Rule Of Thumb For Mnh Modern Stamps Price

Hey there,

I know lots of people stop collecting stamps beyond a certain year. While for all who collect modern stamps, is there a rule of thumb how much you are willing to pay for MNH? like 50% face value, 25%, or 10%? or a percentage based off catalogue value?

For example, for this stamp (New Zealand 1994 Scott #1084 - 2021 Scott Catalogue value is US $22.50) with a face value of $20 NZ Dollar (about US$12.40 per today's exchange rate),


How much are you willing to pay?

Thanks in advance for all the answers.

If I lived in the country of issue, the postage was still valid for use, and I needed postage to mail some items, then something very close to face value would be justified.

It would sell for $6.20 U.S. , half of face .

I disagree with Floortrader- it would be difficult to find something like this for 1/2 face though of course it would be possible. You might find a stamp like this, from the '90s, for about 1/2 Scott catalog, perhaps 60%.

For MNH issued after 1950 where you seek to buy specific sets, 1/2 Scott can be found in many if not most cases, and often you can find material for as low as 1/3 Scott. Commemoratives are more likely to be found closer to 33-40% of Scott, vs. definitives which are more easily found at 40-50%.

The exception would be for genuinely scare-to-rare material where stamps tend to sell more along the lines of 50% to 75%. There are other exceptions as well- East- and Southeast Asian material has been "hot" for awhile and I don't know offhand if Scott has kept up.

Finding material with these guidelines won't necessarily be easy- you'll have to work at it since most stamp "dealers" sell at well above 50%. Hope this helps.

It really depends upon to whom you are selling. Collector, dealer for resale, person to us as postage.

Older US sheets (as in one sheet, one lot) are selling at and above face on ebay and with shipping the costs is well above face. As you add more to the mix, the price per item drops.

Edit: It can also depend upon the issue some modern US is going multiples of face such as certain Wedding themed Forever stamps.

The key here is the wording "It would sell at $6.20 " and a reseller would try to get 1/2 catalog for it at $11.25 but at that price it could sit on ebay for months .

As a side note ,at the large stamp show last Thanksgiving in Chicago . I purchased $800.00 face of U.S. Postage for 50% of face from Jerry of Stamps N Stuff of Iowa , this was a lot of 60 year old stamps in 1/2 sheets and coils with many Plate Blocks . , lots of special issues like birds , flowers and flags . 60 years old stamps at half face is no problem right now . Sold it all at a club meeting taking a 10% profit .in Florida

So many factors interfere with rules of thumb. Is the seller sitting on too much face inventory? Does the seller need to generate some cash? Is a rate change going to impact the desirability of the sellers face denominations?

If I were a seller at a large stamp show and was moving face material I might start higher on the first day of the show and end lower on subsequent days if I did not want to cart it home or wanted it to pay for expenses.

There is no shortage of face data on SAN. Kelleher and Modern sell tons of it, Kelleher in much larger dollar groupings.

someone replied earlier that it's justifiable to pay close to face value for postage purpose (considering them MNH).

I kind of agree.

While I do see ebay stamp lots often have FV listed out, something like `huge $900 FV US stamps lot`, and have a very low starting bid. And I even searched for Closed/Sold stamp lots and noticed people were paying way less than FV.

That's why I wanted to get people's input and see if there is a rule of thumb for those stamp lots when bidding. thanks.

As stated above ,there is no rule of thumb ,you have to look at the lot . A stamp dealer will buy someone's accumalation of U.S.Postage for 50 % or less but hopes to sell a few premium items for a profitable sum then unload the rest to a person needing postage .

NC- what stamps are you seeking to collect? I started out thinking you were interested in foreign based on the stamp you posted but the discussion has quickly morphed into a US discussion.

There is a big difference between a single stamp that cats $22.50 and a large lot with $800 face. Apples and oranges. Same rules do not apply.

I follow Canadian postage lots in auction pretty closely, and around 65-70% of face value seems to be typical. Lower % of face value for lower denomination lots as you'd expect, and higher as you get into Permanent & $ values.

shermae,

It's more of a generic question for MNH stamp in that matter, not specific to US.

I started with Eastern European countries as they are fairly affordable with CTO and such, and some topical. Then just picked up countries by names alphabetically.

I have a basic US album ranging from 1930s to early 1980s, and purposedly avoid getting deeper into it. With all these said, definitely see some opportunities with stamps lots for modern US (after 1990s).

Gmot,

thanks for the info and I started Canada too, so very helpful!