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

Reading this topic was like reading a story with a happy ending. Most fun I have had on this forum. Just wanted to say that as an 18yr old I am very impressed with your knowledge of stamps especially from Canada. You are very mature for your age. Most young collectors are just collect worldwide and topical and dont take the hobby seriously.
Something I dont think people mentioned is that I would recommend buying from auctions on ebay, 95% of the things I buy from ebay are from auctions since that's where you get the best prices. There is a reason why most of the "buy it now" stamps haven't sold.

Thank you really much for your kind comments. Posting a comment again on that thread is like putting an old philatelic ghost alive for me. Philatelically, I changed and learned so much in only a few months that my knowledge is almost ridiculous comparated to now.

I learned that cash value is not really important in philately, (except when you buy them, of course) but philatelic value is way more important. I think this thread was one of the most important in my philatelic learning travelling and was necessary to exist.

Thank you for the advice about ebay auctions, will take a look at that. I think at 18 years old, seriously collecting stamps is out of the ordinary too! Really impressive.

Hey Captain!
I think that all of us on SCF that see your posts are happy for your enthusiasm for our great hobby-- you are a breath of fresh air!

One other thing you might consider is to have a price point when you're buying a stamp. I'd consider a 20-25% of CV, and if the stamp you're looking at online is higher than that, you will find one in that range if you're patient.

I'm not trying to sell you here, but I've got about 13,000 stamps listed on HipStamp, and used, MH and MNG stamps with very few exceptions at at 20% of Scott or even less (for example, I sell Great Britain at 10% of Scott for sound used). A friend of mine has over 60,000 stamps on Stamps 2 Go at 25% of Scott. So the bottom line is-- aggressive pricing that you haven't taken advantage of can definitely be found out there.

Good Luck and Enjoy! Ray

Thank you really much! Yes, I remarked deals are really important. Your advice are really appreciated and will certainly keep that in mind. Glad to read I am a breath of fresh air for you.

My seller is selling me stamps for half price of the catalogue value, and I consider I am really lucky. In the past years, I was buying damaged stamps without really knowing that, and I really regretted this later, but mistakes makes experience! Thank you really much again for your help!

Read a lot of dumb stuff here about stamp collecting .

Here is a few basic rules .
Buy what other people are trying to buy ,not what someone is selling .
Buy to build something ,quit buying williy-nilly because the price is good .
Build something different ,you have common material you're going to get a low price for it .
Think different don't follow the crowd.
Collect what is hard to find .
Don't spend a lot of money on fancy albums or expensive supplies ,you get little in return .
Plan for the long game 10 or 20 years ,my game is 60 years of the same .
Don't broadcast your buying needs ,the price climbs when people heard that .
Save all your invoices and records of your purchases .
Keep up with recent prices review auction prices and on ebay know completed sales .
Don't feel your wasting money on books and other reference material .
Have a buyer in mind who you know will have a interest in your stuff .
Organize your WHOLE collection ,biggest failure for 90% of collectors who sell is the mess their collection is in.

Guess it comes down to --- How are you building value and where are you going with a stamp collection .

What I see out there is a lot of buying but no goals or direction ,collectors spending money but it is going into a deep black hole .

And the most irrelevant stuff was in the last two posts since OP asked the question as

With the last three posts descending into name-calling, I'm locking this thread. Besides, it has gone on for a while, so pretty much whatever might have been said that was helpful, has been said.