Your Favorite Best Way To Add Stamps To Your Collections

I was wondering what was the favorite best way to add stamps to your collections. About the only thing I have not yet tried is to purchase a large collection, use the ones I need, then exchange the rest or sell remainder of collection. Any thoughts?

Zaro, that buying a large collection sounds scarey...most of us had to crawl before we could walk Unless you get a Very Good buy on a collection...most of us should be so lucky !

Hey Zaro

I'm a fairly new collector as well. I have had very good luck buying lot's of stamps off ebay at a reasonable price. It helps to be patient and wait for that great deal.

Dianne

I have done and still do buy collections that I can add some to my own and then be able to sell off some of the rest. The key is to know what you need and want, more than the price. If you collect Mexico, then look at Mexico collections until you find one that can enhance your collection and then look at the price/bid. If it is too much, or there would be too much to sell off, then pass. Patience will reward you if you just wait. To give an example ( as I don't know how much a person can afford to spend) look at this ebay collection
http://cgi.ebay.com/British-Samoa-S...NH_W0QQitemZ180242305338

There are several early ones I need and also some that would be duplicates. I only collect these to 1940, so all of the latter stuff, much mint is topical, sports, birds, sea shells, subjects a lot of people collect, and Samoa,Solomon Is. is more intriguing than Romania or Hungary of the same stuff. So to me this would be a good lot, but I have set a bid in my mind that if it goes over, so be it. don't chase once you have set a bid in mind.

But this is how I approach obtaining collections I will cherrypick. I love it when I get a collection , even if very small, that I only have a few stamps I don't need. But put "needs" before quantity IMO.

Jim

Let all your friends, co-workers and relatives know that you collect stamps, if they don't already know. I have amalgamated 5 other collections into mine, this way. You would be surprised how many people have stamp collections that they don't want any more. You might get them for free or maybe a carton of beer.

Steve

Hey there Zaro, I am yet another budding collector (have been collecting for about 2 months now) and I have learned that the old what-not junk shops, a.k.a. Antique Shops sometimes have old post cards and maybe even old covers that may contain some pretty good stamps. I know I have found some awesome finds at my local junk shops in the form of foriegn postcards and also quite a few FDC's. And if you can find some places with postcards they are an added bonus in my opinion because you can find some very nice pictures as well as interesting postmarks along with the stamps. Well enough for me and my long windedness, Welcome to the forum and the hobby hope your hunting brings you some nice treasures, I know mine has and will continue to do so.

I have bought several collections from which to select items for my own collection. Have had a few real gems, some average, and some well below par due to descriptions that seemed good but didn't have many photos to back them. If on ebay they show a lot of pictures from their own hosting you have a better chance than if they just show a few photos using the ebay photo hosting. What will look good to you, of course, will depend on where you are in collecting. Right now, a collection has to look really good before I will consider bidding on it and I still have some albums left to go through so I only look at the auction in case a gem collection comes through. Picked up a great International Part III last year and another like that would be very nice. And yes, the remaindered collections can be resold on ebay. One of the worst problems is getting a collection where a lot of the stamps are stuck down due to humidity or a sloppy tongue.