Value Of Your Total Collection

I think Sonalee has gotten the answers. Whether it was what he was looking for, who knows. As said before...the priceless quietude we enjoy just looking at our collection and reliving the searches or finds involved in those pretty little pieces of paper...can't put a dollar value on that. Mine goes to my grandson.
Allan

I really have no idea what my collection is worth, heck I don't even keep track of what I pay for them. I collect for enjoyment not investment. Now I do hope that they will be worth something to my son....if he choses to sell them.

I agree, there is not much of a way to determine value. Nr-notrare said it right about the value of stamps have three categories, book value, actual realized value and perceived value. I know my world-wide book itself without stamps is worth around $4,000. But I could not give a value of the stamps inside.

Sonalee.... don't worry about deleting a topic. You asked an honest question and you received honest answers. Something you will always get here is "honest answers."



Butch

sonalee please dont let this stop you from asking questions or leave this site I have felt kinda this way to believe me I've asked some off the wall questions and all these people on here have been the greatest to me,this is how we learn,i've always wondered that question myself,up until I really got into stamp collecting now I can understand what everybody is saying and soon if you stick around you will to so please dont get discouraged ask away

Well, I'm new to this hobby and I have lots of weird crazy questions. It is good that none of my posts are deleted by admin so I would call it a good start ! Thanks for replying to my questions.

Well, Your question raised my curiosity so I decided to check. The great news is just adding up values from years 1847 to 1870, I came up with $8,450 by using a 12 year old USPS Postal Service Guide. A few, very few, are nice enough to get 60-70% of catalog value. Most would bring 25-30% and others barely 10%. So that would make my guess as to actual value to be around around $2,500, more or less, for my collection up to 1870. After that I don't know and probably never will.

Marty

sonalee.....


As stated by most everyone here, please don't stop asking questions......and try not to feel that anything you might ask could be an unworthy question. All questions are welcome here. I personally enjoy helping anyone interested in the hobby. I am definitely not an expert in any aspect of philately but, I have learned a few things in 50+ years at this and there are quite a few others here with almost as much time, a few with more.............Many of them have better memories than I do.

sonalee,

I applaud your bravery in asking the question and admire your honest curiosity.

I enjoyed your post asking how to delete the thread as it seemed as if you had innocently stuck you hand unsuspectingly into a nest of hornets. But, no, they are not angry hornets!

They are people who enjoy in different ways (and a lot of the same ways) stamps and the study and collection of them.

The stamps I have now were bought for approximately $3000. I had a lot more years and years ago. (That sounds like a fisherman's tale, the fish was thiiiis big!) If they were sold, depending on where they were sold, to whom they were sold, when and in what quantity(ies), they would be worth a bit more or a lot less. The old perceived value idea.

Sometimes, if I really wanted a stamp or stamps I would pay a lot more for it. Other times I got a good deal. (I thought so anyway.)

I remember my dad (father) learning a lesson about the perceived value of stamps when I was young. My grandmother had passed away (died) and my father was responsible for taking care of the estate. My grandmother kept every envelope that ever passed through her hands. My dad got a Scott catalog from the library and he and the rest of the family (me too) spent a week of summer vacation valuing the stamps by the Scott catalog.

Then he loaded up all the stamps (boxes and boxes) on top of the car (in a carrier) and took them downtown to the stamp store. They, of course, only offered 10% - 20% of the Scott value and then only for the ones they really wanted, not all of them. My dad had quite a red face as he loaded all of the boxes back on to the car. He had assumed that he would get the catalog value or a large portion of it.

Some of the value in a catalog is the cost of having a dealer handle it and present it to you. More expensive stamps are valued more by their rarity and their demand (which changes sometimes). Example: the demand for a ship stamp today will be high. Tomorrow, (in the future) maybe Enterprise starship stamps will be of more interest. (?) Animals are always valued but which animals and when? What if their was a Martian animal and there were stamps made of it. Would you want one? I would! (If it was cute and cuddly and didn't eat me).

I am not an expert in any sense of the word. I just enjoy the study of stamps and history. I do, of course, have the collecting bug and tend to accumulate (my perceived value of 'If I enjoy one stamp then if I have 10,000 it will be heaven.') (Well, not always, but sometimes . . .).

I myself gave up on the whole idea of investing a while ago. (That is not to say it is a bad idea!) I still like to get a deal and if I can sell it for more then that's a bonus. But it is more the stamp itself, its' history and meaning to me, that intrigues me and makes it of value to me.

So, the $3000 of stamps I paid for are worth to me, oh, maybe $10,000. To you they might be worth $200 only. If you enjoy stamps as a study of interest then the value is more. If you don't really care then it is the value that someone else perceives them as having.

Thank you for asking you question!

Just like valuation of a company's stock, valuation of a stamp depends on many varying parameters.

I understand (by now) that catalog value is just a high ball estimate and doesn't reflect the true market value of the stamp. It is also understood that valuation of stamp is more an art (depends on varying quality of the artifacts)than a science.

Nonetheless, there should be some heuristic, rule of thumb and market data (is there?) from which the true market value can be determined. Did someone perform any market research ? It is a 900 million dollar market (annual transaction value according to one source) so I'm sure some data may have been collected and analyzed. If you know any such while paper data source, please let me know.

If I had the time (always a lame excuse), I would have studied ebay auction data for commonly and frequently traded items and tried to come up with a reality coefficient (less than 1) where market Value = Reality Coefficient * Scott catalog value.

Gathered some valuation pointers:

1) Valuation depends on 4 parameters - condition, rarity, market atmosphere and current trends.

for stamps with values under $500 :

a) Approval dealers will sell stamps at 60% - 100% of CV
b) Store front dealers will sell at 60% - 80% of CV
c) Bourse dealers because of limited overhead, sell at 50% - 60% of cv
d) Individual collectors sell at 35% - 45% of CV

please provide more pointers.

e) cheapskates 25%-33% of catalog
k

Don't ever be afraid to ask questions sonalee.

Heaven knows I have asked many in the past.

I haven't thought much about the value of my collection I'm pretty cheep so I'm always on the look out for good deals. I have never sold any of my spares I trade them or give them away.

I guess like many of the other It is a hobby that I have become obsessed with. It keeps me busy on the cold winter nights while I wait for gardening season to start up again.

The biggest advantage to my newfound hobby is all the freinds I have made through this site and my stamp club.

Dianne

DITTO DIANNE

f) quigngt 10%-25%

Marty