start of $350. It's probably worth that but not much more. After auction fees from a brick and mortar you would not likely get more than 15% and that would be months down the road. Austria is not all that hot these days. Key stamps over a hundred dollars and in f-vf+ is where the value is.
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I was waiting on someone else to put that type of message and I agree with Antonio, if the highest CV stamp in the collection is $72.00 it means that all of the stamps are low to minimum CV and needless to say that it would be hard to get a decent amount of money for it, $350.00 seems optimistic to me but you never know, I see people paying twice CV for minimum CV stamps, so go figure.
Tony
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David, I see that you have just joined the SOR so I would like to welcome you. Do you collect stamps? How did you come about this album and the others shown in your picture?
Tony, I changed my estimate from $300 to $350 because of the album. Scott Specialty albums in my view are the best for collecting the world. Austria is pretty much required for any world collection and your target buyer would want the album. They would not be buying it if it had less stamps than they already have so transferring them would not make much sense. I tacked on the extra $50 for the album. Austrian stamps are typically not that valuable.
The first page of the Scott Specialty album cats for around $1,220 used, by far the highest cat. for any regular issue page. There are a few good issues around 1910 and pre and post War II, as well as semi postals in the early 1930's but other than some very pricey B.O.B's the rest are typically low value and easy to obtain. Based on the figures provided there are no key stamps so not much there for anyone already collecting Austria and would best be described as a very nice starter collection. Just because it is in a Specialty album does not mean it is a specialized collection.
For comparison below is my first page and links to the 3 different parts of my collection.
Even though I have several other pages (not shown) that I have added for variants etc. I would not consider mine as a specialty collection. A specialty collection would have most all variants as well as covers, postal stationary, revenues etc etc.
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/europe/austria/austria.html
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/europe/austria/austriabob.html
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/europe/austria/austriabob.html
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04:04:37pm
Seeking advice on which of these would be the best way to try to sell a collection of about 2300 stamps from Austria mounted on Scott specialty album pages:
(1) a general dealer who offers to buy all kinds of collections?
(2) a dealer who specalizes in Austria, like R. Schneider?
(3) an auction house like Apfelbaum?
(4) putting it on consignment to a dealer who sells to collectors, like Don Lewis' Country Collections?
There are 1600 regular issues and about 700 back-of-the-book issues, mostly semi-postals, postage due stamps. newspaper and military stamps. The 2300 total includes 200 to 300 duplicates, often mint and used of the same issue (for maybe 15 years, there are actually duplicate pages, one for mint and one for used). The collection was given a catalog value greater than $2,200, but I don't know what year's catalog that was based on. The pages run through 1994. Many of the mint stamps are hinged, although some are in mounts. There are five empty mounts, but I don't think these were items removed since they are pretty much low-value issues. The highest value may be in the back-of-the-book issues, as I noticed a used Scott #25 "Offices in the Turkish Empire" which is valued at 72.50 in the 2014 catalog. There are 13 stamps from Lombardy-Venetia, although my Scott catalog doesn't provide enough information to identify whether they are reprints.
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re: need advice on selling specialized collection
Hi David,
Welcome to Stamporama.
Are the stamps from Austria in one of the binders on the shelf? Are the rest of the books/binders collections or literature?
I am not familiar with R.Schneider but if you are and are comfortable with him see if he will buy or take your collection on assignment. If this a collection you built you might check with the dealers you purchased from in the past.
As far as an auction house like "Apfelbaum" be careful. As Thumper once said "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all." There are other auction houses that would take you collection, Dutch Country Auctions in Wilmington, Delaware.
Let us know what you decid and how you make out.
Vince
Vince
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like this post.
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07:40:56pm
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
Vince -- Thanks very much.... The Austria collection is not on the shelves in my picture... as it is the first of my 20+ nations that I'm going to try to sell. The one-sided pages are in pristine condition and the collection is housed in a huge brown binder. I have been told there was a brief time when Scott Specialty albums came in brown binders but haven't been able to confirm that.
In the picture, all are albums with stamps except the two on the right of the lower shelf... those are stock books, mostly with a topical collection of flags on stamps, and a modest collection of George VI colonials.
Login to Like
this post
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
Do you have a figure in mind that you would not take less than ? If you do it pretty much eliminates auction houses as a viable alternative. Results can be disappointing.
A dealer will probably not add much value for the album and pages. Few collectors will pay a premium for them - they should but they often have already committed to a certain type of album and would not want to switch.
Just trying to pass along some things discovered in the last 30 plus years as a collector and part time dealer.
Login to Like
this post
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
What do you mean by specialized? You have a lot of one stamp per issue albums which to me do not really work well for specialization. I am thinking of where you would collect shades or varieties, etc. Most of the specialized collections I have seen come in stockbooks or stockpages or home made pages.
If you have an advanced, specialized collection as I am describing and hinting at your best bet would be to go with an auction house that is in that country or that specializes in that country. It may do well as a specialized collection in its own right.
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12:47:07am
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
David
You came to the right place to ask for advice but like others have said beware of auction houses. You'd be lucky to get 30% of retail value for what you have. I suggest you stick around and get more involved with the hobby before you make any decisions to sell. You may find out you enjoy being a philatelist. If not post some more detailed pictures of what you have and you'll get some honest buyers I'm sure of it.
Jeremy
1 Member
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Auctions
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
I would like to highlight a comment made by Antonio: this sounds like a country collection, not a specialized collection. That's not meant to be derisive, but to call it more accurately.
If it is specialized, it would likely have varieties or cancel studies beyond what would find in Scott or Yvert or.....
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
If $2,300 is somewhat accurate then there is probably not enough catalog value to bother with any dealers or auction firms. Take a bunch of pics and put it on Ebay with a start of $350. It's probably worth that but not much more. After auction fees from a brick and mortar you would not likely get more than 15% and that would be months down the road. Austria is not all that hot these days. Key stamps over a hundred dollars and in f-vf+ is where the value is.
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Login to Like.
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
I was waiting on someone else to put that type of message and I agree with Antonio, if the highest CV stamp in the collection is $72.00 it means that all of the stamps are low to minimum CV and needless to say that it would be hard to get a decent amount of money for it, $350.00 seems optimistic to me but you never know, I see people paying twice CV for minimum CV stamps, so go figure.
Tony
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this post
re: need advice on selling specialized collection
David, I see that you have just joined the SOR so I would like to welcome you. Do you collect stamps? How did you come about this album and the others shown in your picture?
Tony, I changed my estimate from $300 to $350 because of the album. Scott Specialty albums in my view are the best for collecting the world. Austria is pretty much required for any world collection and your target buyer would want the album. They would not be buying it if it had less stamps than they already have so transferring them would not make much sense. I tacked on the extra $50 for the album. Austrian stamps are typically not that valuable.
The first page of the Scott Specialty album cats for around $1,220 used, by far the highest cat. for any regular issue page. There are a few good issues around 1910 and pre and post War II, as well as semi postals in the early 1930's but other than some very pricey B.O.B's the rest are typically low value and easy to obtain. Based on the figures provided there are no key stamps so not much there for anyone already collecting Austria and would best be described as a very nice starter collection. Just because it is in a Specialty album does not mean it is a specialized collection.
For comparison below is my first page and links to the 3 different parts of my collection.
Even though I have several other pages (not shown) that I have added for variants etc. I would not consider mine as a specialty collection. A specialty collection would have most all variants as well as covers, postal stationary, revenues etc etc.
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/europe/austria/austria.html
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/europe/austria/austriabob.html
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/europe/austria/austriabob.html
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