When It Comes Time To Sell ?

I am wondering if there are any dealers out there or anyone who has had experience selling a collection. I was at a show this weekend and was privileged to see someone bring in a partial collection. They said it was just 1 album of 22. They were seeking a dealer who might be interested.

The dealer I was at looked thru it and asked a few questions. The person said it was their fathers who passed away and they have decided to sell instead of packing it up in an upcoming move to outside the country in December.

The dealer asked if the rest of the collection was in mounts like this album? I peaked and they looked like showguard or scott type mounts. The dealer was able to inspect a few random stamps. The person said they believe it to be true.

The dealer mentioned on a potential large collection and to break down it affects the price a little for their time. He mentioned if they wanted to put all the stamps in 102 cards or a stockbook it would increase the sell value somewhat.

My question is this, when a dealer buys a collection, does it increase the value somewhat if they collection has been broken down to 102 cards or a stockbook etc?

Just seeking anyone who buys or has sold a collection if this is a truth.

Thank you for your time and wisdom

Respectfully,
Richard

While dealers *may* increase their offer (or actually not LOWER their offer) if the merchandise is in easily saleable format, the question is whether it is worth all the time and money (buying the dealer cards) to do so, when depending on the dealer in question it might not ultimately be worth it.

Also, it is a double-edged sword. If you are not an expert and do not correctly identify and/or list faults accurately, the dealer might assume that EVERYTHING in the collection is incorrectly identified.

Now, on the other hand, if you are collecting from scratch, and disposition is a concern for you, it might be worth some time putting thought into the the organzation and presentation of your collection.

I don't use albums for my revenue collection. Everything is in individual cards or pages, inventoried, and machine-labeled with reference number, catalog number and value, and cost code. Because it is all computerized I can cross reference anything at any time. Due to the nature of what and how I collect, this aids in making comparisons and finding items, in addition to making the ultimate sale in 30+ years much easier.

Now my mountains of albums, cartons, box lots, of worldwide pre-1940 material that I dabble with is a COMPLETELY different story... hoarders would be ashamed.

The stamp values are the same....
The time to remove from mounts, replace, inventory...
takes time. My guess is that what he was refering to.

Why is the value of a common stamp catalogued at 25c????
Dealer time to sort, identify, inventory...sell.
When in all actuality probably worth 1c or less.

Richard --------I looked at thousands of collections over the past 50 years and have purchased a few dozen large collections .To answer your question sometimes its better to break it down and depending what is in it and sometimes it is better to sell it in sections .It all depends . My own collection has lots of notes and descriptions written right on the pages .Putting better material on 102 cards is a lot of work and will weaken the rest of the collection .Each collection needs to be reviewed and a detail describition would tell someone the best path to advise on how to sell it .

Thank you all for your wisdom and guidance. It gives me things to ponder as I move forward. I guess I never really thought about it from the other side of the fence. But time is money.

Thanks

A dealer telling inexperienced people to pull a large collection apart into stock cards is crazy stuff!

How many bent corners? How many ceases? How many tears? How much perf damage? Are going to take place!

The thought of the possibility that the stamps will be handled by fingers frightens me! The stamps that fall onto the floor.

Weight for mailing is the only reason that I can see for down sizing the collection.

Would you like to buy a large collection down sized by an inexperienced person?

As a full-time dealer, I agree 100% with KGV Collector. Any (good) dealer will want to examine all of the material before re-offering to customers - that's their reputation on the line & few will trust the important work of identifying, assessing condition and lotting to someone else (especially an inexperienced heir.)

IMO, the offer on ANY collection won't vary much based on how it's presented (unless it's a total mess - in which case the dealer has to make lots of assumptions about content and condition. When you do this as a business, you quickly learn to "assume the worst" when you don't know and it's not easy to find out.)

Each collection has its own "feel." Some I break down quite a bit (reselling virtually everything as individual items,) other collections I leave completely intact. There's an "art" to breaking down collections, creating interesting large lots and reselling individual stamps - it's definitely not intuitive (the biggest mistake most new dealers make is to pull EVERY valuable/nice stamp out to sell individually then try to sell the remainder. Guess what? There's zero interest in your remainder...) Only the dealer knows his/her customer base and has the experience to properly break down a collection. Leaving that task to a novice really IS crazy stuff.

"Experience to properly break down a collection"------really !!--------The most important part to a stamp dealer is knowing the SELLER . Your first contact with a person who selling or wants to sell is to establish ,what kind of person you got to deal with . Your questions ,will depend if your interested . Many of you know that I am a Martial Arts fighter and like Cage Fighting . The same principles apply to meeting a customer to buy what they are selling . Establish a solid base first . Ask questions like are you the one who build the collection ,how much money was spend,how is it kept, and do you have a price you want . You got to establish a basic understanding of who you are dealing with .At this point some dealers tell the seller they are too busy or refer you to another dealer . If it sounds like you hit the MOTHER-LODE of collections ,then you ask more questions to establish your plan of attack .{more later}

Richard
When you sell a collection a complete listing with Scott cat. values is very appreciate by the dealer. Last time I sold a collection the dealer told me that the listing alone worth a $100 and I sold for $400. He said that he will sell it as it is for $500. The used collection of Denmark had a total Scott cat. value of $5 800. I worked on it for about 1 year and spend around $650 on it. It kept me busy for many hours and lost about $250 but that is the cost of my hobby. Just to give you an idea of the difference between cat. value and market value when you sell a collection to a dealer. But still I prefer to sell to dealer. When you have a complete and accurate listing and they know you it's quick and easy. Daniel