Why Do Non Stamp Collectors Think Stamps Are Worth Money ?

I know I am preaching to the choir...BUT, what makes people who do not collect stamps think they are worth money..they are sold to provide a service..to deliver a letter or a package..they are printed in the millions...so they will never be rare..sure a rare printing error can occur and lucky the one who finds it..you could probably also find a gold coin on beach...i get phone calls from people who want to know where they can sell their Grandfathers 1970s U.S.collection. I one sent a woman to an appraiser I know..and it did not go well..he let me know...she wasted his time on the phone and when she found out what his fees were she dropped that flat ..so I guess dealers, appraisers and collectors are the only ones that know what stamps are worth !

Because they only see about the stamps worth millions, they never hear that most stamps are virtually worthless.

I agree and it's very true...that the media only records great finds in stamps or any other commodity, whereas no mention is ever made of the millions of worthless or next-to-worthless specimens that may be "collectible" but not "valuable". Which brings up another point:

"Collectible does not necessarily mean "valuable"; and "old" does not necessarily mean "valuable".

I collect precancel stamps. Most are worth a few cents at best and some are not even worth that. Are they collectible...yes (at least to me they are) because of all of the towns and types there are that make many of them different to collect but yet not "valuable" in the sense of monetary worth. On the flip side, they make that collecting discipline affordable to those who might not have the resources to buy the "valuable" specimens.

Keep in mind that stamps aren't the only items that people have that perception about. There are antiques or coins or guns or watches or comic books or baseball cards, etc., that one might see on a TV show that are worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, but the minor difference in condition between one and another can mean the difference between a value of a few dollars or a few thousand dollars (or more), all of which is quite often hard to discern by the novice collector.

Furthermore, the TV shows that show "retail" values or "market" values, etc., are based on educated guesses of the maximum that one may achieve should the item be placed in an auction, yet no one is mentioning the auction fees or time or effort one must go through to put these items on the market, and no one has mentioned the more-often-than-not fact that even though they may be appraised at a set figure, the end value may only realize a fraction of that so-called "value".

Everyone hopes for a gold mine; but the fact is that it's a rare occurrence to experience it!

One of the local taxi drivers that knows me very well asked me last week if he could stop by my house that he has a couple of old stamps that might be of value, He comes by and takes out a couple of stamps from his wallet that was carefully wrapped in some paper. I open the folded paper and had a look nothing but old 5 cent Canadian junk. He said if any were worth money I asked him if he had a hundred dollar bill, I told him I need it to see if the paper in the stamp was the same as the bill paper, Now he got excited and gladly handed me a 100 dollar bill I lick the stamp and stuck it on the $100 bill and told him this stamp is worth at least $100 He had a good laugh

WT1 I enjoy U.S. precancels and Argentine departmentals that rarely go above minimum catalog value..they give me relaxation and when I fill the final spot on a page..pleasure..i have a friend my age who is always working..building a stone wall for someone or whatever..he doesn't need the money...he thinks I am crazy playing with my stamps and I think he is !!

Well some guy paid about a Million bucks for some upside down stamp.... my granpaw has one of those somewhere and my uncle has some stamps from back in the 50's and he is going to sell them on Pawn Stars and my cousin sold a mess of stamps on ebay that he found in his other grandmas attic and my aunt has a whole set of Readers Digest gold stamps that she bought back in the 70's that are sure to be worth ...............

I tell people their stuff isn't worth anything all the time but they don't believe me =( Why did they ask me in the first place if they weren't going to believe me?

Because if they're not worth a lot of money, we'd be insane to spend so much of our lives collecting them ....

Sometimes stamps have more of a personal value than they have a dollar value . [ example] I have assembled an album of stamps that belonged to both of my grandfathers and one great grandfather ,I've spent more money putting the album together than the stamps are worth,as far as a dollar value.... none , you would have to have a big old checkbook to get it away from me.

Like philby, I have run across this problem many times.

There seems to be a belief that, if it is old, then it is rare and worth a lot of money, i-o-w, it is an automatic 'given'. We as collectors know that this is not true. I have also stated that the word 'rare' is used all too often and loosely.

In most of the collections I have appraised over the years, I would have to state that 95% of them are general run-of-the-mill collections and not worth that much. What triggers it off for me personally is when I see a person pull out an album that has either a cowboy or an astronaut on the album cover and I know that there is not anything of value (as a rule). A collection of any appreciable value is generally housed in a more expensive binder etc - though not always the case. This is usually because a collector who take his / her collection seriously, wants to house their gems in good albums.

I have to admit that there are the odd collections worth a few $$ more than the average.

I suppose this kind of story goes with the turf <G>.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu I know what Chimo means, but for the last while I have been wondering what <G> means.
Please take me out of my misery

LOL - no problem Irishjack - the symbol <G> just simply means a 'grin'.

Chimo

Bujutsu

First of all, some stamps are worth money, and in some cases a very great deal. However, the non-collector that inherits a collection is likely to have inherited one that is worthless.

One deceptive practice foisted upon the amateur collector is the notion that catalog value is close to accurate. For the majority of used stamps I look at, say pre-1940 stamps of US and Europe, with catalog value less than $250, the actual going price is more like 10% of catalog value. Then to value the most common stamps at .20 a piece is deceptive when in fact the stamps are virtually worthless. This is a gross generalization of course, but I think this contributes to the problem.

But it certainly doesn't explain why the non-collector thinks their inherited stamps have value. I think its the same reason a lot of people lottery tickets. It's a very slim chance to make a good amount of money with absolutely no effort. Wishful thinking most likely and ignorance.

I think it could be a combination of reasons: They think that if people are collecting stamps it is because they are valuable - else why would they do it? If they have no personal interest in stamps, they may easily think that is the only reason people collect stamps. An inherited collection could be seen as valuable because of respect for the person who put it together ("He was so intelligent and well traveled, he must have saved these as an investment"). A lot of wishful thinking, too. As mentioned, the only ones you may hear about are quite valuable.