Think Before You Leap !

The Philster the voice of experience..nobody asked for my free advice but ! You come upon or are offered a couple of old Scott Internationals or Minkus supreme global albums loaded with thousands of stamps..your eyes bulge, you start calculating value...before you jump..think about it..how many of the stamps do you actually need ? If you are just starting out..perhaps you need a lot of them..if you only need a few select stamps..you are probably going to overpay..heres the lesson I learned over the years..how many of the stamps I have already will I be stuck with (everyone else has them also) ! Heres what I now believe...someone has already had the pleasure of working on that stamp collection..can they really find another buyer for it..short of putting it on ebay ? Perhaps I can save you several hundreds of dollars..or perhaps you have more common sense than I do...try not to buy a collection you will end up giving away(one way or the other) after you have taken your selected stamps from it..most of us buy bulk in the beginning and end up buying the sets we really need later on !!

I see what you're saying and it may make perfect economic sense. I think most intermediate collectors have done this at one time or another.

However, part of being a philatelist is fostering the hobby in others. I am sure that most who have been collecting more than a few years knows that there are always beginning collectors out there who can usually use what you can't.

When I was 16, I moved to a town where they actually had a stamp club. At the time I joined, I was the youngest member, and everyone went out of their way to encourage me. Part of that encouragement was supplying me with stamps, usually at a very low cost, from Mr. Drew, the club president, who would often give me a nice discount on the final total of stamps picked from his stock books, to Mr. Miller, who told me to drop by his place one night and let me buy a bunch of Canadian mint stamps out of the huge stock of sheets in his filing cabinet, going all the way back to the 30s, at face value. There were others too, who often seeded the club auctions with lots they suggested I should bid on (that no one else would bid on by prior agreement as I later found out), that I would often "win" at minimum bid.

Now, no one ever really gave me anything "for free" -- money always changed hands, although sometimes the "discount" was on the heavy side, but the important thing is that none of them ever really had to do even this, so why did they?

Because some things are more important than money. They knew what they were doing, although maybe it doesn't make "logical" sense. Did they really need that teenager's five or ten or fifeen dollars?

No.

But they knew where I was at the time, because they had probably been there themselves, years earlier. And, with the passing of time, I now know where they were coming from.

A lot of them are gone now, but I still remember.

And I always will.

I will give you 25 bucks for the two Minkus Supremos

Ok Bob, when they are stripped you can ave them for 25 buckaroos ! the Ireland and New Zealand stamps go out tomorrow ..thanks

Wpg..i know exactly what you mean...i wish I had some kids to give stamps to..i send them to a youth group in Philadelphia and some to the veterans at the VA hospital via Sneeky...tonight is a stamp club meeting and I am bringing a metal file drawer full of U.S. and foreign common postage and putting a price tag of 8 bucks on it..lets see if it sells..most of the advanced collectors do not like to fiddle with bulk like I do....

However if people like you stop buying these how are people like me going to get these great deals when you try to unload a few of those stamps for next to nothing.

MKfarm what scares me is...i will bid on an album of stamps on ebay..i estimate its worth 78 dollars to me...and the winning bid was 238.00 ...somebody either does not have a clue or has more moneta than they know what to do with !!

Mkfarm I consider MOST of the people here on the forum my friends..i am not out to make money..if I can sell stamps or covers I do not need in order to purchase stamps I do need..thats fine with me !!

Both kinds exist on ebay -- those with money to burn, and those that don't know what they are doing. Suck is the nature of auctions.

I bet if you listed that file drawer on ebay, you would get much more than the $8 you're asking, but there it's up to the buyer to inform themself.

Wpg I tried the ebay thing in the late 90's I did not even have a scanner and the people purchased my stuff by description..i did not get that much of a kick out of it.....

So, were you able to sell it?

Phil:

I love to fiddle with bulk stamps. I'll go through your stamps at home before we go to the show in Albany, in September.

David

WpgLwr I sold almost everything I put out in those days..David..i have enough to keep you busy..but we will still go to the show Both days !!

Thanks for offering sage advice Phil.

I think I mentioned in one of the other threads, I've been working my way around to starting Canada. I tend to over-analyze before I start, so I've just been reading, looking at the Scott Catalogue, trying to learn about the stamps, etc.

And I've also looked on ebay. One of the online stamp stores had a "massive horde" of Canada spanning years, mint and used, lots of duplicates, etc. I looked at all the pictures and it was indeed a huge lot.

For someone like me, who currently owns a total of ZERO Canadian stamps, it might have been a good way to "jump into the pool" -- hours of enjoyment, sorting, learning, etc. I doubt the same would be true for someone who already has a decent collection.

The price on the lot held around $120 for several day, so I kept an eye on it to see what happened. In the final flurry, the price went to about $260 or so. Maybe that was a real steal, but I'm guessing not. I honestly don't know, and I suspect a lot of the bidders don't know either.

Kirk you are coming up on 50 posts fast...i have most of Canada 1970s/1980 used in heavy duplication so do not pay for them !!

Phil:

I read all the FAQs before I signed up to join SCF and I understand the reasoning behind the 50 post thing. I'm not trying to rush to any number -- I'm just naturally loquacious And I very much agree with rules that discourage people from spamming the forums with links and offers and auctions.

As a first-time visitor and non-member just reading the boards, two things were obvious to me -- folks here are friendly to collectors of all skill levels; and although it's OK if members do a little trading, SCF is not a commercial or auction site. I hope to be here a long time because it's just what I was looking for. I can find hundreds of those other places, but what I really needed was a community where I can learn and maintain my interest and enthusiasm (especially important because I have no local stamp club). I'm starting to sound all "preachy" -- sorry about that. So, ANYWAY ...

I respect someone's right to be a lurker or an occasional visitor. But it does surprise me a bit at how many there are here. That line at the bottom of the forum page says, "254 of 458 Members have made 34289 posts in 33 forums..."

Assuming the numbers are accurate and my interpretation correct, that means that 45% of the people here have never spoken. I wonder how that compares to other forums and/or other hobbies.