Why Do Non Stamp Collectors Think Stamps Are Worth Money ?

cephus
you made your opinion about those who inherited a collection and want to cash it. When they appear on the forum I try to guess when they are going to leave. A little devil I am.

timbres667 And how about the 997 who introduce themselves and are never seen again..you would think they would save their breath !

A lot of people don't know what stamps are worth, or catalogued at, or sell for in different markets at different places at different times. Why would they? No way can they tell. It's not in the daily paper or on the TV or Radio every day.

Heck, I don't know a lot of prices and value info. I can see a nicely centered well preserved item might be worth more than one not so, but then we get some stamps that look pretty beat up and they are still worth something. It can be confusing.

It's not just old stamps that are worth something. New stuff can be also, if sold correctly and to the right market of course. I bought a 2010 Canada booklet of stamps for $5 roughly and after research (helped by many of here, thank you) sold some for over $100 or $200.

It's the learning of what will be collectible and worthwhile and fascinating to a stamp collector that makes this hobby fun in some ways. Not all of course. I like sorting and soaking kiloware and seeing brand new mint stamps in all there glory and the postal history covers and information.

So, to have these skills that allpw you to recognize what is valuable and worthwhile in the stamp world is something that only comes after years of playing around with stamps. It is unreasonable to expect a newcomer or a newbie or a beginner to know this stuff. The poor helpless things are taken advantage of enough by the sharks and wolves and predators out there.

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to teach these poor, helpless newcomers what you know, in a way they will understand hopefully. There is, of course, the responsibility on the newcomer himself to want to learn and to apply himself to learn what he can.

Everybody has their own level of skill at learning or at different aspects of our hobby. Of course you can learn more, if you want to, and I think wanting to do something goes along with seeing some value or worth in it, and as mentioned above, sometimes value and worth are automatically equated with money, and this is encouraged by some dealers over the years.

One of my nephews, bless his soul, when I told him I was collecting stamps and also buying and selling on ebay, asked me, first question, do you make any money? I was a bit startled by the question,a s a stamp collector would not ask such a thing in the usual course of events. He isn't a stamp collector (yet, still working on that), so I had to readjust my thinking around to how he thought. Funny in a way it was.

I've read the thread here, and I have to say, some of you guys are real snobs!

Of course anyone who inherits something they don't know about is going to try to find out if it has value. People in general know that some stamp collections have value. They are going to hope theirs does too.

In addition, if they know that significant money has been spent on the collection, they may think there will be more value than not......

In my case, my Dad gave me his collection because I showed some interest. He also needed some money, so I went through the collection hoping to find something I could sell to help him out.

My first question posted on this site was met with such derision, I almost didn't come back. But I persevered. My Dad has a collection worth a couple thousand dollars at best. Over the years, he invested in some nice mint stamps, and I'm sure he's paid far more than they are all worth.

But I've become interested in the collection and am now sorting out what I will continue to collect, and what I'll attempt to sell. For example, he has Vol 1, 2 & 3 of the Scott International Albums with quite a few mint stamps, and a lot of filled pages. I have no illusions that I'll get thousands and thousands for these, but with 3 of them, after looking on ebay, I might get as much as $1200 on a good day. He also had Silver medallions that came along with first day covers. Real Silver. Those are getting about $15 each, and he has 30 some.....so another $450. Finally, he has the 1952 Angola Birds that are going for about $200 on ebay. (all sold pricing).

Even though I've decided to collect, I still have a hard time convincing myself to spend money on something that has no intrinsic value.

But why sniff in derision at people wondering if a collection has value? Just help them to become informed, and you may spawn a new collector. No need to be so haughty. It is a hobby for goodness sakes!

Puzzler

I can see how you would look at it that way however, if you stick around a while (and we hope you do) You will see floods of people that only show up with a few common stamps from the 1960's and think they hit the jackpot. When they are pointed to some reference material and see for themselves that we weren't being trite or rude to them when we stated that "they are very common and probably worth more as postage". Now, in your case you were interested and we done our best to help you ID or show you to a website that would clear things up about what you have.
It's mainly the people that just pop in with their first thread all excited about selling them, or wanting 10,000 ID's..
It is a passion of ours to pour over stamps and find varieties and it's a labor of love but, to have actually spent the time and effort to help (said person) out and to only to be scoffed at or insulted gets really old really fast. We just don't want people to have any delusions about selling grandpa's collection and retiring or getting rich just because there are a few 100+/- year old stamps in their collections. As a collector you know that isn't the case.
I hope I made my point as I'm still sippin' my morning coffee yet, but know that being actually interested in possibly collecting stamps is one thing, and only trying to get a value of a collection to sell it (with absolutely no intentions of furthering it is just a waste of everyone's time and effort. It seems some people just try to get a free evaluation for re-sale purposes and get angry when presented with the facts. - Plus, some of us are just old and frumpy anyways...

Please stick around a bit and try to be a little understanding. In time you'll see what we mean. We are a great resource for the stamp collector community and LOVE to help further the hobby we are just not a free appraisal service. Simple as that.

I couldn't agree more with both Puzzler and strocksj.

I think we should give all newcomers to the site the benefit of the doubt and try to provide them with our best advice until such time as they prove themselves unworthy of our assistance.

you know, sometimes people have nice stuff and sometimes they don't.
I bought a 5 box collection from a guy who had inherited it, for $100.00
He recently found another box and I have already offered him $400.00 for the box..... so this one has better stuff.

I think most people who have never been a collector or lived with a collector are likely to have an unrealistic view of what old stamps might be worth, so I can't see I'm surprised when they show up on stamp forums and start asking tons of questions about values. I just wish they would have a decent level of respect for the time of others and do some of the research themselves first. I can see occasionally asking for a current value (and since all my catalogs are 6 years out of date, I may need to do this myself from time to time), but it certainly does get annoying to be treated like a free appraisal service.

I have learned over the past few months that stamp collecting is the only hobby in the world that truly turns out to be worthless. You could have a stamp thats 150 years old and it be worth a penny. WHAT ON EARTH BESIDES STAMPS HAS VALUE LIKE THAT???? DIRT thats what. Stamp collecting is nothing less then a waste of time. I see families left with thousands of stamps from 5 generations of family just to find out they are worth what they say. 1 penny a piece mostly so thats why people think they're valuable because EVERYTHING on earth besides stamps and dirt has no value over 100 or 1000 years obviously.

I have learned over the past few months that stamp collecting is the only hobby in the world that truly turns out to be worthless. You could have a stamp thats 150 years old and it be worth a penny. WHAT ON EARTH BESIDES STAMPS HAS VALUE LIKE THAT???? DIRT thats what. Stamp collecting is nothing less then a waste of time. I see families left with thousands of stamps from 5 generations of family just to find out they are worth what they say. 1 penny a piece mostly so thats why people think they're valuable because EVERYTHING on earth besides stamps and dirt has no value over 100 or 1000 years obviously.

I finally made it to Snob status before I die...echoing my words What Makes People Think Stamps are worth money ?

If you are only looking at the financial numbers, of course it's almost always worthless. Those who earn money off stamp collecting are a very small minority. The bulk of collectors will never regain their financial investment.

But if we only looked at it financially, almost everything in life (including myself) is worthless. Most hobbies (not just stamp collecting) are also financial money pits. So are all your vacations. I've only met a handful of people who ended up earning money off their vacation. I once found a $100 bill during a walk. Unfortunately, the rest of my walks were worthless (financially speaking).

Stamps have an enormous value beyond money. However, most non-stamp collectors will automatically think value=money, and no money means worthless.

TV & movies...

But KHJ we stamp collectors realize this...i really do not want to drag money into it..but I have collected stamps for 60 plus years..if I year averaged what I have spent on stamps it would amount probably to what I spent on oil changes...it is my hobby,my relaxation..and I can pretty well spot when an opportunist comes on board trying to make a buck from a soft hearted collector !!