How Are Stamp "Catalog" Values Established?

WERT: You're right, Robert… that is sad. When I stated "DEALERS" it was to mean advertising dealers in the catalog.

Hal

51 - collecting data from ebay would be worthless because it comes without condition data (as heronymous pointed out) and it is also fraught with misidentification as someone else pointed out (sorry to that person for not catching who it was).

And even if it did not have those issues, it would only reflect the ebay environment.

I am new at this, so I am still trying to figure all this out, so here is my take.

The other week I went to a stamp show, it was a bust for the dealers, as the weather was icy to say the least. At this show they had boxes and boxes of donated stamps, albums, covers, etc for free, all you had to do was go through the stuff and pick out what you wanted.

Now considering that there were a billion of any particular stamp printed, and dealers are trying to sell what they consider the best, were in the world are all these cast-a ways?; sitting in some big boxes someplace. So here we sit bidding on ebay for some poor quality, supposed rare stamp, and we should be able to buy this stuff for the price of shipping and handling, by the pound. There are a few exceptions for sure.

So you want to protect your investment? You think the price of stamps have come down, and you want to know what happen to the hobby? (It is no longer a hobby, it for many, has become just an investment.) Free up those stamps you do not use

The fun is finding, identifying, organizing, displaying these stamps, not buying and selling.

I hanker for the day when $ .10 cents and a match book cover you could buy a hundred stamps.

Now you guys are catching on...

that's it.

Things become important over time due to their significance. Stuff that is produced as "collectible" never has a value. Consider automobiles. Auburns, Chords and Deusenbergs were never made as collectibles, but they are historically important. The '76 Cadillac Eldorado convertible was produced as a collectible. The last American convertible. People bought them and put them away. But the cars are not important. The buyers/investors wasted their money. The same is true with the stamp hobby. Huge amounts of stuff has been produced, and continues to be produced for the collector market. You might as well stick them on an envelope for the postage because they are worthless.

Hal

There are limits on SG's abiity to drive the market, or there will be if the other catalogue publishers arrived at independent decisions on value. Do they? Or does each catalogue follow the market leader in a particular area of the leader's expertise, eg SG and Michel follow Scott for US, Scott and SG follow Michel for Germany, Scott and Michel follow SG for GB/Empire? And is the market being driven across the board, or simply in the area of scarcer "investment" material, on which SG now seems to concentrate?

Geoff

Guys..There is only one way to dictate the value/price of any stamp...That is to find out how many stamps exist of one type..But, that would have to have input from the whole world and every stamp collector..BUT THAT IS AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK.

That would dictate supply and demand..

Example...If I had a stamp that say had only 25,000 issued back say in 1880..How many survived the pass of time...20,000...1000...50..?
is this making any sense..?

Robert

An exact number might prove impossible most of the time, but a pretty good educated guess is possible for a lot of stamps, it just takes a long time of looking at them and paying attention. Plus reading a lot of classic and current literature can help in some cases.

Robert

That would tell you about supply, but not value. A relatively common stamp from a desirable country will still sell for more than a relatively scarce one from a country in which there's relatively little collector interest.

Regards.

Geoff

Remember supply and demand. Low supply and high demand is big bucks. High supply and high demand is somewhat less. Low supply and low demand is no better. High supply and low demand is worthless.

Although this is true, the problem with it is that words like supply and demand do not conform to specific quantities. High and low vary considerably from philatelic area to philatelic area, and there is something called popularity as well. Popularity can take a high demand, fairly high supply stamp or set and make it pretty valuable. The Zepps and Columbians fall into this category for the most part. Very easy to buy since they are everywhere; all it takes is the money that popularity requires.

This is getting fun to read .....the problem is not SUPPLY and DEMAND .........the funny part is most collectors have no clue to what the supply is and have absolutely no idea what the demand really is .What are they reading ???? completed auctions on ebay?

Popularity is demand. It's just that simple. Often high supply items are popular. Consider the early Ford Mustangs. (oh no, he's back on cars) Many were produced but they are popular and thus they are in demand and command high prices. I think you're saying the same thing.

Popularity is not demand, it is an added layer on top of demand. It enables stamps that are really not all that uncommon or not uncommon at all to be treated as if they are.