Online Catalog Prices

I do not have a world stamp catalog so I have been
using this one online. (stampworld.com)

In your estimate, how realistic are their prices?

first, realistic compared to what? other catalogue or the actual marketprice?

i mainly focus on europe, but sometimes I get something from, let's say, Straits settlements and I would use stampworld to get a general idea of the value of the stamp.
in my first years of stamp collecting I collected the entire world and I build each country up from stampworld, I quickly learned this wasn't a good idea.

but in my experience it's not very accurate on prices, and have left out a lot of information on different versions of the stamps.

if you collect the world, getting a catalogue for that is pricy, but if you only collect a small area, buy the catalogue instead of stampworld.

I assume that you mean true market value. If so then no, stampworld.com values are typically not close to actual market values. It takes experience and a lot of work to be able to figure out the actual market value of a collection.
Don

It sure does!

The other thing is that the images shown at stampworld, etc. are for identification only. Stamps with centering and margins shown, particularly the early classics, are not necessarily the ones in the best condition that get the top prices.

Condition is everything when it comes to value and having just one or two values for an issue is expecting too much from a catalog. The challenge for sellers especially that inherited stamps is finding willing buyers. If you sell to a dealer, do not expect much since 95% of collections have common (not very valuable) material.

You would have better luck searching ebay or hipstamps to get actual selling prices.

One of the best "Investments " a collector can make is buy a older complete set of Scott catalogs . A complete set will pay off in time just for the speed and convenience.

@Angore




alot of sellers on those platforms live on a different planet where stamps are very expensive.
make sure you only look at sold lots, and even then, you'd need 2-3 to get an average, and take condition into account at the same time.

Sometimes your item happens to be something that many people are looking for and sometimes the same item has no one interested in it at all.

Are Stampworld prices related in any way to Scott Catalogue values? If so, it would be possible to calculate the Scott values of newer issues that are not in my catalogue which is several years old.

Scott prices new issues using a formula and not market data. For US issues, Scott prices them usually at 2x face value. There is not much appreciation for newer issues so you could likely figure it out yourself.

You may be able to sell a few stamps that are still on sale at the post office at 2x face value but you will not likely sell many. You can usually purchase them at face or less on ebay. This does not mean someone does not try to sell them for more in any given venue since many see the catalog prices and think they can make a lot of money.

You not see many sellers referencing online places. It is Scott's, SG, etc.

I was thinking more about figuring out the catalog values of newer used foreign stamps for the purpose of trading.

Thanks for all the tips and comments.

To me, catalog prices reflect average market prices.
I asked a stamp dealer about this.
Except for very rare pieces, he felt that realistic average maket pricing was about 40% of catalog.

Does that seem in keeping with the norm?

Depends which market - dealers or auctions. Here, for the latter, usually about 10-15% of SG CV for foreign, 20-25% for GB/Commonwealth. Dealer prices will necessarily be higher.

Thanks. I think I am getting a handle on this.
I should have indicated that what I mean by average market prices I meant average market selling prices.

John - from my understanding, there are differences between the prices at Scott, Stanley-Gibbons, Michel and others, so, not one value.
What the dealer told you sounds right, that in general, you can buy the stamps under their CV.

Sorsh - what do you mean by "build each country up from stampworld"? Arranged them as they appeared in stampworld?