Auction Purchases Arrived - May Have Overdone It

Shipments arrived today and I think I may have bitten off a bit much. 38 albums to go through. Perhaps I need to scale back my purchasing.

Why?

No ! you have not over done it,it looks like your going to have a time of your life being entertained for a long time .

How complete is each album? Some could take 30 minutes to go through!

The albums are well filled. Mostly single country/area collections along with a four volume International set. Great material everywhere. Just overwhelming at first. Just have to dig in.

Congrats. I'm about to dig into about 30 from the same auction. Problem 1, where to put them?

Have fun! Mine are from Siegel, Cherrystone and Kelleher. They need to be taste tested to see which firm offers the proper flavor. Perhaps a blend. God, I love this stuff.

Doesn't seem like a problem to me, apart from the where on earth to put things. Well done, and good luck!

That looks like a lot of fun you've got there? I've been on a buying spree, myself. I recently retired and am now making up for lost time. But I buy "only" one album every week or two (or sometimes "just" one a month). I've been buying mainly from ebay but I'm beginning to tire with what it offers -- mostly picked over collections and too many basic collections.

I buy to see what I can use from them and would like to pass on the albums after that. My question to you is what do you do with them once you've gone through an album and taken out what you need? Or do you just keep everything? What's a good procedure to pass along an album you've removed some stamps from but which you don't really need anymore?

They do take up a lot of shelf (and floor) space, and my wife is starting to think she may have married a crazy man or a hoarder. She may be right!

Just put them back on ebay. I don't sell that many stamps there, but my experience has been that an old album with a dozen pictures will do relatively better than a carefully scanned selection of what are better individual stamps. The lure of buried treasure.

Yes, and state that the album is rare and has not even been opened and gazed upon, let alone picked over. Or, come to think of it, make a list and offer them on here....any nice, well bound, old albums in your horde?

"May Have Overdone It"

When it comes to stamp collecting, assuming a roof over your head and food on the table...I don't believe there is such a thing...

IMO buying collections at auction or on ebay taking the stamps you need and reselling the collections on ebay is one of the best ways to build a collection. The interest in collections valued at less than $1000 is quite strong as long as they open with a low or reasonable starting bid.


Occasionally I'll buy a box lot from Kelleher containing multiple collections and resell them one album at a time and I always make $.

I strip the collections I purchase pretty clean. Not much power left when I am done. It is time consuming but I am not a seller in the true sense and I actually enjoy the process.

Let me guess, the OP isn't married.

It took my spouse a decade or so to ease up on being critical of large purchases like this.I think she finally realized it as an investment in my sanity and health.

I'm curious, what are the domestic shipping charges for such a lot?
In general - how much does shipping add as a percentage on these types of purchases?