Selling Stamps Hinged

What do you guys think of a stamp dealer who sells mint stamps hinged to a card?
I just bought some stamps from a dealer and that's how they came, he used stamp hinges mounted to a small card. When I wrote to complain asking him "what are you thinking, you must be aware that damages the gum". His reply was, he has so many stamps (125K) that was the best way he could come up with to keep them organized, that using glassine envelopes would be a nightmare to keep organized.
I tried telling him that was unacceptable, no stamp collector wants to peel the gum off the stamps they just bought.
How can a stamp dealer be so stupid?

Nothing stupid about it if he is selling mint hinged stamps . I don't understand why your upset unless your buying MNH and they came hinged ,please explain ?

Yes, I am somewhat perplexed as well.

Jack Kelley

Well, assuming the stamps were MNH, the dealer is converting them to hinged, right?

If they were already previously hinged, it shouldn't matter...of course there's also the issue of what kind of hinge was used. If he is using modern hinges, it will likely create a thin on the stamp when removed.

At the very least, it seems like a poor practice for a stamp dealer.

My opinion is that it does not seem to be very cost effective (for a dealer to sit there and hinge 1000s of stamps vs. simply using glassines or cards).
Don

Definitely an odd practice for a dealer. Glassine envelopes generally work just fine, and protect the edges of the stamp(s) as well as the gum (hinged or NH)

Plus re-hinging stamps subjects them to more potential damage when you remove them.

The only parallel I can think of is to the old approval sheets or books, where dealers sent out or circulated material that way.

But I don't think this would be a recommended practice these days.

Long time ago, say 60 to 100 years ago, hinging stamps was the standard practice for storing and displaying stamps. Now with the introduction of mounts and other newer methods of storage, very few people use hinges for stamps. I don't why the dealer is using hinges when collectors now look for MNH stamps. MNH are more valuable than hinged ones so why is he devaluing his stamps.

Not so sure about that, Kiel. Some people prefer buying hinged stamps. I collect mint King George VI and hinge them. So I prefer buying hinged stamps as they are cheaper than MNH. They look beautiful hinged on the page. Even better than my MNH USA collection which are Showgard mounted.

Jack Kelley

If I read the original post correctly, I don't think the dealer was hinging MNH stamps. (At least, the poster didn't say that explicitly. If the dealer is, that's an entirely different matter, in my mind.)

My point was that even rehinging previously hinged mint stamps can still create problems for the new owner. It seems like it's exposing the stamps to unnecessarily risk (especially depending on the type/brand of hinges used).

I would still find it troublesome.

Yes, he hinged MH stamps, so he turned LH stamps in to heavy hinged stamps. I think my anger is justified, who wants to peel more gum off their stamps? I would think it would take a lot more work to mount a stamp with a hinge to a card then placing them in a glassine envelope. Another thing, I paid for MLH stamps not heavy hinged or disturbed gum, had I seen the gum in this condition I would have passed on them. Thanks for your replies.

What planet are you people on-----Hello ------Today any stamp under $5.00 ,it doesn't matter if it is LH ,heavy hinged or no gum it sells for 2 to 5 cents each in todays world . Most ....again ....most collectors still hinge stamps and put them in a stamp album . I am looking at a Belgium collection right now that's up for auction ,it has $8,000 catalog of stamps some used some mint and nobody at the firm is going to waste time to tell me the difference between mint lightly hinged or heavy hinge or are they mounted to protect the MNH ones .......sorry folks it doesn't matter because I am not paying a nickel more if it has a few MNH .......that's the world we live in .

Gum condition matters much to some no matter what value (that's the real world we live in). I certainly would prefer to receive stamps I purchased in a glassine and not hinged to anything. The last thing I want to do is remove hinges from mint stamps.

Gum condition does matter, you can't convince me there's no monetarily difference between a LH and HH, I'm buying pre-1920's US, certainly not 2 or 5 cent stamps. Modern stamps sure, there's probably very little difference in value in the hinged condition.