Collecting Questions About Recent Purchase

Hello Everyone,

The other day I went to the local Habitat for Humanity store because a friend of mine said he saw what he described to be sheets for use in a stamp album.
(By the way, Habitat for Humanity is like Goodwill etc. except the proceeds made from selling peoples donations goes to help the local animal shelters instead of people)

This was the first time I'd been there and I couldn't believe how big the place was. I did have some luck (Luck Tee-Hee) locating the album sheets and then to my surprise when I went up to pay I looked in the glass display case by the register. There was a shoebox filled with several envelopes plus numerous glassines with stamps. They were trying to auction it off with the starting bid at $50 and there was no bids yet. I asked if I could look through the stamps before I committed myself to an opening bid of $50 bucks and they obliged. I decided to go for it and that's when I noticed the small print at the bottom of the sheet that said OR $60 out the door.

So I paid the $60 bucks and got what I feel was well worth my money. I did find something odd though and was wondering if anyone had a good explanation.

Some of the envelopes had hundreds of the same stamp. Example:

More than 500 of these


More than 400 of these


These are just 2 examples. Why would someone have so many of the same stamp? I sorted through and pulled out the SOTN:







Could someone please enlighten me as to why someone would have so many of one stamp?

By the way, there was a bunch of Republik of Indonesia stamps as well so if that fits your collecting area let me know. We can do some trading.

Lucky

Lucky
Some people do accumulation of the same stamps for different purpose. It could be just only to have many hundreds of the same stamp. Some will eventually use them for trade or to put in lots for sale. But if you gather many with nice cancels you can do a cancel study and that is an area of collecting that can be very interesting.

I have no earthly idea.




Anyone need a spare US Scott 1801? 50?

This thread reminded me of an interesting idea published in Canadian Philatelist magazine last summer.
If you've got a load of extra stamps and some of them have those pesky straight edges (refers mainly to older issues I suppose) make a mini sheet. (see below)
A good way to use those extra stamps that you might normal toss, and helps to keep you off the streets at night.

Hey Smauggie,

I'll trade you 50 of mine for 50 of yours...

Even better still, I'll trade you 200 of mine for 50 of yours.

Lucky

You are right jamesw, that is an interesting idea but since I am the President of the Colorado Chapter of Crazed Stalker's (CCCS) I am usually out on the streets after dark teaching amateur members tricks of the trade so they can go pro.

Seriously though, thanks for posting the idea with the scan .

Lucky

What an exciting Lucky find!
I am always asking in our local charity shops if they have any stamps, but they never do.
I suppose people collect lots of the same stamp to look for shades and other varieties. Machins seem to be popular for that. You might be able to offload, erm, pass on a whole load of those to a serious machin collector.
Edit - just noticed a nice Union Jack flag cancel - do we know anyone who might like that..

I was once given boxes of stamps that contained hundreds (in some cases, thousands) of duplicates. I caught them from my former boss who was placing them all in a dumpster at the office and asked if I could put them in my car instead. It gave me hours of pleasure to go through them and pick out interesting cancels, etc., and although a good amount I just sold off for pennies per hundred to get rid of them, I still have a couple of hundred of certain issues and have gone through them many times and almost every time I do, I find something new. While they may never be worth anything to help toward my retirement fund, at least it gives me lots of pleasure to go through them and it winds up being one of the most inexpensive parts of my hobby!

I think I got all the Queen Elizabeth II stamps, they must be scarce since I have them all.....j/k of course...



Bob

I suggest that the person who put the collection into those envelopes got them from various accumulations he bought then sorted. Early in this hobby when I bought accumulations I did something similar, in that I separated coils, commemoratives, definitive & foreign. I would then send the ones I didn't want to a fellow collector friend, still seperated, and let him go through the lot and get what he wanted and he would send it on to another. Where the remainder ended up, who knows?

Lucky - You have got a deal. Send me your address.

Here's a couple more:

over 400


over 200


Lucky

Aren't you Lucky !

Well, yes actually. You are.
But you will have fun with those Machins. I already see three different 3p values....and I'm sure there are more. Same with the 3½p, sure to be all the varieties in there.
And when you have checked each one, you will receive a nice prize which I won today, just for you.
Scan tomorrow.




Bob de D,
A great-looking box. Sure to be a lot of varieties in there too. Check those watermarks !




Mmmmmm . I cannot think of anyone off hand.......

Londonbus1.....Do I collect Flags ?

just started reviving my stamp collection. I collected in my school days, then I lost interest due to studies, then work.
Now I am starting to revive my old collection. I am sorting out the stamps, country wise. I would be happy, if you
give me some of your spares, shown above. I could give you some old indian stamps, not equal number though, but I have some old
stamps in my collection.

warm wishes.

Good catch. There is a Habitat store near me as. Sells a lot of stuff to repair your house but occasionally has other things that you wont necessarily see at a goodwill. Mine gets a lot of industrial stuff the manufacturers are unloading. Drawer pulls and such. The group helps out people who don't have a lot of money but are willing to work to build their own house. They get a lot of donated time from people and groups to help them build it too.

Hmmmm. A prize for me from LondonBus1 .

By the way, from the overall tone of your reply I can't help but get the feeling that you collect Machins. I scanned some more piles of them that were also included in my purchase:






Vacuum man,
The Habitat store you described sounds identical to the one I went to which is located in Grand Junction, CO. Could we be neighbors and not even know it????

palaniappan,
I would love to do some trading. Let me know your mailing address and I will get some out to you.