Knowledge Is Power

Going further than a general catalog and reading up on and learning about stamps from more specialized catalogs, guide books, study articles, research, etc. can result in one finding varieties of a certain issue that have been overlooked by others and wrongly identified as a regular stamp which a specialist can identify as a scarce variety. I am sure that there are specialist out there that are always on the lookout for elusive stamps. Have you ever come across and bought such a stamp or stamps for much less because it was not identified properly?

Oh, heavens yes ! The thrill of the hunt, that's what I live for, but that's about as specific as I'm going to get.

I do recall a time at a stamp bourse , I was looking through a well known Midwest dealer's items and about fell out of my chair. He was asking $20 for an item that I knew was worth much more. I didn't even take the time to offer him less, I couldn't get the $20 out fast enough.

I sold it a day later for $550.

Knowledge is a double edged sword.

I love to learn, if I have not learned something new at the end of each day I feel like I have failed and not been productive. I went to school to become a teacher and although ended up not pursuing this great profession I still love to teach in any way that I can.

That said, our hobby suffers from knowledge being withheld for personal gain. Just as you outlined, if I know something that you do not it means that I can profit from it. The degree in which this hangs over our hobby is greater than in some other hobbies. For example, I love old cars. But while there is some knowledge that may be retained for profit (i.e. a person knows of a car or parts stashed away in a barn) the vast majority of old car knowledge is much more freely exchanged with anyone who will listen. (I swear if every person who stopped me to talk to me about the Studebaker their family used to own they would still be in business!)

In my opinion this tends to restrict the growth of philately. I do not mean to paint it as a huge issue, and the internet has certainly improved the distribution of quality philatelic information, but you can still find pockets of it in many places. I've seen quite a few older collectors who feel that a steep learning curve is a price that should be paid by new hobbyists; they went through it after all and it made them a better philatelist for it.
Don

The problem I find with this analogy is that the sheer volume of stamps issued makes learning about every variety impractical - even for the specialist of a specific country. In my opinion, the best one could hope for is to become an expert of one series or issue within a country, and a knowledgable collector of the rest - unless you are prepared to make a career out of it.

The authors of the best reference material written on specific eras, series of, or single issues of stamps, often spend their lives researching their respective topic(s).

My attitude is simple: If I buy, sell, or trade a stamp that was misidentified or contained a lagniappe (EG: double transfer, uncommon cancellation, split/double grill, etc) that enhances the value, so-be-it!

I am confident that most of us have been on both sides of that scenario. Ultimately, it is up to me to educate myself on what I am buying or selling.

ps - I should state one thing very clearly. I am NOT in favor of deliberately misidentifying something for personal profit. There is a clear difference between buying something from a dealer and working with non-collectors who have no idea what they have inherited!

Brian

This is the distinction I use. While I haven't had any major finds, for collectors such as myself, it may be the only hope we ever have of obtaining some of the scarcer/rarer items.

Brian,
Understood but IMHO it goes beyond the "desire" to learn and have knowledge. Keep in mind that we have collectors taking great amounts of knowledge to the grave with them. We still have incredible resources and reference books locked away in libraries that few can access. Again, some of this is starting to melt away with the internet but we still have a way to go.
Don

Sadly, this is so true! When I sit down with fellow club members of the Oregon Stamp Society, I am often struck at just how much I have to learn!

There needs to be a thirst for the knowledge. Like the old saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink"

I've published a number of articles on my special area of interest, in an effort to share knowledge. But like someone mentioned earlier there are just too many areas, to expect anyone to know every possible nuance.

I often find on ebay it's the case of non-collectors selling off a family member's collection. They have no interest or time to investigate what they actually have. Often poorly described, they let the marketplace determine it's value. For those willing to take the time, knowledge is power and occasionally profit.

When I find new information/variety related to a malaria stamp, I write an article and publish it in the malaria stamp club newsletter (published every 3-4 months) so all of the interested collectors know about it. I do know that once others read the article (there are 78 other collectors in the group), that the collectors will be on the lookout for the new item on ebay or at shows and be competing against me. The new information certainly does raise the price to acquire more items of this newly discovered (or at least newly written up) variety but I feel that it helps the greater group of malaria stamp collectors.

80+ free online articles on the Malaria Philatelists International web site: http://www.malariastamps.com/mpi/ma...-listing.asp

I can understand that if collectors are discovering new varieties on items that are in the thousands of dollars, the collector may want to make sure that he/she has acquired the desired items first in whatever form he/she wants to (used, mint, on cover, paying multiple rates, ...) and then he/she may publish the new knowledge. But hopefully, it does get published.

Larry

Interestingly, I have put together two different booklets "The Canadian Stamp Perforation Change of 1962" and "Canadian Postage Stamps Printed by the Stickney Rotary Press". I wrote an article first for each of them that got published in a philatelic publication before I had ever had the booklets printed. I printed the booklets to cover much more details and pictures than the philatelic articles had covered. Also, I did not print many booklets because they are expensive to print and I was not too sure how the booklets would be received since I made them to show collectors what I have discovered. Unfortunately, the postage rates in Canada to mail these booklets nationally and internationally have not worked favorably for my booklets since shipping costs more than the booklets which turns off potential buyers.

You study what you are interested in. One will usually find that there is a lot more information on the area of your interest than is printed in the standard and even some specialized catalogs. Like was stated earlier, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink...indeed! but if you're the thirsty horse and you go seek out the water then you shall drink with gusto!

I cherrypick all the time... at shows, on ebay. It's one of the ways I can balance out the items that I have to pay full retail for.

I agree that certain collectors/dealers like to clutch their knowledge to their breast for fear of giving up a competitive advantage... which makes it difficult for the new collector. I've tried to make as much reference information available on my website as possible, especially in the areas of 1st issue silk papers and plate varieties. In addition to Scott values, I've recently added "retail value" to all of the items on my website, since much of what I collect falls outside the boundaries of Scott (or any other catalog for that matter).

It's not an easy proposition, as when it comes to cancels, documents, etc. the value may be inherent to ONLY that specific item and not necessarily extrapolated to other similar, but actually different, items.

Also, what I list is only *MY* personal opinion, and other collectors may disagree. Pricing is a whole conundrum unto itself... see all the arguments here on the board about people thinking that Scott and other catalogs should list (heavily discounted) ebay results as values, rather than retail numbers... which creates different problems... you can't win. I'd rather that all catalogs list full retail and allow people to discount accordingly based on venue rather than trying to go in the opposite direction.

Still, it's better than no information at all...

Valuation for purchase has many factors/considerations, which may add or detract from a stamp/collection purchase target:

1. Time or ability to view the stamp/lot. You can only view and analyze so much in a given time, and may have to estimate based on a sample (as with your competitors). If you can hold/see the item(s) and do your homework, you can reap great rewards.

2. Scans. This includes scan quality (detail, color, etc.), if all or some of the lot has been scanned. If you can't see/touch the items, you may discount your estimate because you will not see all of the information or detail needed to identify varieties. If the scans are good/complete, you may identify or suspect some elusive items.

3. CONDITION. MUST be aware of detecting faults as well as fakes made to defraud.

The "knowledge is power" part is that these are just some of the considerations to assessing for purchase. This is one of the reasons I am in the camp of not placing a strong value (ha) of utilizing ebay and other internet venues as a pricing reference. There is too much variability due to newbies, crooks, good/established dealers, etc., good/bad scans, auctions/buy-it-now, that just doesn't allow for a good reference point.

On the other hand, I have benefited from my knowledge often on internet venues (and brick/mortar auction houses) due to these factors. I have added some neat items to my collections, as well as turning around to sell. Once I found a cover on ebay (appeared philatelic with about 10 different US stamps from the 1900s-1910s) that had a blurry scan, but appeared to have a Washington/Franklin P.12 coil pair on it. I purchased it for $56. When I received it, it WAS a coil pair, and in fact a joint line pair which was genuinely tied to the cover, used in that time period. It was sold at auction for $1100. Now, I had a Strong hunch it was a coil pair, but even if it wasn't, the combination cover at $56 would be an OK purchase. I "assumed" it wasn't a coil pair for the purchase, and benefited by the additional detail.

One mistake that many people make is to look at CURRENT ebay listings to try and detemine value. Sure, that can answer the question "What price can I currently get one for?", but to gauge actual value, at least with respect to ebay, you need to look at closed listings, and most importantly only SOLD listings, not completed. If it didn't sell, it doesn't matter what the asking price was.

I find my specializing as a kind of scientific detective work that is trying to further uncover, research and support with philatelic evidence the existence of something that has been alluded by other stamp specialists before but that has not been fully brought to light yet.