Delcampe.net ??

Hello again. I have been using Delcampe (among other sites)as a guide to try and determine values on stamps but have reason to believe that they can be very misleading (wrong Scott #'s etc.).

As an example the stamp below (which is in slightly poorer perf. condition)is shown to be "526 Japan 10 sen 1914" valued at 25 Euros.

Any comments or suggestions-short of buying all the catalogs or humping my album up to the library. Thanks. Lancsman.

Hello Lancsman
From one new member to another - welcome!
Not really good news on the stamp though - according to my old Stanley Gibb "Stamps of the World" it is indeed a 1914 issue, SG176 in the catalogue, current value about 10 of our pence. Sorry.

Well, it's not in the welcome thread, but welcome DavidR from the UK.
Nice to see more Brits signing up.

Where are you from in the UK ?
Hop over to the welcome threads and introduce yourself.

Come and post often, you'll love it here.

Londonbus1

Thanks for the welcome Londonbus1, I am in the top right hand corner of North Wales, just over the border from Chester. Got my early stamp-collecting days re-kindled by finding a very old Stan Gibb catalogue in a junk shop, and decided to value my old stamps from the early sixties. Needless to say, no great rarities, but of course I was then hooked. According to my wife I am now officially obsessed.
I collect mainly New Zealand and pre-decimal GB, with a side interest in pre-war Germany and anything to do with Airbus aircraft and the early British aviation factories. Looking forward to lots of posts and I am sure useful information will appear regularly!

Thanks DavidR, and Welcome to you also. Seems like your determination of a 10 pence value on the Japanese stamp further confirms what I feared about the Delcampe site. It suggests that there are some who inflate their prices out of ignorance or,(say it isn't so)intentionally.

lancsman

Lancsman, trying to value your stamps according to the asking prices on any auction site is like attempting brain surgery with a jackhammer. Ill-advised, and likely to end in tears. At the very least, ignore the asking prices, and look at the actual selling prices - if the item sells at all.

Another point to bear in mind is that older definitive stamps like that Japanese 10 Sen tend to be extremely complex, with varieties of shade, watermark, perforation and so on that can make a vast difference in value. There really is no alternative to a good, detailed catalogue for valuations, unfortunately.

Thanks tonymacg, just as I suspected.

lancsman