I Will Be Throwing My Worthless Stamps Away!

I have just discovered, thanks to a post here by a knowledgeable member, that
my stamps, albums of them, all of them hinged, more than 50,000 hinged in the
last 5 years alone, are worthless. So I will be throwing them away and starting
over with pristine, never hinged, never soaked, mint and used copies.

Strange that these worthless stamps sell on ebay, StampWants, StampOffers,
various public auctions and mail sales. They are also bought and sold by dealers
(at least in the backward parts of the United States such as New York, Minneapolis,
Houston, Milwaukee) and even, God forbid, through APS circuit books! You would
think the APS would know better. Don't these collectors know they are being taken.
And that circuit books containing worthless, hinged stamps need not be insured.

But never mind that. The experts, setting the tone in Europe, have spoken.

And forget the fact that the manufacture of paper is a VERY wet process; even
soaking stamps is bad for them, if you can find stamps that will soak anymore. Never
mind that gum destroys stamps and that for long term preservation, some museums
are soaking it off. There is no telling what the various goos being applied to self-adhesive
stamps will do to them over time, but save it. It is, after all, what is or isn't on the back
of a stamp that really counts.

You should've provided a link to the post about the worthless stamps , I would've liked reading it.

I believe I have some worthless stamps but I rather let another collector determine that since my junk stamps might be another mans treasure or at least filler until they find a better specimen.

Jayelem, you can find it here:

https://goscf.com/t/3879

My wife collects Europa mint never hinged and used...they both have value..just check the market...the mint hinged..are not in demand !!

I had thought we were getting past the point where we could or would presume to pass judgement on the way another person collects or desires to collect their stamps but, I guess we have a way to go yet. I find it particularly upsetting when that attitude is pushed on a new collector. We should be encouraging and not discouraging. I agree completely with the idea that one mans trash is another man's treasure. However, I have begun to finds it easier to throw away some damaged, though minorly, common stamps just to get them out of the system.

Larry:

The hinged stamps have value. Keep them. There are lots of folks who collect like you.

This whole gum/hinged/graded thing will come crashing down in a few years.

David

Because I know you're targeting me, allow me to quote myself:


Read. "modern" and "monetary" and "usually".
Yes, used stamps are sold via online auctions, also hinged ones... I recently bought 1kg for 1,- €, only bidder. You call that valuable?

I think there's a big difference between monetary and personal value. Maybe you see that differently, but from what you're writing my guess is that you don't, so what's your problem

Please excuse that I, beeing no native speaker, may not always say everything the way it should be said in English, but I don't think that the things I said made this sarcastic "rampage" necessary, as all I said basically was: If you hinge them, you might get problems trading them (because that's what I experienced), but that doesn't matter as you want to keep them anyway.



The manufacture of metal out of ore and the following forging is a very hot process. Still your valuable objects d'art may bend, if you throw them in the oven.
Yes, museums (such as the Swiss postal museum) "soak" their stamps to remove the gum, but they do this ONCE. Not every time they feel like relocating them. That's the point.



For people collecting coil stamps, yes, absolutely.

Thanks for the link , I don't know enough about demand for hinged Mint but I would think adding a hinge ruins the purpose of the stamp being MINT, for awhile I was a little ashamed about all the CTO's I collected because some other collectors told me they were inferior to postally used.

I have no problem having MNH , used, or CTO sharing the same space in my album , when ever I acquire something better I just replace it.

Drudenfus, here is what you said. The first is you quoting me. The next line is yours.

Now why is that?

Because someone else's saliva was on them?

Hey, if they are virtually giving them away and they don't have thins, I will take them. They all look great in my neat albums without those awful, bulky, chopped up mounts.

As for starting over, if I meant it, I'd probably just join the VFW, take up drinking, playing cards, and reminiscing. Who needs a monthly meeting at a local stamp club, anyway? The VFW is open every day.

As a specimen for a collection, a neatly canceled CTO is a far superior example of a stamp than a badly canceled, pulled-perf, slightly wrinkled one that went through the mail. It's called collecting stamps. CTO's are stamps. You might consider them as part of an issuing nation's postal history!

Get this, there appears to be a form of PC (philatelic correctness!) invading the stamp world!

Dear modern who:
Stamp collecting, like anything else, has phases and fads. I have seen many of them in the last 4 decades. In all that time I have mostly collected postally used stamps and put hinges on everything but mint U.S. A stamp isn't a stamp until it has served the purpose it was created for. Until that happens it is just a pretty piece of paper. I can't afford the high priced mounts and albums, but stamp collecting like any other hobby, is supposed to be enjoyed, not slavishly following the dictates of others. Enjoy your collection and ignore the purists. They will always be there. If you are only collecting for increase in value, i.e. monetary gain, then go to something else, like gold bars. ....npfw.....

I think in the original context the stamps were used stamps. Thus putting hinges on very used stamps will not swing the value of the stamp down.

In truth only the very high value MNH stamps will have a drastic price difference. But I would never consider any hinged stamp as worthless.

Yes, and that's true.
I tried trading stamps, the people I wanted to trade with checked them, checked their backs and literally said "What is this, this looks like junk". In the end I donated them to a youth group, because nobody else wanted them.

Also I never said that they are "worthless", I have never used that word. I said that they are not valuable, meaning that you can hardly sell or trade them and you can yourself buy them for very little money. At least that's what I experienced and that's why I said "monetary value".
I for my part collect for the fun and not the value. Nonetheless I wanted to point out the experiences I made with trading hinged (modern!) stamps, because not everybody collects the same way I do.

Maybe my choice of words was wrong, as I said this may very well happen. My English is far from perfect, I do often need a dictionary when posting and my grammar too is something like "Gernglish"

You must have hooked up with the wrong trading partners Drudenfus. I am a considered a beginner but have traded with many people all over the world. I try to send the best quality possible but have included pre-hinged stamps. Not one person has ever complained or called them junk. They were in fact very thankfull I think the key is to find trading partners that collect in the same maner as you do . I collect purely for enjoyment and therefore find trading partners that do the same. I have received thousands of stamps by trading and have never complained and am always thankfull.

Dianne

Larry....I will send a special Buchanan Sanitation truck, to pick them up.

Phil..On the way home, I will have the Sanitation truck stop at Red Hook. You can dive in, and take what you want. OK Buddy