Old Stamps On New Mail!

This cover came from a respectable SCF member last year to me.





Thanks again.

This is one of my favorite covers.
Paul

My topic spawned some very interesting covers. But what gets me are the catalog price for a 1994 Buston Keaton stamp that I received on a cover recently. According to the Mystic catalog it should go for $2.95 mint and $2.50 used. Why would another stamp company use a stamp at that value for regular postage? From a 2003 Scott book #2828, the prices were .50ct for both mint/used. And the funny part is that the stamp isn't even canceled by the post office.

With all due respect to Mystique, that is a dicey way to start off any sentence regarding stamp values.

They ask what they need to ask in order to support their particular business model, and they aren't alone in that market, either, but their prices often have little familiarity with the going prices that one can easily find elsewhere. Including material still available from discount postage vendors. To be fair, you can buy one Buster stamp from Mystique; you don't have to buy a $200 lot of discount postage. And they have good prices on supplies, according to some of our fellow SCF members.

Cjd and others,

What then is the best reference for stamp prices? Would that be the Scott set of books? If not what other references do you use. Thanks

Here in the States(as well as many other countries) the standard would be Scott's. Most dealers will also give a discount on Scott prices. Their are other Catalogs Michel(Mi), Stanley Gibb's(SG), Bale, Unitrade, just to name a few. The Catalog you want to use will also depend on weather you want to specialize in a particular country or area.

I use old mint postage all the time as it's interesting to use and sometimes handy when you need that 1 cent trough 10 cent stamp on the cover. the oldest stamps I think I used on cover was U.S. Scott 300 which was partially thinned on back. Also I know the rates and I always use the correct amounts, but it was a waste of time for a few select postal clerks to add it all up for every mailing. I love using the odd valued stamps from the Transportation series as that confuses the postal clerks and got several clerks to stop trying to add up the postage on the covers. When you use a few 1/2 cents, 1 1/4 cents, a B-rate, a H-rate, 10.1 cents, the 1975 and 1981 Xmas stamps on cover they learn to trust you. Luckily, where I live now the postmaster (and only postal worker) and I work well. I love the small post offices. He doesn't even have a meter machine and hand cancels everything.
I did learn the hard way that some of the old stamped envelopes are not postal worthy anymore as the paper didn't age well and modern postal machinery would sometimes eat it.
Will

Ray-

To flesh out the catalogue value question a bit more, here is a simplified synopsis from my point of view. My views might be colored by my location or my collecting interests. Also, I might be off base.

When buying singles and sets:

All but one of the bricks and mortar dealers that I frequent sell at around 50% of catalogue. (The "one" sells at 70%, but has a lot of stock that hasn't been revalued in years, so it works out.) My favorite dealer regularly slides downward a bit in adding up the total.

Around here, most bourse dealers sell at 50% of catalogue, but there can be quite a bit of negotiation, depending on the seller. Online, I prefer to pay around 30% of catalogue...15-20% is even better...sometimes it has to sneak back up near 50%.

For larger quantities, I expect the percentage of catalogue value to drop, often significantly.

There are exceptions to this for me, on both ends of the spectrum. Up to a few bucks, I'll often pay more for a premium example, just to save the hassle of finding another example. On the rarer or higher CV items, I know I might have to pay a higher percentage of catalogue value. But, as a general idea, that's how I use the CV from Scott.