Totally Worthless To Purchase Country Mixture Or Kiloware

When I first started collecting(again) I purchased lot's of bulk and kiloware. Was there duplication? yes but it got me started with a decent beginner collection that I was able to build on and it gave me trading material and extra stamps to give away to beginners.

I still, on ocasions buy mistery boxes of stamps but for the most part now I am looking to buy specific stamp to fill blank spaces in my albums.

Dianne

I buy kiloware now and then. Recently, I realized that I didn't have much material from Thailand, so I purchased a few kiloware lots to "bulk up" that country. Depending on the kiloware seller, you can get some decent material at decent prices. Alot of what I got in the lot is from the early 2000s and more than enough definitives, but I'm not picky. I suppose if I decided to go more in depth, I could start filling in the holes around the material I bought. This was bought more to keep that blank page glare away than to specialize in anything.

Some may be looking for that $10 stamp hidden in mixtures, I would rather buy remainder collections in auctions. You usually get more different and areas you want.

If you are doing beyond basic philately chances are you'll love kilo lots. Personally I've done considerable work on several perf issues and colour shifts that could not really be done any other way. And as for value, that work paid off in discovered varieties - the surplus of which I have sold on ebay - covering my purchase costs and more. The "duplication" is one of the things many collectors want.

As my fellow forum members have noted, it depends on what you are into. If you are trying to build a one-of-each collection, kiloware is going to give you many of some and none of others. But if you are fascinated by printing and perforation varieties, tagging, color shifts and shades, perfins, cancellations, pnc's and even selvedge marks as I am, kiloware can be highly entertaining, rewarding and educational. I find that it sharpens my eye when looking over other kinds of material. But it's not for everyone. There's probably not enough time left in my life to examine it all closely.

KGB, your remark about 'whose wedding' made my day.

Alan

I will sometimes buy all different off paper country mixes for my worldwide collection. Fills many spaces cheaply. I never buy on paper kiloware. Too much duplication and life is too short to spend so much time soaking stamps off paper!

Kiloware was better before ebay came around and dealers just didnt want to deal with all the work, the small resellers that came with ebay were willing to work a million hours to squeeze out the extra money.

I've done some of this stuff, trying to go into business as a dealer. Soak, sort into a large number of containers such as envelopes. Unsorted Finland here, unsorted countries starting with C over there. Unsorted Canada gets sorted into denominations and then into varieties. Each variety gets its own glassine envelope but you always have more sorting to do. Eventually, you can make packets. I'm actually thinking of doing this again in my wife's country where I can hire people for peanuts to soak and sort.

A very good percentage of the money is postage sending the stamps from place to place. Charities ship to dealer, dealer ships on.

Personally, I love kiloware! I know that I'm not going to turn up very many high value stamps, but it has allowed me to fill in large areas of my collection at minimal cost. It's one part of an acquisition strategy.

Mind you, when you've got several kilos of kiloware (as I currently am plodding through), you do wish that the sorting and soaking faeries would drop by and work their magic.

I am afraid of buying Kiloware, as I usually end up getting a lot of Cinderellas with the lot.

I get a few Cinderellas and started collecting some of them but if I get too many of what I do not want I sell on ebay. As to buying Kiloware I have so many common stamps now I typically don't buy Kiloware anymore but buy country collections gives me better variety for the one's I am missing. I still buy from a few people that either advertise in Linn's or used to, if you don't buy the low end items you can get good variety from them.I did buy some Romania from Mr. wbattles that were very nice on ebay

Athul. You need to read the lot description carefully. Look for "few duplicates, postage stamps postally used, no CTO, no Xmas" - for a start.

Currently trying to go through the pile "O" stamps I have so not buying much but from just a few people who advertise in Linn's these are typically higher end stamps- used so not so bad on duplicates. I still have stamps I bought at the Richmond In show from three years ago I need to go through, trying not to buy anything until I am caught up. We'll see how that goes as the itch is back!

Somebody wrote: "such was Dr. Friedman in the Chicago area......" He is still in business. Both sons are in the business with him.

Recently bought a semi-kiloware lot at auction of P to R countries, no Russia. Not all the way through it yet. The find thus far is a nicely centered and canceled copy of Portugal C10, catalog $75.00, in 2016 Scott Classic Specialized catalogue.

It depends on "expectations".
And no doubt a person who buys a lot of kiloware will have good days and bad days.
There are I think two reasons to buy kiloware.
If you are focussed on one country....yes it can be a treasure trove for finding a lot of different cancellations AND it can be a good introduction to starting a collection. With the caveat that there will be duplication and little chance of finding complete sets.
I buy kiloware in smallish one country units of maybe about £5.
As I want to increase numbers in my world collection (it has never been "philately", then its worthwhile.
There have been very good days...Japan, Austria for example.....and ok days like France....and disappointing days ...China......
But I have to say that I got better than expected.