Stamp Value And Collecting

Very well said, revenuecollector. We shouldn't obey blindly some catalog values. Any catalog. They are nothing but very subjective guidelines, based on some statistical data.
We often confer personal value (not marketplace value) to our items, sometimes regardless of anybody else in the world.

I doubt that there are 50,000 US collectors willing to pay $250 for an item.My point is that there are far more sheets available than collectors to buy them, but that there are enough interested collectors to maintain this level of value. I know from experience in cataloging collections that it is a sheet that shows up very regularly both hinged and OGNH and that any longtime US dealer easily has a dozen or more in his stock. Most collectors would be amazed if they knew how many $10-$50 thousand catalog collections are out there, and many of them have a WP sheet in them.

Joe,

No way are there 50k buyers for these things, not even close.

First, if you're using ebay as a guide, search for "sold items" (not completed...) and see how many actually sold and for how much. Second, do bear in mind that a ton of these are in collections. I have a used sheet and it was purchased by my father probably in the 70s. I'm sure there's tons more that have been off the market longer than that.

There's probably a thousand or more in dealer stocks as well.

I wonder if there is any way to get a report from ebay of how many different users purchased philatelic material 10 times in the past 12 months. That would show how many serious collectors there are using ebay.

If you really want examples of stamps that are in fairly high supply but still expensive, look at US #1 and GB #1. Qiute a few are around, but everyone wants one.