How Come This Never Happens To Me?

A local stamp collector I know picked up three MNH Zeps in an estate sale about a year ago in a collection he paid a measly $250 for. Same guy purchased another collection at a recent estate sale. It was being offered for $1000, but he was the only taker and wound up giving them $350 for the complete collection. Yeah, he hit the mother lode again! An entire coil roll of #1906c, the imperf variety of the 17 cent Electric Auto from the Transportation series. My 2008 Scott Specialized has them at $160 a pair, and he has 50 pairs. Guess I should start attending estate sales.

Do you know for sure that it is true? Some of these tales are like fishing tales...

How many estate sales does he go to every year? I'll bet 99% of them are junk and the 1% more then pay for the tim.

Plus, he's a dealer and probably has the time (and money) to go to auctions. I'd agree 99% are junk and the 1% that is found to be quality material is the exception rather than the rule.

Same concept holds true in all of those reality TV shows about Storage Locker auctions, etc. The highlights you see on TV are only the extreme examples of profits that are found in a very few lockers. And no one ever mentions the cost of travel and physical labor and disposal costs of all of the trash that must be disposed of.

I saw one of the pairs that he GAVE to a friend of mine who had seen the entire roll. This guy's not a dealer, just old retiree. Obviously he keeps an eye out for these types of sales. Another thing that may be working in his favor is that there's not a large number of active collectors in our area of west Texas. Like I pointed out he was the only one who indicated any interest at all in the stamp collection.

lpmiller, I collect Transportation Coils exclusively. Please talk to him and ask him NOT to cut this roll up to make a bunch of line pairs!
If any cutting up needs to be done plate strips of five or more ( PS5, PS7, PS9 etc ) are far more valuable. I would love to get in touch with him! Pete.

It CAN happen to any of us...many people who have estate sales do not have a clue about stamp values !!

That's for sure. Sometimes the asking price is ridiculously high (actually, most of the time), and every once in a while you hit a great deal -- but you have to have the time for it.

A note for APS members: I really recommend you take advantage of the APS Estate Advice/Services, and have the sticker/info put prominently EVERYWHERE. It is more likely that your non-collecting heirs will get a reasonable offer for your collection.

Were the plate numbers #1 & 2 or #3 and 4? Are the #'s clear of the bottom (some white space below them)? As Peter said, don't cut the entire roll into pairs. The most preferred format for imperf plate strips is strips of 6 with the plate # on the 3rd stamp, although they are still sellable as strips of 5 of 7 with the # in the middle.

I don't even see junky stamp collections at the few estate sales I've been to.

I love estate and garage sales never know what you will find. I picked up an 1879 album filled with stamps, for next too nothing. I posted pictures here:

https://goscf.com/t/26993

I look all the time for stamps, there are not that many collectors out there so I have better odds of getting a score.

It seems that stamps have no real value anymore anyway. Except to what few collectors that are left. If you think I'm just blowing smoke. Go try and sell your collection. You will be lucky to get pennies on a dollar. Stamp collecting has become a dying hobby. The stamp company's like Kenmore, Golden Valley and Mystic put such high prices on all their products but they buy at shame full fractions of their printed values.It seems to me that even the values like the Post Office and Scott have put on stamps is so far off reality. I know this is opening a can of worms but it is the truth. Another thing when you buy stamps from the stamp companies now. You really don't know if you are buying 100 year old stamps or ten year old reproductions. I have really soured on collecting stamps. Not that I even expected to make a profit collecting because it was when I started and still is JUST A HOBBY! Now I am hoping to hear some feedback from fellow collectors. By the way we started and ran a stamp club for one year and finally shut it down. I only had one other person attend more than two meetings of our club. What we found was about 18 people that came to at least one meeting and all they was wanting to do was to sell their collection. All like me started collecting and either lost interest or it had become too expensive to keep collecting up. The P.O. issued something like 94 stamps in 2011 and plan to issue 96 stamps in 2012. Between the P.O. and the the internet. They are killing Stamp Collecting.

Tinman I was at a show 2 months ago and this dealer who had a tremendous stock of Germany..all eras admitted himself that its a dying hobby..meanwhile he was selling some nice covers..i find stamps more affordable now than in the 1980s !

I just added up some Kenmore receipts from a collection I just bought . Total was over $5000 and accounted for about 1/4-1/3 of the collection . I picked up the lot for $400 and although I don't expect any rare treasures it is a sign of reality especially within non classic material. I agree these dealers are price gauging but we all have same options to visit same auctions as they do. I have to drive about 200km to hit the closest stamp auction but looking at prices realized they fall massively short of estimates. Personaly I'd rather take a shot on someones estate lot than jump into the auction game.

YUP! There are advantages to being in a dying hobby!




The scandal here is that they will charge two or three times what anyone else would. Like double Scott. Preying on unwary buyers and novice collectors.

I try to attend estate sales, but mine tend to be those 99%. And I'm unable/unwilling to pay that kind of money, but I always enjoy looking through what I can get.
Hoping that 1% sale is coming up soon.

There is a reason that certain Stamps cost Thousands of dollars. It's because not every Joe Blo can show up at the neighborhood garage sale and hit the mother load of Stamp collections.
If the odds were 99% - 1% I'd probably show up to a few of them, but sadly I think those odds are optimistic.