Grading Of Stamps

hi all
i just have a general question.
i see big for sale prices for graded stamps.
is there really a big market for graded items.
there used to be big prices for graded coins and baseball cards.
i have seen high grade prixie at high scale prices.
does anyone really pay those prices?

dan

For classic US stamps in exceptional condition, grading has become absolutely crucial to realizing the highest prices.

The fad of paying hundreds of dollars for Gem 100 stamps of modern vintage (post Washington-Franklins) seems to be, thankfully, fading.

Having been out of stamps for quite a while, I don't know when the
fad began but to me it seemes like coin-type opportunists imposing
themselves on the stamp world and getting outrageous sums for what
was not that long ago basically discount postage. It looks like they
are making the market for the stuff then taking advantage of it and
of gullible collectors.

Interesting thoughts but grading has always counted with stamps for as long as I can remember. The price asked and the price paid is really just the function of the market. I have seen the same thing in toy trains such as Lionel, American Flyer etc.

I often think the market and price reflects the graying of America since most people over the age of 50 probably had a stamp collection when they were young. Now of course they have far more money and they drive the market.

So is a stamp over priced? You and I might think so but if the market will hold that price then the truth is it is not. However one must remember what goes up in value can come down. People do pay those high prices for the best graded stamps. The problem is that more people expect to get the same money for a less graded stamp.

IMHO the stamp market has moved about the same as some other hobby markets where a simple empty Lionel train box can bring over $50,000. Go figure at least our paper has a better design on it.

How long has that been?

And like this?

On common stamps?

So how much would this stamp be worth from a thread posted back in May?

https://goscf.com/t/1277&SearchTerms=graded

For about twenty years and that should bring around $200 give or take a few dollars. Though not a sum I would pay because I would settle for a lower grading of that stamp.

i just have seen a stamp that was a nice stamp having asking prices 100 times the book value.

i do appreciate a nice stamp but I think it is or was a market for the graders and not the real collectors

dan

Dan these exist for the circle that feeds on and off of them. For their own sake. Take that 20 cent CV salmon stamp that sold for $300. If the guy who bought it needed some quick cash and took it into a local stamp shop to sell, the owner, not enamored by the gimmick, might agree that it is a very nice copy, and offer maybe a half-a-buck, tops. It's worth is a manufactured illusion to a group of collectors who have become deluded by hope and hype. In the real world of stamps, outside that clique, it doesn't count. It is a manufactured collectible like Franklin Mint stuff, Hallmark Collector's Club ornaments, and even Hess trucks. It's not the old classics that always had and will have value, or the old baseball cards and comic books that no one thought enough of to hold onto, it's not old Lionel trains and Tonka Toy trucks that were not purchased as an investment but to be played with until they fell apart or were discarded. They are manufactured, that is faked collectibles made with no other purpose in mind, and they are marketed as such. Without slick marketing they would be and are nothing.

Take the original Hess trucks which came out in the 1960's and were purchased as toys and that kids played with. They are the valuable ones. Not the new ones that once they became collectible some people bought by the case and never took out of their boxes to preserve their value, even though practically everyone that wants one may be holding onto several.