Here's A Must-See Link For 1840-1940 Collectors

Check out YeaPolska's post in this thread and follow his link: https://goscf.com/t/40241

Some of you may know about this collection, but I didn't and I was blown away!

The World Traveler Collection is to my knowledge the most complete worldwide collection ever formed and proves that you can still collect the world. There was a long thread about the Collection on the "Australian" stamp board.

That part of the collection that didn't sell in the Siegel Auction is available from Bejjco of Florida. Has anyone tried buying from this firm? I know of one person who inquired but I believe decided not to send a wantlist.

Now that is one impressive collection. Did anyone count up the prices realized? One must wonder what the rest of the 750 albums would go for. One cold go broke from just binders alone. Ranks up there with the Dr. Claiborne Johnson, Jr. But he "only" had 100 specialty albums with a mere 220,000 stamps. http://stampauctionnetwork.com/f/f59.cfm They both had some high-powered stamps.

And that was just a very small portion of it. According to the introduction, this was just some cherry pickings of seldom-seen stamps. There has to thousands of stamps left in that collection that catalog well into 3 and 4 (and even 5) figures. While there are many expensive stamps in the catalog, most of them can be found and obtained without undue effort if one has the money. It sounds like they were shooting for the unusual in this offering, stamps that aren't as easily found, or at least not in the condition found in this collection.

Besides the money involved, that collection had to take a staggering amount of time and commitment. It had to mean tracking down rarities and buying them at auction when available, contacts with numerous dealers and auction houses, etc. And then there's the time it would take to mount all of them, shelve and arrange them, etc.

A lot of these mega collections seem to involve a helper of some kind. One can pull it off solo, but four hands can hinge more stamps!

There is a big misunderstanding reflected here about these massive worldwide collections .First these are not people who buy single stamps or sets ,that is a waste of time unless its a rare stamp. Most of their purchases are thru major stamp auction houses and they build a long term relationship with the firm . They are buying Specialty albums and country collections ,many times they buy two or more collections and pick out the best copies for their primary collection .They start with a price figure like $1,000 up to $5,000 per country with some 200 countries to start with ,you can see cost for the base collection would run $200,000 to one million dollars and then you start looking for those gems that are never sold in collections and must be purchased at public auction .
Most of these collectors run into each other at major auctions and see each other over many years and get to know each other. All the auction houses know who are these major worldwide collectors and can identify them thru their buying habits and by what lots are requested for viewing .
Back years ago many would get together at Greg Manning Auctions and enjoy the give and take while viewing lots and especially at night at the various eateries and bars .

In case you missed it on the other thread, here is part of the back story of this particular collection, written by Charles Shreve:

Good point floortrader. Obviously some serious money was spent to get these collections. I agree that major dealers probably know who they are. I am not one of those guys! For me, the best way to build my collection is to get like albums from a collector or a dealer and nab stamp by stamp to put into my collection. The drawback is that I typically have to pay about 5 to 10 cents a stamp for this and that can add up quite a bit. It saves a lot of work and can build up nicely. Buying collections outright would be quicker but is more expensive, somewhere in between are box lots.

I had forgotten about this collection. Landoquakes, thanks for posting the link. What I found interesting is the large number of lots sold for well beyond the estimates.

Here is a page from Dr. CLAIBORNE JOHNSON auction ,the total for the albums and collections part of the stamp auction ,excluding all the single valuable stamps ,just the country albums part came to $341,000.00

Interesting that the country collections went for ~ 3X estimate. !

Why did the demand outstrip the supply by so much?

I suspect nice almost filled country collections are not as common as one might think.

And then this auction attracted some well healed collectors