What Is The Good Buying Price For This

Asking price $175.00 , what would be a good offer price?

The value in this cover is in the handstamp from the Consulate of the Republic of Colombia and the "fee paid" handstamp. I think an asking price of $75 is outrageous unless the stamps themselves have any special variety markings (broken frame lines, broken crown, broken number tablet, etc).

thanks so what would be good buying price? any number?

Wow, just saw your edit - $175, not $75 - even more outrageous!
I am far from being an expert, but for that kind of money surely the seller would have to be pointing out some extremely rare/historical/philatelic aspect to the cover which justifies the pricetag. If its just "as seen", well, its a nice cover - but what's it worth to you?

Sorry, I can't put a figure on it myself.

$20 tops. And that is generous.

after rejecting at 26 , seller replies 'An early piece of Jersey postal history from the Colombian consulate would be very difficult to duplicate.

You dodged a bullet, then. The seller will still have their dreams.

How about this for 40 dollars?

Hi rizzi,

My reply to your first inquiry was along the lines of a knee-jerk reaction of outrage at you being offered an outrageous price for the cover.

Your second request finds me more philosophical. If your interest lies in the realm of covers, it might behoove you to take more time in studying this field of philately before jumping in with a bunch of money.

Your future self will thank you later that you did.

This French Morocco lettersheet definitely tickles my philatelic fancy, but by philatelic spidey sense tells me that at an asking price of $40 I might be best served to wait out for another example that better befits my budget.

My spidey sense also tells me that whoever this person is, he is not worth doing business with as he seems to be going to little effort to justify the prices he is charging.

I believe that every stamp dealer should also be a philatelic educator. Some do it better than others.

Here's a little surprise for everybody; the Seller (mayfair99) has a 100% Feedback of more than 30,000. Item number: 251015537753.

AND, he has over 30,000 stamp and postcard listings in his ebay Store.

Definitely not a beginner, nor an amateur. Now I don't know what to think.

No surprise there. Most of their ebay inventory is covers. The Mayfair folks are polite, fast shippers and quick responders and I have bought from them often.

They are volume sellers and provide good scans for their material. They have to make quick decisions about the value of what they are offering and are not always on target. When they are not on target the other way and when it is an item I have been looking for, I buy from them.

Sometimes, like many, many ebay stamp dealers, they go fishing. They do so much less often that some. I can imagine it is tempting for a stamp dealer to probe the waters of the "born yesterday" ebay market.

I had a similar occurence last evening,
found a cover from my country town, going to another town
close by in 1918, via a route I often cycle.

Nothing spectacular I would have thought, but an OHMS
reserve price $85
I often find ebay prices bewildering.

Then I have time to recall the person that sold the vision of Christ
in his toasted sandwich?
The world is a bewildering place.

And after reading Doug's post of the numbers of sales and listings involved, I feel that the seller has a philosophy of why not ask a big price because customers that either don't know better, have a sense of if it's priced higher it must be worth more, or need a higher price asked to make it seem worthwhile to them will buy his stuff. Nothing wrong with that really, just another way of looking at things.

He has some education in stamps and some in selling skills (generally speaking). The appreciation of stamps and their true worth he leaves to others to imagine and determine.

wow thanks guys , at least I am doing something right and that joined this community and discussing before spending my money. $40.00 was not asking price, Asking for 150 and I made an offer at 40 and got decline.

I have never had them accept an offer at less than 50% BIN price. Caveat emptor.

As a Massachusetts resident and formerly from Beverly, Mass., I had to do so me research on the first cover as addressed to Mr. W.O. Wylie of Otis Stamp Co., Beverly, Mass.

It has definite philatelic connections, as follows:

1. Mr. W.O. Wylie was, in fact, Willard O. Wylie (1862-1944).

2. Mr. Wylie was co-author of "The Standard Philatelic Directory" (1922) along with a Mr. Poole.

3. Mr. Wylie was the managing editor and part owner of Meekel's Weekly Stamp News (circa 1917) as noted below:



4. Mr. Wylie was inducted posthumously into the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame in 1945, right after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

For more reading on Mr. Wylie, checkout this Wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Otis_Wylie