Who Deals In Japanese Stamps

Who should I contact about selling japanese stamps. I have a ton from first issue 1871 to 1960s in very good condition and know prices but ebay would just take too long. Anyone know of any reputable auctioneers in the maryland or nearby area? How would I go about getting it appraised or selling off everything in one fell swoop. Thanks!

Your are perfectly placed where one of the largest monthly stamp show and sale is. The Doubletree Hilton on Reisterstown Rd 10am - 4pm this Sunday. Probably 50 or more dealers there. I'm trying to make it there. We'll see if I can get away.

Other than a stamp show, I would give ebay a try before I went to any dealer.

Mobilman44

thanks a lot flyinlo, should I bring all my stamps? any kind of prep work in terms or organizing or pricing?

you mean saturday right?

There are two things I never leave home without. My want list and my wallet. I look for dealers that I can get along with and who's willing to work with me. I have a couple dealers I look for when I go, unfortunately I cannot remember their names right now. One of them is a Russian guy I get along well with. Whenever he sees me he always gets my attention, probably because he knows I'm good money. Cash money!

I'm glad you brought the day up! Your right it is on Saturday!

I'm only 10 min away , I'll see you there!

Two large dealers for Japan: Michael Rogers and Rising Sun. No idea of their reliability or buying/selling practices.

I'm sorry I'm not in the market to buy right now, as I've done this before. Japan was my specialty as a collector.

Michael Rogers is a very well-reputed firm that has specialized in Asian philately for quite a few years. If they saw pictures of what you have, they could advise you of how highly sought after the material is or not.

It's the early stuff that would likely attract the most interest (although there are exceptions), but I should tell you at the outset that the early Japanese material, especially Scott 1-54A, is ^very^ heavily forged. (Some of it I can tell right off, some of it I can't. I still have much learning to do!) So perhaps it would be good to set the bar low in terms of your expectations, but you never know until you show the material to someone who knows it.

Michael Rogers conducts auctions and mail-bid sales, and if you have something good, they'll know it.

Rising Sun buys and/or consigns for auctions in Japan. I would presume (but don't know from personal experience) that they also know how to separate wheat from chaff.

Which leads me to one more point: generally speaking, it's in the interest of an auction house to get you the highest possible price for your material, because they share in a percentage of the proceeds. It's in the interest of a dealer to buy material at the lowest possible price. However, until someone has a better feel for how extensive the collection is, it's hard to say whether consigning to an auction would even make sense.

Assuming you go to the show, I wouldn't take the first offer. Definitely let a few dealers look at it, although many don't buy much early Japan because they know they don't know it that well. And I would be careful of anyone who makes you an offer that's only good for a few minutes -- they may see something worthwhile, give you a low offer, and don't want you to shop it around and find out it was a lowball offer.

Also, the more time and effort you put into it, and the less in a hurry you are to sell, the more likely you are to achieve a higher result.

Sorry to not be all sunshine and roses, and I'm not ordinarily a cynical person, but this is an area where knowledge is power, so proceed cautiously.

Just my 2-cents' worth,

-- Dave

Thanks for the advice! Authenticity is not an issue since they've all been in my family for decades and most were from Mizuhara Meiso himself. I have most of the complete sets from 1871 to 1961 and it is quite extensive. Basically went through michael rogers and dynasty auction and have most of the stuff except for the early sheets and block of fours of the really rare ones. I was only considering going to the show with the later issues and maybe picking up something which is mostly based on color schemes. I think I'll contact michael rogers for an appraisal but I know how much time and effort went into it so I'm only looking for premium prices.

Nice to meet another Japan collector!

It is worth keeping in mind that in this hobby there is often little direct correlation between time/effort and selling prices.

I certainly hope you do well, though. Just a reminder to guard against the possibility of disappointment.

Thanks Cid!

Thanks Cid!

I'm not trying to sound cynical at all, but the saving grace in what you mentioned is the possible provenance from Mizuhara, and that will hopefully mean that you have authentic versions of the highly-forged stamps.

Otherwise, the fact that they've been in the collection for decades should really be of no comfort, because the proliferation of forgeries took place closer to the time of issue, rather than recently. So, most forgeries, especially from Japanese forgers, were produced in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century. (There are exceptions, however.) Even Mr. Scott (of catalog fame) sold forgeries, and I understand it was not looked down upon the way it is today. I've also heard that, with the Japanese earlies (particularly Scott 1-54A), the ratio of forgeries to authentic stamps is at least 100:1, if not multiples of that figure.

Again, in your case, if your collection has this connection to Mizuhara, that's very encouraging.

But I've heard others over the years say that a collection has been in the family for generations, so that there's no way then that their collection could contain forgeries. That is the point I wanted to tease out, both because many forgeries are more than 100 years old themselves, and because there is tday much better and more readily available information about detecting forgeries available today than there was then. A collector or a dealer truly had to be an expert (or know one) in order to get some comfort that their early stamps, especially Japanese ones, were authentic.

Apologies for the lecture -- I just needed to get that out there for other readers.

All the best,

-- Dave

Please continue to let us know how it goes and what you learn about the collection!

Thanks Cid!