Help Me With These Stamps Ty

could you guys help me to check how much does these stamps worth?
thanks for helping.

Hello Alexandear,

Welcome to join here.

Through your scan picture,these China stamps will at USD 0.05-0.2 each.

Best regards,
ZhangCheng

Hi Alexandear
I don't have access to a catalogue right now, but the minimum Scott Catalogue value is 20 cents U.S.
But that doesn't mean that you will get that much if you try to sell them.

I have to disagree. Personally I would never sell any stamp from China. The internet population of China exceeds that of the US and is double the rest of Asia. Stamp collecting IS a hobby there and as more and more Chinese have access to the internet the demand will outstrip the supply increasingly. The Chinese have a great interest in their history, both the Han and the numerous other races are fascinated by their colorful history, so it is natural that they collect stamps. I am saving all my Chinese stamps until I see the price level out, which will not be soon. Regarding the stamps above, I have recently seen similar collections, about the same size and content sell for around $40, which give you an idea of their popularity. To give you one more clue as to the value of the stamp, a wide margin large dragon would have sold for $5 in 1990, if that. Today, it is worth over $200. Look at the US #1, it sells for about 10% above its 1990 price, which would you rather invest in, Chinese stamps or US stamps?

if I recall correctly the member wasnt asking how to invest in stamps or which stamps to invest in but what the value of the stamps were.

Assuming I'm not looking up each stamp to see if there is a hidden gem...

If I saw that sheet on a dealer's table, I'd expect to see a price of $5-7. I might pay $2-3, if there were a few more overprints or older issues on the sheet. That's just me, and it probably isn't rational, as I don't have time to catalog the Chinese overprints that I already have.

I think theswedishtiger's point is worth mentioning, though. An opinion of "might this be valuable?" is worth a few electrons as a corollary to "is this valuable?" in my mind.

Collin

The reason why most non-chinese do not collect Chinese stamps is that it is a royal pain in the derriere to interpret the chinese characters on the overprints. More so as they are in traditional chinese and not in the more commonly read 5 star.

spock

I was aware of that, I was expressing an opinion about the value of Chinese stamps, ergo, the value today is meaningless as the value tomorrow will be greater because of its investment potential. My apologies for not making this point clearer, I should have.

The software already exists to take a scanned stockpage and break it out into individual stamps...we just need a teenager to write some freeware that will recognize and i.d. the overprints.

Collin

Neither. In fact, I discourage people from "investing" in stamps. Very few (<<1%) of stamps have a catalog value that appreciates faster than the rate of inflation over a 10 year period, and even far fewer than that will provide a rate of return that exceeds a simple long term insured CD. So unless you are knowledgeable about a few specific stamp issues, the odds are stacked against you if you have a general collection or even a country/regional collection. I won't even go into the overhead/labor costs of putting the collection together and then selling it. Nobody invests in stocks by buying one share of each company, but they select certain companies and buy a large number of shares, or have a very specific portfolio. "Investing" in stamps is no different.

The Chinese stamp market is still dominated by speculators/investors, not collectors. Therefore, I would not say "Chinese stamps" are a "good" investment, but rather a "dangerous" investment. In addition, a growing number of pretty good counterfeits have entered the market in the past decade. The early dragons, cultural revolution, and certain early liberation area issues are about the only time eras in which I believe the long-term catalog value increases are justified. Most (not all) of the price increases for other issues are now more speculation-demand driven, rather than collector-demand driven. Many of these stamps are bought/sold/traded by the BUNDLES, not by single stamps. If you compare catalog prices for the past 15 years, you will see both major increases and also major DECREASES due to this speculative activity. My PRC collection has been in mothballs for the past 15 years until all this silliness has passed, and my few PRC purchases of the past decade have mostly been for used stamps or early liberation areas -- these were for my collection or as duplicates, not for investment. If you want to discuss what is "going up" in general, then percentage-wise, North Vietnamese stamps are the current "hot" area. You will see overall percentage price changes that far outstrip percentage gains in modern PRC.



I would qualify this statement. True 5-10 years ago. I would say it is not really true today. I have pretty extensive dealings with the general Asian population, especially the younger generation. The number of "new" collectors I am meeting (specifically Chinese) has dropped down to near 0, and even those are not what I would consider active/aggressive collectors. There are other more "interesting" things on the internet for them to spend their time and money. If you follow the modern PRC catalog values for the past 5 years, you will already see a significant leveling off. Obviously Zhang Cheng has even more interaction with the Chinese population/collectors than I do. So he may have a different take on this.

If you are talking about a modern PRC (past 40 years) collection as an INVESTMENT, my advice is to sell now while most of the prices are still relatively high. Anyone who has been following the Asian market for the past 30 years knows what happened to the Japan/Taiwan prices. 20 years ago I could have easily sold my Japan and Taiwan collections for well into 4 figures each at WHOLESALE (not retail). I'd be lucky to get 1/10 of that for my Japan and 1/3 of that for my Taiwan today at RETAIL. I didn't sell back then for the same reason I don't sell those 2 collections today -- I collect stamps, not invest in them. It's more fun that way!

By the way, theswedishtiger, you have an EXCELLENT website. I frequently refer collectors to it.

k

I am assuming, theswedishtiger, that you and the website of the same name are one in the same!

k

Good stuff, k.

I suspect that there are pallets of material sitting out there, and if it ever truly "hits" there will be more and more pallets showing up all the time.

Collin

Khj - yes the website is mine and thank you for the compliment. If you go to the 1894's and 1895's you will see I am building the site out, I would be interested in your opinion of the information provided.

I also would have to bow to your knowledge on Chinese stamps. I presume you are including the 'Mao Sayings' in the speculation area. When I see these going for over a grand I have to wonder what is truly going on. Always avoided early Japanese because it seemed to me most were forgeries, interesting that you say that the Chinese are going the same way. I guess for the land that pirates anything I should not be surprised. Anyway, great assessment.

I am still on the road with only dial-up. I will check out your site again when I return home next week. I don't actively collect US anymore, so it's been awhile since I visited your website. I'm overdue for a site visit!

For those who do not already know, there are 2 very excellent websites for classic US stamps:
http://www.theswedishtiger.com
http://www.1847usa.com



Those are part of the cultural revolution era issues. There is a real demand (even excluding speculation), so the catalog prices are not too far off, although still inflated. The stamps are not rare, but there are fewer quantities out on the open market compared to the other recent issues. Stamp collecting was frowned upon during that time period. I know some people who "hid" their stamp collection during that time. On those MNH cultural revolution issues, gum condition is almost everything. Even the slightest fingerprint will knock 50% off the price. The catalog values are for stamps in absolutely perfect condition (front and back).



Most of the Japanese forgeries are fairly easy to detect. By law, forgeries were permitted to be made and sold, provided that an inscription was also printed on the front of the stamp. So if you know where to look and which itty-bitty characters to look for, you can spot the "reproductions" pretty easily. The only one trick they used that you have to be careful, is when they put a fake cancel that partially conceals the inscription!



With modern scanning/printing technology and the ready availability of specialty paper, it's gotten pretty easy and it's not limited to Asia. Most American forgers are concentrating on current first class postage. The Asians seem to be focused on the classic era and modern rarities, including a lot of fake EFOs. A lot of general forgeries also appear to be coming from Eastern Europe, although I cannot confirm that is the source -- only that those materials seem to be sold primarily by Eastern European sellers. Germany continues to be a source of US/European forgeries of classic stamps. In fact, the fake Jenny inverts (both mint and used) that have popped up in the last decade seem to have originated in Germany -- the fakes are quite good, but not good enough to fool an auction house (that's why they keep popping up on ebay).

k