Collapse In Stamp Prices On Better Worldwide Stamps .

Well we are 1/2 thru Cherrystone's Worldwide auction 1/2 was yesterday and today the other half . Prices and the many with no bids is telling these prices are the lower end of previous auctions 2 or 3 years ago ,is telling a story of lower prices .

To me a stamp cataloging $800.00 and offered at $200.00 with no bids is a sign ,then another stamp that catalogs $800.00 again gets bid opening at $200.00 but gets only 1 bid is also telling .

Waiting to see the collection lots that will be up today ,to see if there are any active bidding ,more than the sold at opening bid or sold one or two ticks above the starting price .

Cherrystone has been like that for a long time now. I watch and bid in most of their auctions and they always have a ton of passed lots and very few bidders. I see many reasons why this is the case but who cares. It is what it is.

Watch the Raritan auction tomorrow. It will be the opposite.

Of course, we see what we want to see.

Comparing some of the Cherrystone minimum bids with prices for the same items on Delcampe, and the minimum bids were about what you could pay outright on Delcampe for many items. Perhaps the CVs and thus Cherrystone's minimums are too high for what are items that are not really rarities in most cases.

The starting bids for collections at Cherrystone are very high IMO, as a result I skip their sales. Lots of other auction houses with much more reasonable starts.

~Greg

In September I visited Cherrystone's new offices to look at a collection. The starting bid was $24K, I would not have bid more than $10K for it. Openings are too high!

I have picked up large lots in the past from Cherrystone and do not anymore because of the overly enthusiastic estimates. Usually the lots disappointed.

I now bid at Cherrystone for singles and sets that I have had a difficult time finding. That being said Cherrystone has a lot of specialized material that is scarce and even rare but is for advanced collectors and specialists and thus the bidder pool is smallish. They also have their auctions on weekdays.

Unfortunately there is no perfect way for buying or selling collectables, or we would all be doing it by now!
Catalogues tend to encourage high prices which are unrealistic, auctions can be similar but bargains are always possible.