Would You Borrow To Buy Stamps?

very voluminous holdings. Are any of the stamps accompanied by certificates? I would be very cautious in trying to interpret soundness of these stamps, as well as whether some of the stamps that appear to be unused are indeed that. The other thing that strikes me is what is NOT there: this fella has three or four copies of the $3 snf $4 Columbians but no #245. Neither did I see a #72, #101, #262, #263, #277, #278, or #313. This man's holdings, aside from the revenue stamps looks more like an accumulation to me. Was he a dealer?

Funcitypapa, that's exactly what struck me as strange, even with the Canadian/foreign stamps shown earlier.

HA!! Just as I suspected, dealer dollar box, beginner stuff.

I just spoke to him on the phone and basially he just bought what he wanted when opportunity came along. He definatly knows what he has and doesn't sound like he's looking for a quick buck or two . Have the opp to go over and view before they get back to the vault . It definatly doesn't look as if he was trying to collect & catalog but more just acquire as mentioned. For example with the full sheets of Canadian weights & measures (not pictured) he was in Cali 8-10 yrs ago and bought the lot an older guy just wanted gone. I pretty well view this as an investment type rather than collection however I'd damn sure like to have even the used assortment and the few covers .

OK, thanks for the update. Now the presentation makes sense.

Feel free to post more pictures if you want!

Nice group of holdings, looks like something for someone with a lifetime to sort through and determine soundness, and quality. Certainly is appealing, but as everyone mentioned the presentation would be greatly enhanced/valued by some certs and a little organization. Certainly is well beyond my means, but I would be interested in knowing if any of the US material became available with a price or auction amount. Like the man said "And now the rest of the story". Will be waiting with baited breath. Thanks for posting Nitrolures, you have given me something to dream about. - Jeff

Some excellent looking material, some very nice and rare specimens, some with catalog values over $1000+ oddly mixed in with the more common varieties. No one can really make an accurate assessment by computer scans though, as stamps of this caliber can easily go down in value with the slightest defect that can't always be seen in a scan, and I know from experience that a lot of the back of book materials (revenues, postage dues, Offices in China, envelope cut squares, etc.) look nice and many command a reasonably good "catalog" value, but are often difficult to re-sell as you have to be a BOB specialist or have keen interest in those sections of the catalog to get into those fields.

Although the collection is impressive, it's out of my league, so I don't have to worry about it. But interestingly enough, when reviewing the previous responses on who would borrow to buy a collection like this, the majority would not. Out of 21 responses I counted, it seems that 4 (19%) would borrow if the opportunity presented itself; 3 (14%) maybe; and 14 (67%) would not.

Holy Smoly. Wow.

And he has worldwide also?

That is museum stuff. Thanks for posting the pics.

And here are a few for the UK/possesions fans. Some of these are beautiful work . Couple shown previously but was easier to copy and paste all.
Can anyone fill me in on the Shanghai US overprints? When and why were they done?

Anyone bidding on that sort of stuff sends an agent to look it over VERY CAREFULY..the spread in actual value would be in thousands !!

nitrolures, the scans reflect an impressive collection/accumulation. Has your friend given you any indication whether he is willing to sell individual stamps?

Now ironically, the sheer size of the accumulation will actually severely limit the number/type of buyers if you want to dispose of the holdings in a couple of sales, rather than sell things individually/sections like a dealer.

Accumulators (like me) invariably learn over the years that if you are purchasing something for your accumulation (as opposed to specific items for your collection), you had better buy it dirt cheap, or else don't buy it at all. Otherwise, you will end up losing a lot of money when you try to sell off your accumulation. It's easy to sell a handful of items. It's hard to sell off the entire accumulation in one shot at a good price. Most of the time, only major dealers or auction houses handle such accumulations, and you know they have to make money off this...

I've used this explanation (taken from Linn's Stamp News) to accompany my set of Shanghai, China overprints.



As I referenced in my previous post, most dealers who looked at my set weren't particularly interested in it to buy, as it is BOB specialist material that have a limited market.

How much????

now you have jumped into the "just being cruel" department :-)