Hitting A Home Run On Stamp Purchase

As many of you know I purchase specialized collections thru major stamp auctions as a way to expand my worldwide collection . This had been going on for many years and happy with how it developed over time

I also try to pick up a bulk lot once or twice a year ,sort of something to play with and work on in front of the TV,as the football games are on TV .It gives me a better understanding of what type of material is floating around .

This produces a lot of excess duplicates and bulk stuff that I don't want stored around the house . Thru a local stamp club I meet a collector/dealer who sells stuff on ebay. Since he is on a limited income he sells stamps as a extra income . So we came to a agreement that he can take my stuff and sell it and we split everything I give him after expenses ,works fine for both of us .

Last month his business was slow and he was asking for more stuff to sell but I had limited inventory to give him . So I brought over a stamp auction catalog of country collections and large lots . Most of the stuff was higher than he wanted to commit to or couldn't ,since I have a open account with the firm and can bid and get the stuff a month or two before payment I said let me buy a few lots for you and we can work out the details later and besides I will take out some stuff for myself .

I bid and won a few lots and thought I would get 5 or 6 large boxes of bulk stuff . Enough for both of us to work on and hopefully
break even or make a buck or two but to me just getting it and picking out a few better things was ok with me . Wife wasn't happy with this,here idea was that I was down-scaleing .

BOY !!!!--that is not what I received ,I got 17 huge boxes delivered to my house ,wife went nuts !!!! {more later}

Sounds like you'll be watching lots of football

I will be waiting for the outcome

How NOT to buy stamps at auction ,I will go into what I found all ready on my next posting .

Can't wait to see what treasures you discover!

Wow, No wonder she was ticked. You're going to need a storage bin.

Jack Kelley

Wow floortrader...that's funny. And I certainly understand the wife freaking out thing. My wife always looks at me funny when she sees the UPS truck coming towards the house. Happy Hunting!!

If you don't mind me asking, about what price range did this haul fall in? Four figures? Five figures?

Here comes my next stamp delivery.

WOWWWW! If that came thru my front door my wife would have gone nuts and thrown me out the back door! I hope you find some great items in those boxes for your collection!

Good grief! In a way I envy your days/weeks (months, even years) of fun ahead, but this would be divorce material for me. No arguments. How much did you pay for this lot??

I purchased five lots ,three were for me and will be worked on and placed into my collection . The two bulk lots that you see in the picture was $350.00 and $750.00 plus commissions and shipping fees . So about $1500.00 at the front door for 475 pounds shipped Fedex.

To break down this lot, it has been a lot of fun.The first week five cartons went into the trash dumpster ,the second week another five cartons went into the trash . What went into the trash and the contents consolidated into other boxes . Let me put up a picture of how I break everything down before driving over to my friends house to be sold .

Ready to take most of the material over to my friends house . This is the contents of 13 large shipping boxes as shown in the early pictures .I put one carton in the picture so you can see the size .

The material was cleaned up ,a lot of binders ,heirloom albums ,two wooden vine boxes ,dozens of shoe boxes and cigar boxes and maybe 100 large envelopes were emptied and trashed . All this will be out of the house today .

Three cartons of stamps will be sorted over the next few months and that material was worth the purchase price and will write about it in another posting .

To recap it ,I got three auction lots for myself ,then took out three cartons from the bulk lots to be processed over the next few month . The three cartons from the bulk lot will be a entertaining time and already know that the value of those three boxes makes it all worth while . Over the next few weeks I will be bringing over some of the remaining stuff .

Hey what else do I got to do other than drive the wife nuts and work on stamps .

Would be interested in seeing the postally used worldwide and U.S. covers.

Ah yes, the age old question as to whether size really does matter.

My wife would KILL me. No, seriously.

That picture of the 4-volume Scott International got me thinking: If you ever end up with an 1840-1950s (or 60s, or 70s) Scott International collection with 20-40K stamps (well more average) that you want to sell, drop me a line. I can't seem to find a good one that doesn't repeat all the same common stamps or have endless blank pages or . . . or . . .or. .

How do you explain this to your wife? "Honey, honestly, I thought it was just 16 shoe boxes, not 16 cartons!" Best approach I've found is to quickly move the big stuff "out of sight" so as not to remind her.