Brand New Member Seeking Wisdom, Advice And Counsel.

Bear in mind that small UK auction houses - i.e. not Spink et al - will often have very good individual items. I don't buy high-end stamps. and I don't use agents, but this company covers a lot of the UK ones

http://www.philatelic-auction-agent.co.uk/

Thanks GeoffHA. I'll have a look.

Also google for "Stamp Auction Network."

I would also like to say that the only way to make money in stamps is to either buy and hold VERY VERY rare stamps, which is very expensive and challenging, or to buy like a dealer. By and large the only folks making money in stamps (aside from supplies) are stamp dealers. Buy low so you can sell at a profit. This is a very different model than buying as a collector, accumulator, or investor, but the closer you can get to this model the more likely you have room for appreciation. Auctions, including smaller auctions as Geoff suggested, are the way to go.

Thank you so much. This shared wisdom is simply invaluable and I am quickly narrowing my strategy for entering into this fascinating world solely due to the wise counsel and intel you, and others here, have so graciously and kindly imparted. I'm so thankful I stumbled upon this site.

I suggest that the internet tanked stamp prices in general as it's so easy to sell at a lower price now. That said, the change of recent versus historical stamp collecting is we have lots more rich people now than there used to be, so there is a relatively small number of wealthy collectors who will pay top dollar for the best examples of rare stamps. Figuring out what those stamps are would be the path to success here. You would be fighting against the dealers who have been supplying these whales and have quite a head start on you concerning what the top collectors are looking for.

Interesting insight. The difference between rich and wealthy being? I'm guessing perhaps a perusal of recent auction results, keying in on the highest hammer prices could be a starting place? Personally, I'm interested in fairly scarce, higher quality issues for the long term. At least at present. I imagine maybe goals could change as I gain experience.

I would not rely on recent hammer prices as condition is key to the value of rare stamps. If you are not buying within the same grade of stamp for the same catalog number, you could make a seriously expensive mistake while thinking you got a bargain.

Keep in mind that when you sell, you may be offered half or less than the retail value of the stamps, or if selling at auction you're looking, at minimum, a 15% slice off the top for the auction house, if not 20% or even higher.

It is not simple; it takes a lot of knowledge to navigate philately especially* when you are looking for ROI.

After you identify the auction houses that offer the best material you want, or regularly offer good candidate material, consider calling and getting to know one of their staff, and expressing interest in "private treaty sales." In a private treaty sale, the auction house receives material from a consignor but, based on its advance knowledge of your interests and its confidence in your likelihood and ability to close a deal, offers the material to you first. This reduces the parties' transaction costs and gets money to the consignor faster, but may yield a lower price and thus less proceeds to the consignor than an open public auction, so not all consignors will agree. You can't lowball, but may do better than when competing with other bidders. And you'll need time and a purchasing history to establish cred.

Thank you for this info. I can see there is quite the learning curve ahead of me.

If you're looking for the pre-KUT BEA issues, you may be interested in this forthcoming Spink sale

https://d3ums4016ncdkp.cloudfront.n...23/24023.pdf