Raritan Auction Sale 91 First Day Strong Bidding

Well for anyone predicting the collapse of the market for stamps and covers besides US today should be taken into account. 287 lots with perhaps 6 of those passed. Internet bidders shut out by the floor. Most lots meeting or exceeding estimate and in the case of my bid list it was carnage. All Russia material and aggressive bidding. I never had a chance and I was not bargain hunting. I hope that tomorrow is better but I don't see why it would be.

PS: It was not the extreme rarities that did the best for the most part as much as it was the "regular" stuff.

Scott needs to adjust their ancient catalog values. They are a joke in many cases.

Your confusing Worldwide stamps with highly specialized Russian material at a firm that has a huge clientele of Russian collectors .Much like me buying Egypt in 2012 and paying over catalog and many other lots went over catalog by aggressive buyers from the Mideast .

For many advance collectors they wait years for the right auction and when the stuff comes for auction ,catalogs means nothing .

Try buying Tibet right now , there are about five major collections in the world and people are waiting for one of those to come up for auction .

I am not confusing anything but you are.

Rogdcam:




Last I checked Russia was a "WW" country.

Russia is not Tibet.

No offense Rodgcam but Raritan was/is a highly specialized auction. I tend to agree with floortrader that prices overall have peaked and as the economy opens more options become available , prices on stamps are on the decline/ or have stabilized. Then again I am a conservative on pricing as well as everything else.
Regards m


Edit for clarity

Never any offense take. Healthy debate is an awesome thing as well as becoming endangered in some circles.

Today's Raritan auction was "specialized" in the sense that it featured Russia only. Within Russia, as with other major countries and areas that people collect, are general mainstream sets and singles that comprise most of the material. So if you call selling and collecting one Country specialized you are correct. If you are saying that within the auction was all specialized material that would be an inaccurate statement.

Beyond that most Raritan sales are WW in nature. In other words they sell stamps and postal history from A-Z countries and their auctions have doing extremely well this year.

ebay prices from sellers that I watch are strong as well.

We are dealing with the prison of two ideas here. The market is collapsing or the market is strong. The truth is more likely in the middle.

You can further break things down by small and large lots. Rasdale's next sale is coming. It is "specialized" by definition (yours) because it features and is known for it's bulk material with singles as an also-ran.

PS: Funny how Scott values, at least for Russian mainstream material, lag behind current sales results when we have a 'collapsing" market.

I don't think prices are collapsing,I don't think they are as of yet on decline.i think they have stabilized in my ballywick, which is US classic period. The stamp market is Huge, SCF has taught me not to see everything through my own little view. Russian can be strong, US can be middling, and Egypt weak all at the same time. Here in the US the economy is opening up, it'll be interesting to see how that effects stamp prices. Obviously there are many factors, but gas prices can effect stamp outcomes at auction.
Interesting to note are Australian friends and their tak on our little endeavor, stamp collecting.
With regards, m

I think it's harder to tell directionality because the playing field has leveled quite a bit. The accessibility of using SAN to participate for instance can create a strong crowd one day, and a weak crowd the next. So many factors aside from the material, impact the bid flow, that no single or even a years worth of auctions can speak to direction. It's only recognizable when sample sizes are much bigger (5 years).

Throw an auction on a snowy winter US weekend in NY and bidding could be up 25% if folks don't leave their house and want something to do. A surprise warm day in Jan, and noone sitting at home can crater a turnout. Of course Die hards will not care...

Might have mentioned this before, but IMO a trend - if any - will only be meaningful with several auctions done and dusted. Maresch & Sparks up here in Canada, Rasdale & Kelleher in the US are the ones I'm following, all are in the next 3-6 weeks, all will have a good selection of collection lots. As did the recent Aldrich and Dutch Country. Will be interested to see if there's consistent price moderation across those auctions for country/WW collections.

....and day two was just as strong. I did manage to get two lots by paying up. Floor bidders ruled the roost. I saw quite a few lots go for full or above catalog. I can buy them from Loral for less.

Anyway, it was fun and that is the point for me.