What Is Your Worst Philatelic Purchase?

Japanese Invasion Stamps of Philippines. They still had their gum and the gum stuck to the album thus I didn't know what to do after

>Lesson learned, take copious notes on your want list.

A2A, VERY good advice, especially with higher cost material. I have learned this the hard way, and not just once...

(17-06-18) Not Allowed - Auto-Removeds

@OP

Get a sealing container big enough to enclose the binder, must be airtight. If you cant find one, put it in a garbage bag (tie it shut, then fold the opening over and seal it with tape afterward.) Lay barbeque charcoal in the bottom of the container, break a few of them up with a mallet and dump in there. Then put the stamp binder on top, and then another layer of charcoal. Leave it set for about a week, and check on it. The BBQ charcoal will absorb the odor, works better than baking soda. I collect hot wheels cars, and a lot I got came wrapped in a cigarette box and smelled like a certain illegal drug. Took a hell of a lot of effort to get the smell out. I left negative feedback big time.

I once purchased a SG KGVI album with mint stamps. Almost every set was incomplete. I was very fortunate that the seller took it back.

Jack Kelley

Crystal mounts.

A large lot that arrived and consisted of 200+ Harris approval books of the most common stamps. The problem was that each of the two hundred books were exact duplicates. Seller did refund my money.

Good grief, my worst blunder ever was purchasing the stamp collection of a friend's late father. A suitcase full of US stamps...99.99% of which turned out to be common, faulty, or both.

Ah, the price of friendship.

This is the opposite of the worst purchase - the worst one that got away.

I've been chasing publicity photos for years. Here's what I'm referring to:





These were sent to newspapers, magazines and the philatelic press to show what new stamps looked like before they appeared in the post office.

There was a lot of 300 of them on ebay many years ago. I didn't know anything about sniping programs, so I would wait and do it myself in the last 6 seconds of the auction. I was able to pick up many items by doing this, without driving the price sky high before the auction ended.

The lot was listed for $.99. There was one bid posted and the auction ended on a summer evening about midnight. I sat there, waiting and waiting and waiting....and fell asleep. I woke up with 3 seconds left and I didn't get the lot. I was furious for weeks!! It was an almost complete run of publicity photos from 1948 to the 1960s.....

And yes, it sold for .99.......aaarrrrggghhhhh!

I'm surprised no one has written about this yet.......Anything purchased from the USPS at face value.

Purchased this on ebay for $10 years ago. Was super excited as plate number 4 (on the first stamp of the strip) is listed in Mellone at $2,000. Only after I received it did I realize that there was no first day cancel.

Almost all my stamp purchases are worst philatelic purchases... (According to my wife)

Biggest financial purchasing mistake was probably purchasing a US Scott 8 at full catalog value, and it was really only grade Fine. I took a bath on that when I resold it.

Matt

When I first got back into collecting 20+ years ago I spent a fair bit of money on an early Japan collection, only to find it was full of fakes, damaged stamps, postal stationery cut-outs etc. A real con job some dealer had put together for inclusion in an auction. It put me off Japanese stamps for a long time.
Now when I look at early Japan lots on ebay, I think I have a good eye for fakes, but I'm still not buying!
However, I do get a lot of early Japan from buying world albums and collections.