A Finance Question.

It really depends on what your goal is. If you want to have a collection that retains as much of its value as possible, you're better off buying fewer, more expensive stamps. If having more stamps in your collection is more enjoyable to you, of course you'd be better off buying more, but less expensive stamps.

My acquisitions each month run the gamut from dirt cheap to moderately expensive (by my standards). I buy the more expensive stamps when a good opportunity comes along, all while plugging away at the more affordable items on a regular basis. Although I know I'll get there at a certain point, I'm purposely trying to avoid having nothing but expensive stamps on my want list. If I could only acquire a stamp or two a month (or even less) for my collection, I might lose interest. I'm already starting to broaden my collecting habits somewhat in anticipation of that. I really like adding stamps to my collection, and I'll start up a whole new collection of a different area before I slow down too dramatically.

I see stamp collecting as a hobby for my enjoyment, not as an investment. That said, sometimes I do buy more expensive (by my standards) stamps, for which I save up. When I do that, I am choosy about the quality not because I am concerned about the future resale value but because I do not like the appearance of stamps with creases, poor centering, or heavy cancels. Other times I am very happy poking through a cheap mixture for nice looking used copies of common stamps.

I maintain a want list, and if I spot a good deal for something on my list, I may go for it even if I have to break into next month's budget. By thinking up front about what is on the want list, and making sure it has inexpensive as well as more expensive items, I feel like there is a range of things I can buy without making a "bad" decision.

One more thing I tell myself is that all the stamps in my price range will be up for sale many times over the next few years. If I miss out on one today, I may get a chance to buy an even nicer copy a year or two from now.

warriorpoet62,

I have a monthly budget and skip purchasing until I have enough for the stamp(s) I want. Some months I'll buy several stamps, some months just one stamp, and some months nothing. That's what works for me!

Jack Kelley

Good question - and lots of good answers already.

Don mentions the 'fun quotient' - that is absolutely the essence for me, more so than the pure investment aspect. I would normally not get too much fun from 1-3 decent stamps. Then I would rather do as Spain suggest - get a collection - or even an old hoard of seemingly worthless duplicates. I have lots of fun with cheap lots like that, mining for not-yet-discovered 'gold'.

This autumn I was at a local auction facing kind of the same dilemma as warriorpoet. I ended up using half my funds on one single stamp - (GB Victoria £5 orange 1882) - and then for the remaining half I acquired a ridiculously huge hoard of stamps fillinng 40 x 2 liter boxes, sorted on countries. Naturally I had great pleasure when inserting the £5 orange into my collection, but the fun was short lived. However I am going to work on those 40 boxes for months, and surely I have already found lots of good stuff, variants, postmarks etc amongst all those common stamps. That hunt is the fun quotient for me.

Good luck on your investment - hope it will be fun!

For me $75 is a good cutoff for buying something that goes a little more than maybe most people would spend in a single visit to a show or shop (I realize there is a wide range of budgets out there)

For 75 you could get... A halfway decent used 50 cent Colombian or a 50 cent trans-Mississippi, about the upper limit of affordable stamps in those runs. Or a Penny Black. Probably wouldn't be a great copy but you would have one. I like the C-18 idea too that a poster had.

In the end, I would probably get a world wide box lot though and dive in. Like Floortrader says, it would be a learning experience. In every box lot I find new things I have never seen before and stamps identified by people much smarter than me! Like Blaamand's 40 boxes.... I can imagine the fun!

I think it really depends on what level of collecting you are at. If you have been collecting for ages and you just need higher-end items, then save the $75/month towards purchase of one of those items.

Conversely if you are hitting the financial limits of what your current collection allows, pick a new area and find a starter collection a large all-different mixture for sale and dive into a new area from ground zero.

Similarly if you are a new collector, I would say pick a place whose stamps interest you, and pick up a starter collection or a large all-different mixture and explore where that leads you.

For $75 you can often find lots of nice basic starter collections/all-different mixtures of hundreds of stamps for most of the major stamp issuing nations.

A good starter album with a couple thousand stamps in it would be about that too and that's how I got back into collecting.

Hi,
LOTS of excellent replies here! May I add.........

If it were me, and I was just getting back into the hobby, I would try ebay (or other site/store)and pick up the nicest used Scott album (likely Part 1 International) I could find.

If I was not interested in an album or established collection, I would buy a handful of $10-$15 stamps, looking for the very best quality I could get.

While I'm not in the hobby for the money/investment, it is obvious that the stamps that will bring the best price are those of quality.

Yes, it is always best to buy the most expensive stamp that you can afford in the best condition possible in the price range of your available budget. Unfortunately, I have not always stuck to this advice falling for quantity rather than quality many times because filling more empty spaces for the same amount of money is something that appears more visually appealing.

---"IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO BUY THE MOST EXPENSIVE STAMP THAT YOU CAN AFFORD IN THE BEST CONDITION " really , I disagree .
It is better to buy ,collect and become the world expert on the TIBETIAN YAK MAIL or the WEST VIRGIN Coal Company General Store Post Office . Or something like the Great Britain Postal Strike stamps used by private vendors . Find something different and unusual that you can tell the story and be the go to person .

Buy stamps and covers that you can collect and educate yourself and be able to show and tell others about so you advance the knowledge of the stamp community .If you think your going to buy something and it is more valueable than the next collector, that is going to get boring very fast.

good point floortrader.....

all those reply and no one ask the OP what he is collecting

So Warior, what are you collecting ?

@area66-- I am interested in collecting US stamps (including bob.)

thank you
wp62

I agree totally with floortrader. One of the most interesting items to collect is, in my opinion covers and postmarks from the town / county / state one lives in.

Peter

If financial return is your primary concern, the best advice is probably to put your money in a mutual fund and not collect stamps at all. The primary benefit from stamp collecting is your personal enjoyment and education.
You need to think about what topic or type of collecting you enjoy the most. If you collect something because it might have a better return you might wind-up with a collection that you lose interest in. If you aren't enjoying the collection, you might as well put the money in the bank or a mutual fund.
That said, you are less likely to lose money on items that are valuable enough to be sold as individual lots at a major auction house - generally $200+.