Question For Big Blue Experts

Thanks for responding. I figured it would take experience and be different from auction house to auction house.

I had the auction running pretty much all evening, though I only checked in once in a while. I missed a couple things I was mildly interested in, bid and won a fairly inexpensive European collection, and watched as the Scott album collections were sold off at too dear a price for bidding blind.

I just received the unsold list and the 4 Volume Scott went Unsold and is offered at %8500 plus 15%. The Internet Cover business also went unsold.

Yeah I just saw that. Given that folks were there viewing the items it must not be a bargain at $8500. It would be nice to see some decent photos.

Absolutely!

I am selling a terrific Big Blue collection in an album from the 1940s and have encountered many of the last page/1st page situations. This collection is over 90% complete so usually there are a lot of stamps on the front and back of these pages. Instead of moving stamps I have decided to sell the mixed country pages as is and I wondered what you Big Blue collectors thought about this?

Thanks,

Ken

When your bidding at a auction house ,you have to allow enough time to view the lots and keep your own notes because as the auction moves thru the lots it is hard to remember how you valued it , notes help in how to price it.

Good point Floortrader, I think the viewing time is the most important part of attending an auction. Before I go I make a spread sheet and include all the lots from the catalog that I think I might want. Usually I'll put down lot # Brief description, opening price and leave room for notes and maximum bid if I like the lot. Usually I'll sort them by lot #, but I if I'm going to be pressed for time I'll organize them by the ones I want/need most so I'll have plenty of time to view the most important ones.

I am amazed how often a lot I'll really like from the catalog turns out to be one I won't even bid on after viewing it in person. Viewing lots in person has saved me many disappointments.

That being said attending a stamp auction is probably my favorite entertainment.

I have a question. At what point does one stop buying worldwide collections? Surely after buying many, you are only getting duplicates. Wouldn't it make more sense to buy specialist country lots instead? Or at auction are you able to look through large collections and determine which stamps you need?

Speaking for myself I breakup the collections and sell them on ebay. There seems to an endless demand.

I was asking as a collector It just seems to me that pre-printed albums mostly have the same stamps ... and does it still make sense after buying 5+ album sets.

I collect Big Blue 1840-1939. I bought 3 of the albums with 6,000-8,000 stamps each to fill up one main album. I could have stopped at two albums as they were a lot of duplication. Certainly no reason for a fourth.

Last year I bought a beautiful 1933 Scott collection that was about 90% complete, in the same lot I got 3 smaller Big Blue collections that I presume were feeder collections. These were each purchased by the collector for around $500 and were marked #46, #47 and #48. My assumption was that he had built the master collection from nearly 50 smaller ones, but that's just a guess.

Also, it seems that it would make sense for Big Blue collectors to purchase Big Blue collections as opposed to buying country-specific specialty collections, which would yield a lot of stamps for which there are no spaces in Big Blue.

Jenny: I think it just depends on what one is trying to do. Ken breaks things up and sells on ebay. I don't use ebay, but have bought and sold material through the APS Stamp Store. I also give stuff to the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library (since I live in metro Denver) and take a tax write-off.

Condition of the album(s) can be a factor. I'm finishing up work on an old Schaubeck world album that had apparently been stored in a dank and humid environment for a long time. The pages were in horrible condition, but many of the stamps were still OK. The owner also filled many of the pages so full that stamps stick over the sides. I've salvaged what I could out of this thing (I got it for a few hundred) and have just pitched the remainder due to being el-cheapo stamps and due to condition. Sometimes, the best fate of stamp album pages is to go to the recycle stack in the garage for eventual disposition.

Having said the above, I'm unsure if I'll be buying many more world collections. I continue to work on two sets of Scott Internationals, one bought in the mid-1980s and the other about 15 years ago. And,I'm more interested now in dealing with hard-to-fill spaces in my main Portuguese colonial and Mexico collections. It's surprising how hard it is to find stamps that catalog a few bucks. Steve


addendum: just saw the note from Chris2015 about buying specialized country collections and there being no spaces in Big Blue. Chris: for almost all of my Portuguese colonial collections, I've replaced the 1840-1940 Big Blue pages with blank quadrille pages so I can actually put in the complete sets; and the various perf & shade varieties. I resume using the Big Blue pages after 1940 as those are more comprehensive, but still use blank pages for souvenir sheets.

To answer the question about duplicates ,I think K Relyea said it best with "My favorite entertainment " . I always had stress situations all my life since a early age it was trading in the Futures Market and later owning a Asphalt Paving business ,but now I retired the only stress is fighting each day in the gym ,and believe me if you where rolling around with this guy you would have stress , my fighting partner the SHAQ .