Need Help With My First Purchase !

I'm new to the site and to stamp collecting. In fact, I really haven't started yet. I would like to begin with kiloware to give me an idea of what to expect by looking at a variety of stamps. I have reservations about buying on ebay since I lack experience. Is there a recommended place to buy kiloware to insure a nice mix of old and new, world wide and US? And, does "off paper" mean the stamps were never affixed to paper or does it mean someone has removed them from paper by soaking and drying.

Any other advice or suggestions on getting started with kiloware would be appreciated. As you can tell, I'm a total novice and have everything to learn.

Off paper usually means just as it sounds...can be mint (never used) or used and soaked to remove paper....Ebay is not too bad, but check number of sellers sales and peoples comments before bidding....more sales with good comments, the safer you will be and you might strike lucky by enquiring with local charities who often raise funds with stamps

Good luck

Hello Hank44, welcome to Stamp Community!

ebay or any other site is 'If it's too good to be true, then it is too good to be true.', otherwise beware and / or move on.

Although, sometimes you do happen across good deals and lucky finds, there is always the chance.

Kiloware is usually OK to buy and fun.

I find that small lots can be as much fun as large lots and not quite so over whelming too. Feels good to have stuff come in the mail and have something to do and talk about and show, that's me.

A mix of worldwide is whatever the seller has access to. Usually I find that I have to buy some and sift throught it and enjoy myself before I can buy again knowing what might be in the mixture.

Other times you can look at the picture, after you have some experience buying lots, and tell by the picture or description hopefully, what might be in there.

But part of the fun is to think that no matter what you get it will be fun, you'll have a good time, learning, sorting, putting into album or stock book or pages, pricing sometimes, looking up info on the internet maybe to see what the thing is on the stamp, showing the stamps here on SCF.

If you find how to soak modern French stamps then tell us on here somewhere please. I am still searching, I see on ebay and Delcampe they have soaked-off modern stamps. Bothers me, these stamps kept on paper.

Also, be sure to read the fine-print to see what the seller is saying, or NOT saying. For instance, if they say, "No Duplication" then you are reasonably sure that almost every stamp will be different. If they say, "Some Duplication" then you may get up to 20% duplicates. If they say, "Includes Duplicates", then be ready for anywhere from 5% to 80% duplicates, including the potential for up to 100 or so of the same stamp.

If they don't say anything, you may want to send them an email through the system and ask about duplication.

In any case, welcome to the hobby and hope you enjoy yourself. (And please don't be in it for the profit ... there won't be any. Fair warning!)

Thanks for the information and encouragement. I ordered several small lots from an ebay seller yesterday. I don't have a catalog yet, but after I see what I receive, hopefully I can determine which catalog would be best for me. The Scott classic Specialized World has been recommended, but I'd obviously like to minimize my expenditure and maximize my resource material. Still lots of unknowns for a new guy.

Hank, welcome to the board! I sold some lots yesterday to someone named Hank. Could that be you? If so, your stamps are all 100% different and there's some bonus material (souvenir sheets) included. While there are a lot of relatively common stamps, there's also a fair amount of stamps in there that catalog up to a few dollars each, so there's definitely some less common material in there too. Only a few US were included as I normally sell just WW only. I put a few recent used US stamps in the envelope to compensate for the fact that I didn't use stamps on the package. They went out in the mail today and you should be able to track delivery status in your ebay purchase history (assuming I'm actually the one you bought them from). Whether you bought them from me or not, I hope you enjoy your purchase! I hope it was me that you bought them from as I'd be honored to have supplied someone with their first stamps!

For off-paper lots, I've found that small lots are usually better than big bulk lots. Smaller lots tend to be low or no duplication and the stamps will usually be mostly sound (not damaged in some way). Big bulk lots sound like a great deal but just as often as not you end up with endless duplicates of very common stamps, many of which are really beat up from stuffing them all in a big envelope or a box. I like buying stamps on paper as well because you can usually get a lot of them for a good price and they're nice and crisp and clean once they're soaked off and dried. I end up with a lot of duplicates from on paper kiloware, but it's easy enough to sell them on ebay for a few cents apiece, the proceeds of course going to buy more stamps!

A Big SCF Hank44

To me all different stamps off paper and called a packet.

Modern kiloware is bulk. It comes originally from a charity source mostly and then people will refine that charity kiloware into different letter cost rate eras. In Australia 45c is from 1992 to 2002 then 50c is to 2008 then 55c is to 2010 then 60c is to 2014 then 70c is to now. Or take out all the Definitives. So there is many ways to buy kiloware. But if you are looking for a kg of kiloware all different it is not going to happen as on paper per kg is about 4,500 stamps & off paper is about 15,000 stamps per kg.

Charity kiloware on paper comes with the very common Definitives and the more sort after commemorates not forgetting those Christmas stamps. Kiloware unpicked comes at a rate of about 50% Defin's/50% Comm's and always has heaps of duplication.

"Theartfulhinger" I hope you were the seller because your description of the stamps you sell sounds like what I would like to receive. If you sent them to Salisbury, NC, they are probably mine.

As with any new hobby, there will certainly be a learning curve for me especially with the terminology. Almost like speaking a different language sometimes...

I do appreciate all of the comments and advice.

Hank

Yep, that's where they went. Well...hello customer! Small world! I think you'll like them but had I known it was your first ever purchase I would have really gone the extra mile. I'm just a collector disposing of his duplicates and your order was actually on the large side by my standards, so I'd like to send you a smaller bonus shipment at no charge. Let me know if there's something in particular you're interested in - a particular country or region or era of history - and I'll be happy to send something extra and/or special in that area if I can. Being just a collector I don't have a comprehensive stock to choose from, but I've got thousands and thousands of extra stamps and I don't mind sending you a few more. I'm more than happy to help a new collector get started. Seriously, I've got more stamps than I know what to do with and I'll be happy to send you a few more gratis. I'll be sure to send you some US stamps as well since your first post sounded like you are interested in US stamps, too.

"TheArtfulHinger" your offer of extra stamps is gratefully accepted and I look forward to doing business with you again. As for what I'm interested in, I probably will not decide until I have looked through your stamps and see what grabs my attention. However, I enjoy learning about what this country went through during and shortly after WWII. I believe that period shaped our nation like no other. Anything you send will certainly help my education.

You have certainly taken ebay buying to a new satisfaction level for me, and you've made me specially thankful that I chose this site to begin my stamp collecting hobby.

Thank all of you very much.

Wars and their aftermaths are definitely popular collecting areas - they certainly are for me. It's the history reflected in those stamps that I like the most. I'm pretty sure I can find some US stamps from that era to send and I definitely know I have lots of worldwide material from around that time. I can put together a mini-WWII collection for you (a few dozen stamps) that will contain a little of this and a little of that and I may even do a little write up for you so you know what you're looking at. There won't be anything with any real value, but there should be some things you'll find interesting. I'll try to have that off in the mail to you next week.

ArtFulHinger, would you be so kind as to recommend two catalogs that would be the best resources for identifying most of the stamps you are sending me. I've seen a pretty good selection of lightly used books on ebay but really don't know which would be the best for a beginner.

Hank

When you're new, I would recommend to start small: visit a local stampcommunity and buy some stuff there, but don't overdo it. After some time you might get seriously hooked up and that's the time to buy bigger parcels. Otherwise you just end up with a lot of stamps and don't like it anymore...

Is it OK to post links to sites? Hope so -

anyway, this is a comprehensive online catalogue with good images: http://www.stampworld.com/en/maps/Europe/

If you can identify the country of a stamp, which is relatively easy with Google (type "Helvetia" for example), then you will be able to identify most stamp countries. Estimating the period of issue is also quite easy - single colour print, engraved, old looking is just that - large, multi-colour is more modern. Face value is also a clue to the period. So, you can browse the online catalogue and find what you need to.

(You need to sign up for it after so many page views - I did, and it's fine. Great resource.)

Damian, thank you for the advice. Yes, I am beginning to see that identifying just one stamp for a beginner could be quite time consuming so buying several thousand could be very intimidating and potentially discouraging.

Ringo, thank you very much for the link. That site will be very helpful to me when I start trying to identify my stamps.

Hank

nothing like a satisfied customer to promote business! I just ordered some kiloware from the Artful Hinger!

congrats on taking up the hobby of collecting stamps ... people still chuckle and say "no really??" when I tell them I collect stamps in response to their question "what do you do for fun?" ...