It's The Stamps Dealers Who Set The Prices In Catalog

Did I not tell you before that Scott and stamps dealers want to keep the catalogue prices high. If you have the new copy of Unitrade 2016, you have the proof , they have a list of group of Editorial Associates work on the pricing.

Robert Cooperman City Stamp Montreal
Gary Lyon of Gary Lyon and Eastern Auctions
Roy Houtby Roy's Stamps
Ian Kimmerly Sparks Auctions

and many more

If the stamp catalog has a price, should it not be stamp dealer prices that determine the reference pricing? Bear in mind that the catalog prices are intended to represent market retail prices for individual stamps.

Are you trying to imply that the stamp dealers provide fraudulent pricing data to the catalog publishers? What do you mean by "fix"?

Take 4 different catalogs and look up a number of the same stamps in each if you want to see discrepancy in pricing. Especially SG vs Scott.

You also have to take into consideration what each calls a VF stamp.

I look at a lot of auctions and many stamps have faults, yet thry still want a high % of catalog for them.

That is not realistic pricing.

Hi to all

I think possibly area66 probably means establish the prices, rather than fixes.
Horamakhet

Catalogs have always used industry professionals along with auction prices as well as direct observation to create pricing, there is nothing new about it. Who else is there, these are the people who deal in the market every day and know what people are willing to pay for items.
Anyone can price any item they own at any number they want. If you think an item is priced too high don't buy it.

When all the big players and selling stamps in Canada sit together to "establish" price on the most popular catalog , how you call it

Catalogues may be various things - they may be an offer to sell by the publisher, eg SG or Yvert, or a supposed view of market prices, eg Scott. If dealers dominate the pricing decision-making for a catalogue, they will tend to have a vested interest in keeping prices high. It doesn't matter much if those buying stamps understand the process and the discounts - or, occasionally, uplifts - to catalogue prices that prevail elsewhere. Sadly, that's not necessarily the case.

The catalog price is irrelevant unless you are planning on buying it at that exact price or a fixed percentage thereof. Otherwise, for the vast majority of stamps, finding several (or several dozen) copies to choose from at various prices isn't too much of a problem.

i hope no one believe a give a d.... Of the price. I never base my purchases on them, I was just making an observation because many persons seems to rely or have questions about catalog prices and , lol, grading on this forum

The most important thing about catalogs is their listing of releases and varieties. Prices are more of a relevant barometer of supply/demand for a given item than any hard fact, they can't be real-time "price to expect" for an item in the retail market because by the time the catalog determines values versus when it is published the market will have evolved for several months, and may reflect new realities.

So best use of catalogs is as guides at to what exists. Catalogs as determiners of value can not compete with the online marketplace as the ultimate arbitrer of market value.

I am not sure I understand the concern -- Most things I buy, the price is set by the seller (in this case the dealer). Why should stamps be different?

The process for buying stamps can be kind of like buying a car. The dealer sets a sticker price, and the buyer usually pays the full price (if it is worth it to the buyer), negotiates a lower deal, or goes somewhere else. Its not much different from buying stamps?

There is no need to imply collusion between the dealers & the catalog publishers.

Thought experiment: what would the future of the catalog publishers be if they reported broadly declining prices, year after year?

I heard people dissing catalog prices fifty years ago, and I heard people explaining - fifty years ago - that catalog prices are reference prices for onesy-twosy sales of stamps of a specific grade. The more things change ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I call this process Capitalism, the law of supply and demand. We demand and they supply, on the basis of a price. I think the use of the word "fixed" is a bit emotive as it implies collusion but, like every other commodity (rice, flour, oil, steel) stamp prices are "fixed" on a routine basis by demand and to a lesser extent, supply. If you want a cheaper price, you usually go to a discount store or (in our hobby) rely on your dealer to pass on the discount from a stamp he's had in stock for a while.

In some popular areas (e.g. British and Empire QV, KGVI) the prices can be high simply because they are popular, especially for the rarer varieties. For these latter stamps, the auctions determine the price, pure and simple. Some stamps also appear to be relatively cheap in a catalogue, but you seldom see them for sale. I think this may simply be because they aren't popular and the price-hikes haven't reached them yet.

Having written all that, I don't remember seeing the price of a stamp go down from one catalogue issue to the next...

This is not a collusion, a collusion will be if they all sell at the same price. And to have purchase from few of them; they don't fallow the catalogue pricing.

dutchman1948 has it right. It boils down to actual condition of the stamp. Many sellers embellish the condition.

Jack Kelley

Since different dealers sell the same stamp for a different price, there must be some average pricing involved when several dealers put their input into the stamp's catalogue value. I like comparing the price of different stamps in the catalogue while also looking at the quantity issued for them. However, if there is any change in catalogue value for a stamp, I assume that its most previous listed catalogue value serves as a starting point.