What Are Simple Stamps?

Whenever a new member asks for the value of his stamps, he's told that they are very common.
Assuming there are half a million different stamps, how many are common (90%?), and what do you call common?

There are much more then half a million different. Remember it's not just postage, but airmail, special delivery, officials, revenues, etc. And 98% range from "VERY common" to "reasonably uncommon but pretty easily obtained". The other 2% range from "VERY scarce but found after a while" to "all but impossible to get" to "unique".

So unless I will go to auctions or buy more expensive stamps at ebay, most likely my collection will be common, even if I double my current collection to 100k stamps.

That is absolutely correct

I consider an inverted Jenny common because there are a hundred of them. There are far rarer error stamps that go for far far less than an inverted Jenny. Not forgetting there are the classics like the Perot provisionals with only 11 in existence but selling at a bargain compared to the inverted Jenny.

They sell at a "bargain" because demand is not there; stamp rarity is about supply AND demand.

Don

If by common you mean under 1$, and that's 90% of world stamps, that still leaves me with nearly half a million to collect, which will keep me busy in this lifetime.
At some point it will be wiser to exchange rather than buy bulks and kiloware. I'm reaching a point where my ebay purchases are nearing 10% useful stamps.

> I consider an inverted Jenny common because there are a hundred of them.

Not only are the Jenny more common than other rarities, you don't have to wait that long between auctions to buy one. As far as obtainable, when you have 1.5M of disposable funds that can be allocated to a single stamp, I suspect many other doors also open up to you with regards to hunting down "rare" philately material. Yes it may be very time consuming, but many high end collectors have proved it's doable.

They are readily available because they are very popular, not because they are "common". The reason they bring the prices they do is because there are FAR more people who would like to own one then there are stamps available. If they were common, everyone who wants one would have one.

Revcollector, popularity does not equate to rarity. Anyone who is crazy enough to drop a $10 million offer for an inverted Jenny will get one, and he will probably drive up the price to $10 million. That however, still doesn't make the inverted Jenny a rare stamp, because there are 100 of them. I consider stamps like the treskilling yellow and the 1 cent magenta rare as there is only one each in the world. Even some of the colour and perf omissions for gb commemoratives are rarer than the inverted Jenny because there are less than 10 known to exist.

Rob Roy - I do believe the answer to your question is this. Common stamps are "definitives" - stamps that are for sale for a long time and used for general (usually first class) postage. Countries print and sell millions of them. High value definitives are more rare, much more collectible and do retain value. Stamps issued to recognize or commemorate an event, personage etc etc are "commemoratives." They are often larger size, more attractive to look at and more attractive to topical collectors. Fewer commems are sold than definitives. Kilo lots often suffer by being stocked with tons of definitives. Good if you are into varieties - but not so much if you are looking to fill a stamp book.

Rarity is a quantitative fact, not a matter of popularity. I have to disagree with Don that rarity is a matter of supply and demand. Value is, but not rarity. A stamp can be rare but not pricey because of low demand, or not rare but pricey because of high demand. Inverted Jennies with 100 copies in existence might not be as rare as some other examples, but they certainly cannot be called common. I might call them very scarce. It is an exaggeration to say that they are readily available to anyone who can afford one.

Agree with you dudley, except on this-

> It is an exaggeration to say that they are readily available to anyone who can afford one.

It's not about affording one. It is more about willingness to transact for one. I think it is appropriate to say, usually everyone has their price, particularly rich folk. Ego has it's price too. You can get the the one of a kind Andy Warhol if you pony up to the ask. If it means trading a c3a PB for a Z-Grill, it shows, if nothing else that anything can get done, even at the highest end. With ~100 out there, there is inevitably a couple of sellers every year or so creating liquidity for those who badly want their hands on them. If you have to deal with a 1/2, instead of 1/100, like the Z-Grill - it's been done and there's precedent for what it has taken.

Rarity and costliness are not always equal partners. A C3a does possess both attributes and C3a's also may appear to be less rare due to the fact that they appear for sale frequently because people want them. Demand, demand, demand. MNH White Plains sheets can be found at auction frequently in groups and sell for 20% +/- of catalog. Dollar value Columbian's and Trans-Mississippi's of equal quality sell for high percentages of cv. There are Guam issues that sell 20% of cv that had an issue quantity in the low four figures. Demand, demand, demand. And of course demand and price are related to an areas popularity which in turn increases the amount of collectors competing for material.

Don wrote: "stamp rarity is about supply AND demand." Rogdcam wrote a similar comment. I agree that it would be 80% supply & demand, with the remaining 20% being about KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge drives demand.

So far, stamps mentioned have been rare US. Going outside of US philately, I have a passing interest in stamps of Bolivia due to several trips there since 2006 for trekking, touring, and a little climbing (but not enough available budget to make it a specialty country). I do have a modest collection, with mostly common stuff through 1965.

In the Kelleher auction ending today, there was a mint pair of one of the Zeppelin overprints; Scott C11; with the right hand stamp being one of the 10 known copies with inverted overprint. Price realized for the pair, including 20% buyer premium, was $500. Said stamp is 10 times more rare than US C3a, but isn't well known. So, somebody got a real bargain.

New discoveries can also change perceptions of rarity. Recent case was in Kelleher Auction #698, May 2-4, 2017 that featured a holding of the Mexico National University sets of 1934 (Scott 698-706, C54-61, RA 13B). Only 1,500 copies of C61, and 2,500 copies of 706, were printed. The lot in Kelleher featured a previously unknown holding of 100 complete, mint NH, sets in sheets and panes. The holding had been held by the same family since original purchase in 1935 at the Mexico City post office. No idea yet how, or if, perceived value of all University sets has been affected.

Hi Doug,
The context of my reply was the three posts directly above my original post; market rarity. This thread is confusing because some people are talking about market rarity and some are talking about production rarity. Production rarity is about supply, market rarity is about supply and demand.
Don