Need An Experts Advice

Hello all, well I need some advice from someone who knows there stamps,and as we all know,thats NOT me.ok here is my situation, I have started selling my stamps on ebay,and I did awesome,my first week,now I am not doing much,ive sold most my China,except a few singles n misc ones.My question is what country or what items bring in the most money? I had just gotten lucky with the China stamps,but I was wondering what else I might have that would bring in the most money.should I try to just say grab a random say 100 stamps and post them as uncataloged mixed assortment and start bid out at .99 cents or can someone give me some advice on what they would do PLEASE HELP

Tina-

Personally, I don't think mixed packets are your answer if you are looking to receive good prices.

What else do you have that is in really top condition? Give us some idea of what you have that you're willing to part with...

Tina....

My experience has been that US material sells more often. If you don't have US to sell, I would suggest trying older small groups of individual countries. (older to me means 100 years or more) You could also try better singles either as auctions or buy-it-nows. I've been running some of each and have been selling consistently.

Most collectors collect their home country........the majority of worldwide collectors generally collect the major countries of Europe and the colonies. To a lesser degree many like collecting odd or tiny stamp issuing countries.


Hope this helps.

well CJD I have a little bit of everything,from full sheets,s/s stamps,booklets,covers,old stamps,new stamps,CTO's,im finding what I have ALOT of as im sitting here sorting and sorting is Romina,Czechoslovalia,magyar posta and I have lots of s/s and sheets lots and lots thank you guys for your advice oh yea and also how does the buy now thingy work?

The thing is, the China stamps you had were high catalogue value items, for various reasons. They would have went high no matter when you listed them.

Your best bet right now is to look for "older" stamps and check Scott for their prices, because these will likely be your high ticket items.

As for souvenir sheets, it would usually depend where they came from, and then again, I would check Scott for prices. Some Red China ones could be highly valued, but for the most part, other Communist countries likely wouldn't (although there are some exceptions).

Tina.....


The buy it now is a listing that you create a price for........just above where you type in your auction starting bid there is an option for auction or fixed price.

Thanks Tom ill see how that works.ok Glenn here is my issue with the old stamps,i have lots of them,and not enough time to look each one up,want a job? I sure wish I could look them up faster but its hard for me especially the old ones and as far as s/s from China I didnt have ant only a few from Japan n tokyo

Tina-

I don't think that there is a reliable shortcut. It either (i) takes lots of time to learn what you have and to look at what is selling, or (ii) you go with small lots or mixed packets and hope for the best. You will definitely sell many stamps using the packets method, but you won't get as much.

If you decide to go the route of small country lots or mixed packets, I would put them in a stockpage and scan them, and then put a note in your listing that "stockpage is not included." This way, you at least have a chance of someone seeing something that they need, or something that has value. The problem with this method is that you need at least two people to see something they want, or else you only get the minimum bid.

I buy the occasional glassines of Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the like, but I will only pay very little for them, since 90%+ will be duplicates for me. I recently was the only bidder on 200 Bulgaria, and I paid one cent. With postage I stayed under 75 cents, and I would still rate it as only borderline good value.

Collin

Tina, the PRC is truly a special case because the large price jumps are largely speculation/investor-driven, not collector driven. You will not find a similarly large grouping/area of stamps that have had such repeated price jumps and high actual sales prices.

Regarding what you mentioned already, if you have some of the early Japanese national parks S/S's, they command a good premium and have the potential to sell well. Most of the other Japanese stamps took a pretty bad beating since their peak in the 1980s, but those National Parks S/S's have held their own and are still in demand.

Regarding what areas have really moved up in the catalogs in the past 5 years, I think the real surprise (at least to me) is Italy and associated Italian areas, from the classic era up to post-war reconstruction. I've seen a lot of price jumps, especially in the used stamps, often 50%-100%. I'm assuming this is largely driven by European collecting interests, because I don't see the Italian area selling any better here in the US.

The other surprise is early North Vietnam. Many of those were used as packet fillers in the 1970s, but the prices have really moved up and they often fetch at or above catalog. However, condition is everything.

Meanwhile, classic Great Britain and modern Ireland has leveled off considerably. Germany, Russia, and EARLY (pre-CTO) Balkans have made modest gains. Europa stamps have taken a huge hit, although there are still several Europa issues for certain countries that still hold a very good premium and do sell well.

Always remember -- enjoy your stamps (that's where the true value is).

k

k-

I didn't realize Italy is moving up...I was thinking it was pretty stagnant. I've been picking up smallish lots here and there for very low dough over the last year. I have noticed some escalation in the colonies, though.

I better buy the rest of what I want soon. I can't be sure to outwait a boom and bust cycle.

Collin

Italy is moving up in certain spots, especially classic era. The Italian colonies have a much broader upward movement.

An example of spotted movement in 20th century Italy -- see Scott #582-583. From 2009 to 2010, the mint set went up about 25%, but check out the postally used price -- from $12.25 to $56.50!

There's quite a large stockpile of Italian/area stamps here in the US; so I have come to the conclusion that this upward movement is largely driven by European demand. That's why I noted I was surprised.