Worldwide Stamp Collecting Dying Or Not ?

Anybody who is sitting at a stamp auction in Chicago right now {11/14/2020} can argue with you ,how wrong you are .

To put it in my terms ,everybody who is winning collections and the bulk lots are donating BLOOD with their winning bids .Prices being realized has nothing to do with pre-auction estimates . It is safe to say prices have broken out on the up side ......more later .

It looks like the 2 WW collections I got at Siegel were huge bargains compared to Rasdale prices.

I was targeting 15 lots and what I thought were high end limits were in some cases 8 times my limit. Incredible end bids.
Based on this auction WW is far from going away!!!

In times of crisis;and in this case a world crisis; indoor hobbies fare very well.

Thanks for the update. I bid on one collection and one cover with Rasdale. Sounds like I can count on not getting the collection.

Anyone have success at the Cherrystone auction earlier this week?

The two big French colony lots I was eyeing both went for 3 times estimate. Ouch.

Did you notice the description of lot 380 mentions that spaces were filled with color pictures when there was no stamp? That scared me!

Yes, that's the drawback of the Palo albums in colour, so hard to tell whether the stamp is there or not - greatly prefer the ones with black & white. That one went for $6K IIRC with initial estimate of $2K - I was very surprised, many good stamps in there but not an outstanding collection based on the pics.

Yes the high-rollers are really beating each other up for high-end material. All clubs are dying and it is hard to giveaway entry level items. What is the endgame--I don't know

Looks like singles and sets are a little more down to earth.

I am not buying WW collections right now - they are going for insane amounts of $$$. I have the luxury of not having to make a living off of this stuff, either. I buy for the long term, and I expect after the COVID thing goes away that prices will also settle down. I could be wrong, but I just expect the high realizations to be a blip in the long-term market. If I am wrong, I would rather 'overpay' later, after seeing the stamp market settle at a higher level, than to 'overpay' today and see prices come down in the next year or two. I am buying sets and singles now - they have gone up a bit, but still appear reasonable.

I bid on lot 177 and was probably the underbidder, it was something I really wanted to jump start my turn to Big Blue, but it got away. I think it might still have been a "bargain" and almost regret not going higher, but with out more pictures or a statement about number of stamps, I just couldn't do it. I think it went for about 3x estimate. Lot 210 went for over 6x estimate and lot 222 for 3.5x estimate. Egads.

Yeah, that "stuffed" Scott Intl in lot 177 was impressively bulky, but without viewing in person or vastly more pics, impossible to tell the true value in it.

I'll let you know if it was worth it, I was actually surprised to get it for $9500.

Interesting! Yes, please do share when it arrives.

I am purchasing singles and sets because in this market environment because those are still somewhat controlled by the parameters of defined catalog values. The large lots on the other hand have no definition other than what you see firsthand or through scans and calculate or what your imagination tells you. I really don't see how people are getting into bidding wars on carton lots unless they all dug through the stuff and came up with a real number. This is c-r-a-z-y. I used to play in the large lot pool when I knew that I could not get hurt worse than I could tolerate. Not now.