Is This A Good Time To Buy Stamps (Assuming Inflation Continues) Or Sell Stamps?

GeoffHa,

Definitely too much of it. For just about all of my countries, the first stamp, usually in the 1840's or 1850's to 1950 or 1960 (roughly 100 years of philately),fits into one volume. As I pointed out with France, Volume 2 contains 15 years, volume 3 perhaps a little less. It's annoying more than anything.

PARIS EX. ---Sounds like you got a impressive French collection ,nice job .

I am 72 and also like you spend my life collecting stamps ,I was a member of the Ogden Hills stamp club in Chicago {that is the club that started COMPEX ,the big Chicago stamp show }, the club had a strong German group of collectors ,so I decided to put my money into my German pages and expanded them as part of my Worldwide Collection .They on many occasions try to get me to specialise but I was set on the WW stuff .

floortrader,

I love German stamps and have a 12 volume (Schaubek) German collection. (Bigger than my French.) That includes an almost complete DDR 4 volume collection, one volume Berlin, two volume German States, and 5 volume Including German Confederation, WW1, Weimar, WWII & post WWII to about 2000.

The best part of that collection, in my opinion are the German states, particular Preussia. My Grandfather came here in 1900 to avoid being drafted into the Preussian Army. He was an illiterate farmer. I cannot say I blame him.

PARIS EX---Sounds like you got another nice collection .

Inflation is discussed regularly on the podcast Stamp Show Here Today if you would like to look it up.

Pascoe,

Computer illiterate here. Can you post the link?

Inflation here (Western Australia) has hit 8%
Although I have yet to feel the bite, I do not have a family to feed, or drive to work ($2 a litre)
My grocery bills are still around $11 a day.

Forecast is 2.5% (currently.85%) by end of 2023
It would mean a borrower with a $500,000 loan balance (fairly common) could see their monthly repayments increase by $652 a month by the end of 2023.

A million dollar mortgage $1300 extra a month

Scary stuff.
When repayments rise, investors try and recuperate by increasing rents
I don't see any room for that to occur.
Tenants are bleeding as we speak.

In 1987 I was paying 17% interest (Bank of Melbourne) on a set of flats

I am not sure the majority of common stamps will see much change due to inflation. Does anyone think Scott will increase the minimum value of stamps to reflect a traditional dealer's (more and more a unicorn) increased costs that supposedly drives Scott's values?

It is often the middleman that causes much of the price increases for commodities. Any commodity price increase is amplified as it passes through all the handlers to the final consumer.

Agree with Angore. My concern would be with the cost of all of the accoutrements of collecting, from paper related products to metal goods, and the cost of moving those things.

The current situation is unsustainable. My wife requires distilled water. Yesterday I spent five hours trying to find it at any price to no avail. One of my stops was a Home Depot where I witnessed two people fighting over the last four bottles. Producers cannot source the bottles nor find labor to work for them and the cost of the energy and shipping is out of control. I did find something else at the Depot that I needed but it was on the top storage shelf. I asked for assistance and was told that there was none because nobody had a license to operate the lift.

I really don't recognize America anymore at times.

My standard cost of sending swaps to US is now $13.65

I received a package from my dealer in North America yesterday
1165 grams Postage was $31.74
Left his shop 23rd February

It is both a good time to buy stamps and a good time to sell. It depends on your situation .

That's truly astounding Rod. Wouldn't have happened in the 1890s

I'm waiting on a letter from New York that was posted 30/3.

That said, I received a letter from Arizona this week that took 9 days to arrive.

Hi Bobby,
Indeed, I have been inured from anxiety over postage,
since my 5 Kg or so of mounts from Canada took 4 months.

Everything seems to arrive eventually.

This package was 1kg> so I expected some time.
These were just ripped pages from albums.

I don't buy valuable lots currently due to the uncertainty,
I have huge bundles of swaps to deal with.

inflation reduces the amount people have available to buy for, while this impact some more than others - in insecurity of what is to come, heavy influctuations on the stock market, food shortage forecasts and such will cause people to hold up buying or at least buy less/pay less.

some are hit harder and have to sell off collections instead..

Corona meant many had much more time, and employment were, in many countries, secured from the goverment with financially aid to companies etc... prices went through the roof when buying bulk and collections while the market for selling off the bulks in lesser bits rose - just not as much. and more people joined the feast at the same time, at the same period, much less good material came on the market - because people had no need to sell off.

profit margins were reduced, eliminated and sometimes people bought with a loss, just to pay past bills.

now more, and better material start to show on the auctions in Scandinavia and Europe, and while there's still a lot of competition it's manageable now.. but you can clearly see an effect on the sales % in auctionhouses.

a lot less sold - because a lot of the material comes from the period where people had to pay top $, and are thus starting at too high a price, and at the same time people are more careful with their money.

early/late autumn we'll see the effect of the war fully on the stamp market, depending on when each country has their main auction.. (Denmark it's November) and I foresee, that competition will be less and the quality of the stamps higher.

my advice is therefor not to sell at the moment. unless you're selling to me :)