The 100,000 Stamp Club

LANDQ.-------Boy would I like to gotten my hands on that one.Thanks for showing that.As we all collect a little different and mount our stamps in our own way.It would be something to visit a stamp show were there was 10 or 20 worldwide collections competeing against each other for award.

I am speechless.

Never have I seen an album so encrusted with stamps like barnacles on a hull.

Thanks for the link landoquakes.

Hello SCB, I notice you have counted your stamps and posted what the value is according to the chart. Is the value you state $3,872.00 USD, realistic? I.E. If you had to sell in the near future, would you seriously entertain an offer of the value you stated? I ask, because I believe a percentage of the catalog value is more realistic. I have recently re-organized, cataloged and valued via spreadsheet approx. 22,805 stamps from my worlwide collection and have completed about 1/4 of it with most stamps being pre 1970. The Scott Catalog value is $99,040.00 USD which I don't feel the chart properly represents. The chart might be handy for a dealer wanting to impress someone with the nominal value of a collection, but I don't feel it is something I will use when either buying or selling.

If leaving out the stockbooks (and other storage), and my specialized collection of Finland, then I'd say it's pretty close to what I've put in.

Unlike some folks, I collect with somewhat limited stamp budget (roughly 300 Euro/year this and past couple of years; before that it was around 200 euro for years, and before that around 100-150Euro/year for long time). I know many consider me nuts for trying to survive with that low budget, but I enjoy it. And I'll seriously hope/assume to add at least 5-10K new items each year till I'm six feet under LOL.





Let's say that I'd use it as a base value (like said on my original comment) for acceptable offer/discussion. But I would be surprised if it didn't sell (at least a bit) higher as

a)I've put up lots of focus on quality/condition.
Whereas as common worldwide collection can contain a third (or even more) of seriously damaged goods, I know my percentage is very low. And with each passing stamp/day, I'm enhancing the quality...

b) I've put research / knowledge into it - anybody who's read my blog knows how obsessive I can get on flyspecks and varieties, LOL.

c) I've put effort into documenting what's inside the albums. When buying/selling, this should be of great benefit.

But for the price, I'd give out only the stamps. The stockbooks (all quality stockbook in good condition) are likely worth the same (if not more) as their contents

(And before my email/PM gets flooded with offers.... I'm not interested in selling, not now or not in future. That's something my heirs got to do someday in distant future; and for that purpose I've left them with clear instructions on how to proceed, who to contact, what kind of offers to expect/accept etc. )





Good for You... I know that the catalog value of my collection is nowhere close to that (if leaving out items below 10 Euro/$ mark - or whatever dealers might use as treshold for "better items" they don't consider bulk).

A huge quantity of stamps are on the low end of catalog values, and that's where I'm putting my time and efforts.

k

Carrying on bit further with the previous topic (had to take care of some issues in between)...




And just to show show what I mean with this (compared to auction listings worth $3-20K mentioned on earlier pages)... Check any mail order stamp company for large worldwide stamp packets. I took a quick peak on SubWay prices, and they provide:

- 5000 worldwide pictorials for $210
- 10000 worldwide stamps for $262

So an accumulation of 10-15K different worldwide items can be acquired for less than $500 total! And that's a dealer price (including all the costs and expenses they have to pay in addition of making some profit).

I'm sure the catalog value of the lot would be closer to $20K if counting everything (the contents may be what most consider as topical wallpaper, but it's valuable wallpaper if catalog value is to be trusted )

And the real value? Precisely the sum I (or any other collector) would be willing to pay.

However, many of those types of lots are filled with CTOs. Pretty stamps, but not quite the same as postally used.

And you are correct, they are still making a profit. It's really not difficult to get past 25K different stamps at all if you are willing to spend a couple hundred dollars. Of course, when I started as a kid many decades ago, a few hundred dollars might of well been a million dollars.

After spending many years trying to specialize in this and that, I decided to return to the childhood joys of world-wide collecting. I decided to restart my world-wide collection from scratch. I started by carefully choosing and purchasing 3 different world-wide collections that covered different time periods, so there would be little or no overlap. Those 3 collections provided an instant 45K+ different stamps and I definitely paid less than the "chart" value. I even got a decent penny black out it. These were purchased from full-time dealers. Although I did purchase them before scb made his chart, I do think the chart does a pretty decent job of reflecting wholesale prices of collections (i.e., pricing based on bulk, not catalog values).

If you catalog/document your collection, then of course, wholesale pricing doesn't really apply. But for sight-unseen lots, I would say scb's chart is pretty reasonable.

I agree. But I think the same applies for most "generic" & large scale worldwide collection / accumulations circling around.

I think the only major exceptions are classic period only collections (usually containing a mix of used and mint hinged), and those were the collector has knowingly decided to focus purely on collecting mint or postally used items (usually single country collections). And these usually sell for much more than "look what my cat ate for breakfast" type of mixtures.

Anyway, I'd say that fifth of my collection contents is CTO's. And I'm not ashamed of it - more the opposite.




thanks

I have to agree with JKBLUE, that the collection is in horrible condition if your trying to put a real value to its contents.Just viewing viewing it shows that the owner will get less for it due to the failure to organize it better.

KHJ------I also think SCB chart does a petty good job in showing the value as one expands as a worldwide collector .Its the values as we reach the higher end of collecting that starts to become questionable.Since the largest worldwide collections are almost never sold intact but broken down into sections or country collections .
The worldwide collector as they cross the 200,000 level of all different stamps starts to purchase specalized collections and crosses over to buying items that can stand on their own in a philatelic auction.It is all those type of stamps that pushed the 225,000 different collection that LANDOQUAKES posted ,its value put the price of that worldwide collection to 3/4 of a million dollars.That to me was the most valueable worldwide collection on record.
Im sure Mr.Gross's worldwide collection went into the tens of millions but was sold over many auctions and he had professional buyers purchasing for him and it sounds like he was doing it for a dollar return on investment.

To be honest and fair to those 'discrete specialist collectors' on SCF, who have fastidiously accumulated all variations listed in fine condition, can expect surprisingly high valuation and return for their holdings.

@floortrader, this is clearly one of those issues were our views contradict heavily. You assume the 200K being the magical limit, I expect it to be around 450K (or maybe even higher) stamps.

I can't see why the limit should be so "low", because simply collecting roughly 33% complete collections from all issuing countries would be enough to reach 200K+ stamps. Now that should not require purchase of any specialized collections or material.

But I assume you have something (a collection of that size?) to back up your view? I'd be very curious to know...

Are there many worldwide collectors? I have over 25,000 different stamps in my collection. I only count stamps that I can positively identify in the Scott catalogue. There are probably some errors in idnetification but hopefully less than a few dozen.

If you have to lead a fish to water, it is probably dead already and you are just wasting your time.

Landoquakes, thank God we left the above idea behind , what could have come next - I own a car badge !.