For Collection Buyers, An APS Article

A brief but interesting article in the June 2023 edition of the American Philatelist on collection buying.

I almost missed it in my quick overview, so it is on pg 556.

What did it say ? Most of us don't get the AP .

The title of the article is "What's There, Not What's Not".
The take away is, look at lots for what is actually included and don't get hung up on what is missing from the lot.

For the $$ volume you have reported buying, supporting the APS with a membership supports and organization likely to keep up interest in the hobby into which your purchases eventually will go.

I'm a dealer and collector and sell at a few shows a month and am part of no organization not the APS not the NSDA not ASDA. Does that make me less than?

I urge all collectors to join at least one specialty club or society (could be your local club; a club specifically about your area of interest) plus at least one national or international club or society. These will not only keep you engaged and informed, but supports the collective of the hobby. It is these organizations that do so much to keep the hobby alive.

I rather support this chat board ,than any other philatelic group .

Totally agreed. I try my best to contribute with good answers, well titled posts, and pictures for posterity

I do see the advantage of joining a club, and national. international organization to support the hobby.

That is a something you will have to decide for yourself. I know it costs a lot of money to join all these clubs and organizations.

I think one should do what they can to keep the hobby healthy and alive. Joining a club or organization is just part of it. Then urging new collectors to participate and start collecting is a big part. If you urge the youth then some will stay with it for the rest of their lives. So do what you can and if we all did something it will add up and the hobby will be healthy.

I have started supporting (giving $$$) based upon value and behavior. As in the corporate world now if things go on that I feel do not align with my beliefs my money goes elsewhere. I did not renew my APS membership this time around and have made at least one other change for now.

I read the article and seemed more like a filler to me. The first conclusion that someone priced the collection based upon what was in the collection seems obvious. Then he refers to a collection he picked up for $45 that was in an album with a lot of blank pages that some nice stamps. That is, it was being overlooked because people may have thought it was all common stuff due to all the empty spaces.

Call it fluff or filler if you will, I think that is the intended purpose of that monthly column (one page) "World Class" to provide some comic relief and balance out some of the more serious or formal articles in the journal. The column is a quick enjoyable read, telling a story with lighthearted anecdotes, sometimes the author poking fun at himself for trying to be a worldwide collector at this age rather than a specialist.

Whether the AP is struggling to find content to fill the pages, hard to say. If anyone has something better they would like to see published, I'm sure the APS would appreciate the submissions. In fact, some of those AI-generated stories in another thread are pretty good and possibly worth sharing (properly attributed, of course).

Depends upon your ethics and goals. Buyer from you then have less recoursive assistance with perceived transaction problems. Likewise do you have an interest in a philatelic long game or just concerns for your pocket today with not considering final disposal of your stock and collection material.

In our survey, a significant number of readers thought we needed a general interest/slice of philatelic life sort of thing. This may or may not scratch the itch.

I'm sure you can imagine that we run the gamut of experience and interests. So we try to reach all the audiences.




We're not struggling to get content, but we do have certain focuses where we could use more content. So for folks who have always wanted to submit something to the AP: Canada, UK, and Germany are the largest interests besides the U.S. among members. First-day or topical submissions would also be topics that would get consideration.

Remember the first rule of The American Philatelist is that it is for members, by members. So authors are welcome.

I have a couple of authors whose biggest complaint is that we ask for too much research. We also suggest sharing tools and speaking to a broader audience so that non-specialists can follow along.

We have also introduced The Marketplace to discuss buying and selling and The Letter Opener as a primary for postal history.

We strive to bring a good journal to the membership and our editor, Susanna Mills and associate editor, Jeff Stage are a good team.

Have we established what was written in the article or are we dancing around the subject .?

"the column is a quick enjoyable read "-----OK what does it say ?

I was referring there to the monthly column (series) in general.

The specific article the OP mentioned from this month's issue was briefly explained by angore. The author was reviewing a collection at an auction, the collection was mostly blank pages, and the few pages that had any stamps had empty mounts where the better stamps would have been. He, like others, was quick to brush off the collection as a nothing-burger and walked away, but his wise friend said something like "value it for what is there, not what isn't". So the author went back, looked some more, placed a bid, and won the lot. From the stamps he kept, and the remaining stamps he sold, he wound up paying just 3% of catalog for the nice stamps he kept. Moral: Don't overlook the lots that look like junk. At the right price, they still might have some things that you need.

With apologies to the author and/or APS for paraphrasing. Hope that's OK.