Collecting As An Investment

Nothing is really a deal until you sell it.

I have discovered that the best way to make a small fortune stamp collecting is to start with a large fortune!

In his book THE FOUNDATIONS OF PHILATELY (published in 1955) Winthrop Boggs stated "We cannot emphasize too strongly that there is only one valid reason for collecting philatelic material, i.e., for your personal pleasure. Anybody who collects for any other purpose is inviting disappointment." I couldn't agree more!

GJP

"The only reason to sell stamps ,is to have money to buy more stamps " Floortrader .

I don't think I'll be selling any of my personal collection lol.

Stamps as an investment vehicle is a fool's errand, unless you are a one-percenter and are investing in the creme-de-la-creme, or you timed things well several decades ago. Outside of that, unless you are becoming a dealer rather than a collector, about the best you can hope for is to have years/decades of enjoyment and come out with something on the other side, but don't hope to make back what you've spent, let alone profit.

If I were to sell off my revenue collection today, it would be a very large sum... but nowhere near what I've spent over the last 2 decades.

I refuse to give up on my conex box of 3 cent commemorative sheets. There time will come I tell you. It will come. I know it will. Won't it..........

Items in the $100-300 catalog range do very poorly on E-bay. I have been following the Israel sales online for a long time now. If you look at sales of items like the 1950 Negev stamp (sc 25) or the 1952 Menorah stamp (sc 55). These items catalog in Scott for around $250. When I see them at a show, dealers are trying to get close to that. When I look on E-bay, they are readily available, and selling in the $30-40 range. The catalog price doesn't reflect the reality that there are more copies available than buyers.

The percentages depend on the collecting area and the demand. How much demand/activity is there in Israel material compared to other countries?

I don't know. There were some Canadian stamps mentioned in this thread. Unless the person talking about them has been following the market on E-bay closely, he may find that he is unable to sell them for what he paid.

Canadian stamp prices are in the dump unless you are talking true rarities. I am thinking of collecting Canada because the prices are right now and they appeal to me.

The old adage of "buy low and sell high" is very much alive and well in the stamp collecting world.

Unfortunately, in the buying end of things, unless you are a dealer making offers on entire collections, or fortunate enough to have someone offer you their collection before a dealer cherry picks it, you are going to be paying at least market price in most instances and often closer to catalog price to obtain the stamps you need.

I hope to get 25% of catalog for my collection when I sell it, after all expenses. I'll figure I did quite well with that.

Is it an investment? Not in the sense of monetary return. My dividends come from the hours of pure enjoyment, the thrill of the hunt and the sense of accomplishment when I chase down an elusive item.

Sometimes, it's not the money which provides the greatest returns.

Some of the older Canadian stamps look neat, but the modern stuff suffers from lack of visual appeal for myself, same as most modern USA stamps.

This is getting a bit off-topic, but re collecting Canada. I do so up to 1999, but definitely find the period from 1910-late 1940s the most attractive. And not particularly expensive.

This has gone a bit off topic but I think that's part of the interest of these discussions and I enjoy being given an insight into how other people think about things. I think the idea of doing anything just to make money is a bit weird actually - especially stamp collecting, which for me is meant to be a hobby and enjoyable.

I started collecting stamps again about fifteen years ago, and I did it partly because I did a very stressful job and found it difficult to sleep. I found the best way to deal with this was to get up at whatever time it was when I woke, and soak and put into drying books GB commemoratives and Machins that I bought in largish quantities. I found the whole process of soaking and drying them very soothing! I then sorted them into packets, and tried to break the Machins down into their myriad types.

Gradually I found myself on a slippery slope - acquiring stamps from all over the place, being led by what I liked the look of and before I knew it there were all sorts of areas that I was fascinated by and finding out an extraordinary amount about the countryies histories and development and finding out about printing techniques and stamp designers and all sorts of stuff.

All this pleasure, interest and excitement has never been led by thought of profit - in fact I find the most interesting stamps in some ways are huge series of definitives that have had so many issues that there are all sorts of varieties but none of them seem to be worth more than a few pence

Well, had I gone the route of investing, I would have done it thusly:

Have two collections going, one for my personal interests, and the other dedicated to valuable stamps with eye for resale. These resale stamps I wouldn't get too attached to, as I'd have no more interest in holding them as I would a precious metal bullion bar or some other piece.

I do use the soaking process to relax at home. My work is rather...uninspiring of late...and this helps me keep from the malaise everyone else at work is suffering from. I totally get the sleepless nights and such. My current location has suffered a massive attrition rate due to managers who are completely lacking in self awareness. As an anecdotal aside, they've (the managers) been told by corporate that they must improve morale and stop the loss of skilled labor, or else they're fired. Funny enough if they were to be fired that would boost morale, so the employees win either way! Combined with other issues, the stress is astounding if you were to let it get to you. Stamps help me avoid this and give me something to focus on which can take me down many different paths of research.

As for straying from topic, for my interests it really hasn't. I enjoy seeing other's insights across various topics, and they interweave here nicely. Because of 'straying form topic' I now know that 1940s and back Canadian stamps may have some visual appeal to me.

So while this might not have played out to be a financial investment discussion as I'd initially hoped, it's become a personal interest investment discussion. And if my daughter gets interested in this (she's still very young) this would be a good investment for additional parental bonding with my child, something money can't buy.