Have You Ever Sell Your Stamp Collection?

Myself I once sold one stamp collection. It was my Olympic collection. What made me sell is because I needed money and also because the collection was sleeping. For 6 month I didn't look at it and didn't buy Olympics stamps. When I want to sell I went first to stamp dealers. They offer about 15% but I had to somehow bring it there. I have no car and the collection was in six binders. I thought shipping it to an auctioneer I contact but it would have cost over a $100 shipping cost plus the percentage the auctioneer take. Finally I thought calling 2 dealers I met at a stampshow. One was very interested because my collection was 95% mnh. He came home on a sunday afternoon and we agreed on an amount that was a little less than 15%.

So that was my first experience as selling a collection. It can be a tough decision to make because of the love you have for your stamps and also mainly because you don't get back all the cash you put in it.

Sometime I wonder what happen to my collection. The dealer told me that I worked hard on it because I made all the pages. I never met this dealer again. Anyway stamps are made to travel. Bon voyage.
Daniel

Thanks Daniel, that should give folks an idea of what to expect to realize if they have a mish mosh collection like mine..with both mint and used..hinged and mounted...So ! Lets have fun with our collections and hope we never get that desperate that we have to sell them for food or shelter !!

Great story timbres667! Thanks.

I think we hope that the stamps that have given us so much have ended up with someone who appreciates them like we did.

I had a worldwide used collection in two Statesman albums for years. But slowly life and health problems had crept up on me and I was accumulating now more than collecting. The approval dealer would send me an envelope with hundreds of stamps and I would just buy it without hardly looking at it.

I realized it was not going anywhere. The health problems persisted and then deaths in the family happened, which proved too much for me at the time and I let it all go to a nice dealer who came to the house and carted it all away. I think he gave me an OK price. I wasn't expecting a lot, having seen my father expect to get (and be disappointed when he didn't) catalogue value,

It was more important that I clear the decks at that time and just deal with what I could.

It is kind of sad to think of, and I wonder what ever happened to some of them, but now, after years of not collecting I have started up again and it is fresh and new and I am learning stuff I hadn't known before and appreciating lots of new facets of the hobby I missed before.

So, all in all, stamp collecting has been good to me.

philb
There is one of factor influence the value of a collection for a dealer. A dealer I know will give me a premium if I bring him something he have a demand for. I don't think there is a big market for an olympic collection. A dealer in his store is not a collector. He's buying to sell and the quicker he can resell your collection with a profit the better it is. When I talk to him about selling my huge olympic collection " Ho you spend allot of money on it, sorry I can't give you more than about 15%" He said that thinking I would be very surprise and deceive. That I would say I will think about it and don't come back. Simply I think he didn't want it but he was a shame to tell me because I buy frequently from him. Anyway I sold to another one.

That's my experience selling to dealers. When I use to go to the stampclub I witness a transaction between 2 collectors. It was a France collection. Didn't hear all details but I think the seller got more that he would have get with a dealer. The dealer is an intermediate that take his chunk between 2 collectors. He has to make a living.

Puzzler
Some think as us. When a collection is sleeping or when we don't feel like collecting anymore it's preferable to sell after a while. Few weeks ago a 72 years old man gave his collection to his daughter as birthday gift because he was not collecting anymore and he didn't have enough money to buy her a gift.

IMO, "value" is a relative term. The whole thing comes down to supply and demand. In my late teens I sold off some of my stamp collection to a dealer and got about 20% of catalog for it. It did put a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket, so I couldn't complain at the time, but as I grew older, I would have been smarter to keep the collection for the enjoyment value than the small cash return on an initial investment of probably $1000 or more.

Ever watch the "Antique Roadshow" or "Pawn Stars", etc.? Whether it's stamps or coins, antiques or war memorabilia, Hummels or Tiffany or any other such items, they all appraise things high qualifying it is being a "retail" or "insurance value", but tell their clientele that in order to sell they have to make enough of a profit to keep their stores open, pay salaries and utilties and rent, etc., and allow a percentage for them to keep their money tied up in the item within their inventory (for no-telling how long) before it's sold at a profit. So when you calculate all of those unseen costs into the equation it's not surprising that you only get a small percentage of "catalog" value. The same scenario plays out in the used car market or, for that matter, anything else that is only of whatever value someone is willing to pay for it, regardless of how much it's "catalog" value may be.

I sold my original US Revenue Collection 25 years ago to pay off(in full) my College bill. I made money! Now granted there were quite a few VERY High value items. Unfortunately, now I can't afford to replace them. My total collection would now be worth 4-5x what I sold it for.

Hind sight is 20-20, and a collection is only fun if you use, admire or put forth effort into it. some decisions a are hard, but in the end you cant second guess those decisions because they are made when options are limited. best to move forward from that hard spot and start again. hopefully in a part of the hobby that really grabs your interest. you never know selling that album may have saved your home, relationship or maybe even your life? now your here starting again with possibly something new you enjoy more.

we will always miss what we lose, but the true adventure is what you may find... happy hunting.

Edwin
luckly during my hardship my stamps were squirreled away in boxes that I could not find, they slumbered away during my financial crisis as if my grandfathers spirit was standing guard, when the storm passed they seemed to magically come out of hiding, and now provide countless hrs of quiet time for me to decompress with after long days of work.

I've sold my collection twice. The first time, in my late teens to finance moving out of home - it didn't bring much (noone loved the Indian States in the mid-'60s) but enough for the purpose. I reckoned the sacrifice was worth it. The second time I sold most of my collection was to pay for the deposit on a house, and pacify my ex-, who was tired of living in a flat while watching my collection grow. I managed to conceal the part that was dearest to me, bought the house, divorced the wife, sold the house, and I'm rebuilding my collection. Must be old age that makes life appear to be going around in circles ...

Things should be in your favour Tony,
now that Australia has whupped the greenback,
you should be able to spend on quality stamps.

Time to buy whitegoods and the Ferrari perhaps.

I hope I live long enough to see the commodity bubble burst,
that is going to be something.

I'd be buying with my ears pinned back, if there was anything to buy, Rod.

But a West Australian longing for the commodity boom to bust? What next?

Not "longing" for it Tony,
It will happen, I just want to be a bystander.

Well, as a BHP and Rio shareholder, I hope it will a loooong time coming. When and if, I might have to sell my collection again.

I have been a bulk collector at auction for some time now.
Buying bulk lots of a couple different KGVs in generally is a very cheap way of collecting them. All the lots together, after some years have turned into complete sets of all types of KGVs.

As a collector I have my stamps that will never go to auction. Which is quite a small collection really. The vast amount of all my collection is at risk of being sold at anytime.
To keep up with my bulk buying I am constantly sending stamps to auction.
Keeping and selling my collection go hand in hand. Just keep hoping I sell the right stamps. But then again, what is in the next lot of stamps covers up many mistakes!