Pushing 330,000 All Different Worldwide Stamps In One Collection .

As with any advertisement ,you need to read the explanation and decide what words are included and what is not being said .

First two things that are missing in the lot description as I read it .

The firm did not included the words "all different " so you may be getting two or three sets of albums with many duplicates between the binders . Sure I would like to get 8 cents or better by me grouping two or three sets of albums to total 177,000 stamps . So I like to know is this one collection or a group of duplicate pages from various collections .
The second item that hit me in the face is the word "complete " if I pulled all the pre-1940 stamps out of my International albums I would be happy to get 8 cents per stamp ,you would run out of money before I run out of stamps .

That is the two things that would stop me and I am sure would stop other experience collectors .

Is there a link to the auction? It would be fun to read more.

Lot 1671

https://stampauctionnetwork.com/TS/ts34584.cfm#337

thanks rogdcam! That collector did a great job maxing out those binders. If all 26 looked like that (we see 13 I think in the photos) then 177K could fit in there. Of course I wished there were more photos. Hopefully someone on his forum picked his up and might have more details. I would have liked to see some of the more modern pages to gauge completeness.

There would need to be from 6,500-7,000 stamps per volume if the count is correct, would make for pudgy binders. Gotta hand it to that collector for keeping things compact. It looks like one or two of those binders have 10,000 stamps in them.

I am sure those over stuffed albums have damaged their binders . . Scott did not design those Internationals to withstand years of handling . Over time adding stamps and maybe a few extra pages does stress out the binders to the point they start to tear at the joints . That is why you see a lot of older Scott Internationals with the fabric/cloth tape along the edges . The increase weight and handling on and off the selves weaken the edges .

They would normally "accum" if it was multiple sets of albums, but it is something you could have easily had answered with a simple phone call or email instead of just wondering.

Eyeonwall ---- If that collection is intact or complete as I posted above plus it is all different stamps and not described it well then they did a disservice to the consignor . I believe it reduced the bidding .

If that collection was ALL DIFFERENT and COMPLETE the price should of been higher .My opinion is 150,000 different and complete would push it to 10 cents per stamp ,then 160,000 would increase it by a nice percentage ,then 170,000 is another boast , going to 180,000 it jumps again ........go all the way to 300,000 doesn't double the value ,but adds 3 or 4 times maybe 8 times higher .It depends how the auction house presents it .

I would have needed quite a few more photos to know, or a video flipping though it. Heck, even seeing the binder spines would have been fun to see. The first page of US, Canada and Great Britain would have helped.

You have to allow for the possibility that those were the best pictures that could be shown.

I don't get a warm, fuzzy feeling when auction images show empty mounts or hinge remnants on the pages. Sure, missing stamps could be in the bottom of the box. Or, they could have been cherry picked.

Agree CJD , A lot of those collections are cherry picked ,I seen some nice collections get destroyed with stamps cataloging over $20.00 all removed and the complete sets like wise removed .

The level of removal all depends on who is doing it . In the case talked about above it may even have certain countries removed as part of the cherry picking .

First of all I would like to say tath the subject tath floortrader,started is very interesting. I read some of the comments here and I get the impression tath collections in question are enormous in terms of philateli. I could only guess, but they most probably include high quality material ,rare single stamps and of course many regular, fiscal and other.
The chairman of our local philatelical club,told me few years ago tath he had managed to achieve a very similar
figure to the one mentioned by one of the members of the forum ,around 131,000 units if I have rembered correctly. It took him around 60 years to compilete it. There was a nother case tath I have the opportunity to mention in one of my previous posts regarding a Russian stamp. Years ago ,before the Internet became popular in our country a very large quantity of stamps came out on the flea market in a shoe box filled with stamps which was offered to a friend philatelist. He bought it, from the owner for a small sum and asked me to help him sort them. The stamps were so many tath they were in bundles tied to each other with lace.
They were all in used condition,mainly from countries from Europe and America, before 1925 . It took us a week only examine them. My friend said me tath in his opinion they were most probably owned by the chief of the local Post Office.
He told me tath the current saler explaned to him tath he had a nother 10-15 boxes filled with such stamps and he didn't not know wath to do with them. My friend tried to search the other part of the stamps but unfortunately he failed to find them.

An honorable auction house has a responsibility (and it makes them more money) to "cherry pick" collections unless the consignor specifically mandates otherwise. Any of the big-name Houses pull out sets and singles that will stand on their own and I want them to do so when selling my material and so should you. Or break it down into Countries and areas, whatever will net the most monies. It can be a combination of all of the above.

If a House that I consigned a collection to left all of the real "cherries" in the jungle of other stuff I would be furious.

When you do see a collection that has a lot of high catalog value items left in you can bet that those items have some type of issue that would prevent them from standimg alone. They are still there for a reason.

I agree completely. My point was that you can't assume that the house's pictures failed to capture the "spirit" of the lot. They might have been perfectly representative.

An interested party better have looked at the lot, or arranged to have someone look at it. Always a good idea, but in this case, all the more so, based on the pictures.

110 % true. If you are going to bid on any large lot in an amount that you are not comfortable with writing off as a loss it really behooves you to inspect it in person or have an agent that you trust do so.

I know of buyers that simply think that they will bid with the pack and assume that the other bidders will set the price for what a lot is really worth. They almost always are disappointed. I myself have taken this approach in the past and gotten burned (by myself really) and it became my SOP to view in person for any large lot estimated or opening at or above "X" dollars. Once I started marking lots in the catalogs to view and did view them It was surprising how many changed from "exciting prospect" to "hard pass".