Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
I have enjoyed reading over a few of the threads on this site, and I anticipate reading many more. The conversations are spirited and informative, and hard to follow occasionally!
We have one buyer tentatively lined up, but I have joined StampoRama to learn more and to explore the possibility of individually selling some of the stamps on ebay. A dealer will only offer "X" if they want it, so the question becomes, can I exceed that number (despite the fees, postage, etc.) on my own without going insane. It's too soon to pick a direction, and we are in no big rush.
As I have slowly researched the stamps over this past 5 or 6 months, I have moments where I genuinely admire them. Who was that person? What makes this one rare? I came across Scott# 2302. A Ringtail cat?! With stamps, there is a lot to learn, but they also teach!
I have been navigating certain technical issues such as: converting .dbf to excel, EZstamp, and StampManage. The collection was valued with HobbySoft which folded in 2009. When I learned in 2013 that HobbySoft had gone out of business, I assumed, based upon nothing, that there were no companies valuing stamps over the internet!
I thank anyone in advance for any help they can give, and promise to limit my questions to 100 per day.
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Welcome!!
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Welcome Dave!
You didn't comment on the size of the collection but regardless, selling the stamps individually or in small lots on eBay is a daunting task. Some folks may take pleasure in the minutiae of listing (photographing, describing, deciding on a price, packaging, shipping, fielding questions, etc.) but I believe most of us find it to be drudgery.
Of course if you are an experienced eBay seller you are aware of what's involved, but if you are not experienced then by all means sell a dozen stamps, then look at how many are left to sell, and then see if your enthusiasm for the selling process remains. You may find that the dealer's offer of $X is suddenly sounding pretty good.
Either way, good luck on maximizing your return!
Dennis
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Hello Dave,
Welcome to Stamporama from cool Fort Worth, Texas. There is a lot to learn here, even about selling stamps.
Jim
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A few years ago, I bought a car-trunk full of stamps for about $400 (search for "The Hoard" to see my old posts since I joined Stamporama around 2 years ago). I wanted to get back into collecting after a long layoff, but wasn't sure what my end-game was other than "keep what you like, and sell what you don't...)
Here are my lessons I give to you at no charge...
1) Do you want to make money? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. I have generated about $1,000 from an investment of $400 and will probably triple that before I am done.
2) Do you hate your wife? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. I have spread out my stamps to 4 different rooms and am constantly packing them away then bringing them back out around our cleaning ladies schedule, our kids coming back from college, and having a social life that sometimes (more and more reluctantly) involves having friends over.
3) Do you own a full set of fairly recent stamp catalogs (e.g. Scotts 2014 or later)? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. This will ensure that you don't inadvertently sell a stamp for less than what you think it is worth in the marketplace (0.03% chance) or for a "fair" price - whatever that means (22.17% chance) or what you can actually get rid of it for (whatever the remaining percentage is minus a 25% discount). You can also borrow catalogs from the library, but don't forget to reduce your "profit margin" by 10-20% in library fines on returning them late because you don't have enough time to search through them.
4) Do you want to strike it rich by finding that rare stamp you read about in a comic magazine 28 years ago, or that your Uncle Ernie assured you he had in his collection when he bequeathed it to you? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. Otherwise, pray you get hit on the head by a piece of the Chinese Space Lab that fell to earth this weekend? Uh...same probability.
5) Would you like to earn an hourly wage approximately 32% less than that made by an 11-year-old working in an off-shore sweat-shop, making sneakers and t-shirts for North Americans? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets.
OK, I'm running out of energy to generate more funny (poignant? depressing?) lines about this. So suffice it to say...If you think you want to collect stamps - but also like to have a family and friends - and can earn more than $0.23c an hour working an actual job...then figure out what you like, pull those stamps out, and get rid of the rest ASAP in bulk lots...There are people on Stamporama who can help you.
Stamps are a hobby based on 99.724% love and 0.276% economic gain; combined with 83.92% frustration/time wasted, and family/friend time deprived. Personally, I wouldn't give it up. But sometimes I think my wife is right - if I just gave away all the stamps I originally had, and spent $10-25/month I would still have an active hobby, and lots more time for everything else in life.
Good luck! Please make sure you check in a year from now and let us know how it went!
Dave.
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If you want to make money, invest in original vintage Dennison hinges*. They have appreciated over 4000% since the 1970s. If you want to spend money, then collect stamps.
Don
*Supply continues to dwindle, demand will always exist.
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Dave --
That's perhaps the best reply to this question I've ever seen!
(And the first time I've laughed out loud today.)
Thanks!
-- another Dave
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"If you want to spend money, then collect stamps."
So true
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Thank you all for your kind and funny responses.
Don, no lie here - I googled "Dennison Hinges" thinking it was some sort of rare stamp. It was initially a real letdown until I looked on Ebay and saw that Denison Hinges are a very hot seller. Thanks for the investment tip, but all of my extra money is invested in prospecting equipment.
Dave, between the laughs there is much wisdom in what you say. To be specific, there were 5 wisdoms, as you numbered them. I know my Uncle, a very complex guy, loved collecting the stamps very much, and surely that's what motivates any collector, along with a liberal dose of mental illness. As to the profitability, I'd expect you know, when a collection is inherited, if it is sold "soon enough," there are no capital gains.
BTW - if I were to get hit by Chinese space junk, I think it is plainly obvious that there would be a lawsuit and I'd end up being a very rich man. (Thanks for the idea!)
Dennis, as a matter of fact I am a moderately experienced ebay seller. However, regarding individual sales, here is what someone pointed out.
If I get an offer of X, and then turn it down, here is my reality:
I will put in a whole lot of time, trouble and tears, printer ink (invoices and labels), postage, fees, even customer service hassles, and then at then end of it let's say for the sake of argument I exceed the dealer's offer earning: X + Y.
Horray! But wait.
On the day the enterprise is concluded, I really have to say, "I did all of that work for Y, because I could have had X in one big quick gulp."
How is your algebra? Even if it is as bad as mine, I bet you can see what my friend pointed out to me!
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Collecting (most anything) is rewarding way to spend time & money, not a way to make time or money.
Yes, once in a long while, folks manage to put together enough things that add value to each other that, yes, they might "do well" ... provided, of course, that you do not take too hard a look at what else they might have done with all that time & money.
But, starting with a pile you know nothing about, the question is how many hours you are going to put in (adding value by sorting & learning) and how many dollars you will ever get out (monetizing that value).
In general, you can do better by substituting home-cooked meals for restaurant meals, or getting a would-you-like-fries-with-that job on weekends.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Dave,
No offense, but it sounds like you know very little about stamps, so unless you really WANT to learn more, I would advise looking for more offers for a bulk purchase. You say you have one lined up, see if you can find one or two more. If you sell them yourself I can just about guarantee that if you make ANYTHING above the bulk offer, after deducting postage, paper, ink, listing fees, PayPal fees, etc., you will have earned a LOT less than minimum wage. If you're retired and just want to learn, there is definitely a LOT to learn and this is a great place to start. If your free time is limited, I would suggest the bulk sale option.
Lars
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Thanks for weighing in ikey and Lars.
No offence taken, Lars, I certainly know very little about stamps. This was confirmed by my recent google search for the rare and expensive "Dennison Hinges" stamp. A stamp so rare, it has yet to found!
I read my previous post and it seems unclear. I'll try again with real numbers:
Let's say a dealer offers $20,000 to buy the collection in one big gulp and I say no.
I then wade through raging rivers and climb mountains, and after 24 months I sell what I can of the collection, in bits and pieces, to 400 different people for $25,000. That means I worked my butt off for $5,000.
In that scenario, when I do the division and subtrition I clearly should have done a bulk sale to a dealer!
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If you do not know a lot of about the stamps and just you want to sell, I also recommend selling it. To learn what you have and then to be able list properly, will take a lot of time. If you did all that learning, you might as well continue collecting!
You have to check multiple buyers since buyers have different interests. If a dealer will pay $20K, then you can at least post on ebay for $20K min to see if you get more. You can get lucky but realize that timing is important.
The same lot this month may not sell quickly but next month it may. It depends on who is looking and what they are looking for.
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A $20,000 sale on Ebay can be more problematic than a $20,000 cash/good check offer from a reputable dealer. Shipping, not as described claimed, and etc.... Maybe someone else is a bit less jaded but I have seen too many things happen.
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When you sell the collection to a dealer, he’s taking everything. When you sell piece by piece, the more desirable stamps will be easy to sell, but the bulk of the collection is essentially worth little and will be difficult to unload
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"A $20,000 sale on Ebay can be more problematic than a $20,000 cash/good check offer from a reputable dealer. ..."
Quoted for truth. And of course eBay takes a percentage. And they will also let the tax man know at that level.
Don
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Sounds like you've got a lot of stamps, and know very little about them.
If an unhappy eBay buyer returned the lot, could you spot what was missing?
At one minute per item (a ridiculous underestimate), how many hours would it take just to do a detailed inventory?
How many would-you-like-fries-with-that dollars could you earn with that time?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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The collection has around 230,000 stamps, and I know very little about them.
Question: If I click "Favorite" on a thread, does that mean this site will send me an email whenever there's a response?
I need to know how to set that up.
I might be hanging around here for a while.
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You can have 230,000 stamps in a collection, but what really matters is:
- what is the condition of the stamps
- are these stamps used, unused, mint never hinged
- are the stamps (that come in sets) in complete sets or just the lower values from the sets
If the collection is a hodge-podge of various stamps in various conditions from incomplete sets, you will have very little in value.
You need to decide if the money from selling the collection is needed now (do members of an estate want the cash out?). If so, then you had best cash out the collection after obtaining a few offers to buy.
If you don't need to cash out the collection immediately, understand that it will take you many years (possibly decades) to completely dispose of a large collection piecemeal. You will have to learn the hobby before you can properly sell the stamps.
You are doing the right thing now by asking questions and doing research. When you get a buyer reviewing the collection to make you a buy offer, listen to what the buyer is saying regarding the collection. You can get many hints and clues as to what the value is, and where the value lies. Do not let a buyer "cherry pick" the collection - meaning to buy only the valuable stamps leaving you with the common, valueless stuff. If you sell the collection, the buyer must take it all.
If you want a very general and quick manner in which to figure out the value of a collection, go through it, and (except for known valuable stamps with a value $10.00 and higher and damaged stamps) tabulate the value as follows:
- add 1 cent for each each stamp (do not count any damaged stamps)
- add 25 cents for each complete set
- add 25% of the value of each stamp with a value of $10.00 or more
Make sure you have a current catalog for the higher-valued stamps. The resulting total will give you a rudimentary idea and loose estimate of the value of the collection. The more you know, the better you will be able to negotiate a sale.
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Would "damaged" be stamps listed as Condition AV? Out of over 13,000 lines on the big database, just over 300 have a condition of AV.
What is a "complete set?"
When you write, "25% of the value of each stamp with a value of $10.00 or more" Do you mean postage value? Or do you mean Scott Catalog value?
The collection was given a CV in 2009 via HobbySoft:
US stamps were 470K.
US Plate Blocks 31K.
Canadian 4K
World 7K
Total 512K
I hoped StampManage might be able to convert the old .dbf files from HobbySoft and get a current CV. Not possible.
EZStamp was able to convert 3 of the 4 old files (not World). EZStamp provides a valuation of a different sort:
US 380K
PB 20K
Canadian 5.5K
I have no idea how any of this translates to a potential actual sale. I've had two people tell me the collection is worth less than 10K. One of them at a brick and mortar store said the collection was worth "mere pennies on the dollar."
Another frustrating aspect of all of this - I've audited around 500 of the 110,000+ glassine envelopes, and the database is consistently off "a little bit." If my Uncle recorded that he had a stamp, he almost always had it. But the Quantity is frequently either overstated or understated.
Question: is there a button that can be pushed so that I get an email when anyone posts on this thread?
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Hi Dave;
If no other family members have partial ownership, and this collection is entirely yours, then take your time and enjoy the journey of learning about it.
The study of postal history alone is extremely fascinating and a great adventure to enjoy.
I have a Canadian stamp, that is very common. However it has a cancel from a uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast. It is only occupied during the fishing season, as the fishermen live in makeshift tents. However in the last half dozen decades the resource has been over-fished. So the season has been restricted, which means that this island is only occupied for a much shorter season, making this cancel all the more scarce.
I often save town cancels from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. I like to Google these towns and study their history. One in particular is Bogner Regis. This is what I found in Wikipedia:
Tourism gradually took off in Bognor during the 19th century, with the area being chosen as an ideal location for King George V to convalesce during 1929, the King and Queen actually staying at Craigwell House in Aldwick.
As a result, the King was asked to bestow the suffix "Regis" (Latin for "of the King") on "Bognor". The petition was presented to Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, who in turn delivered it to the King. King George supposedly replied, "Oh, bugger Bognor." Lord Stamfordham then went back to the petitioners and told them, "the King has been graciously pleased to grant your request."
I was not a big fan of postal history, when I joined this stamp club. I couldn't have cared less. But then I started to read threads by members like (bobstamp); Viet Nam, crash covers, and air postal history, (2010ccg); local posts, pillar boxes, Michael#####; railroad postal trains and postal cancels, other members too numerous to mention, writing about faked stamps, cracked printing plates and other errors.
So now I'm a big fan of reading these threads and I love learning the obscure facts and the stories behind them.
As Paul Harvey would have said; "and that is the rest of the story"
Still just sortin'....
TuskenRaider
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With your comment about the stamps in multiples stored in glassines, this sounds more like an accumulation rather than a collection that is neatly arranged in albums. Accumulations are worth little with "cents on the dollar" an appropriate comment. From my experience, accumulations are full of damaged stamps (meaning the paper has been creased, folded, soiled, torn, pieces missing from it, writing on the backs of the stamps, heavy cancels, damaged gum, etc.) and they take an enormous amount of time to sort through, remove the damaged stamps, process and sell. Accumulations are often sold 100 stamps for a few dollars, because that's the best way to get rid of the multitudes.
As has been stated by others, before you can know the value of something, you have to know what it is you have, and you have to learn about the hobby.
Check out this link:
https://stamps.org/A-Hobby-for-Everyone
Right now, all you're getting are small bits and pieces about things and answers to disjointed questions. No one here knows what it is you have, and you add little bits of information with your new questions. Forget about value. You need to learn how to swim first before you can compete in the Olympics.
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You may want to scan some 5-10 of the highest CV glassines stamps and post the images. Folks here will then be better able to understand the scope, breadth, and condition of what you have.
Don
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Michael, I do agree that there is a disjointed quality to my approach to both this discussion and the entire project. I can only apologize, I've had my IQ tested and it was judged to be merely average! It took me weeks just to learn the term "Plate Block." I kept saying either "Print Block" or "Press Block."
As to your comment that I should not bother about the value of the collection, I appreciate that I need to learn about stamps before I can emotionally and intellectually understand "their value" in "the marketplace."
As to whether or not it is an accumulation, each of the glassine envelopes has the Scott# and a quantity written on it. The written quantity sometimes doesn't match the Q in the database or the number of stamps in the envelope.
Aside from the glassines there are 7 Davo binders, 5 Commemorative Album Binders and 66 Scott Binders.
Don,
thank you for the offer.
I can provide some scans of early US stamps tomorrow. I wanted to proceed cautiously so I decided to take apart the Davo Binder which was thinnest - that is the airmail binder. The plastic covers on the stamps might be making the images somewhat blurry.
I don't mind taking stamps out of envelopes and scanning them, I just don't want to bend them!
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Now, those are nice, and helps. Thanks.
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The exhibited items from the first page should easily sell for at least $130 and possibly for as much as $200 or slightly more if they are mint non-hinged in an active bidding environment.
The first stamp either has a poor scan or is damaged based on the displayed color for it. Most likely the issue was the cover being closed on the scanner during the scan process.
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Dave,
Thanks for the first image, I wholeheartedly agree with not removing the stamps from the mounts. We can see the stamps fine with the images as you provided them.
The first scan reflects an nice, advanced collection. The first airmail stamp is not damaged but rather shows oxidation/sulphurization which is common with orange stamps form this period. There is a way to remove this (http://www.stampsmarter.com/learning/HowToRemoveOxidation.html ) but frankly I would just leave it as is.
If the rest of this collection/accumulation has stamps of this caliber than you have a significant disposition task on your hands. You will need to come up to speed on not only on identification but also with understanding some of the more subtle value determinations such as stamp condition and centering. There are no shortcuts with coming up to speed; breaking down a collection/accumulation of this scope will be time consuming and you can expect a few mistakes to be made. Typical missteps would be damaging a stamp during handling or misidentifying a stamp. As an experienced eBay seller, you are well aware of the overhead and how to play the pricing game. You should be well versed in using the eBay search function and how to filter for previous ‘sold’ listings to better understand the what similar stamps have sold for. With the higher value items, condition and centering play a very important role; you will need to be careful with understanding these before listing. And as is typical, the best items will be ‘cherry picked’ and after a period of time you will be left with those which are not in as high of demand, you will end up dispositioning those at a discount. Alternatively, you can initially bundle the less desirable material into logical groups with the better material but again this will consume more time and require more knowledge.
Using your image, this makes a good example. The 3 Zeps (1930) are the ‘stand-outs’ stamps; the first six stamps and the baby Zep (1933) are the next level. The remaining stamp are all fairly common material. If you were to break these down into individual listings you would get a lot of activity on the first 6 stamps and the Zeps, the rest you would be competing with hundreds of other listings. But if you sell the first six and Zeps separately, you then get into needing a much deeper understanding of the stamp condition. Are they hinged? Is the gum undisturbed? The highest value Zep is badly centered and this will lower the value. You will need to understand how to spot if any of the higher value stamps have been reperfed or regummed. These kinds of issues will not only affect value but also can cause you pain if you sell them without identifying these issues. You can avoid some of these issues if you avoid selling individual stamps and group them; for example sell the stamps shown in the first image all together.
For a understanding of the value spread that grading makes for the Zeps see this thread
https://stamporama.com/discboard/disc_main.php?action=20&id=17376#145962 and note "uboatnut" last post with the spreadsheet image.
If you sold the first image as a group, (and assuming a mix of hinged and unhinged stamp, no hidden faults like thins of creases) I would estimate you getting around $1000=$1200 on eBay for them.
Before I would be able to give you my opinion if you should consider selling your entire collection/accumulation to a dealer or investing your time in breaking it up into smaller lots; I would need to see more images and better understand the CV percentage the dealer offering.
Don
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Thanks for the links and info. I gather that my future scans should be done with the flat bed cover open??
"
Most likely the issue was the cover being closed on the scanner during the scan process.
"
My router is fried and I will scan more later in the week. The power at the house flickered on and off a bunch this past Sunday, and the generator kicked on and off a few times, and there went a $140 router!
I can probably scan directly to a thumb drive and may also do that.
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Dave, no keep the scanner lid shut while scanning I think the original comment was to mean that the scan had started as the lid was shut.
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I Still don't have my router working, but I made scans to a thumb drive plugged into the printer.
I had a conversation with a major buyer last week. He had me read the comments on a few of the certifications for some of my Uncle's oldest stamps. The written comments on the certs were quite negative seeming to me. "Filled thins," "Perfs added," "Perfs removed." The collector told me that he may be interested, but in his opinion my Uncle bought bad stamps. That's a bit of contradiction right there, of course I'm not summarizing the conversation in detail.
I have scanned 82 pages - the entire first Davo album (one of seven). The album book I scanned contains Scott #1 thru 990, not all.
Here are scans from the first few pages:
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I will post more tomorrow, I've actually only uploaded 1 page plus a little of page two. The comment by this major buyer has me spooked. Did my Uncle buy bad stamps? I suppose it's possible. I guess you all will tell me if this is the case. More tomorrow.
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"Would "damaged" be stamps listed as Condition AV? Out of over 13,000 lines on the big database, just over 300 have a condition of AV.
"
It looks like this question of Dave's remains unanswered so let me add that I'm not aware of an AV philatelic abbreviation. I assume it could stand for "average" but it seems unlikely only 300 out of 200+ thousand stamps would be so labeled.
If it was handwritten instead of in a database then it might actually be "AU" instead of "AV"and that opens a couple of possibilities, however that is not the case.
Dennis
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I'll answer part of this.
AV is likely "average" and average refers to the stamp's CENTERING. Nothing else. Average is a nice way of saying "not so good";
average is below F-VF, and basically it's off center but not so much that it counts as an oddity
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I would add that a stamp grade should also include things beyond centering. For example, depending upon who assigned 'average' they may also be talking about the stamp's condition.
Don
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The scans that you provided indicate VERY nice stamps overall based on their face appearance. It is possible that there might be stamps with thins which would reduce values for individual stamp significantly but I rather doubt that many stamps would be affected given the general very high quality indicated by these stamps.
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Don,
I think if you were talking about the companies that assign grades, then that's true. Scott's grading system, however, is strictly centering. Faults would be listed in addition to grading, and they, not the grading, would likely be the more important element of "condition."
David
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I obviously need to nail down what's going on with this AV abbreviation.
The Column heading above AV is SC, and I sorted from A to Z.
I inserted a row beneath the AV's and added up the Quantity for the 322 rows. Q came to over 1,367 which is still a very low number considering total Q for US stamps is 215K.
For F, VF:
from row 323 to row 2287 is F, Q = 15,236
From Row 2293 to row 12,967 is VF, Q = 191,988
72 rows show up at the end with nothing in the SC column.
208,663 doesn't = 215K, but that is only one of many, many mysteries.
On one of the scans above I posted has a label: "#10 PR SBK 114" and I don't know what that is. My Uncle has three Schaubek albums, but I don't see how that would relate since the scan is from his first Davo album.
Here are a few more stamps from the first Davo Album:
29 cert: used, genuine, trimmed perfs at bottom
There's a big jump in the collection from 39 to 61.
62B cert: used, genuine, regummed, creased, bleached
Sorry if I'm uploading too many stamps, but as I said before, the guy told me my Uncle "bought bad stamps." Can anyone imagine why my Uncle had some stamps certified and others not? Money was not a huge concern for him. Then again, I don't even know, how expensive is it to get stamps certified?
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It will be a happy day when I finally know what SBK stands for!
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Found this on the internet, not sure if it is relevant to your SBK.
"Swiss Stamps Catalogues (SBK) "
"(Schweizerische Briefmarken Katalog)"
Could it possibly relate to where he purchased the stamps?
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Seems everyone has bits & pieces of opinion - all worthwhile but you're not getting anywhere.
- If you want a hobby, you obviously have a better start than 99.9% of collectors. You have a lot of work ahead of you. Someone spent years on it and it would seem a fair amount of $$
- If you want to sell (something you might wish you hadn't) then you must have a stamp club nearby where you can get some advice on the whole collection as scanning 100,000 stamps here will get you nowhere fast.
BTW you don't have "bad stamps" just "bad advice" from the person who told you so.
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The last pictures showed several stamps with flaws, however, most of the stamps are not that easy to find so they do have value, perhaps significant value but they will require time to find appropriate, interested buyers. As some may have mentioned, this represents quite a nice advanced collection that would be well worth exploring further.
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12:13:34pm
Hello!
I have enjoyed reading over a few of the threads on this site, and I anticipate reading many more. The conversations are spirited and informative, and hard to follow occasionally!
We have one buyer tentatively lined up, but I have joined StampoRama to learn more and to explore the possibility of individually selling some of the stamps on ebay. A dealer will only offer "X" if they want it, so the question becomes, can I exceed that number (despite the fees, postage, etc.) on my own without going insane. It's too soon to pick a direction, and we are in no big rush.
As I have slowly researched the stamps over this past 5 or 6 months, I have moments where I genuinely admire them. Who was that person? What makes this one rare? I came across Scott# 2302. A Ringtail cat?! With stamps, there is a lot to learn, but they also teach!
I have been navigating certain technical issues such as: converting .dbf to excel, EZstamp, and StampManage. The collection was valued with HobbySoft which folded in 2009. When I learned in 2013 that HobbySoft had gone out of business, I assumed, based upon nothing, that there were no companies valuing stamps over the internet!
I thank anyone in advance for any help they can give, and promise to limit my questions to 100 per day.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Welcome!!
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Welcome Dave!
You didn't comment on the size of the collection but regardless, selling the stamps individually or in small lots on eBay is a daunting task. Some folks may take pleasure in the minutiae of listing (photographing, describing, deciding on a price, packaging, shipping, fielding questions, etc.) but I believe most of us find it to be drudgery.
Of course if you are an experienced eBay seller you are aware of what's involved, but if you are not experienced then by all means sell a dozen stamps, then look at how many are left to sell, and then see if your enthusiasm for the selling process remains. You may find that the dealer's offer of $X is suddenly sounding pretty good.
Either way, good luck on maximizing your return!
Dennis
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Hello Dave,
Welcome to Stamporama from cool Fort Worth, Texas. There is a lot to learn here, even about selling stamps.
Jim
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
A few years ago, I bought a car-trunk full of stamps for about $400 (search for "The Hoard" to see my old posts since I joined Stamporama around 2 years ago). I wanted to get back into collecting after a long layoff, but wasn't sure what my end-game was other than "keep what you like, and sell what you don't...)
Here are my lessons I give to you at no charge...
1) Do you want to make money? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. I have generated about $1,000 from an investment of $400 and will probably triple that before I am done.
2) Do you hate your wife? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. I have spread out my stamps to 4 different rooms and am constantly packing them away then bringing them back out around our cleaning ladies schedule, our kids coming back from college, and having a social life that sometimes (more and more reluctantly) involves having friends over.
3) Do you own a full set of fairly recent stamp catalogs (e.g. Scotts 2014 or later)? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. This will ensure that you don't inadvertently sell a stamp for less than what you think it is worth in the marketplace (0.03% chance) or for a "fair" price - whatever that means (22.17% chance) or what you can actually get rid of it for (whatever the remaining percentage is minus a 25% discount). You can also borrow catalogs from the library, but don't forget to reduce your "profit margin" by 10-20% in library fines on returning them late because you don't have enough time to search through them.
4) Do you want to strike it rich by finding that rare stamp you read about in a comic magazine 28 years ago, or that your Uncle Ernie assured you he had in his collection when he bequeathed it to you? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets. Otherwise, pray you get hit on the head by a piece of the Chinese Space Lab that fell to earth this weekend? Uh...same probability.
5) Would you like to earn an hourly wage approximately 32% less than that made by an 11-year-old working in an off-shore sweat-shop, making sneakers and t-shirts for North Americans? Then sell the stamps on eBay and Stamporama, individually or in sets.
OK, I'm running out of energy to generate more funny (poignant? depressing?) lines about this. So suffice it to say...If you think you want to collect stamps - but also like to have a family and friends - and can earn more than $0.23c an hour working an actual job...then figure out what you like, pull those stamps out, and get rid of the rest ASAP in bulk lots...There are people on Stamporama who can help you.
Stamps are a hobby based on 99.724% love and 0.276% economic gain; combined with 83.92% frustration/time wasted, and family/friend time deprived. Personally, I wouldn't give it up. But sometimes I think my wife is right - if I just gave away all the stamps I originally had, and spent $10-25/month I would still have an active hobby, and lots more time for everything else in life.
Good luck! Please make sure you check in a year from now and let us know how it went!
Dave.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
If you want to make money, invest in original vintage Dennison hinges*. They have appreciated over 4000% since the 1970s. If you want to spend money, then collect stamps.
Don
*Supply continues to dwindle, demand will always exist.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Dave --
That's perhaps the best reply to this question I've ever seen!
(And the first time I've laughed out loud today.)
Thanks!
-- another Dave
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
"If you want to spend money, then collect stamps."
So true
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08:09:34pm
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Thank you all for your kind and funny responses.
Don, no lie here - I googled "Dennison Hinges" thinking it was some sort of rare stamp. It was initially a real letdown until I looked on Ebay and saw that Denison Hinges are a very hot seller. Thanks for the investment tip, but all of my extra money is invested in prospecting equipment.
Dave, between the laughs there is much wisdom in what you say. To be specific, there were 5 wisdoms, as you numbered them. I know my Uncle, a very complex guy, loved collecting the stamps very much, and surely that's what motivates any collector, along with a liberal dose of mental illness. As to the profitability, I'd expect you know, when a collection is inherited, if it is sold "soon enough," there are no capital gains.
BTW - if I were to get hit by Chinese space junk, I think it is plainly obvious that there would be a lawsuit and I'd end up being a very rich man. (Thanks for the idea!)
Dennis, as a matter of fact I am a moderately experienced ebay seller. However, regarding individual sales, here is what someone pointed out.
If I get an offer of X, and then turn it down, here is my reality:
I will put in a whole lot of time, trouble and tears, printer ink (invoices and labels), postage, fees, even customer service hassles, and then at then end of it let's say for the sake of argument I exceed the dealer's offer earning: X + Y.
Horray! But wait.
On the day the enterprise is concluded, I really have to say, "I did all of that work for Y, because I could have had X in one big quick gulp."
How is your algebra? Even if it is as bad as mine, I bet you can see what my friend pointed out to me!
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Collecting (most anything) is rewarding way to spend time & money, not a way to make time or money.
Yes, once in a long while, folks manage to put together enough things that add value to each other that, yes, they might "do well" ... provided, of course, that you do not take too hard a look at what else they might have done with all that time & money.
But, starting with a pile you know nothing about, the question is how many hours you are going to put in (adding value by sorting & learning) and how many dollars you will ever get out (monetizing that value).
In general, you can do better by substituting home-cooked meals for restaurant meals, or getting a would-you-like-fries-with-that job on weekends.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Dave,
No offense, but it sounds like you know very little about stamps, so unless you really WANT to learn more, I would advise looking for more offers for a bulk purchase. You say you have one lined up, see if you can find one or two more. If you sell them yourself I can just about guarantee that if you make ANYTHING above the bulk offer, after deducting postage, paper, ink, listing fees, PayPal fees, etc., you will have earned a LOT less than minimum wage. If you're retired and just want to learn, there is definitely a LOT to learn and this is a great place to start. If your free time is limited, I would suggest the bulk sale option.
Lars
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09:16:13pm
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Thanks for weighing in ikey and Lars.
No offence taken, Lars, I certainly know very little about stamps. This was confirmed by my recent google search for the rare and expensive "Dennison Hinges" stamp. A stamp so rare, it has yet to found!
I read my previous post and it seems unclear. I'll try again with real numbers:
Let's say a dealer offers $20,000 to buy the collection in one big gulp and I say no.
I then wade through raging rivers and climb mountains, and after 24 months I sell what I can of the collection, in bits and pieces, to 400 different people for $25,000. That means I worked my butt off for $5,000.
In that scenario, when I do the division and subtrition I clearly should have done a bulk sale to a dealer!
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
If you do not know a lot of about the stamps and just you want to sell, I also recommend selling it. To learn what you have and then to be able list properly, will take a lot of time. If you did all that learning, you might as well continue collecting!
You have to check multiple buyers since buyers have different interests. If a dealer will pay $20K, then you can at least post on ebay for $20K min to see if you get more. You can get lucky but realize that timing is important.
The same lot this month may not sell quickly but next month it may. It depends on who is looking and what they are looking for.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
A $20,000 sale on Ebay can be more problematic than a $20,000 cash/good check offer from a reputable dealer. Shipping, not as described claimed, and etc.... Maybe someone else is a bit less jaded but I have seen too many things happen.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
When you sell the collection to a dealer, he’s taking everything. When you sell piece by piece, the more desirable stamps will be easy to sell, but the bulk of the collection is essentially worth little and will be difficult to unload
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
"A $20,000 sale on Ebay can be more problematic than a $20,000 cash/good check offer from a reputable dealer. ..."
Quoted for truth. And of course eBay takes a percentage. And they will also let the tax man know at that level.
Don
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Sounds like you've got a lot of stamps, and know very little about them.
If an unhappy eBay buyer returned the lot, could you spot what was missing?
At one minute per item (a ridiculous underestimate), how many hours would it take just to do a detailed inventory?
How many would-you-like-fries-with-that dollars could you earn with that time?
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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09:59:51pm
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
The collection has around 230,000 stamps, and I know very little about them.
Question: If I click "Favorite" on a thread, does that mean this site will send me an email whenever there's a response?
I need to know how to set that up.
I might be hanging around here for a while.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
You can have 230,000 stamps in a collection, but what really matters is:
- what is the condition of the stamps
- are these stamps used, unused, mint never hinged
- are the stamps (that come in sets) in complete sets or just the lower values from the sets
If the collection is a hodge-podge of various stamps in various conditions from incomplete sets, you will have very little in value.
You need to decide if the money from selling the collection is needed now (do members of an estate want the cash out?). If so, then you had best cash out the collection after obtaining a few offers to buy.
If you don't need to cash out the collection immediately, understand that it will take you many years (possibly decades) to completely dispose of a large collection piecemeal. You will have to learn the hobby before you can properly sell the stamps.
You are doing the right thing now by asking questions and doing research. When you get a buyer reviewing the collection to make you a buy offer, listen to what the buyer is saying regarding the collection. You can get many hints and clues as to what the value is, and where the value lies. Do not let a buyer "cherry pick" the collection - meaning to buy only the valuable stamps leaving you with the common, valueless stuff. If you sell the collection, the buyer must take it all.
If you want a very general and quick manner in which to figure out the value of a collection, go through it, and (except for known valuable stamps with a value $10.00 and higher and damaged stamps) tabulate the value as follows:
- add 1 cent for each each stamp (do not count any damaged stamps)
- add 25 cents for each complete set
- add 25% of the value of each stamp with a value of $10.00 or more
Make sure you have a current catalog for the higher-valued stamps. The resulting total will give you a rudimentary idea and loose estimate of the value of the collection. The more you know, the better you will be able to negotiate a sale.
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01:15:03am
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Would "damaged" be stamps listed as Condition AV? Out of over 13,000 lines on the big database, just over 300 have a condition of AV.
What is a "complete set?"
When you write, "25% of the value of each stamp with a value of $10.00 or more" Do you mean postage value? Or do you mean Scott Catalog value?
The collection was given a CV in 2009 via HobbySoft:
US stamps were 470K.
US Plate Blocks 31K.
Canadian 4K
World 7K
Total 512K
I hoped StampManage might be able to convert the old .dbf files from HobbySoft and get a current CV. Not possible.
EZStamp was able to convert 3 of the 4 old files (not World). EZStamp provides a valuation of a different sort:
US 380K
PB 20K
Canadian 5.5K
I have no idea how any of this translates to a potential actual sale. I've had two people tell me the collection is worth less than 10K. One of them at a brick and mortar store said the collection was worth "mere pennies on the dollar."
Another frustrating aspect of all of this - I've audited around 500 of the 110,000+ glassine envelopes, and the database is consistently off "a little bit." If my Uncle recorded that he had a stamp, he almost always had it. But the Quantity is frequently either overstated or understated.
Question: is there a button that can be pushed so that I get an email when anyone posts on this thread?
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Hi Dave;
If no other family members have partial ownership, and this collection is entirely yours, then take your time and enjoy the journey of learning about it.
The study of postal history alone is extremely fascinating and a great adventure to enjoy.
I have a Canadian stamp, that is very common. However it has a cancel from a uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast. It is only occupied during the fishing season, as the fishermen live in makeshift tents. However in the last half dozen decades the resource has been over-fished. So the season has been restricted, which means that this island is only occupied for a much shorter season, making this cancel all the more scarce.
I often save town cancels from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. I like to Google these towns and study their history. One in particular is Bogner Regis. This is what I found in Wikipedia:
Tourism gradually took off in Bognor during the 19th century, with the area being chosen as an ideal location for King George V to convalesce during 1929, the King and Queen actually staying at Craigwell House in Aldwick.
As a result, the King was asked to bestow the suffix "Regis" (Latin for "of the King") on "Bognor". The petition was presented to Lord Stamfordham, the King's Private Secretary, who in turn delivered it to the King. King George supposedly replied, "Oh, bugger Bognor." Lord Stamfordham then went back to the petitioners and told them, "the King has been graciously pleased to grant your request."
I was not a big fan of postal history, when I joined this stamp club. I couldn't have cared less. But then I started to read threads by members like (bobstamp); Viet Nam, crash covers, and air postal history, (2010ccg); local posts, pillar boxes, Michael#####; railroad postal trains and postal cancels, other members too numerous to mention, writing about faked stamps, cracked printing plates and other errors.
So now I'm a big fan of reading these threads and I love learning the obscure facts and the stories behind them.
As Paul Harvey would have said; "and that is the rest of the story"
Still just sortin'....
TuskenRaider
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
With your comment about the stamps in multiples stored in glassines, this sounds more like an accumulation rather than a collection that is neatly arranged in albums. Accumulations are worth little with "cents on the dollar" an appropriate comment. From my experience, accumulations are full of damaged stamps (meaning the paper has been creased, folded, soiled, torn, pieces missing from it, writing on the backs of the stamps, heavy cancels, damaged gum, etc.) and they take an enormous amount of time to sort through, remove the damaged stamps, process and sell. Accumulations are often sold 100 stamps for a few dollars, because that's the best way to get rid of the multitudes.
As has been stated by others, before you can know the value of something, you have to know what it is you have, and you have to learn about the hobby.
Check out this link:
https://stamps.org/A-Hobby-for-Everyone
Right now, all you're getting are small bits and pieces about things and answers to disjointed questions. No one here knows what it is you have, and you add little bits of information with your new questions. Forget about value. You need to learn how to swim first before you can compete in the Olympics.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
You may want to scan some 5-10 of the highest CV glassines stamps and post the images. Folks here will then be better able to understand the scope, breadth, and condition of what you have.
Don
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12:49:37am
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Michael, I do agree that there is a disjointed quality to my approach to both this discussion and the entire project. I can only apologize, I've had my IQ tested and it was judged to be merely average! It took me weeks just to learn the term "Plate Block." I kept saying either "Print Block" or "Press Block."
As to your comment that I should not bother about the value of the collection, I appreciate that I need to learn about stamps before I can emotionally and intellectually understand "their value" in "the marketplace."
As to whether or not it is an accumulation, each of the glassine envelopes has the Scott# and a quantity written on it. The written quantity sometimes doesn't match the Q in the database or the number of stamps in the envelope.
Aside from the glassines there are 7 Davo binders, 5 Commemorative Album Binders and 66 Scott Binders.
Don,
thank you for the offer.
I can provide some scans of early US stamps tomorrow. I wanted to proceed cautiously so I decided to take apart the Davo Binder which was thinnest - that is the airmail binder. The plastic covers on the stamps might be making the images somewhat blurry.
I don't mind taking stamps out of envelopes and scanning them, I just don't want to bend them!
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Now, those are nice, and helps. Thanks.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
The exhibited items from the first page should easily sell for at least $130 and possibly for as much as $200 or slightly more if they are mint non-hinged in an active bidding environment.
The first stamp either has a poor scan or is damaged based on the displayed color for it. Most likely the issue was the cover being closed on the scanner during the scan process.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Dave,
Thanks for the first image, I wholeheartedly agree with not removing the stamps from the mounts. We can see the stamps fine with the images as you provided them.
The first scan reflects an nice, advanced collection. The first airmail stamp is not damaged but rather shows oxidation/sulphurization which is common with orange stamps form this period. There is a way to remove this (http://www.stampsmarter.com/learning/HowToRemoveOxidation.html ) but frankly I would just leave it as is.
If the rest of this collection/accumulation has stamps of this caliber than you have a significant disposition task on your hands. You will need to come up to speed on not only on identification but also with understanding some of the more subtle value determinations such as stamp condition and centering. There are no shortcuts with coming up to speed; breaking down a collection/accumulation of this scope will be time consuming and you can expect a few mistakes to be made. Typical missteps would be damaging a stamp during handling or misidentifying a stamp. As an experienced eBay seller, you are well aware of the overhead and how to play the pricing game. You should be well versed in using the eBay search function and how to filter for previous ‘sold’ listings to better understand the what similar stamps have sold for. With the higher value items, condition and centering play a very important role; you will need to be careful with understanding these before listing. And as is typical, the best items will be ‘cherry picked’ and after a period of time you will be left with those which are not in as high of demand, you will end up dispositioning those at a discount. Alternatively, you can initially bundle the less desirable material into logical groups with the better material but again this will consume more time and require more knowledge.
Using your image, this makes a good example. The 3 Zeps (1930) are the ‘stand-outs’ stamps; the first six stamps and the baby Zep (1933) are the next level. The remaining stamp are all fairly common material. If you were to break these down into individual listings you would get a lot of activity on the first 6 stamps and the Zeps, the rest you would be competing with hundreds of other listings. But if you sell the first six and Zeps separately, you then get into needing a much deeper understanding of the stamp condition. Are they hinged? Is the gum undisturbed? The highest value Zep is badly centered and this will lower the value. You will need to understand how to spot if any of the higher value stamps have been reperfed or regummed. These kinds of issues will not only affect value but also can cause you pain if you sell them without identifying these issues. You can avoid some of these issues if you avoid selling individual stamps and group them; for example sell the stamps shown in the first image all together.
For a understanding of the value spread that grading makes for the Zeps see this thread
https://stamporama.com/discboard/disc_main.php?action=20&id=17376#145962 and note "uboatnut" last post with the spreadsheet image.
If you sold the first image as a group, (and assuming a mix of hinged and unhinged stamp, no hidden faults like thins of creases) I would estimate you getting around $1000=$1200 on eBay for them.
Before I would be able to give you my opinion if you should consider selling your entire collection/accumulation to a dealer or investing your time in breaking it up into smaller lots; I would need to see more images and better understand the CV percentage the dealer offering.
Don
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03:45:59pm
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Thanks for the links and info. I gather that my future scans should be done with the flat bed cover open??
"
Most likely the issue was the cover being closed on the scanner during the scan process.
"
My router is fried and I will scan more later in the week. The power at the house flickered on and off a bunch this past Sunday, and the generator kicked on and off a few times, and there went a $140 router!
I can probably scan directly to a thumb drive and may also do that.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Dave, no keep the scanner lid shut while scanning I think the original comment was to mean that the scan had started as the lid was shut.
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02:30:43am
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
I Still don't have my router working, but I made scans to a thumb drive plugged into the printer.
I had a conversation with a major buyer last week. He had me read the comments on a few of the certifications for some of my Uncle's oldest stamps. The written comments on the certs were quite negative seeming to me. "Filled thins," "Perfs added," "Perfs removed." The collector told me that he may be interested, but in his opinion my Uncle bought bad stamps. That's a bit of contradiction right there, of course I'm not summarizing the conversation in detail.
I have scanned 82 pages - the entire first Davo album (one of seven). The album book I scanned contains Scott #1 thru 990, not all.
Here are scans from the first few pages:
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02:41:21am
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
I will post more tomorrow, I've actually only uploaded 1 page plus a little of page two. The comment by this major buyer has me spooked. Did my Uncle buy bad stamps? I suppose it's possible. I guess you all will tell me if this is the case. More tomorrow.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
"Would "damaged" be stamps listed as Condition AV? Out of over 13,000 lines on the big database, just over 300 have a condition of AV.
"
It looks like this question of Dave's remains unanswered so let me add that I'm not aware of an AV philatelic abbreviation. I assume it could stand for "average" but it seems unlikely only 300 out of 200+ thousand stamps would be so labeled.
If it was handwritten instead of in a database then it might actually be "AU" instead of "AV"and that opens a couple of possibilities, however that is not the case.
Dennis
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
I'll answer part of this.
AV is likely "average" and average refers to the stamp's CENTERING. Nothing else. Average is a nice way of saying "not so good";
average is below F-VF, and basically it's off center but not so much that it counts as an oddity
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
I would add that a stamp grade should also include things beyond centering. For example, depending upon who assigned 'average' they may also be talking about the stamp's condition.
Don
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
The scans that you provided indicate VERY nice stamps overall based on their face appearance. It is possible that there might be stamps with thins which would reduce values for individual stamp significantly but I rather doubt that many stamps would be affected given the general very high quality indicated by these stamps.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Don,
I think if you were talking about the companies that assign grades, then that's true. Scott's grading system, however, is strictly centering. Faults would be listed in addition to grading, and they, not the grading, would likely be the more important element of "condition."
David
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04:03:17pm
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
I obviously need to nail down what's going on with this AV abbreviation.
The Column heading above AV is SC, and I sorted from A to Z.
I inserted a row beneath the AV's and added up the Quantity for the 322 rows. Q came to over 1,367 which is still a very low number considering total Q for US stamps is 215K.
For F, VF:
from row 323 to row 2287 is F, Q = 15,236
From Row 2293 to row 12,967 is VF, Q = 191,988
72 rows show up at the end with nothing in the SC column.
208,663 doesn't = 215K, but that is only one of many, many mysteries.
On one of the scans above I posted has a label: "#10 PR SBK 114" and I don't know what that is. My Uncle has three Schaubek albums, but I don't see how that would relate since the scan is from his first Davo album.
Here are a few more stamps from the first Davo Album:
29 cert: used, genuine, trimmed perfs at bottom
There's a big jump in the collection from 39 to 61.
62B cert: used, genuine, regummed, creased, bleached
Sorry if I'm uploading too many stamps, but as I said before, the guy told me my Uncle "bought bad stamps." Can anyone imagine why my Uncle had some stamps certified and others not? Money was not a huge concern for him. Then again, I don't even know, how expensive is it to get stamps certified?
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05:11:15pm
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
It will be a happy day when I finally know what SBK stands for!
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Found this on the internet, not sure if it is relevant to your SBK.
"Swiss Stamps Catalogues (SBK) "
"(Schweizerische Briefmarken Katalog)"
Could it possibly relate to where he purchased the stamps?
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08:33:53pm
re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
Seems everyone has bits & pieces of opinion - all worthwhile but you're not getting anywhere.
- If you want a hobby, you obviously have a better start than 99.9% of collectors. You have a lot of work ahead of you. Someone spent years on it and it would seem a fair amount of $$
- If you want to sell (something you might wish you hadn't) then you must have a stamp club nearby where you can get some advice on the whole collection as scanning 100,000 stamps here will get you nowhere fast.
BTW you don't have "bad stamps" just "bad advice" from the person who told you so.
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re: Hello! I'm learning about a collection which will be sold.
The last pictures showed several stamps with flaws, however, most of the stamps are not that easy to find so they do have value, perhaps significant value but they will require time to find appropriate, interested buyers. As some may have mentioned, this represents quite a nice advanced collection that would be well worth exploring further.
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