Approach To Purchasing Stamps And Growing A Collection

So, I'm admittedly new to collecting, though I have toted a small set stored away for over 25 years. Recently, the bug has bitten and I am starting to acquire. As the collection grows, I find some stamps really interesting and others -- not so much. Eventually, those less interesting to me will need to be sold, traded, gifted ... but that is another topic all together.

What I am wondering is if any of you more experienced collectors could share advice on growing a collection. Specific questions that come to mind are: where to purchase (or more importantly, what to look out for in terms of rip-offs, scams, etc), how much to pay (does anyone have a disciplined approach to purchase price, say as a percentage of Scott Catalog?). Granted, at this point, I am not spending a ton of money on any one stamp or lot of stamps, but things will probably change, if I choose to continue collecting...

There are so many ways and you have to choose what works for you. Depending on what you are collecting and what resources are at hand, you can go about it in many ways. Just do what you want to make it fun and interesting. Ask whatever questions you want. Local stamp clubs and local philatelic shows are good sources of stamps at fair prices. It's a good way to make friends too. You might have a local stamp store nearby if you are lucky. Those are disappearing at least in the U.S. Online there's of course many online auctions from ebay, Delcampe, APS store, etc. You can buy by the stamp, albums, sets, box lots, whatever. If you are new, I would start with focusing on stamps or sets. As for percentage of Scott....if you are talking a 20 cent used stamp, you can frequently find dealers with 1 cent to 5 cent bins can search through. You can even find slightly better stamps that way too. You just have to scope out various dealers to see who has fair prices, nice selection and good service - comparative shopping. If you are starting an area from scratch, sometimes buying a partial collection to build on would be good and you can get a decent album to boot in many cases. As for rip-offs and whatnot, you can check a person's feedback if it's online auction like ebay. You can also educated yourself by asking questions and reading the catalogs, forums, etc. about the areas you want to collect. The more you know about the area you collect the less likely you will be ripped off. There is no one way to collect, but again have fun with it and you'll stick with it.
Will

Hi !

If you collect used stamps, I suggest to you to buy kiloware on ebay or any other source, I think that it's the cheapeast way to have stamps in quantity and you can trade the duplicate. It's very fun to trade too !

When you buy stamps in lot, you can have some surprise. It often have some stamps more valuable. You probably don't find any stamps at 100$ in a lot of 10$ but if you find one at 5$ it's the half of your total price.

For more valuable stamps personnaly I never pay more that 50% of Scott and you can bid on ebay at 10-15-20% and win them. The negative point of auction it's that you don't really see the stamps, it can be thin or with minor fault same if the seller describe them without fault, To have a idea I already buy about 15 stamps of Great-Britain ( each sold separatly from the same seller) it have for about 800$ of stamps and I pay them about 80-85$ it's about 10% of the value.

THanks ! :)

My advice is to set a monthly limit and stick to it. You can NEVER buy all the stamps you want no matter how much money you spend.

The other thing to do is be consistent. Buy thoughtfully on a regular basis and over time you'll have a significant collection you can be proud of.

Well thanks to the internet you can now find tens of thousands of collectors who will be more than happy to sell you their duplicates at a fraction of what a dealer charges...but don't feel sorry for the dealer..hes not interested in the LOW END material that many of us seek for our collections !

Based on other hobbies as well,

1. Slow and steady as laswabbie said. Patience is key. If you're on a limited budget (well, I suppose all budgets are limited!), you have to be picky. Look for deals, closeouts, etc. while trying to avoid "problem" stamps - difficult I know.

2. Try to pick an area, country, era, subject, type, whatever. Even if you lose interest in that area later, you'll probably have more trading power with a nice partial Great Britain collection than a smattering of stamps from all over the world.

3. Make sure you don't skip buying supplies which will protect your growing collection. There is nothing more depressing then accidentally damaging a favorite stamp.

4. Patience (again) - that's the most important! Remember, another great deal will show up tomorrow or next week or next month.

The people in my stamp club are spoiled..we get terrific stamps at our monthly auction...the lots start at 20 percent of catalog and most only get one bid..so they are building collections for 20 percent of cat..you can not lose much when you buy and hold at that price !!

Once again, Phil is making me hate living in the back woods where stamps collectors are considered as bad as "feriners," "revenuers," and Yankees. I'd just about give up my still for a good stamp club.

Looziana was fun when I was 19...you notice I do not live there !!

As far as purchase price is concerned I would say it depends on how much you want the particular item.
If I told you how much I paid for a Wadhwan Arms, medium paper, vertical mesh, even Rod222 and tonymacq will tell me to go boil my head.
And yet I refused to pay more than $10 for a mint Sudan Camel Postman inverted passport overprint.
Not exactly a role model, am I?

A role model for the alternative ?

I am currently looking to seek and buy
a T shirt, emblazoned " I collect Dune Stamps"

My son just returned from a holiday in Thailand. As a souvenir for me he brought back a T-shirt, with a large picture of a Thai stamp on it - a 2 baht SG 658 (1970).

Now that is one stamp I do not have 22 crows.
I have SG657 and SG670

My wife is in this lot somewhere, cute are they not ?

Perth Western Australia 2007
may be a bit wonky image, I have squished it down from 1.5Mb

I have my areas of Aust stamps that I collect and bid at public and postal auctions to increase my collections, I am a bulk collector and have been doing this for some time now.

I use a pricing formula when bidding, examples. Bulk KGV lots 1 stamp is 1c to 5c! Bulk Aust Dec on paper is 10 stamps per 1c. Aust dec off paper including bundleware is 3 stamps per 1c. 50c per stamp bids from me are very rare! Buys under a 1000 stamps even rarer. There are just so many ways to buy stamps. It is the main interest to our great hobby that we have. The hunting for stamps is always on! Great stuff!

Go to a stamp club if there is one in your area and visit stamp show. It's good to meet philatelist to discuss and trade. Auction site are good to. I spend a lot of time on ebay trying to get the most for my money. If your a beginner don't get carry on by auctions or you'll pay too much. Unless you really want an item and bid to win at any price just stick to the maximun bid you fix when you enter the auction. You won't win all the time but when you do it will be in the range you choose. From my experience summertime is good to buy on ebay because many stamps collectors take a break from their collections so there is less bidders on ebay.

Welcome timbres667! Great to see your first post! Hope you have the best time on SCF! John and family