Are Ebay Sales Indicative Of Existing Stamp Populations?

"looking for a classic US stamp that is original gum, not hinged and well centered"

Generally not offered on ebay

The people who can afford that stuff go to dealers they know who carry that type of material or to regular auctions where this type of stuff appears. They don't spend tons of time looking for this type of stuff on ebay where there is tons of lower quality stuff.

I have to respectfully disagree. I sell many better quality stamps as fixed price listings, priced according to the Scott Valuing Guide. The better stamps sell fairly quickly, faster than lesser quality stamps. Collectors interested in better stamps soon find out which dealers carry better material or search for ASDA or APS Dealer members.

Clark
clarkphilatelics

centerstage98 is correct to call us out on the use of the word 'junk', but that does not mean that it defies definition.

I'm sure most of us regonize phrases such as "violates prevailing community standards", "without redemming social value", and "I know it when I see it" ... all US judicial stabs at defining obscenity.

I would like to suggest that "junk", in the context of collectibles of any kind, means that an item bears defect(s) so severe that only someone indifferent to those particular defects, or indifferent to condition (period), would buy it for their collection.

<suppress> elucidating examples </suppress>.

Q/ Which less-perjorative word(s) would work as well as 'junk'?

<anecdote> Seen on a charity thrift shop door: NO GARAGE SALE ITEMS </anecdote>

Q/ How come everybody knows exactly what that means?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I always loved "without redeeming social value", one of truly great egotistical nonsense statements ever made. As if anyone could possibly know that no one on earth could possibly find some value in whatever object is being discussed. Even something supposedly obscene.
As a philatelic example, many of those horribly defective stamps that collectors think are total trash might be very valuable to the people who use stamps for art projects. It's all in the beholder.

Junk: some definitions. (Number 3 was a new one for me).

Terry

Thanks for the informative feedback. I probably should not have used the term "junk." Perhaps something like stamps with considerable faults or stamps with less demand would have been better.

Hi gichen,

There is nothing wrong with using the word junk to describe a stamp. It leaves no doubt about what is meant. There are plenty of words to describe stamps with faults. This word means what it says.

Terry

glchen: I could not think of another one-syllable word, or useful acronym, either :)

Q/ How about "faultish"?

TC: The problem with using the word 'junk' is that some of our colleagues have these stamps in their beloved collections.

Q/ How about "NFM" (Not For Me)? This, at least, puts the burden on the speaker.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Hi ikeyPikey,

You've gone and done it. I am lost for words.

Terry

I'm a worldwide collector and I'm generally satisfied with VF or FVF used and LH stamps and I can find all I need of those on ebay. I can't speak to the higher end of quality and rarity, because I don't buy those kinds of stamps. Sure, I'd enjoy XF stamps more than FVF, but having a "decent" example is more enjoyable than no stamp at all.

My idea of junk is the great mass of common stamps that seems to float around and get picked through endlessly. Don't get me wrong - by this definition, 98% of the stamps in my collection are junk. Some of my favorite stamps could be classified as junk. I almost always obtain that kind of material in various bulk lots, mixtures, kiloware, etc. I assume that most of that has been picked through before it got sent to me. I commence to pick through it and sell the duplicates as packets on ebay, and I assume the cycle will continue from there. It's as if there's this massive pile of common stamps that just floats around in a cloud with collectors taking what they need out of the cloud and putting the rest back in.

I agree with Hieronymous that this is a very informative thread. Personally, I can't imagine anyplace other than ebay where such a large sample of ever-changing philatelic material of all kinds exists at any one time. As said elsewhere upthread, the challenge is finding what I want and, for me, what I can afford.

Revcollector, even the Supreme Court had to abandon "utterly without redeeming social value." For stamps, I'm ok with "junk," but I also like iKeyPikey's "NFM," which keeps things subjective.

Clearly, revcollector is on to something (not for the first time).

We do not need to attract more collectors.

We need to attract more artists, to suck out the junk out of our packets.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

glchen...I have always wondered basically the same thing on the Canadian side of the forum...Take for instance a stamp Canadian/American from the 1800's...Just say there were only 50,000 printed..How many ended up on envelopes in the mail and eventually into the garbage over time..Now here is the question I was thinking about putting in the forum of many, many polls to try and find out what or how many are really out there..Out of the 50,000, are there say 22,000 left...1,000 left or even 100 left..We dont know...Would be interesting to run a database to find out.

Out of curiosity, who are the 5-6 major stamp auction houses for US stamps? I know of Siegel, but not sure of the rest.

You'll find most of not all major stamp auction houses on here: http://stampauctionnetwork.com/auctions.cfm