Best Bargain You Ever Had

Hi All

While reading through some of the different postings today, I got an idea on a topic / question for this forum. I know that we all look out for a bargain here and there and every now and then I am sure that we all have come across a deal that is a 'steal'. What I am wondering is, what was your best buy in the stamp world? Can be recent or a long time ago.

My best buy just took place within the past 2 - 3 months and I was fortunate enough to have a friend of mine let me sift through 2 large plastic bins of WW stamps all off paper he has. To make my story short - I ended up taking 8 pounds of stamps off paper! Many definitives, commemoratives both mint and used and the vast majority are older ones with the most recent in the 1980s. Mostly Western Europe, Germany, old and new, GB and Canada. I got the 8 pounds for $250.00! This was a real steal and all I had to do was the work sorting through it all which I enjoyed thoroughly.

Having stated this, I am talking about finding stamps with CVs of at least 80 cents apiece to $40.00 apiece and many in multiples including the better values. I am still sorting them out into envelopes now. My friend said he didn't have the time and let me go throught the bins in my home for 2-3 months.

What was your best buy in the stamp world?

Chimo

Bujutsu

Membership in SCF.

Yeah, that was sneaky.

smauggie beat me to it, but I was going to say, "a Six Months Contribution to SCF for only $25"

KirkS

Stampwise, I would say it was a purchase of a Scott Specialized Album of US Commemorative Plate Blocks. It came with over $20 catalog in stamps. Paid $10 for the whole shebang. Got it from my local dealer.

I bought 10Kg of kiloware for £25 which was good in itself but I found a £10 note in there to sweeten the deal further.
Oh and the stamps were pretty good too.

What was a £10 note doing in kiloware I wonder?

With the price of Exhibition material reaching laughable proportions this year, one of the best buys I made was scarce [never seen by me]BPE sheet that I won with little opposition, for a song. It was just about the only silver lining on a long line of clouds !

Still, the Lundy album I picked up from the Charing X Collectors Market in May for £20 was by far the most satisfying. I sold one stamp for over the cost and I still have many gems to sell.....or not !
Including the Red Cross Overprints, Lundy's scarcest stamps

Londonbus1....SCF is a bargain too.

I won a group of U.S. coils on ebay for $.99 plus $.60 shipping. When they arrived I found a 599A (Type II) MNH EF centering $225.00+ cat.

The best bargain I ever had?

Well, recently I won for a very small sum an ebay auction for a set of stamps that professional auction houses sell for upwards of $2000 and that I expected to sell for not much short of that myself.

Unfortunately, the stamps have not arrived. Although the stamps were apparently posted by the seller, who can cite a legitimate tracking number for the item, the Australia Post investigation has shown that they never left their country of origin. There is no record of what flight the item was placed on, which mailbag, etc. etc.

It's highly unlikely I'll ever see these stamps. Perhaps there should be a thread for the Best Bargain I Never Had.

I would have to say the "steals" far outweigh the couple of times I have paid too much by acting rashly...my wife once pulled a German New Guinea postcard out of a dealers 25 cent box..she thought it was just an old German postcard..but between the postcard itself and the Seepost cancel I sold it for $150.00 !!

Good idea jimjam !
Off you go then, I expect to see the topic in 5 minutes !

Londonbus1...what a sad loss. Grrrrr!

Thanks for the sympathy, Londonbus1. I should point out that I look like getting my money back, but in this particular situation that's very little consolation.

The best bargain I've probably had so far is getting a stamp for $5 that, last time it was auctioned on ebay, went for $145.

Also, I bought a set of Macao stamps this year for about $30 and found a classic Portuguese stamp among them, one with a SG CV of 170 pounds. But when I auctioned it on ebay I only got 8 pounds.

When Stampgal purchased "Postage Stamp design" (Melville / Eaton)
for me, a fantastic reference book, to which I constantly refer,
the centrepiece of my bookshelf thus far.
Outweighs any stamp lot I have purchased.

I won an Auction for a lot of Great Britain QV Stamps for 12$ US shipping included and the lot had roughly 45 Stamps. 12 of which were QV 5d's and 2 of them were type 1's ($90.00 ea. Cat ) plus a couple of inverted watermarks. The entire lot catalogged at over $400.00 USd, so in real world about $50.00 - 70.00 for 12 spent.

I bought a 100-stamp pane of New Brunswick #11 on ebay for <C$800.

It is intact, original gum, NH and F-VF.

CV for 100 singles F-FV NH is C$12,750

Cost = 1/16th of CV

(math is not my strong point; but, I think it is a pretty good deal)

The best bargain - not just SCF - but all you wonderful guys and gals with all the knowledge base you represent!
Couldn't afford the Harvard / University education I've received in just a few short months. :) Thanks all

When I was about 12 or so I was looking through my dealers 2 for a Nickel box and found a Sardinia #9 and a $5 Columbian (MNH) He paid me $250 for the Columbian and I kept the Sardinia (CV at the time was about $2,500) I still have it only now it has a cert. with it.