Next Sparks Auction...4 Full Days Of Entertainment

Internet bidding on the monster Minkus collection is up to $5200, with 2 weeks until the actual auction. Quite interested to see what it will go for in the end.

If I understand the law correctly, stamps may be imported into the United States duty free. However, with a collection of this bulk and value I can envision the buyer being required to hire a customs broker to facilitate the entry of the goods into the U S. And, there is also the question of any sales/use tax that may be imposed by your state government.

Ha, I'll try not to bid on the same ones as you. :)

I did a little research and found out that importing stamp collection and similar material is duty free. It's all contained in the "Harmonized Tariff Schedule" (HTS) see below;




If I win it my wife and I are going to Ottawa to pick it up. I figure we'll just zip through customs with our 25 bankers box in the van and say "nothing to declare" Can anyone spell Gitmo?

I'm going to fly up and see it this Friday but I doubt it will be a collection for me. If it has 100,000 stamps that's only 1000/volume and that's too thin for me to resell, even 2000/volume is pretty thin. I'm also worried that the pages have been ruined by drilling holes to make Scott pages fit in Minkus Binders.

That collection is up to $6800 Canadian. I bid on a couple of WW lots, there is a lot of stuff in my price range so I'm hoping to get lucky on a few. Not a lot of action on some of the cheaper lots, wondering if those are bid up during the auction or if those will go for cheap. Always can hope!

"Boy...this gonna be great !"

Fat and stupid is no way to go through life son.

"That collection is up to $6800 " for 94 volumes . At that price your buying blank pages and with binders that don't fit the pages -------Now I understand why the auction house didn't scan a few dozen pages or make a decent write up of the contents....It is not buying duplicates it is more like buying triplicates of what most worldwide collectors already have .

There are 80 scans available if you click the link;

https://sparks-auctions.com/auction...extra-scans/

but you have to scroll down to the pics for 2546. The collection I can see looks pretty good but certainly not great. The pages being drilled for Minkus is a problem for me too. On the other hand I sell those binders with no stamps or pages for $35-40 each.

I was booked to go to Ottawa but my dog is terminally ill and I didn't want my wife to deal with that by herself so I canceled.

So sorry to hear about your fuzzy friend :(

KRelyea, your priorities to stay with your wife and dog are perfect. I had to miss a trip to an out of town concert I had really been looking forward to because of a very sick pup (the vet specialists were diagnosing sarcoma or spinal meningitis) last year. Thankfully it was toxoplasmosis and with prednisone and antibiotics she has recovered nicely and I hope your doggie does as well.

It appears the days of bottom-feeding at Sparks are behind us if round-one was anything to go by. Some items sold for 10 - 12 times estimate not including the tip. Some really nice used QV GB at the end.

Mostly strong realizations for the huge 220 lot Steiner page WW collection. It's been an exciting final day of the sale.

$32,000 buys the Master Global Collection.

I won a couple of lots for my collections, but when I started to bid on lots for breaking up and for re-sale, especially today on Day-4...wth?!? I've NEVER had to hit the 'pass' button as often as I did today at any other auction I've ever participated in. Competition was mighty fierce. All in all, a very entertaining and exciting four days, and Sparks easily remains on my top 3 list of auction companies. I'm already looking forward to their next one!