Stamps Dealers

Where do stamp dealers buy big (bulk) stamp lots/collections? Is there some online auction houses to do that?

Where ever they can!!

A more complete answer might be..From the same sources that you might use. Most online auctions usually end with large lots and acculumlations.

Large lots can also be bought on ebay.
Some dealers advertise to buy collections in hobby publications and could be contacted by a collector's estate or even by a collector selling his holdings for whatever reason.

Most dealers purchase their inventory from major auction houses. They buy a small percentage from private sellers and from the small local auction firms , and ebay is a joke for dealers buying large lots .

Some of the larger cover dealers I know buy from other dealers as well as from collectors who decide to sell or from their widow.

This is a good site many auction houses use and many dealers buy from here to

http://stampauctionnetwork.com/auctions.cfm

An Ustase stamp as an avatar? Really?

SOMETHING YOU DIDN'T KNOW-----Most of the better large lots end up at about five major firms. These firms have the highest level before they remove anything from the lot and list it separate .Each auction firm has a pull out level ,meaning they leave in the large lots better material . Ever firm has some kind of quality and pricing level ,the smaller the firm lower the level. If a smaller dealer gets something that walks in the door that is top quality and very high for his clients he will consign it up the ladder to the bigger firms . These bigger firms will sometimes hold a item for up to a year until they have a name auction on that country or subject .
On most large lots that are offered for sale ,most likely your the fourth or fifth persons looking at it and all the previous viewers have passed on it at that price.
No one person knows everything or even can price some of the huge lots that are up for auction ,hundreds of times I have viewed lots and wrote in my catalog that a lot that I viewed wasn't worth the opening price ,and then watched as that lot goes up in bidding during that sale between two or three dealers . We all look and value lots differently . I look for complete sets and stuff that goes out side the regular catalogs where others look at catalog values or good country runs ,to be broken down for their customer wants .
Going to many different auctions and attending the same firms auctions time and time again you learn who buys what and you learn want the ebay sellers will look at and what they will bid . I sat next to NYSTAMPS enough times ,something like 50 hours ,to understand what he views and what Jimmy bids on . I also watched as ebay buyers who buy aggressively over pay for lots .
As for me I buy aggressively against these buyers but my time frame is differently ,I don't care what it sells for today or tomorrow because I buy stamps for entertaintment and that puts my resale concerns out twenty years . -------So who buys the big lots -----there are different kinds of buyers ,dealers who buy for certain customers ,ebay sellers looking for a fast turn around and the most dangerous ones at any auction the collector !!.

Auction houses don't pull half as much material out of large lots as collectors think they do. They don't have the time. And many large lots are consigned by dealers looking to sell material they can't use to someone who can. And large lots are just like single stamps in the sense that judging the overall condition is very important, plus knowing which stamps are important and which are not, so one really needs a professional level of knowledge to accurately estimate the value of most of them.

As a dealer you really have to look for stuff where ever you can on the Internet. The auction houses are a good place to start for collections, but I agree with floortrader points when it comes to auction houses. I have seen stuff I sell in my ebay lots go into auction house later on with estimates of more than 5 times what I sold the items for. Smart people buy off ebay and sell in auction houses where the end price is likely to be higher. But for dealers auction houses are sometimes not the best bet if price goes to high they won't make money. They need to find estate collections that no one has looked at or buy from collectors selling off their stamps.

Great thread and posts from floortrader. Hope others jump in.

This is not true. Many collections (large and small) go straight from collector or estate to an auction firm without being offered to dealers directly first.




Mnor point, but his name is Ji, not Jimmy or Jim.




The two show dealers I have close knowledge about (one of which is one of the largest show dealers out there) both get very little of their material from private sellers and from wholesale bouys from other dealers. On the other hand, the ebay dealers I am familiar with get most of their material from auctions.

I certainly learned a lot so far from this thread

"...and ebay is a joke for dealers buying large lots ."


Clearly one has to be judicious, but as a generalization, this is not entirely accurate. I've purchased plenty of large lots on ebay at reasonable prices that after weeding out what I wanted for myself, were broken up and sold at a decent profit.

That's what counts as a dealer selling stamps for a profit, not always easy esp of you start on ebay at 99 cents per stamp.