Ebay Collection

today I saw on ebay this collection...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WORLDWIDE-S...231105313388 the aking price is $1595 fair or

overpriced what do you think? this is another one...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Incredible-...221334196893

$4571 good or bad?

On the surface they both appear to be comprehensive collections with many 'goodies'. But without investing a lot of time analyzing the images and doing your discovery it will be difficult to determine the value of each offering. (And of course whether or not they are worth the asking prices depends on how much a person really wants material like this.) They would both certainly be interesting enough to keep me busy for the next few cold months; but whether or not I would pull the trigger on these kinds of ebay items would be based upon many hours of studying the images.
don

For the first album, it's tricky because the auction states not all pages are shown, so I assume they are showing the most impressive pieces in the auction. With that said, the Canada pages are not very impressive at all, mostly all used with not much in the way of high value pieces. As 51S mentions, you would have to go over everything and evaluate what is being shown. Bear in mind that a lot of faults can be hidden as well, I would be very nervous about not seeing the backs on any specimens that are potentially of high value. I have a new acquaintance that is looking to sell as MASSIVE collection so I'm going to visit him in a neighboring city for 2 days to study the collection and just look at his higher end stock to make a realistic offer. I love online shopping, but in person is the only way I would spend several thousands on a collection.

As for the second one, I'm a wee bit hung over from the office xmas party last night so I just couldn't handle that many photos right now but 5k for a couple of albums is pretty steep for something you can't study in person.

Assuming I had that big a budget, I agree that it's hard to spend thousands without seeing the stamps in person. I might pay that much online if the cost was less than the very low end value of the stamps, also assuming some faults. Even then it would have to be a great deal with stamps I really covet.

thanks for the advice mates,ill keep that in mind.

This is far out of my league, but the two folks who answered seemed to have offered some good advice. Also, in the second collection I noticed some boxes where hinges remain on the pages, so were good stamps plucked?

Also I noticed several stamps had yellowing on the edges of the stamps with apparent bleeding onto the surrounding album page. What is going on with that? How did that happen?

I didn't try to look at the second collection but I did look through the first one. I collect many of those countries and personally would not bid anything close to the asking price for that lot based on what is displayed.

Based on the countries I collect I would not pay nearly the price asked for the first lot.

As for the second, I don't know the exact value...too immense...you'd have to do some estimates. For example, do a small portion and multiply. But a couple things trouble me. First, there is a lot of foxing on the stamps...the yellowish moldy stuff. I wouldn't touch this collection for that alone. Second, I know nothing of this seller, they are probably wonderful people, but I wouldn't pay $4K to a seller with under 600 sales without a personal visit...just me of course.