General Question About Stamps I've Bought.

Hey yall, I recently had quite the bidding war on an auction site for a few different lots of stamps. I didn't go through ebay or one of those sites, I went through CTAuctions based out of the Carolinas. My question is this; (I probably should have asked this before I bought them, but I had a good time bidding and kept getting more and more excited as the time counted down) I ended up paying around $46 for 3 different lots of stamps, 2 from the U.S. and the other from a few other countries. This Auction site seems to be Legitimate, but I'm worried I may be scammed as I was one other time on ebay a few years back. The pictures I'll attach are not great. But maybe they will help to answer this long question. I'll post more pictures when they are delivered to me as well. I apologize for the low quality pictures. I had to screenshot them off the site.

I suppose your question was if these were worth the money? It is very hard to tell from the pictures, but they all look fairly common to me


Peter

Good start on a general collection. I would calculate 'value' based on your 'fun factor'; have you gotten enjoyment out of them equal to or exceeding the amount paid? I feel stamp collecting is like art, if you enjoy something it is fairly easy to determine the price you should pay. But if you are collecting for investment, it would be best to buy high quality stamps from a known, reputable dealer who can help you until you have enough knowledge to make your own investment decisions.
Don

Assuming the stamps in these lots are been predominantly issued from WWII onward, when you get them you should answer these two questions:

1. How many complete sets are there?
2. Are the complete sets in MNH condition?

The answers of these questions will give you comparative base to juxtapose with $46.

Welcome to the hobby. I was told by a long time collector years ago that money spent on stamps was his beer and cigarette money. When he passed twenty years or so ago his accumulation of stamps provided more money that a pile of empty cigarette packs and beer cans would have towards his care in his final days. And, to boot, he had years of fun assembling the collection. The true value of his collection was not a question of what others might have paid for his stamps

keep swimming! buy more!!

Thank yall for responding! I enjoy collecting so much. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that my late grandfather and I used to collect stamps. The reason behind my question is not only the value (which really isnt as important as far as money goes, these will be my sons when I kick the bucket) but I had ordered some stamps a few years back from ebay (before I found out about yall! ) and when I got them, they were printed out on computer paper and sent to me with a hand written letter telling me I'd basically gotten screwed out of around $80. He got reported and all, I'm just a bit gun shy I suppose. Yall are so very nice and helpful. I appreciate everything! And when I finally get them, I'll be posting pictures! Yall have a blessed evening!

For this type of material I would be searching under "stamp accumulations" world wide on ebay, and checking "completed items" to see what they did (or did not) go for. Looks to me as if there is a lot out there at very little cost.