Kiloware Purchase... Not Sure If

Just received my purchase from Nordfrim. Took ten days to get from Denmark to Canada! I'm not sure if I got a good deal or not. Advice would be appreciated.

350 stamps and 8 souvenir sheets- 3$
300grams- 8$
50g- 0.50
Drying Book - 0.80$
1kg worldwide stamps- 20$
300 Netherlands stamps cancelled- Free
Shipping was 7$


Is that a good deal? The drying books work really well. The kiloware so far seems pretty good. About 10% duplicates. Mostly modern. Really nice. So, what do you guys think? It was my first purchase, and I need to buy again!

Sounds good, but...

I will definitely post pics in a bit, but in the meantime, do you think it's a good purchase.
Thanks

Since you seem pleased with it, yes. Alternately, have you already or will you eventually have ~$40 worth of fun working with them?

I have only sorted 1/10 of it and it's alreafy worth it!

If the material is filling spaces in your collection or adding to your cache of trading material, and you are having fun, then it sounds like a good buy to me.

It's all pretty inexpensive until you get to the shipping haha

$7 Denmark to Canada "expensive"?? A first class letter to Denmark from Canada is $2.50 for 30 grams. I think you got a deal.

For the equivalent of more than a kilogram, the shipping would be cheap for US domestic postage alone.

The value of kiloware and higher quality "bank mixes" are completely in the eye of the beholder. There are some that are completely offended by having any duplication or damaged stamps whatsoever. That group also complains about not finding great rarities or expensive stamps. Oh yeah, there are people that complain everything is still STUCK ON PAPER! OMG!

On the other hand, there's lots of cheap generic worldwide kiloware sold every year. It's not from a new bunch of suckers coming along each year. Certainly, you can spend a lot of time just puttering with such a lot. There are interesting cancels to find often enough, varieties to look for (design, watermark, tagging, shades, etc.) -- cheap fun. That said, I've preferred bank mixes for a long time since they can be country-specific, plus I get more immediately useful stuff vs. shipping cost.

Care to clarify what is meant by a "bank mix"?

!E

Bank mix is a higher quality mix of on-paper stamps, more expensive by weight than "standard" kiloware. The implication is that "standard" kiloware is largely made up of current definitives/low values, as to be expected. That's why it's so cheap, but there can be a lot to be found there -- perf/watermark/tagging varieties, cancels, etc. Stamping101's kiloware buy seems to be pretty exceptional, then, if the kilogram package is being described.

The name comes from sources like banks handling higher value packages that presumably had higher value stamps on incoming mail. Sources may be religious organizations with foreign missions, commercial businesses that handle a lot of mail. And the actual source may be someone who clips stamps from discarded envelopes and sells them on to dealers. So what a buyer gets is a more selective lot basically with commemoratives and higher values, though still duplicated. No kiloware dealer would pick better stuff out of regular kiloware; it's too much work for the return. I've seen more suspected cases of "salting", a few better but faulty stamps added to standard kiloware.

I recently purchased a "shoebox" full of unchecked world stamps for pennies on the dollar. I've spent numerous hours sorting and identifying stamps and I'm far from done. I'm having a blast!
If you are having a "blast" sorting and identifying stamps from your recent purchase then I'd say you got a good deal!

I have two types of collections; an invest grade collection and my fun collection. My investment grade collection contains a number of specialized albums and higher grade material. My fun collection is a large set of 'Big Blue' Scott Internationals. I vacillate between the two types depending upon my mood, motivation, and budget.

When I buy for my fun collection, I use a simple formula which absolutely prohibits me from losing any money. (I start with the understanding that I typically spend between $10 and $25 per hour doing other fun things in my life.) So the formula for my fun collections is simple.

Cost of stamps/hours of fun = 'fun factor'

As long as the 'fun factor' calculation is less than $25 per hour than my purchase is a no brainer for me; the only estimate I have to make is deciding how many hours any purchase really represents.
Don

to the OP
Yes, that is a good fun deal.

Don,
That is very similar to my collecting. I love your fun factor formula.

A while ago I purchased at auction a full suitcase of letters, cablegrams, telegrams, air-grams etc. All of them are between the same couple, from early relation, engagement, marriage, children, and up to the retirement age. Some decent stamps, as well.
Now, gathering information for a future novel, I would say the 'fun factor' described by Don is, in this case, priceless