What Are Worldwide Stamp Collections Worth?

We often see questions like "How much are my stamps worth", "how much should I bid on a collection?" I've been doing a little data gathering on this and was going to post in a couple weeks, but yesterday I saw a couple ebay auctions that were so overpriced I decided to move up my timetable. Shown below is a table summarizing data I've gathered from ebay sales and combined with some personal experiences.




In this chart I show the type of stamp container, the number of stamps, the average value in cents, the lowest value, the highest and the number of collections in the category. I should point out that this is a work in progress and I am limited to auctions where the number of stamps is stated.

For the beginner I will point out that there are a couple things that affect the price of stamps other than the catalog price which is often the focus. When there are a large nunber of stamps involved the manner in which they are presented affects their value. When there are a pile of glassines all full of stamps it is difficult to see what is included how much duplication, how many stamps there are, and of course you can miss that rare stamp everyone is looking for, so the stamps are worth less. If you take these stamps and spend the time to put them on stock sheets they would be worth a little more. Going to the next step and putting into an album makes the stamps even easier to evaluate and worth a little more as shown in the chart. Of course when the stamps are put into an album most duplicates are eliminated and this further complicates the calculation.

Other things that affects the value of stamps is what I call the density. If an album is 90% full it clearly includes more valuable stamps than if the same album is 25% full so the value per stamps is higher. The album, the period covered, the overall condition and other factors will affect the value but I think the table above is a good starting point.

Now let's look at a few collections;





http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-Z-WORLDWI...AOSwknJX12yD

Based on my chart above an average price for this collection is $294 with a range of $138-$506

Here's another one;






http://www.ebay.com/itm/A-Z-WORLDWI...AOSwFdtX12eH

Based on my chart above an average price for this collection is $160 with a range of $75-$275.

Obviously a dealer can set any price they want but I think informed bidders may think these two collections are not good value.

Here's one that just popped up on ebay.






Based on my chart above an average price for this collection is $412 with a range of $193-$708. So this one has possibilities.

While this method may be helpful it is severely limited because only a fraction of the collections listed on ebay include the stamp count.
I can look at a collection and quickly estimate how many stamps are included but I can't do that from a ebay listing because sellers don't show sparse pages.

It should be helpful for those that want to know the approximate value of their collection.

Sorry for the long post I hope someone finds it useful.

Thank you for this.

Hypothetical :

If an Australian purchased a collection at say $2000 from ebay,
then you would only have to pay $1,700

ebay are offering 15% discount on purchases (not inc ship)
up to a value of $300 discount.

At least this is how I read it........

http://pages2.ebay.com.au/Buyer_cou...5?rmvSB=true

Ken-

Very helpful analysis, and a reality check for those sky high Big Blues on ebay.

Thanks for doing this.

Well done, KRelyea.

I think you need to add some value for the album. Unless it is in terrible shape, an album has some value to the buyer in most cases. They can use it. Some of the album binders (thinking about Lindner here) can go for $40 or more even used.

The only problem with these calculations is that they assume no context is necessary, that the only thing that matters is the quantity of stamps, not their makeup or value. That approach may work for the beginner, but not the intermediate to advanced collector or dealer.

A sparsely filled International may be well worth taking over a more densely packed album, depending on what areas are filled, and with what. Show me a moderately filled International where the majority of stamps are in mounts rather than hinged, and that is an indicator of care and possible specialization.

The only time I would ever recommend a raw per-stamp calculation is if you were comparing it with kiloware or an accumulation (versus collection) of the same quantity, the upside of a "collection" being that it likely has more different stamps than a mixture. Saying that a particular International album on ebay is by definition "overpriced" based on a stamp count calculation is innaccurate... it depends on what those stamps are.

IMO, of course.

Context is important, but, if there were anything better in particular areas of the album, one would expect a seller (if he knew something of the contents) to draw attention to it. Otherwise, the presence of relatively few stamps in a very large album would be a reasonable indicator of (lack of) value.

I shouldn't myself read anything into the use of mounts, which might be occasioned by rarity, laziness, aesthetics or neurosis!

I do sometimes bid on lots for the album, but only if the price is likely to be low.

How is a two post, mint condition, Scott National album binder calculated? If I already have 3-4 of them, and want to expand into another of these discontinued binders, I may be willing to buy a larger lot just to get the binder.

I feel it is important to factor in 'desire' or 'fun quotient'. So I also have a similar spreadsheet calculation but it is based upon hours of 'enjoyment' and not catalog values or number of stamps. To me, stamping is a lot like going to Vegas. If I consider the money spent in the context of 'enjoyment', I can virtually never get ripped off. If the context becomes 'investment' the game changes completely. Frankly when the context is 'investment' I think financial instruments and not stamps. Years ago a wise person once said to me; 'never turn your hobby into a business, it will ruin it for you'.
Don

Guilty on all counts, M'lud.

I think I would play with your review and offer a Pre-1940 International loaded with thousands of stamps. The only problem would be 90% of the stamps would be Eastern European CTO junk and modern South America stuff . Just because the album is old is no guarantee the enclosed stamps are old .
Catalog values is a area that a lot of fun and games can be played with especially with less than "fine " stamps and throw in lot of "Campbell-Hall " high value complete sets .Really not hard to run up catalog values to people who don't know the stamp market .
Condition is another easy place to load up old albums with very early Europe because most European dealers know ebay is the dumping ground for stuff they can't sell in the home country.

I would eliminate the "modern" qualifier and extend that to classic Central and South America in general. While interesting and great engraved designs, an album loaded with 19th century El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, etc. likely has very little in the way of value. With some exceptions, throw in Argentina, Chile, and to a lesser extent Brazil and Mexico as well (although these last two can have some nice material depending on era).

The Eastern Europe CTO mention is spot on. 1950s-1990s Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria = worthless. Russia as well, but for some reason there are a lot of people that collect Russia even from that era, so it is sellable, albeit at cents on the dollar.




True, although (1) the calculations in this thread are presumably for Scott-minimum material anyway, so even in fault-free condition the value is nominal, and (2) like it or not, unsellable in Europe actually doesn't mean it's not unsellable here in the U.S. (make of that what you will). In my own specialty, I am constantly amazed at what people will buy and what they will pay for it.

Faulty will always sell... it's just a matter of at what percentage.

A lot of good questions and responses so I will take them in order.

1. adcaplan; I don't think anyone wants to buy a Modern album in order to continue it so what is it worth, probably the same with the Bound Scott Juniors, but the value of the albums is included in the selling costs. I think the usefulness of Scott Internation looseleaf for continuation accounts for the higher average cost/stamp. However I think one of the best ways to start a collection is to buy a collection in a lightly used album. I see auction lots all the time where the albums are way undervalued. I will try and edit my original post to add this information.

2. revenuecollector; Of course you are correct there many other factors that go into valuing a collection and I hope to get into these in future posts. I was targeting my post to those folks that find or inherit an old collection and wonder what it is worth and then get upset when you tell them their "Modern" collection with 800 common stamps is woth $20. My post is also intended to give some guidance to people who are just beginning to buy collections on line or at auction. I wanted to give them some basics so that they don't pay too much for some of the "Fixed Price" collections listed on ebay.

3. Geoffa; Thanks for the support.

4. 51studebaker; Sometimes I think folks forget about the fun factor. For example I loved that cover that was addressed to John Dillenger in the US Covers thread. I don't care if Roessler created it, I liked it it was fun!

5. rod222; Get well soon!

6. floortrader; Frankly I never considered the idea of someone building an album of 1000s of stamps in order to resell it & make $. After you buy the stamps, album, hinges and spend the time hinging in all those stamps you have to be working for less than $5/hr. However, you do have a good point in that my estimates assumed the stamps would be correct for the album and I will edit my post to reflect that.

7. revenuecollector; From sad experince I have found that it is very common for dealers and auctioneers to remove the "good" countries from a collection and leave Latin America, Eastern Europe and just enough good material for some impressive pictures, but more on that in another post.

Thanks to everybody

ikeypikey; Sorry I missed you thanks for the support!

KRelyea----I like your OP review and the way you break it down , keep working on it .

jkblue: I see that I missed you too and I apologize especially since I think my next post will be about albums and I need to ask you for some data!

floortrader; I don't know much but I'm willing to share.