Pushing 330,000 All Different Worldwide Stamps In One Collection .

Those Kelleher Auctions are fun to look at. Nice to see all three Brazilian Bullseyes in a collection.

Landoquakes ----- Stamp auctions for country collections and worldwide collectors sort of give each one of us a guidepost to current prices and demand . Even if I am not buying it gives me a idea of what other collectors have done .
It tells us what is out there and how it was collected . No surprise so many are doing the same thing that we think "I figured this out and my way is better" then we see someone on the other side of the country got their collection the same way we got ours .

Seems like quite a few passed lots, and those that are selling are below estimates. I'm pretty new to auctions - is this fairly normal? Floortrader, need to get you your own TV show providing running commentary, like on ESPN...

Well they sold the part II and part III today they got $23,000 and $26,000 , With the former auction of Part I in December of 2024 for $42,500 . So with commissions and fees ,the three lots sold for $109,800 for this worldwide collection .

First thing to say is ,most likely it sold for about 1/6 catalog maybe a little less like 1/8 catalog . So for me no big surprise . This would follow two or three other massive size collections in the past 10 years . NO SURPRISE or SHOCK .

What I DON'T LIKE is not telling me , how it was being sold , my first question is ,is there a Part IV in 2 months from now ,if you are offering part 1 ,please tell me how many more parts .

What was stupid and I DON'T LIKE , PLUS Kept the price down , was not offering as British group , French group ,Asia , Latin America group and a few other groupings . Each part was sold as needing to buy stuff in the other parts .

Given what can determined regarding condition from the scans they included for those 2 lots, I'd say 5% catalogue is what any buyer should have been aiming for.

floortrader, how do the prices achieved overall in the non-USA parts in this sale align with your comment a little while back that you expected auction prices to drop or at least plateau? It looks to me like you might be onto something...

Zendo 59 ---- Let me first say ,I wrote a nice piece on this chat board about "Expect stamp prices to weaken over the next few months " on 4-03-25 . But the discussion between members here took the wrong turn into politics,so the powers to be shut it down .

There is a very clear pattern of decline . I've seen some of the written material from the "Experts " in the business telling their customers that pricing is steady to getting stronger ,these same "experts " are selling me key worldwide stamps at less than 1/4 of catalog . So figure that out .

Your comment of 5% of catalog is true in some cases but that 5% has been around for years for common material and for all those modern new issues both in stock books and in glassine envelopes ,so that is no surprise to me .

To New READERS and New COLLECTORS ------ Let me explain something that I never read about in the philatelic press .

There is a group of collectors out there that I call the "ONE SHOT BUYERS " They are long term collectors who have success in major parts of their lives . They still enjoy their quiet time with stamps and the peace the hobby has given them over the years . They want to buy new material and expand their collections but they don't have the time to search for cheap stamps on ebay or anywhere else and not looking to nickel and dime a stamp dealer for a purchase .
I ran into these people at Greg Manning Stamp Auctions around 1990 . They come to a stamp auction to buy ,but they are looking at what can they add to their collection . They are not stamp dealers who want to see if they can make a profit next week on a resell .

These ONE SHOT buyers are there to take something home and enjoy it for a whole year ,it is a ONE SHOT buying experience ,so they can get on with their busy life and business ,not to decide are they spending $5,000 or bid $5500. They will decide they are taking that home not play around .These ONE SHOT buyers kill all these dealers who plot who buys what between themselfs .

Money is not the issue ,they have a successful life and their buying satisfaction for a year or years of enjoyment .

It is like , what a ebay seller said to me once ,while standing at checkout after a REGENCY STAMP AUCTION . He said "I overpaid for the lot " great way to piss me off . I looked at him and said ",that lot will be with me for 20 years ,you can ask that in 20 years " I don't buy on Saturday to sell on Monday like most of these ebay bidders .

So if you see these $5,000 or $10,000 or like this week $25,000 stamp lots being sold it is not always a stamp dealer ,it could be a ONE SHOT buyer who is doing his purchase .

What it comes down to ,is when a stamp auction house puts up a lot with a lot of nice material all in one lot . All that eye candy attrachs a whole different group of buyers that stamp dealers wish for buying ,but known it draws out these ONE SHOT BUYERS who can blow away their 5% buying attempts .

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I have been such a buyer. One-shot buyers often turn into repeat buyers as they fill out their collections after the one-shot gave them a kick-start. So overall for the market they are great buyers to have.

Is there any realistic chance that the collection that was auctioned in three parts in Kelleher would kept intact by a single purchaser who would make it the basis for their own ongoing collection?

It's a little bit sad to think that the great majority of carefully assembled collections will be dismantled when they are sold.

Of course, the same thing happens with most collectibles. In the area of ancient and medieval coins, many auction houses will attempt to lure a consignor in by promising to sell their coins with a label identifying their prior owner (from the "John C. Doe collection"). I guess this goes a little way toward making a lifelong collector feel that he or she has been more than just an accumulator.

That's a great post floortrader.

I'd also say that a number of reasonably well-heeled collectors aren't too bothered about condition if the price is "right".

Those two lots I believe would be correctly described as "condition very mixed" but they DID contain a huge amount of uncommon to scarce material and were perfect buys for a whole world collector at the prices they went for.

There are stamp auctions out there where there are only a few bidders bidding on many lots and often. They have lots of cash maybe a bankroll of 50,000-100000 at least. They also tended to buy huge lots. And when the bidding gets too close or over high estimate they bail. I believe those to be the stamp dealers.

Most buyers can't afford to spend 25,000 or even 5,000 in one shot. I suspect the high majority of stamp collectors at most spend 2,000 or less hammer at most auctions excluding the high end auctions.

Also buying at stamp auctions is mostly an exclusive club of more serious stamp collectors both small and large alike. Most buying happens on the flea market of ebay and semi-flea market Hipstamp.

"These ONE SHOT buyers are there to take something home and enjoy it for a whole year ,it is a ONE SHOT buying experience..."

Possibly one in the recent Siegel sale 1353, Worldwide sale. One buyer bought majority of country and world collections, many selling in the 5 figure range.

SNOPES -----To answer your question .

Snopes asked "Is there any realistic chance that the collection..... would be keep intact by a single purchaser ?

Not likely .....too many problems with that collection ,that a experience collector like me would have issues with .

First if you spend $109,000 for it ,then your already a collector and have your own set-up ,your own way of being acceptable ,you may have 70 to 80% of the stamps already in your collection .

Then you look at this collection :
You see over 4 different types of pages being used , old dirty Scott's pages , newer Scott's pages,S.G 's pages and various types of blank pages ......not a chance to be mixed with your album pages . .
You see sets that are half mint and half used . Not going into my collection .
You see stamps stacked on top of each other . Are they wmkd different ,are they perf. different . or shade different who knows ,not acceptable way to keep a collection .
You see pencil markings on most pages ,even old outdated catalog values ....speaks as a trashy page .


So that is what I seen , we live in a new generation of being able to replace any album page at home for less than 5 cents per page and have a impressive collection for some very nice stamps