Tips For Reducing The Costs Of Building A Collection

Hello,

I'm just getting started on building my collection and the costs are adding up quickly. I'd love to hear what people think in terms of the most cost effective methods for acquiring equipment, supplies and most importantly stamps. Bulk buying and sorting, buying individuals, ??. How to organize shopping lists? Or any other contributions or thoughts you might have on smart rather than less smart ways of building up your collection.

PATIENCE

** You'll rarely get a good deal on a stamp is you feel you "have to have it" and buy the first one you see.

** In my opinion (not everyone will agree), avoid the larger dealers who charge substantial markups on their merchandise. Mystic and Stanley Gibbons have every cool stamp you can imagine, but you'll pay handsomely for them.

I'm sure others here will weigh in with some good advice.
KirkS

Have a budget and stick to it. Trading and selling on SCF, or elsewhere, can help stretch the budget a little.
Think about what and why you are collecting - are you chasing high-end single stamps that are going to add up to a costly sum? Or when your budget is spent, can you find interest in a cheap bulk lot flyspecking or looking for postmarks? if you have one main collection that potentially could get costly, perhaps a cheap side collection of topicals or something would keep you distracted for a while when you've spent too much on the other stuff!
Kirk gives good advice about patience - stamp collecting is a long-term hobby, you don't have to jump in to the bigger purchases.
For supplies, second hand bargains can be available on stockbooks and cards etc. Know your prices - if you use varios, for instance, know how much they ususally cost per page, that way you will know a bargain if you see one.
Bulk buying is great to start out. If you find a supplier that gives a good quality and variety of kiloware, stick with them, as not all do. Depending on the type of collection you are building, there will come a time when you will stop finding anything new in kiloware. Then you have to start being more choosy. I'm only just getting to that stage with a couple of my country collections, so I can't give much advice on where to go from there.
Keep sharing your experiences on SCF so we can all keep learning!

DELISTAMPGUY, in 10 years time when you look back at all stamps acquired, do you just want volume without value OR one full album that was worth your time, effort and money in easy re-sale value? T

Honestly, that's the most repeated lesson collectors have come to realize during my life-time.

Yes looking back in hindsight...if it said stamps I wanted to buy it...far better to focus on one area..read and learn all you can about it.if you can purchase a complete set ..do it..far better than later on trying to fill in the spaces !!

I usually collect used and try to get as many post 1940 stuff in one lot as I can and the pre- 1940's stuff I buy either in partial sets (usually minus the higher denominations and fill them in as I see them in my price range)and the 19Th century I buy individually and usually ask or use the search function to find it's relatively current value and such. The biggest thing is to not be in a big hurry to fill all those gaps at once or you'll most certainly run into issues (I know I did). Read up everything you are interested in so you know what your looking at when you see something.
Best wishes and happy hunting my friend! ~Jeff

I agree with much of the above. Especially patience and budget. If buying on ebay or some other auction site, don't go over your limit. Remember, if you miss something, there will be another out there soon, possibly for less! I only started collecting again a year and a half ago, after 30 years. And it's pretty amazing what I've been able to collect in that relatively short time.
And trading is a very satisfying way to collect, in my humble opinion.

I would like to add that after spending money on albums that I *thought* that I would use if I had to do it over I would have spent that money on stamps and just used the Steiner pages. Printing off only what I wanted and finding a sturdy binder to keep it all in. I know that different individuals have different tastes in how the stamps are presented but these Steiner pages work for me (especially since I've expanded my collecting to worldwide). Just my 2-cents.

A hard lesson to learn, but in the long run will pay off:

Assuming they are within your means, buy the expensive keys FIRST, not last. The cheap stuff you can always fill in, whereas the expensive/rare pieces are what go up in cost the fastest.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken this approach early on. There might be one or two spots filled that I now know I will never afford (they've skyrocketed in price since I started collecting).

As a general rule, while it may not give you as much immediate satisfaction (filling the most holes), you are far better off buying one or two key values than a bunch of mid- or lower-cost items, and ultimately the set/series/collection will cost you less in the long run.

Some thing that has ALWAYS been difficult for me is patience, and saving for a specific
purchase. I read everything on this forum repeatedly to add to my knowledge level before
I purchase any stamps. In doing so, I haven't wasted any more money than my wife would
approve of, and she disapproves or approves everything. Bought a small early century collection
from a long extended realative of my sister-in-law. They wanted the traditional blank check
for an album where fully half of the used had been Elmer glued in. I offered a truly fair price,
and have waited for a year and a half, and finally got the selection yesterday. No high dollar
items, so I wasn't worried about it being cherry picked, just paid a fair price for a
fair collection.
Man, patience will eat at you....

You will "eat it" if your not.

When I first started out, I purchased large inexpensive lots on ebay.
I ended up with lots of duplicated but also accumulated a substantial amount of stamps to kickstart my collection.

Now I do a lot of trading and buying from members here and my club. It is easy to get carried away so gave myself a monthly budget and I stick to it.

Another way I save money is by printing my own albums, using the william Steiner site. I use archival paper and good quality binders.

Dianne

Hi to all

I have learned that if you want to get bargains, never buy in the country of Origin. There are two many collectors chasing the same item. I have found that I can usually pick up "bargains in USA Stamps and World Stamps by watching the internet and frequent the little out of the way stamp shops. The big stamp shops have high rents and this they pass on in their stamp prices.
Thrift shops are some-times good, mostly they have modern stamps, but every now and then they get an item from a deceased estate.
Sometimes friends who know I collect stamps will tell me that they are getting rid of the grandparents stamps and would I be interested. I have found some bargain that way as well.
Most of the the time it is research, watch and wait.
Regards
Horamakhet

Another tip-- if you are going to try to add more expensive and elusive items to your collection-- each dollar/pound/etc that you spend on philatelic literature, learning about the stamps/covers/cancels, etc., will more than pay for itself in savings, or in quality you'll upgrade to.

Bottom line is that $100 to spend on literature you can use to learn about your "wants" isn't a lot of money compared to what you can waste by spending too much, or knowing less about the material than the seller does-- and by becoming an expert, or at least more advanced than a novice, you may be able to uncover a "find" or two down the road.

Hope this is helpful! Ray

I agree Dianne. Using archival paper and quality binders allows you to print off only those pages you want. After experimenting with a variety of paper weights I found, for me, that 32lb paper worked the best. It seemed anything heavier curled with no hopes of flattening back out. To save paper I print on the front and back of the pages and have about 200 sheets of interleaving when I need them. By getting those clearview binders you can personalize it a bit as well. Here are the binders I just finished putting together a couple of weeks ago and now am in the process of filling them. I just wish that I would have started this way. I would have spent less money.

Thank you all so much for the tips - I look forward to putting them all to good use - went to a show today and maaged mostly to keep my money in my wallet - and learned alot speaking with the dealers who were there (and saw beautiful stamps).

Especially interested in the make your own album comments and will follow that one up.