Looking For Advice On Presenting A Lot For Sale

I'm getting ready to put together several lots of stamps for sale. The stamps are currently hinge mounted on pages in three volumes of the Minkus Comprehensive World Wide Stamp Album. I considered offering the three volumes with stamps but it seemed to me that would be limiting the market so my intent is to remove the stamps and bundle them in logical lots. The empty albums can then be offered for sale separately.

My question is what to do about the hinges: trim them, remove them or leave them in place? About 1/3 of the stamps are mint which plays into the argument.

Thanks,
Terry

I've never sold a lot like this, so I might not be the best person to chime in. I can tell you what I would prefer when shopping and buying, however.

You could leave them on the page, scan and ship them still on the page. I am personally fine with this method of buying and shipping. If your lots aren't going to encompass an entire page and/or you plan on shipping them in glassines or on approval cards, etc, you might want to remove them and place them in a black stock sheet prior to scanning or photographing. I prefer the hinges to be removed, provided that could be done without damaging the stamps. If they're mint hinged, you'll want to describe them as such no matter how you sell them, although if they're pictured while still on the page that should be self-evident.

The title description space is something to consider.

Scanning a hinged page stops the need to describe the hinging.

Removing hinges without damaging the stamps and presenting them in a black stock card or sheet is a very popular way of presenting sets.

I agree with TheArtfulHinger.

I am with TAH. I buy lots that are like this rather than loose stamps.

I just purchased a number of album pages filled with Brazilian stamps. The seller basically sold the stamps by year issued. I really liked receiving the stamps organized in this way and I didn't mind paying a little bit more for the shipping.

I think it depends on how many stamps are in the albums. If there are a lot of stamps I think the best way is to sell them on pages by country. If the pages are sparse it is probably better to sell the albums together or 1 by 1. I have never had good results selling stamps on stock pages and you have to remember the time it takes to remove the stamps and the cost of the stock pages.

Regardless of how you decide to sell the stamps I'm convinced the most important thing is to take good pictures or better yet scan the items. Good luck!

Ken

Thanks to all for your insights. I'll try to respond to all the comments in one go.

There are about 3000 stamps spread across 174 countries on perhaps 600 pages so most pages have only a few stamps on them. This makes the idea of scanning the stamps on the pages less appealing to me. There may be a few exceptions to that in the case where a full set of an issue is mounted on one page.

I did plan to scan them in Vario pages since I find that gives the clearest representation of condition. Since I always complain when I see items that are not clearly described I will be as forthright as possible.

I'm leaning toward cutting the hinges on used stamps and using the old paint brush and water technique to float the hinges off the mint stamps. I hope that results in the least disturbance of the gum.

In the meantime I've made a list of all of the countries and the Scott volume addressing them so I can borrow the books from our library one at a time to get the proper Scott numbers since the Minkus albums use their own numbering system. Having that allows me to include it in the item description.

Terry

Cutting the hinges would turn me off. Makes it harder to get the hinge off without resorting to soaking.

I wouldn't want someone to use a paint brush and water either. Now, Q-tip and saliva, that's a different story, with a whole lot less moisture, but a lot more time consuming.

Of course, that results in the requirement of haz mat procedures.

Terry

Arrrrr one for the DNA collectors of the future.