What Is Going On With The Top 1% Of The Philatelic Market .

Plan to put out the effort to learn more about what is going on with the high end of the philatelic market place .

I got a chance to pick up 25 stamp auction catalogs for some of the biggest sales in the philatelic community for the past 20 years .

It's all inflation. The top end is going to go up and the bottom end is going to go down.

I believe the stamp market will go up but not right away. Inflation has some scrabbling to pay their bills. It also will not help when you hear of interest rates going up and the disfunction of our leaders over raising the debt limit.

I can see some stamp going down as they are over priced. I also see some under priced. Stamps are like little stock certificates. They go up and down.

The enjoyment of collecting and peace of mind it gives is worth more than money. I think the value of anything is in the eye of the buyer. If it is worth it to you go for it. We all have over paid for some stamps and under paid for others. In the long run we hope our investment will pay off. Just like a stock trader a stamp collector is investing in hopes of a good ROI.

How is the top 1% defined?

Morning Uknjay and all,

Yep, "The enjoyment of collecting and peace of mind it gives is worth more than money." This is why humans collect about anything and everything. We are only the temporary stewards of our treasures.

Occasionally one is also fortunate to collect an area with genuine historical significance as well. Although such areas tend to be expensive, that is not always the case.

Agreed that Floor will have to factor in the inflation rate for the last 20 years. The cumulative inflation rate over the last 20 years is 65%.

In other words for an US auction; if you purchased a stamp for $1 in 2003, that same stamp would cost you $1.65 today.

Reference: U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics CPI data
Don

As inflation spirals out of control, people start to look at things like precious metals, coins and high-end stamps as a hedge. If you look at, say, U.S. #1, Scott has shown unprecedented value increases in just the last year or so. People are buying high-end stamps for the investment, not for the collection. Meanwhile, the low-end drops as there is less free money out in the marketplace.

I wonder if some of the recent pricing you mention from Scott may be a latent effect from the worst of the Covid period? Likely takes Scott 1-2 years to manage pricing changes.

Curious, anyone know if this is also true for foreign prices, or at least certain segments? My latest Scott's set is only 2017.

Some investment always happens, but I find it hard to believe that someone would pay $450,000 for a Pony Express cover as an investment rather than as a collector, for example.

revcollector - Whether you find it hard to believe, that kind of thing does happen.

shermae - there is definitely some latency in Scott valuations, and it is worse for foreign countries as the do not review every country every year.

Anyone who spends that kind of money on a single item as an investment will probably get what he deserves. Hopefully.

The point that I am trying to bring to this chat board is two fold .

First -With the decrease of philatelic newspapers and magazines we known less about the high end section of the philatelic market place ,Less is being written about it over the past ten years . All we have is auction results but that tell very little .

Second point is the cheap price for stamp auction catalogs of high end stamps . We have had beautiful well done catalogs in full color since the 1970's but we are now seeing less catalogs printed and the cost to get a coming auction catalog is getting more expensive . These previous auction catalogs on the used book market are dirt cheap. I been able to buy them for a dollar or two per copy . Some time in the future I could see where you will be paying just to view a catalog online .

Looking forward to getting a group of previous auction catalogs and sitting outside with ice tea and spending the afternoon in the shade ,seeing what people are buying at the top end of philately .

I like to find catalogs that feature a world wide collection from a single collector... Some have been posted on this forum before. I then read and drool. Sometimes I stumble upon a very old catalog like the Wm. H Crocker Collection (1938) and the Tapling Collection. https://www.civilwarphilatelicsocie...llection.pdf Old yes, and probably the .1%

Landoquakes ---- Thank you for that link to the TAPLING collection ,very interesting booklet written by Fred Melville .

Good morning floortrader and all,

As usual, price is a function of supply and demand. On the supply side most "classic" as well as better modern material is in the hands of collectors not on the market. This limits the currently available supply on the market at any one time. On the demand side existing collectors fight over what better items hit the market.

As our bell curve peak of older collectors subsides with the closing of albums the supply will increase. The challenge will be how many new or patiently waiting collectors for material off market for many years will there be, and at what price?