What To Do When You Just Can't Sell Stamps & Covers You Don't Want Or Need...

Hi all

I usually don't ask for advice on forums, as generally no one pays an ounce of attention to my questions, and/or I get a lot of wise-guy comments.

But, I am in a quandary, so here goes:

I've been collecting on and off since around 1993 or so. A lot of items I bought years ago no longer fit into my collection, are now duplicates, or I just plain don't like them. There are also duplicates that are still nice but I don't need them.

I am a seasoned ebay seller, and have sold off some stamp related items through the years.

BUT, what happens when I have stamps and covers that just refuse to go to new homes?? I'm tired of listing and relisting and relisting and relisting and...

Now, I am not looking for top dollar, or some get-rich-quick solution. I just want items to go to appreciative new homes. Part of me would even consider donating some items, if it weren't for the fact ebay sales help me pay bills. If I knew the stuff was going to real interested parties, I'd put together a packet for them.

This whole thing is in my head now because I am toying with the idea or doing a major purge of my US cover binder. I could list them all in individual lots, I suppose, but it seems everyone and their sister-in-law does that, and things just don't seem to sell anymore. If I offer them all in one big lot, I get short money if they even sell at all.

I don't know WHAT to do. I'd even trade them to a dealer for 1 or 2 nicer items, but I don't know if they do such things. There also aren't any dealers around my area anymore...

Can anyone help me out? We're not talking Zeppelins or a full set of mint Columbians here... but still some nice things that don't deserve to go into the Circular File.

Thoughts? Opinions? (keep it clean...)

JD

Hi Nells. Great to hear from you again.

One of the issues that has come to the surface this year is all of a sudden most collector's stopped buying stamps etc. It seems to be a global situation as well.

Have a friend who lives off selling and he says that he has never had so many offers to buy collections from collectors wanting to leave stamping for good.

I have all but stopped selling because no one is buying. At the beginning of the year I listed my 1,500 listing and no buyers. I stopped in September as the income was not enough to pay the store fees.

Next year I will be listing a small amount of BIN listings for singles with multiple numbers of the same in the said listing.But that only works for many of the same.

In all honesty I do not know what to do. There is just so much stock that I have collected with nowhere for it to go.

WOW KGV, thanks for your input. Perhaps I should just stop and wait, as you have. Maybe the economy will shift once the new president settles in and the market feels comfortable.

KGV (Nells)

You are right.....stamp market is down and follows the stock market which has risen a bit this year if you have proper and diversified investments etc. So, either you wait, take a break in your "selling" or simply give away some duplicates and help new Stamp Collectors or donate to charity if it is worthwhile. Good luck and life is still great !

If they aren't selling you must be overpricing them. If you truly want to sell, list as auctions and start at one cent. The buyers will determine what they are worth. It can be scary but it usually triggers bidding and it beats throwing them away.

Nells, have you tried selling on this forum? I think that started again a few months ago, and you might give that a shot?
Personally, I collect Transportation Coils specialized. That is a hint - if you have anything I might take it off your hands!

Peter

kcaramat - I actually tend to under-price stuff. I like to see what other people are selling things for, then try to find a "happy price".

PETERT - alas, nothing like that... that I know of ;-)

A lot depends on exactly what they are. Really inexpensive items are usually a tough sell. If you have a group of $5-$20 type items it might pay to group then together and sell them in one of the smaller auction houses.

Hard to describe... Sort of a mix... the usual older used US and foreign, some better intaglio Great Britain possessions, older US ad covers (if I do The Purge mentioned above), more modern mint foreign, modern US commemoratives on paper, NO WALLPAPER. Well... maybe 1 or 2 bits of wallpaper...

;-)

There is a big difference between what other people are "asking" and what they are "selling" for. I looked at your US Scott 3130 sheet. You are priced at $8.50 plus $2.50 shipping. Then I checked "sold" items and found your price plus shipping was higher than any that actually sold. You may think you are under pricing but your results say something different.

Dropping the price is the 1st thing that most people do when things are not selling. Of course dropping the price did not work because there were no buyers to buy.

For 6 years my prices and stock sold really well. Had sales in the 100's per week but this year not even 10 sales per month no matter what the price was.

I will go with Nells and take a break as to wait till stamps get popular again.

Thirty years ago and more I sold second-hand records. The chap I worked for considered that the only value records had was what a customer was prepared to pay. We reduced the price of every record, every fortnight until it sold. Yes, of course we missed waiting and matching the perfect record to the perfect customer, but the stock completely turned over, even if some items ended up going for 4 for 10p. Compare and contrast with other shops where the same records would still be in the racks a year after I first noticed them.

I mainly sell cigarette cards by auction on ebay, generally with free postage. Most sells at the first attempt. If it doesn't, I reduce it. If it still doesn't sell, I put it in a larger job lot and then it goes. In the end, I'd rather it were out of the house than gathering dust waiting for its notional value to be realised.

If you look at the wholesale market thru the major stamp auction houses what you will see is a INVERTED JENNY being estimated at $350,000.00 going for $260,000.00 . I just purchased a Switzerland B-O-B collection for 1/8 catalog many sets MNH . Many top quality classic stamps are now starting at 1/3 of catalog and just a few years ago where opening at 1/2 catalog . Huge collections are up for sale all over the place and the opening bids at major auction houses are now 1/10 catalog .
If you look at the major firms ,it will tell the story .My thinking right now is buy those massive 5 to 10 carton lots between $2,000 and $5,000.00 and pay 2 cents a stamp and sell off what I don't want for 2 cents each and be left with a lot of nice stuff at 2 cent each . In my situation I am retired so the time spend with this effort is of no concern ,it would be hard for anyone looking to make a profit to compete against that .

Part of the reason you can buy some lots like that is that dealers look through them and estimate both the retail value and how much will be leftovers. And lots like that require room to store. In some sales the large lots do very well and prices are high because of it.

The Great Recession caused a huge dip in the art market, from which it has not recovered. My dad was an artist, locally very popular. He was not rich, but he made a decent living from selling his art. I have to move to a smaller house. I still have a bunch of dad's paintings, and I have to get rid of them. I'm giving them to relatives or selling them for a fraction of what he would have gotten 40 years ago.

I also sell stamps on ebay. I see what other people are selling a stamp for, and I ask 10 or 15 percent less than the lowest. Some sell; most don't. I buy more than I sell, or even try to sell. I think the auctions offer the best chance of a bargain. I've been buying German States and Germany to 1948. I make a bid and wait. Usually nobody bids against me.

My wife and I must have 2000 books in the house. I'm not even thinking of selling them. I give them to the local library or the university. In Michigan you get not only a tax deduction, but also a small credit. Eventually I will start sending stamps to the APS for the deduction.

Don

I've seen a recent strong increase in the bids for good WW collections, time after time I'm getting outbid for collections I've inspected. I may have to start buying box lots and breaking them down. For me breaking down box lots is a lot more work than selling collections and I would rather not have to do that.