The Biggest And Most Destructive Lie In The Hobby Of Stamp Collecting

Let's be completely honest here, catalog values mean nothing. Value in any transaction is between the buyer and seller. The seller in willing to spend what they are willing to spend and the seller is willing to sell for what they are willing to sell for. If the two side cannot meet in the middle, the stamp doesn't get sold. In any auction, the value of any individual stamp is what it sells for, no more and no less. If the people who might be willing to pay more don't show up, then it doesn't get sold for more. Catalog value is, at best, a very loose guide of what it has sold for in the past. That doesn't mean it will sell for that again.

Lets talk some facts to back up my stamps are worthless comments even those with a retail (not catalog) value of $50 or more. Retail, as in, people willing passed money over the show dealer's table to fill want lists.

Catalog value of $3,000,000.00 plus sold for $85,000. At California's now forced common wage of $20/hr plus benefits, $85k translates to less than 4250 hours of work. That is two years of work for one person to sort, catalog and place on 102 cards over 400,000 individual stamps. In short the winning buyer of this huge worldwide stock just paid for labor and the stamps were free. This was one part of the A&D Stamp and Coins stock. The other parts reflect the same calculation. Also need I point out that there is a cost to buy a couple of hundred boxes of 1000 102 cards.

Edited to correct spelling of "wage."

I don't completely agree here. Although the final sale/purchase value may fluctuate, even greatly, from what a catalog value is, the relative nature of the values tells a lot. It tells me that SC # XX is worth 8x more than a SC # YY, all else being equal, and in a general sense. It tells me as a buyer and seller that I should likely expect XX to be more valuable, command a higher price, probably be more scarce, and be something I keep more of an eye out for. Without catalog values as a general guide, what a vastly more complicated world of buying, selling, and trading we would find ourselves in!

Take any market you know little about and the same applies. If I find a piece of old art in an attic, without some guide or way of knowing a relative value of the artist or piece, how do I know if it's worth $1 at my next yard sale or if it should go to Sotheby's??

Yes, CV have issues, but for the vast majority of collectors, they present an incredible amount of knowledge all compiled in one book. They are not the holy grail but are a convenient tool to add to a collecting toolbox and, imo, the values are from from meaningless.

I agree with stamps101. Catalogs are very important resources that document a lot of information about our hobby.

As for prices, as long as you use the same catalog it allows you - if nothing else - to see the likely high-end price of an item. It also shows you what items are considered common vs. less common or even rare.

Anyone buying a stamp with a catalog value of $1,000 is usually using other resources to determine a fair price to buy or sell;

If I see a $1,000 catalog value (or even $500) it tells me that I am either never obtaining that item or maybe I can start looking at places where that stamp is bundled ... or maybe I am just never going to obtain it.

A used Great Britain Penny Black has a $320 valuation in my Scott catalog. For many years, even at half catalog price, that was about my entire budget when going to a stamp show. But at least I knew where it stood compared to my budget (I finally got my Penny Black when I bought an auction lot of Great Britain a couple years ago; I only bid on it because the Penny Black was in it).

Many years of using a catalog has enhanced my hobby skills and appreciation.

I no longer look at my stamps as objects there have a value in dollars and cents. No longer being disappointed about the worthless of my stamps.

Now value for me is how selfdom the stamp is. That had lead me to a keen collector of greenland stamps, since they are printed in low numbers, both new and older stamps.

...but it is not strange to see how dealer/s respond for offer! Nothing that need to make You angry - it is common worldwide!
Market is market, and we have dealer/s who pay x, and or y percentage of catalog value.
Which way someone make offer, it is different story.
10%, 20%, 25% ..... dealer/s have own need, own reason and own reason how much they will pay.

You never really should have. People mistake hobbies for investments. I have collected all kinds of things in my life, but I will never sell a single thing that I have collected, even if it does have financial value. That's not why I did it. I did it for the pure enjoyment that I got out of doing it. When I am dead, if someone wants to sell it and have a party with the proceeds, go for it. I never will. I recognize that hobbies are an inherently losing proposition. If they want to light them on fire and have a bonfire, that's fine with me too. I'm dead. I won't care.

Stamp collecting can be an investment if you treat it as such. Once you become a collector though most people will head to the poor house. For example, if you spend 1000 dollars on a rare investment grade stamp and you bought it at a real auction at a good price, the chances that you can sell it for more are great. However, most collectors don't do that. Thus, the disappointment when they go to sell.

Most collectors spend money on collecting supplies, shipping fees, dealer markups and cheap stamps that are basically worthless. And even the ones who spend money on their collections at one point have a money sink like buying a fake stamp that they thought was real, buying from a supposedly reputable dealer etc...

I'll go again, catalog value in the overwhelming vast majority of cases is not based upon inherent worth of the stamp, but the labor to supply same. There are billions, hundreds of billions, a few trillion of stamps which after use or other invalidation, have only value as per-pound mixed recycled paper.

Current mixed paper is under $50/ton and excludes as paper with self-stick adhesive. Material (paper fiber) with self-stick adhesive is turned away for recycling. At $50 per ton (2000 lbs) works out to be $0.00156 per ounce or 6.4 ounces of stamps per penny ($0.01 AKA 1 cent).

Do "stamps" have value? Statistically speaking the answer is no as the percentage of "stamps" which may have a value is too small to be statically relevant when compared to the numerical gross of stamps, all worthless, in general.

Now you may own the British Guiana last sold for millions, but that one example does not change the worthlessness of 100s of Billions or a few trillion other stamps.

I agree 100% with Cephus.
I have spent a few thousands over the years.
What is my collection worth now, a few hundred?

I enjoyed my stamps over the many decades as a hobby, definitely not
as an investment.
I study stamps as to the printing method, which printer, who engraved them,
do I see any variety,do I like the design ?

It is always about the stamps and what enjoyment I get out of them.
Just looking at them gives me pleasure.
Not,How much are they worth?





Exactly how I feel.

Hogwash.
The example you cite is wholesale for hundreds of thousands of stamps, while cat values are supposed to represent retail for individual stamps or sets..

Yes, I fully agree that the "wholesale" value is also zero for the stamps, as the stamps themselves are worthless. Once you agree with that you then need to consider that "catalog value" DOES NOT refer to the value of the stamps, but to the labor costs to supply the otherwise worthless scraps of paper.

Also the A&D stock was a decades long cherry picked-up holding which was selected from the 100s of billions or a few trillion really useless stamps.

Again, the if the stamps were offered as an unsorted mixture of the same 400,000 would the price change? Of course it would, it would be far far less than the $85,000 as there is no labor saved now and it was the saved labor which carried the price higher for the worthless (retail, wholesale or catalog) paper stamps. As a pile, over $5000 in 102 cards are eliminated.


Edit: As struckout with if added.

One thing the internet has brought to this kind of discussion is actually accessible data (not coy hints dropped by dealers). Does stamp X in condition Y consistently bring price Z on ebay or HipStamp? There's your data. As a practical matter I'd suggest: plan to buy at those prices and to sell at somewhat less (or wait a good long while to sell at all).

I once came across the following dealer's rubric for very quickly appraising and buying collections. On the premise that the collection is serious enough to include a good proportion of the higher-value stamps in its subject category, he claimed that he could usually apply this criterion: ignore all stamps with catalog value under $100 and value the remaining stamps at half catalog value. This is only a way to get at a price for the whole, and involves no implication about pricing the parts.

I replied at length before reading the article, instead just replying to the comments here. After reading the article, I'm deleting my reply, basically agreeing with the blog writer on the majority of their conclusions.