Opportunities Alive In Arb Stamp Auctions

Think you can't profit in stamps? 3x price. in 2 months.


https://siegelauctions.com/lots.php...&lot_no=1318
https://stampauctionnetwork.com/HS/HS12041.cfm

Harmer Schau:

U.S.; General Issues, 1994, 29¢ Wonders of the Sea, Imperf, Se-Tenant Pane of 24, #2866b, n.h., Very Fine.
Scott $2,700 (as blocks of 4). Scarce .
Estimate $600-800. (Image)

Est. $600.00-800.00
Went for $550.

Yesterdays auction:

29c Wonders of the Sea, Imperforate (2866b). Mint N.H. complete pane of 24 with plate nos. at top and bottom and value indicator at right, rich colors, fresh and Extremely Fine, Datz states about 60 blocks reported, accompanied by normal pane, Scott does not list or price this as a plate block, Datz price as four plate blocks and two blocks

3,400.00
Went for 1600.

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

All of the Siegel lots yesterday went for lala money. Apparently common sense and money are disconnected. Every lot that I was after went for far beyond catalog which is OK depending upon the stamp but they also went far, far above SMQ which is plain silliness. It is called throwing money away. A well known dealer I spoke with yesterday had bids in on over 90 lots and won 2. I have purchased quite a few stamps on Hipstamp that were sold at Siegel within the past five years and most of them I got for far less than the Siegel bidders paid. I am not looking for bargains at Siegel and I place strong bids but you cannot compete against those that truly could care less about money and there are lots of those folks out there judging by the results. The funniest thing is that I will bid on a stamp at Siegel, be blown out of the water, go to Century, find a better example of the same stamp for much less money (read true retail value), buy it and still go after more Siegel lots in their next auction. I am nuts!

And it looks like Bill Langs bought it.
On the eBay block 174100472584.

Amazing from 550 a few months ago.

So what's your take on this scenario.
This has nothing to do with this item, or the dealer specifically.

Say the guy who bought this for 550 has 2 companies. He buys the stamp for 550. Reauctions it 3 months later with a reserve for 1600. Buys it himself via company B. Wholesale price re-established at 1600. Then tries to sell it for 2k+ from here on out. Anything over say 1000 is pure profit if you factor in the auction premiums. With 1 of a kind items the only data to go on his previous actions.

Too much effort or is this a working strategy dealers are using?

Modern stamp errors have a market as they are more affordable finds
than classic stamp errors. The network of dealers and auctioneers
is a tight-knit community.

I agree with Blackjack2271. In fact, the auction houses are not only tight with dealers, they are really not much different. The auction houses just have a different selling method. You never know when the auction house is participating in the bidding themselves, and they have a forehand knowledge of every approved bidder with whom they might compete. So when they do choose to participate, they know whether or not they are bidding against a dealer or collector. I have, on two occasions, been outbid at a Kelleher auction only to be contacted later and told there was a technical error in the bidding; that I actually had the winning bid, and I could buy the stamp at my bid if I were still interested.

There are lots of explanations for things that happen at auctions, but it seems strange to me that many items appear to be sold, only to reappear six months later at the same auction house. Rismoney's suggestion of the kind of shenanigan that can go on is quite plausible. The auction houses, knowingly or unknowingly, provide cover for all sorts of deceptive practices. Both dealers and collectors consign stamps that have had certificates that have either faults or lower grades, but are not mentioned in the listing. It takes time and effort to search the PF database, but it's not uncommon to find an older cert that mentions a flaw or calls the stamp REPERFORATED. The fact that the PSE database isn't searchable has been extremely frustrating, so I decided to download every cert from 2005 and build my own database. The number of undisclosed certs that I found of stamps appearing in auctions didn't really surprise me.

And now there are multiple available on eBay approaching 5k. Say what you want, Bill knows cornering a $500 stamp into a 10x ask. It's just sad the hobby continues to exploit. Wish it were just less hostile, and folks weren't gouged at retail.