Used Or Unused.....?

Hi All,

I am sure that you have been asked this question thousands of times brfore, but I am all new to this, so please educate me

I am trying to learn before I start to collect.
If two identical stamps, one is used and the other is in mint condition, which is of higher value?

I mean should I collect mint or used, or there is no difference and their value is decided according to something else?

Thanks

Amr

Hello,
most of stamps is more valuable in mint condition, but there are few which are more valuable canceled.
There is only one way how to recognize it - catalog
There are many "signs" which can change value - type of cancelation, centering, perforation,...
e.g. yesterday I saw one stamp which catalog value is 2500USD, this stamp is in VF normaly sell for 900USD+, but this one was missing a little! part of corner, seller sell it as a demaged for 120USD.

Most of the time, mint stamps will be more valuable than used stamps. This is particularly true for large countries like Egypt, where the stamps are widely used. The high face value stamps are expensive to buy and put away in a collection, but they do get used on heavy parcels and so on. The low face value stamps may be cheaper to buy and store, but they're used in such big numbers that they are always very easy to find used.

The exceptions are usually small places, with very little use for stamps, and perhaps no, or very few, stamp dealers to collect the used stamps. My avatar - the first ½ Anna stamp of the Indian State of Bhor - is a perfect example. It isn't too hard to find mint, if you know where to look , and copies specially postmarked for sale to collectors



are almost as easy to find. They're worth perhaps $US4-5 each. But copies of these stamps that were actually used from small village post offices to send letters



are very different. Bhor was a small place, with little use for stamps. These genuinely used stamps are worth about $US100 each. And if you could find one genuinely used on its original envelope, I would gladly pay you $US1000 - and I would have a bargain.

So, yes: most mint stamps are more expensive than the used, but check the catalogue!

Thanks for the info

don't forget the "New but Hinged", check your mint stamps for hinges I a few that were listed a NEW never been used, but were heavy hinged.

Ed
OOO, I'm getting close to the 50 messages, I'll be able to play on the auction section!

Edwin,

What do you mean by "Hinged", pardon my ignorance but I am still new to the whole thing

Hi Edwin,

A method of attaching stamps to pages,
include a little gummed glassine tab folded
to make a "hinge"

when a stamp thus, has been removed
from a page the hinge remnant remains on the stamp

here is a glassine hinge, and remnant left
on a mint (or was before it was hinged) romanian stamp

hope this assists

Thanks for the info rod222

Trying to understand which way to go as a collector is always an exciting time and a collector will come back to a new beginning in stamping many times as a collection grows over the years. That is what keeps us all young!

Some of the questions I have ask myself!
Can I afford to collect these stamps?
Climate we live in? Humidity, used stamps are best. Dry, cold suits mint stamps.
What sort of paper eating insects do I have?
Can I afford to store these stamps?
Will I need to get my money back from the stamps I buy?
Do I have space to collect this way or that?
Will my wife divorce me?

Some of the thoughts that flash passed me as I look at this months stamping temptations. KGV

This is the last "white" Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke.
He was an ardent stamp collector.

When he returned to his palace from a visit to England, he had a
terrible surprise.
Termites had invaded the cupboards in which his stamp albums were kept
and had eaten, page by page and from cover to cover, thousands
of his valuable stamps. The Rajah was so disgusted that he
decided to give up collecting, realising that in the tropical climate
of his kingdom in North Borneo it was too risky a hobby.
What he could salvage of his collection was finally auctioned in London.

Source: Stamp Collecting E.H.Spire 1962

Whoopsie! before 22crows corrects me again, this is
the last Rajah

Would I do that?
I'm not sure what you corrected, but the upper gent (Sir Charles Vyner Brooke) was the last "white" rajah of Sarawak, and the lower gent was his dad (Sir Charles Brooke), the "middle" rajah of Sarawak.

I posted the lower Rajah first, but decided to leave it there
in case anyone was interested in Dad.

A couple of years ago, I bought a big batch of Chilean kiloware, old stuff primarily from the late 1940s / early 1950s. As would be expected, they weren't in the greatest condition, but given that the box weighed 3 pounds and I paid about $25 for it, I did OK. Oddly, the black O'Higgins 60 ct. stamps in the box were often eaten by some kind of bug, always from the design side, never from the envelope side - other issues seemed to be entirely left alone. Either Chilean bugs like to eat black ink, or there's some other reason. Maybe that issue had a type of glue that was different from the other issues of the day.

Ryan

How terribly interesting Ryan,
thanks for sharing that, I'll keep that :)
gum often had humectants added to suit the
humidity of the region.
In my experience the surface shaving critters are the silverfish
they can eat half the width of an envelope.
Curiously, snails live in our letterbox and on occaisions
eat strange circular patterns in the paper,
before we move them on.

Cats have been on the official post office payroll for more than a century.
(UK)
Their job is to keep mice from nibbling the mail.
Local Postmasters have authority to pay up to One Pound per week
on pet food for the PO mousers.
Mice Work if you can get it.

Ours too, must be a West Australian thing.

Steve