Valuing Worldwide Modern Hinged Material?

I'm curious as to what formulae others use when establishing a value on modern or semimodern non-U.S.material that is lightly hinged.

Assume, for the sake of argument, that we're talking about material issued post-1950, and not high-value material. Normal run-of-the-mill definitive, commemorative, semipostal, and airpost sets.

For every country, the Scott catalog has a breakpoint at which it posts the following statement:




That breakpoint falls at different years depending on the country or stamp type.

So how do you value material that falls after this point, but is lightly hinged? Scott gives zero advice on how to handle this, yet you'd be surprised how many country collections you come across that are relatively complete, yet hinged.

Presumably the value is less than Scott, but how much less? The sets still have some value.

Do you assign a fraction of Scott, base it on face value, or ???

Do you eschew LH material that might fill those spots in favor of only having NH material in your country collection?

Next, does your formula change if we are talking about 1940s-1960s key issues that have high catalog values rather than nominal values?

You raise a very interesting question, however, I don't think there is going to be a definitive answer for you.

As most collectors would agree, catalog values are merely guides and a lot would depend on the desirability of the material in question. Also, when talking about worldwide material, there have been past discussions about how wildly different one catalog value may be as compared to another (i.e. Scott, Stanley Gibbons, Michel, etc.). I suppose some of that discrepancy could be attributed to how desirable certain stamps are in certain countries as opposed to how they may be valued here in the US. There are also some countries that traditionally command a better value for their philatelic material than do others.

I maybe in the minority, but for most modern material, which presumably are relatively common and were issued in the millions, LH versus NH stamps don't mean all that much to me, as I'm only interested in the face of the stamp and its perforations. Once it is inserted into an album, the condition of the gum is likely to be viewed only when presenting the item for resale.

Of course, a lot depends on whether you're looking at a stamp collection as a hobby or an investment. In my case, it's a hobby and my views are based on that. Should it retain some value in later years, that's fine, but it's not my #1 goal. Now, if you're looking at a stamp collection as turning a future profit, these opinions will differ and most will say collect the best specimens you can afford and that will bring the most return to your investment.

Sometime when looking at collections on ebay it's hard to know if a collection contain hinged stamps because some dealers describe them as simply mint. I once read that a hinged stamp has a value of 30% to 50% of a mnh copy for after 1950. I avoid hinged stamps for that period as most stamps in mnh condition are easy to obtain. And it's easier to sell a collection with mnh stamps. But not every collector care about gum condition. Like wt1 wrote the hinged stamp look as beautiful mounted on the album page.

Interesting subject and have to agree with WT1 and Timbres ,both are correct and answer the subject . ---------Lets breakdown your question first to who is going to buy those issues. Every stamp dealer likes to have that buyer who stops at his show table or his website and purchase a set at full catalog . Maybe the customer who hands a dealer a WANT LIST full of modern stamps and willing to pay over half-catalog for his purchases . But these type of collectors are becoming rare and less of them each year.So the question becomes is that material going to ? First I would be so bold to say half the material issued in the past 50 years is still floating around in dealer hands or accumulators who let it sit in stockbooks or glassines or dealer cards and have never been mounted in collections.All sitting and waiting for a full price buyer . Now the market of hinged material is usually sold to WORLDWIDE COLLECTORS and this market has a low limit to what it pays .Modern hinged material sells better mounted in collections on pages . With a major retail market being E-BAY . So a price of 10 to 20 cents a piece for pages and pages of nicely mounted modern sets would be reasonable on what to expect ,you can spice up the lot with a few better higher catalog sets or high-values and push the price further . It becomes a marketing thing to get the highest possible price for your stamps ,if they are on black stock sheets with a long run of complete sets or they are on nice pages in a binder you can get even a better price ,a little work and a nice layout will bring a higher price but if you just throw them in glassiness or a cigar box then expect a lower price and maybe settle for 2 cents each if they are broken sets or mixed with used stamps . --------TO ANWSER YOUR QUESTION -----its how its marketed and presented to the buyer will determine the value you get ........end of rant .

Good analysis by FloorTrader. Frankly, if a collector doesn't care about the back, and is just concerned about resale, it is a waste of money to buy mounts, as you will never recoup the value when you sell.

As is noted, not all catalogues will even make a mention of what to do with the pricing of modern hinged stamps. Among those that do, different catalogues use different deductions for hinged modern mint stamps. Unitrade says there's a 50% drop in value when the stamp is hinged. My older Bale catalogue for Israeli stamps says the deduction is 25% - 50%. And in Sweden, they're real fussy - Facit prices are reduced by 70% when the stamp is hinged!

Ryan