What Are Worldwide Stamp Collections Worth?

I like your collections breakdown. When I was buying 1840-1940 Scott int. Jr "Big Blues" I generally figured on .06¢ per stamp in the 5,000-8,000 stamps range. I most often do not consider the albums having $ value in my final price.

I think this is a good starting point to arrive at a rough estimate, particularly as a triage of potential auctions to pursue further and for those just getting started.

I do the math another way

First we have to add the expensive shipping charge of those heavy album

Second if I pay $ 200 = $ 50 shipping , let say I found 50 stamps that I don't have, let's say I'm lucky and sell the duplicate $ 200, well the 50 stamps cost me $ 1 each ( the $ 50 shipping )

A side, high values in set will have been remove from the album, and when you purchase those high value, usually you can pay the same price for the full set.

I am a new collector and recently purchased a worldwide album with some stamps. For me, I was looking for a starter ww album and this one was well cared for. There are stamps in it, which was also a bonus for me, because I had no worldwide stamps. It should arrive in the next few days, so I will let you guys know if they have taken the 'good countries' out. The shipping was very reasonable - $20.

The way I saw it was a new worldwide album would have cost nearly as much as the one I bought, as would the shipping. Plus I get a few thousand stamps to start.

I fully expect that the way I collect will change and I will need to create specialized albums for places, but this seemed to be a good way to start and get a feel for what I like!

I could see if you have an established album or system to store your stamps that the album could be a write off, but you could always sell it if it is in good shape. You may find a new collector just getting started looking for an album ;-)

When I said $ 50 it's an average , I take the 2 first one on ebay and one is $ 37 US ( with imported fees ) and the other $ 65 and I have to pay the exchange

Honestly if I want resell it, do you think peoples in US will pay $ 30 shipping that will cost me ?

I occasionally sell an album on ebay but I don't offer International Shipping it's too expensive.

I think many people have no choice but to order an album online(and pay shipping). There aren't a lot of places to buy one in person. I would have to drive 10 hours to find the nearest store. If it is a nice album in good shape they can save money buying one secondhand. They would still have to pay money for shipping a new one.

The album I bought was in the same country as me and they did not inflate the shipping costs like some sellers do. So maybe you would find someone to buy it in your country, or someone who really prefers the album you have. Worth a try ;-)

KRelyea (or others),

So, in your opinion, would one do better selling a classic-era (up to 1940 or 1950) world-wide collection that was housed in 2-3 binders of Scott International Vol. 1 (BigBlue) (plus suppl pages) that was say 95% complete OR if the same collection was housed in say 12 binders of Scott Specialty or Vintage Reproductions ("Browns") that were say 40% complete? Or 30 binders of Steiner pages that were maybe 25% complete?

Or would it matter since it was the same collection of stamps?

Chris

In my opinion, any possible increase in price realized garnered by difference in album format would be small enough to not warrant changing your collecting habits to accommodate, much less the labor required in actually moving the collection into a different set of album pages.

In other words, organize and display your collection how you see fit and how you collect, not based upon any perceived return down the line based on album type.

There will be buyers (like me) that focus solely on the actual stamps, that value the albums at $0. The only time that isn't the case is if the collection is in an expensive set of hingeless pages that I also happen to need, but that's not the scenario in this discussion.

Thanks revenuecollector for your comments. However, I wasn't really thinking in terms of how much value a particular album system would bring when selling a collection.

KRelyea's statement, "When there are a large number of stamps involved the manner in which they are presented affects their value." got me thinking about the different manners in which collections are presented and how that affects their value.

My interpretation was that there might be a difference between stamps in an album vs. stamps in a stockbook vs. stamps in envelopes vs. mixture. I don't know that we know enough to be able to say there's a difference in return on one album system versus another, or whether there is a difference between a series of country albums vs. fewer larger worldwide albums.

I will say, that in my opinion, and based upon discussions with others, in general worldwide albums are perceived as a predecessor to individual country albums in terms of "the evolution of a stamp collector". What I mean is that when people shift from being a general collector to a specialist in one or more countries, there is a tendency to also shift to individual albums for those areas. Thus, the use of individual country albums is an indicator that there MAY be better quality or more specialized material within. This is certainly NOT a universal guideline and there are certainly exceptions, but it is a positive indicator to prospective buyers, in the same way as the use of mounts vs. hinges can be, or hingeless versus regular pages.

In short, that a collector has gone to the expense and effort of higher-level display methods, is a positive indicator that they may also have done the same with the stamps contained therein.

chris2015: It's funny you should ask that question today while I'm waiting for UPS to deliver a Vintage collection for which I probably bid too much. I buy collections and break them up by country and sell them on ebay. I did have the pleasure of selling a Scott Volume I that was 94% complete you can read the story here;

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...-report.html

I have only sold a few partial Vintage collections and I did OK, but at this point I think I would get a higher return for the collection in a Scott Volume I album than in Vintage or Steiner albums. If you look at the Kelliher auction #691 and look at Lot 822 & 823 you'll see where I'm coming from. I looked at both of these and I didn't like the Vintage collection even though Cat$ was stated as $160,000. I thought the International was great but some countries were sparse so it was probably about 80% full and I didn't think it was worth the price. Even though the International had a lower stated Cat$ they sold for the same price.

Another example involves 2 collections I bought. The 1st was an International Vol I with 16000 stamps and Cat$ of $38K that I bought for $4200. I usually don't like collections with less than 20,000 stamps but I took a shot. I broke this nice collection up and grossed $7400, which was fine. The I saw a Schaubek Europe collection in 4 Volumes also with Cat $38K and I bought it for $4000. The Schaubek was a beautiful album with large high quality pages with space for every stamp issued for countries represented. I could get no traction with this unabridged collection and grossed about $1500. I think the unabridged pages plus the selection of countries did me in.

Reading this makes me wonder why I bought the Vintage collection, but in a few weeks I'll be able to give you a more definitive answer to your question.

Lovely and enticing...

I came to the same conclusion when I reviewed the 94% BB.

From my web site...

One should not underestimate the psychological power on a stamp collector when viewing a full page of stamps in a BB album!

I suspect a more comprehensive album, but with more empty spaces might not have done as well. This is a clear argument to house a WW collection in a "filled" BB album, as the financial yield, I believe, will be higher. (I may need to rethink my Steiner album approach.)

Over the years before the internet I purchased five or six Big Blues sets .These collections were matched up to my main collection and what remained was cut up and sold in box lots thru Linn's Stamp News. I sold thousands of cigar boxes filled with cut up album pages .The period of 1988 thru 2002 you could buy these huge collections for less than half the present rate ,because nobody wanted them and its also true that hundreds of binders went into the trash . There was no market for used philatelic supplies.
I think I had five or six sets of Internationals that I filled up over the years and sold each at public auction after matching them up to my main collection . The cost of large worldwide collections have increased or stayed strong over the past few years and happy to see the truly large worldwide collections still command prices like the recent sale of a $78,000.00 worldwide collection .

I disagree that there is no market for used philatelic supplies. Try and buy a used Lindner 18 ring binder. They are hard to find, and usually go for close to what a new one costs. Or try finding used Super Safe cover albums. They sell quickly, and again at not much of a discount to new. I used to be able to buy the cover albums used in bulk at around $5 each, not anymore. When they come up for sale, they are in the $15-$20 range, and they appear to be selling at that price.