Approval Prices

Been in touch with an advertiser re his approval service. He says he asks 75% of Scott for mint and 50% for used- 65% for LH. I was asking about Germany and British but he seems to have that pricing across the board.

This just seems a bit pricey to me but I know there are other factors involved. My inclination is to thank him for the reply and move on. Any thoughts?

Hi Stamps1962. It's been a real long time; like maybe 25 years; since I bought anything on approval. However, I have made purchases from several dealers during the past few years, primarily for my main avocations, which are Portuguese colonies, Mexico, Poland, and nov getting into British East Africa in all its incarnations. I've also picked some things up from several auction houses, one of which is a mail auction place.

The prices you've been quoted seem reasonable to me if you're looking for specific stamps, based on what I've been paying (granted, good Portuguese colonial material can be real hard to find). The used quote may be a little high. It all depends on how common a given stamp is and also condition (centering, etc.; not damaged like thins). If you don't care a whole lot about what you get (meaning some duplication) and mixtures or old albums of German & British material appeal to you, then I'd say the quoted prices are high.

I built my US collection on ebay by never paying more then 20% ... for UNUSED.

Just my personal opinion.

Over the years, I've tried approvals off and on, and usually I'm not very happy with them. Even when the ad has stated they cater to advanced collectors, they tend to be intermediate at best. And the topical approvals were the worst! Lots of wallpaper, non-Scott listed stuff, etc.

That said, I have occasionally hit on some good approvals and are worth paying a little more than I might elsewhere due to the convenience or the fact that the dealer actually read and understood my needs and tried to offer selections that I might want to buy. Also, I tend to have a lot of luck from the APS Circuits - I have a nice selection of Vatican sitting on my desk now. They are running (very roughly just spot checking) at 70% to 50% below Scott.

The percentages you cite are a little better than what I usually encounter at local shows.

For the more common stamps take them off ebay cheaper and for the better stamps use the approval service.

I don't think it's too far out of line as far as approvals go, but hopefully the dealer offers some additional discounts if you purchase over a certain amount. You have to keep in mind that in an approval service the dealer has much higher overhead costs. If he's got a lot of customers, that means he's got a lot of inventory tied up in other peoples' hands every month. Also, his postage costs are high because he generally doesn't pass that along to the buyer like a dealer who charges S&H from a price list or website. The stamps are packaged and labeled, which takes time, plus the dealer is taking some risks that some customers might not pay for the stamps. Given all that, 50-75% of Scott isn't too exorbitant, given the circumstances. Buying on approval isn't meant to be competitive on price vs. buying on ebay. You're paying for the convenience of having stamps sent to your home so you can actually see and touch them first.

Move on.

Stamps, what time period are you looking for? (I think you mentioned it elsewhere but I ate too much turkey to remember much of anything.)

Check out the prices here. http://www.stamps2go.com/default.aspx Registration is free. You only pay $1.00 per seller to ship any number of stamps.

I haven't used approvals for a long long time, but that being said, I like approval services. It is always nice to have eyes and hands on the items you are buying. I appreciate that it costs extra to do that for many reasons .... postage, time to assemble and package, "dead" inventory until returned, % lost and never returned, etc. If you are buying quality stamps, approval services are a plus.

I use APS mail circuits as my "approval service" these days. The down side is that you have to deal with what they send you which means picking through several circuit books to find a gem. However, if you are not in a rush and enjoy browsing their circuit offerings, it can be a very rewarding and interesting experience.

I get several different circuit.... US Mint, US Used, US Pre-1940, Canada, Korea, Mexico ... and my favorite... Clearance Book Circuit.

Check out: http://stamps.org/Circuit-Request

For those prices I would look on ebay, you could toss 1/2 the stamps in a junk pile and still be better off

One of the disadvantages of Stamps2Go is that the individual sellers have minimum order limits. So if you want a specific item for $3.00 but the seller has a $7.50 minimum order limit, you have find an additional $4.50 in items to purchase just so you can get your $3 item.

If you are trying to fill holes... this is problematic. I was looking for 11 stamps to fill holes. I had to buy an additional 8 stamps at a cost of $42.65 cents to meet various sellers minimum order limits to get my original 11 stamps.