Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Recently, I've thought about getting back into both collecting and selling. I quite enjoyed the selling as you had to really look at some stamps to accurately identify them and get a Scott's (that's what I used) value to set a price. I never did so much looking at watermarks, perforation, and coloration (colors can drive you mad).
I've looked around on Ebay at stamps for sale and see several albums in boxes. Not sophisticated collections I'm thinking, and likely nothing of great value, but I was curious if anyone had ever had any decent finds in such purchases.
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Welcome to SOR. I do from time to time. My luck is usually with large lots or lots the seller states that the items are unsorted or not identified. Take your time to study the scans or photos for the listing you find yourself looking at. I tend to shy away from sellers that don't respond to questions or they refuse to give a photo or scan of the back of the item or items listed. I hope this helps.
Jeremy
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I have purchased a couple of single country collections on eBay and did ok with them. When you bid on the worldwide albums you soon see the same old stamps over and over again and not the higher values. Just my experience !
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I use a simple formula to ensure that I never get ripped-off when buying bigger lots and collections on eBay. I forget any stated values, I assume that there will be fakes, forgeries, and stamps with condition issues. Instead, I calculate the ‘fun quotient’ for myself. In other words, I estimate how many hours of enjoyment I will glean from working on the new material. I target a ‘fun quotient’ of $10 per hour or better (lower).
Don
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I assume the OP is asking about purchasing collections in albums, or would it be purchasing used albums?
If the latter I would not suggest it. Although one can sometimes get a nice pre owned album in many cases you are getting something customized by the last owner. Numbers written in, extra mounts, etc. I won't even mention if the last owner was a smoker.
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The most important thing is to know what you are looking at and how long it takes you to process it. Your looking for the best deal you can find and the more experience you have
the easier it will be. There are so many items on Ebay that you need to be able to qualify them quickly so as to not waste time. If you see a couple things that turn you off then move on to the next. I have a very good knowledge of the value of most stamps of the world so I can process them quite quickly but of course it takes a lot of time to get there. It's best to concentrate on countries that you are well familiar with when buying to sell.
I search to add items to my collection and also to sell off better stamps to help pay for the stamps I need. I first check for stamp I need for my collection and catalog them.
I then decide what I would pay for those stamps and that is often what I bid. Secondly I look for better stamps catalog for more than $5. If there is a lot of this material that is easy to sell with a relatively short turn around, I'll consider that regarding the bid.
This works good for me, of course there are many other factors which ill influence your bid, every lot is different.
You should know what the things you are selling before you buy them and sell quickly enough to cover your investment. You also need to paying around 5%.
Buy good stuff real cheap, that everybody wants, and you'll have no problems.
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I was looking at some old albums and some often have pages of key stamps either removed or a page removed (sometimes clearly ripped out).
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Within the past year I bid on a lot that included a Scott Minuteman album from the mid 1970s.The seller had mentioned that most 1940 to the end around 1978, stamps were mint and included a face value number.. which was more than I paid for the entire lot. The lot included a few other things, and I was focusing on a glassine envelope full of Farley center pairs, blocks and such. Anyway, I was amazed that I got this entire lot super cheap.
The Minuteman album and it looked exactly like the one I had as a kid. The scans showed page after page of mint stamps in mounts. Typical holes in the collection like the $5 definitives and many of the se-tenent blocks.
I get the album in the mail and I was delighted, when I did a quick flip through the pages. Then the day came when I knew the album contained a stamp that I needed for my own USA collection. I reach into a mount to extract it and immediately saw it was very hinged... so I do a quick check through the mounts and find that ALL of the stamps are either hinged or have no gum at all. It literally looked like someone had been collecting for ten years and had transferred all the stamps from album to album and only on the last transfer had discovered clear mounts!
So instantly I discovered that the entire album was a bust. Still I had gotten my value from the Farleys alone, that were worth more than my bid!
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When buying albums, you do need to find out how the stamps are attached. There are some nice collections out there but as said the stamps cannot be removed from pages without soaking again. A quick email to the seller will usually clear it up.
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01:16:47pm
I'm new here, but have been in and out of stamp collecting for 60 years. About 10 years ago I started selling stamps from my collection on the old Bidstart. After a couple years, I drifted away from this, and closed my "store".
Recently, I've thought about getting back into both collecting and selling. I quite enjoyed the selling as you had to really look at some stamps to accurately identify them and get a Scott's (that's what I used) value to set a price. I never did so much looking at watermarks, perforation, and coloration (colors can drive you mad).
I've looked around on Ebay at stamps for sale and see several albums in boxes. Not sophisticated collections I'm thinking, and likely nothing of great value, but I was curious if anyone had ever had any decent finds in such purchases.
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01:57:27pm
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
Welcome to SOR. I do from time to time. My luck is usually with large lots or lots the seller states that the items are unsorted or not identified. Take your time to study the scans or photos for the listing you find yourself looking at. I tend to shy away from sellers that don't respond to questions or they refuse to give a photo or scan of the back of the item or items listed. I hope this helps.
Jeremy
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this post
Auctions
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
I have purchased a couple of single country collections on eBay and did ok with them. When you bid on the worldwide albums you soon see the same old stamps over and over again and not the higher values. Just my experience !
Login to Like
this post
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
I use a simple formula to ensure that I never get ripped-off when buying bigger lots and collections on eBay. I forget any stated values, I assume that there will be fakes, forgeries, and stamps with condition issues. Instead, I calculate the ‘fun quotient’ for myself. In other words, I estimate how many hours of enjoyment I will glean from working on the new material. I target a ‘fun quotient’ of $10 per hour or better (lower).
Don
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
I assume the OP is asking about purchasing collections in albums, or would it be purchasing used albums?
If the latter I would not suggest it. Although one can sometimes get a nice pre owned album in many cases you are getting something customized by the last owner. Numbers written in, extra mounts, etc. I won't even mention if the last owner was a smoker.
Login to Like
this post
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
The most important thing is to know what you are looking at and how long it takes you to process it. Your looking for the best deal you can find and the more experience you have
the easier it will be. There are so many items on Ebay that you need to be able to qualify them quickly so as to not waste time. If you see a couple things that turn you off then move on to the next. I have a very good knowledge of the value of most stamps of the world so I can process them quite quickly but of course it takes a lot of time to get there. It's best to concentrate on countries that you are well familiar with when buying to sell.
I search to add items to my collection and also to sell off better stamps to help pay for the stamps I need. I first check for stamp I need for my collection and catalog them.
I then decide what I would pay for those stamps and that is often what I bid. Secondly I look for better stamps catalog for more than $5. If there is a lot of this material that is easy to sell with a relatively short turn around, I'll consider that regarding the bid.
This works good for me, of course there are many other factors which ill influence your bid, every lot is different.
You should know what the things you are selling before you buy them and sell quickly enough to cover your investment. You also need to paying around 5%.
Buy good stuff real cheap, that everybody wants, and you'll have no problems.
Login to Like
this post
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
I was looking at some old albums and some often have pages of key stamps either removed or a page removed (sometimes clearly ripped out).
Login to Like
this post
Approvals
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
Within the past year I bid on a lot that included a Scott Minuteman album from the mid 1970s.The seller had mentioned that most 1940 to the end around 1978, stamps were mint and included a face value number.. which was more than I paid for the entire lot. The lot included a few other things, and I was focusing on a glassine envelope full of Farley center pairs, blocks and such. Anyway, I was amazed that I got this entire lot super cheap.
The Minuteman album and it looked exactly like the one I had as a kid. The scans showed page after page of mint stamps in mounts. Typical holes in the collection like the $5 definitives and many of the se-tenent blocks.
I get the album in the mail and I was delighted, when I did a quick flip through the pages. Then the day came when I knew the album contained a stamp that I needed for my own USA collection. I reach into a mount to extract it and immediately saw it was very hinged... so I do a quick check through the mounts and find that ALL of the stamps are either hinged or have no gum at all. It literally looked like someone had been collecting for ten years and had transferred all the stamps from album to album and only on the last transfer had discovered clear mounts!
So instantly I discovered that the entire album was a bust. Still I had gotten my value from the Farleys alone, that were worth more than my bid!
Login to Like
this post
re: Any success by buying albums on Ebay?
When buying albums, you do need to find out how the stamps are attached. There are some nice collections out there but as said the stamps cannot be removed from pages without soaking again. A quick email to the seller will usually clear it up.
Login to Like
this post