Discussion Over Multiples Leads To Discussion Of Collecting Stamps In General

These trends can also influence a collector on what not to collect. In the mid 1990s here in Australia there was a lot of focus on KG6 so yours truly spent his time and money on KGV issues and got largely left alone in the process

There are always hot areas and the people that follow them. If they follow trends which is their choice, they will probably be disappointed at some point.

"Gathering and calculating an average 'sold' price for a used 2012 Ford Truck is more difficult than a stamp (mileage, options, mechanical condition, body fit and finish, accident history, etc.)"

Even with all that, it's still less difficult, because nearly all of these issues are black & white. The mileage, options, history, and condition are what they are, because they all started out equal in the beginning. And almost no one is buying a 2012 Ford Truck as a collectable; will it do the job is far more important then "does it look like a gem 98". Stamps have a totally different mental approach and reason for purchase which makes it impossible to simply break down to a set of numbers.

Bart,
We will just have to disagree. In my mind, understanding and evaluating the condition of a house or vehicle is far more complex than a stamp.
Don

No one was talking about houses, which should be looked at by a professional in any case. No one is buying a house based on an ad saying it's a gem.

Houses and cars are much more complex for many reasons. A major issue is that there are latent conditions that cannot be seen without disassembly which does not take place for obvious reasons. "Excuse me but may I scope the cylinders" is not often heard. "Would it be OK if I excavate the foundation to look for cracks" is another.

I'm with Bart

I am with me.

Stamp Auction News broke down stamp issues' realizations by (VERY) basic condition - VG, F, VF, XF, Superb. There was also a code in their 'entry' to identify the seller. One could see that Auction Company A got $400 for a VF USA#1, whereas Auction Company B got $450 for a VF USA#1. The grades listed, of course, were the grades given by the auction house. If you saw one seller's realizations consistently below other sellers', you could infer that the original seller probably overgraded, or perhaps had a smaller audience, or (draw your own conclusion). This was before graded certs were popular --- graded cert databases would probably have much more consistent values. IIRC, they didn't list faulty stamps, except for the more valuable stamps. Each entry had one line descriptions (space in a magazine DOES mean $$$), so they only listed the most basic parts of the description, and NOT the flowery verbiage used in the sellers' catalogs. I believe it was printed/mailed on a quarterly basis.

In today's world, this would be done online, saving paper, printing, mailing costs. The data would probably be gleaned on-line, so the collection process could probably be mostly automated. Also, since no paper is involved, listed descriptions (and photos, too) could be verbatim of what was in the catalog.

I go to the Siegel Power Search db all the time. I am sure this involves extra work/resources on their part, but I know I always look forward to looking at their sales and buying from them. I think they have the Cadillac of db's. I just wish more auction houses would follow their lead. I HATE (well, I actually LOVE, unless time is short) having to comb through years of auctions from other companies' websites to find a particular stamp, or at least a representative sample of a particular issue. It would be nice to have a centralized db of "all" auction houses' realizations. Due to logistics, copyrighting, etc, I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

Mootermutt - There is a central database as per my comment above. Stamp Auction Network has exactly what you describe.

Yes, thank you, rogdcam. I have not (yet) subscribed. What kind of history is in the db? 3/5/10 years from now, will it still have today's results? My experience with SAN is that once the auctions drop off of the site, I can no longer access those pages that I have saved because I was interested in something on that page. One thing that I really like about Siegel's db is that it goes back decades (WAAAY back for their Rarities) and I can try to find the 'history' of a particular stamp. Also, on the scarcest issues, there may be an example sold once every few YEARS, and if SAN's db only goes back a year or so, I'd be lucky to see one entry. I like to see multiple entries so I can be relatively sure I am seeing items that were actually sold to real people and not reserved items that may be listed as sold at the reserve - those entries don't really help me. I have worked in the industry, and KNOW that what a seller says something SELLS at may not be an actual sale = a valid datapoint in the open market. With a long history, I may not know WHICH entries are actual sales, but I could infer that some of them are and infer what I wish based on that assumption. There ARE plenty of auctions that list unsold items, or items that didn't meet a reserve, but I know there are those companies that don't call those out as such. Any auction house that lists realizations for every lot in a sale is not being completely up-front. NOBODY sells every lot in a sale to a real buyer. Well, except for small sales (few lots) or famous name sales, or specialized material sales.

That database used to be available to all whether they joined SAN or not. It still should be.

The SAN DB goes back to 1994 and encompasses 1.4 billion dollars in sales from 240 auction firms.

rogdcam - I was unaware of this. I guess I need to subscribe! Thx.