Valuing A Stamp Collection Only With Pictures : Possible Or Not ?

To backtrack, you have been offered a good method to estimate your holdings. ebay sold prices give a rough spot cash value for individual items or sets. It is the price a willing buyer pays a willing seller, based only on scans and a brief description.

Buyers and sellers on ebay are usually strangers. There is a limited level of trust between parties. No one with experience on ebay expects they are buying first-rate merchandise. The best material is transacted privately, with a handshake.

If your interest is really show-and-tell, certainly many here will indulge. Stamp collectors are generous with time and shared knowledge.

I keep my modest collection away from the eyes of a public forum, but to each their own.

For insurance purposes, you would most likely want a replacement value appraisal to assign a value to the collection.

If you have been collecting long enough to have a collection that you deem valuable enough to carry insurance on, then you should have some record of how much you have spent on it over the 10-20-30 years you have been collecting. If your budget has been on the order of $100 a month for 20 years, you probably have a well filled set of albums with mostly the less expensive material, and the overall value is probably negligible.

If you have primarily been buying many small sets and making small purchases on ebay and at shows, then I suspect you do not have a collection that is of sufficient value to worry about making an detailed estimate, and certainly not one that requires a stamp by stamp inventory. If you have 100,000 relatively common stamps, apply the $0.25 per stamp catalog value and use that for the appraisal.

If you are someone who spends multiple $1000s at each of several top line auction houses (Siegel, Schuyler Rumsey, Harmer's, etc.) each year, then you should have a set of receipts that will back up your insurance estimates, and you can use those for the basis of the bulk of the collection. Or make a list of all the items you paid at least $100 each for, and use that as the starting point for your estimate.

I suspect that very few serious collectors on this forum do not have a good idea of what they have spent during the years of active collecting. They may not want to advertise it, as they may not want their spouse to really know what they are spending, but they know.

Just one person's thoughts....

Thanks for advices ! I am collecting since approximately 3 years, and I have several valuable stamps. I have a lot of old not valuable stamps, but the total value is probably valuable. So all these stamps together, valuable and not, must be pretty valuable, and so I think that it's enough valuable to declare this for the insurances. I really love my collection and I really don't want to "completely" lose it if there's an accident.

And the other reason that I want to know the value of my collection, is also because I'm curious and I think it's important to know the value of your collection if you collect.

What's the most you've paid for a stamp, or the most you've paid in a single transaction?

By what avenue was this purchase made?

I always go to the same store, and every time I buy a stamp, I get it for half price. The most I've paid for a stamp is 200$ CAD and so the value was 400$ CAD.

To make it easier, I'll sometimes post a topic about what is the exact value of one of my stamps, when I can't find it by myself, instead of asking the value of my entire collection.

If you want to value one or two stamps in my collection, you can still.

Half price compared to what?

If a dealer who has a store is selling you a stamp for $200, it's worth $200, to the dealer.

He will have paid less than this amount, perhaps way less.

You would be very lucky to sell it for $200.

Half price compared to the value of it. He doesn't sell me these stamps because they have this value, I just get half price, that's it. I'm like a special customer, I'm really lucky !

What does this means, rodgcam ?

Let me clear the air here ........what you paid $200.00 for in the past three years is worth $100.00 . I am buying very fine Canadian stamps for a 1/4 or less of catalog . Right now ----- today I am thinking of buying a fine condition Admiral set that catalogs at $1200.00 for around $125.00 ........please tell me what you think it is worth ....it is at auction tomorrow ,yes on Sunday .........please respond fast

Starting a few weeks ago you showed us your "US Collection:

https://goscf.com/t/88388

Then you asked how to use a perforation gauge:

https://goscf.com/t/88516

Next came the invention of a new grading system followed by more stamps:

https://goscf.com/t/88507

Why am I rehashing this? Because having seen your stamps thus far I can tell you unequivocally that they share a common trait of being poorly centered and full of condition issues. Asking how to use a perforation gauge after "years of collecting" also raises red flags. After seeing your material thus far, paying "50%" of "x" will undoubtably lead to disappointment when the reality of actual value sets in. I did not see one stamp that I would buy individually let alone pay more than 5-10% of catalog for.

What I have just said may be seen by some as being harsh. It is not. It is being real. I see zero benefit in going along with a premise in order to accommodate feelings. I mean, how many of us collect for years and have no idea what we have nor what it is worth. Would any of us ignore actual sold prices for common poorly centered stamps and need "expert" input to establish an insurance value? This simple thing is now being treated as if Bill Gross is going to present his 1847 collection.

Do you have any album mounted collections?
Roughly how many stamps are we talking about?
What do you have for catalogs?
What areas do you collect?
Where did you acquire your stamps?
Do you own stamp tongs?
Do you use watermark fluid?

Or just rip the band-aid off and post the stamps now.

From where is the value derived? His normal price list? A certain catalogue?

This is not complicated.
Insurance appraisals represent what it would cost you today to replace whatever was stolen, damaged, or destroyed.

Figure out what you've spent over the past 3 years total. Take a macro look at the market for the kind of thing you've bought. Is it a really hot market - meaning that it would cost you 1.2x? 1.5x? 2x? what you've paid for your collection. Multiply the two numbers. You have your estimate of the replacement value.

Call your insurance provider. Describe what you did, give them the total, let them know that you have an inventory (or not), and see if that is sufficient for them to issue you a policy. If not, ask them the level of detail they require for an appraisal.

C.

Stamps are worth what a buyer is willing to pay, nothing more and nothing less!! …they are not silver or gold, nor precious stones….Set your price and that's it…it doesn't matter if you have a stamp that is valued at 50,000, if no one is going to pay you for it….The catalogs are indicative and are very good for ordering and classify, but the prices are a fallacy that does not adjust to reality... I don't see a maximum price, but I am sure that you can calculate a minimum of 10 cents per copy... What's more, I have seen that the album itself is more expensive what the stamps!! I think that all of this is applicable to insurance and what you are willing to pay as a premium for what you consider your collection is worth be it real, lie or approximate.