Kiloware Fault Rate

Can anyone give me an idea of what is 'normal' for the fault rate in kiloware (tears, creases, missing or bent perfs, cuts, smashed edges, etc)? And since I'm on the subject, how much do these types of damage affect the value of a stamp (other than if you just plain like the stamp :)?

Clark

In kiloware, the 'fault rate' can be rather high because if the item being offered is true true kiloware you should be receiving a bulk of stamps, hopefully, unpicked over from who knows what anonymous source. Also if the kiloware is on paper, you may get some real surprises when you soak the stamps off. While its safe to say that condition counts for an awful lot, that's not to say, that for each individual there is a standard of what's acceptable. Condition is really quite subjective in many cases and you should not be surprised if what is an acceptable stamp to you does not come up to the standard of another collector.

Surprises when I soak stamps off paper? Can you give me an idea of what to expect/look for? I'm just got my first batch of soaked stamps out of my drying book today. I should get a picture of my first page of soaked/dried stamps up here... rather amusing.

I have two batches of on-paper kiloware that I'm going through right now, Norwegian and Japanese stamps. I'm finding roughly 10-16% faulty in the Japanese batch, I'm guessing, by looking at the size of my 'looks like it might be a good stamp' and 'looks damaged' piles. Does that seem about right? From what you say, it may be worth holding onto nice looking stamps with some minor faults around the edge that don't detract from the picture.

Clark

What I referred to in mentioning soaking surprises is that some stamps that seem sound on the paper turn out to be just pieces when they ar soaked off and I have found some instances where stamps were on top of other stamps for whatever strange reason that people do things. While your estimate fault rate seems a bet high, its probably reasonable. I've never really tried to calculate it but, yes you may find it beneficial to not scrap stamps with minor faults that do not detract from the overall appearance. There are persons who can use 'damaged' stamps in crafting projects and would be happy to have your cast-offs including"stefanib" on this forum. Also charities would be quite happy with your less than sterling examples.

Yeah, I'm pretty much a numbers kind of guy; it's part of what I do for work. But the fault rate in this batch (of Japanese stamps) has been heading down since I started going through it (for some reason it was quite high on the edge of the bag). So many of the faults are quite sad, really, since many Japanese stamps are really beautiful. Also frustrating when you find a stamp that was cut WAY too close so that a chunk of it was neatly snipped off. Or just a cut into the stamp, the person backed up the scissors and continued. I've seen enough of these to think that the use of scissors should be a mandatory class worldwide. Ah, well. I just need to focus on the stamps that weren't mauled. There's plenty of them!

Clark

When I was picking up envelopes from companies and banks in the 1960s, the reject rate was sometimes as much as 30% or so. Most of the common US booklet stamps were rejects then. Now there are some issues from the US, Australia and Sweden that involve stamps only available with perforations on three sides. How many people separate stamps from sheets or booklets by first folding the perfs once or twice to obtain a good separation? Most just grab and tear.
The envelopes I collected often had billing forms or other documents stapled to them and guess where a good percentage of staples went - directly through the stamp.
Electric letter openers damaged a considerable amount of other stamps.
Sometimes the reject rate was much lower.
Lizardly,
halflizard

Never put all of your elephants in one basket but I don't remember why.

Many of the older Canadian coil stamps came perf 8 or 8 1/2 - with so few holes, the stamps were almost always damaged unless the person using them did a few of the fold-back-and-forth dance moves. It can be challenging to find copies of those stamps in good condition.

For their Chinese lunar New Year stamps, Canada Post has generally issued them with some sort of extra design feature, whether that be embossing or metallic foils or odd shapes or whatever. The Year of the Snake designs were beautiful stamps with a nice pearlescent background to them that shows up if you hold it correctly in the light. But the odd shape makes them very difficult to separate, and most of the used copies I have will have one corner or the other (or both) torn short. Even the copy shown in Canada's Postal Archives Database has a slightly shortened corner on the lower left.



The Dick Bruna stamps for Japan's Letter Writing Day are very cute, but the odd shapes must be frustrating to separate from the sheet (his "Miffy" the rabbit has been seen as the design precursor to Hello Kitty). I have many copies of these that have just been cut out of the sheet using scissors. Just as frustrating as the marker monkeys destroying your stamps.

Ryan



PS - just checked this post with the Preview button, and noticed that this sheet doesn't even have Miffy on it. Appropriate amendment follows. Bruna has said that "Miffy at the Gallery" is his own favourite - here's Miffy admiring a Mondrian.

where can we find kiloware?

Hi yelmsage, welcome!

Kiloware can be bought in many places. ebay or other online auctions, where you would do a search under Stamps for the words 'kilo*' or 'gram*' or 'on paper' or 'oz' or 'lb' or 'pound' or a mixture of these.

Use the word 'wprld*' if you want stamps from all around the world, or just the country name for just that country's stamps.

Depends on where you want to buy it (from somewhere in the world?) and how much you want to spend on shipping and handling.

You can Google 'kiloware' and there are some companies that sell it on their own web sites.

Some sell it by the region, that is they call the lot Scandanavian stamps or Asian stamps or British Commonwealth (popular) stamps or Commemmoratives or Large or Definitives.

It depends on what your after really. I like cancels, I like the search and the treasure hunt and 'unpicked' kiloware or 'on paper' stamps can be a source of those.

You can also get into just 'on paper' stamps which will save you the trouble of soaking them off the paper which is an art in itself sometimes. And some newer recent stamps (US, Great Britain) stamps will only come away from the paper if you use chemicals. You may have to just cut around the stamps and collect them on the paper they came on. Some do.

Canada (so far) has stamps that do come away (with some encouragement) from the paper after soaking.

Your local stamp store or stamp club may be a good source of kiloware.

Some people are good at picking it up from wherever they see it (after asking of course). I have often thought of approaching companies or people and asking or even buying their stamp but now a days concerns with privacy laws and such makes that a bit harder to do I would think.

Fault rate in kiloware has reached new heights for me in Aust kiloware.

The 55c era has the thinnest stamps ever. Being the self adhesives.

Some of the 55c stamps are thinner than others. The thinner ones I am losing 1 stamp in 10 and that is on top of the rejected ones.

Where I could take 100 self adhesive stamp off paper in 10 mins, these nasty 55c stamps are taking me 60 mins.

But at least I can get them off paper.

I have been buying KW for many years. Really the fault / damage rate is not much of a factor, unless your source is just really bad and selling junk.

KW's are really a surprise, some can be very good and others no so good. In the past I have found high valued stamps that were real gems. Sometimes I have found nothing and most of the stamps were just run of the mill low value.

They are a great way to build up your collection or finding stamps to fill some spaces. You will always get more than enough to trade or even sell.

I like to find lots that actually have a lot of stamps stuck together. That is where soaking helps you find the gold. I don't care what most people saw but KW's are picked through for the most part. All of my high value have come out of these clumps of stamps.

It is some work and it is fun going KW's and can be even better when you find a great source.

Welcome back mkfarm !

You have been mentioned often.

Londonbus1

Thanks London, I have missed being here. I have just been so busy that I haven't taken time to join in. The stamps are still rolling though just not the talking. Coaching year round as I do with work and the farm has taken some of my free time.

However I still find time to buy a Killo every now and then. Though I must admit they haven't been as exciting as they have been in the past. It might be time to try another supplier.

where do you buy your kiloware?

Welcome Back MK:) We missed you around here.

Dianne