I Was At The Show On 30 May 2016

I was at the World Stamp Show on 30 May 2016. I was glad they were pushing a lot of common U.S. used stamps, giving away stamps to kids. One thing not well advertised was discount postage. Raising public awareness of discount postage will increase its use, especially if there's a local stamp store where people can buy the stuff below face. Addressees and their families will see all the cool stamps and the exposure will spark one in a thousand to start collecting used U.S. stamps. Raising public awareness will also warn people not to "invest" in new U.S. issues. I bought plenty of discount postage for some mailings.

People just need to understand what catalog value is based on - a single stamp in the grade of VF purchased from a full service dealer. Being that a dealer has to purchase new issues at face value and has a reasonable expectation of a profit (as well as recouping any packaging expenses), 2x face is realistic. Few people are going to sell a single stamp at much below face as it's not worth their time. Even Scott themselves says in the introduction to their catalogs that one can expect to pay below catalog for collections, lots, lower quality items, etc, which is what a discount postage lot would be categorized as. A lot of misconceptions about catalog values could be cleared up if people would just read the introduction to the Scott Catalogs.

The market for common material is always a challenge. Dealers pay well below face and then often mark up well above face. If you sell in quantity, expect less.

Al

Discount postage discredits the hobby; better we should only use it between ourselves, so as to hide our dirty little secret.




They could always add the resale-back-to-the-trade prices, but who wants to know - let alone pay for - this information?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

It discredits catalog publishers as much as it makes the hobby seem fishy and should not be a secret. It is reality. They should not set a valued minimum and try to judge how a seller would price an item for common material. There are sellers like Mystic that price above catalog. A better approach is like some coin books did where they list a buy and sell price.

I do buy modern material off ebay and usually end up nearing paying face for small quantities since I want a specific item (plate number, etc). I do not feel like I am being taken since I just use the stamps at any time.

In fact with one seller, I purchased a booklet at face and the seller used the same stamps on the mailier - that was intentional.

Al

There is nothing new about the Scott catalog using double face (or more) for new issues. I have a 1926 catalog where the Huguenot-Walloons and Lexington-Concords were listed at 3,5, and 10 cents each and the Norse-Americans were 5 and 12 cents each. They were the 3 most recent issues at the time. It's a well known standard practice.

Revcollector, the simple fact is that as far as I am aware this is done everywhere. As a young lad in the fifties I was collecting stamps in the Netherlands and the catalog ( the NVPH Speciale ) had all the prices doubled. I always thought this was normal and did not think anything of it!

Peter

Anyone who thinks that twice face is too high for recent mint stamps, in VF condition, sold onesy-twosy, is welcome to buy a batch, and sell them for less, and not regret that 'investment'. Cheers,