Advice On Getting A Fair Appraisal For My Stamps.

I don't have a substantive response to this thread, but I want to note the curt nature of several of the posts in this thread.

I collect both stamps and coins (with a focus on ancient and medieval coins). One thing I have noted over the years is that ancient and medieval coin discussion forums are for the most part open and welcoming, even to people asking questions that have been repeatedly asked before.

In my experience, it is all too often the case that stamp discussion forums are not similarly welcoming. Of course, there are many exceptions -- there are plenty of grumps on coin discussion forums and plenty of welcoming people on stamp discussion forums.

But overall ancient and medieval coin discussion groups tend to be much friendlier. My theory is that it might relate to the age differences between the two groups. Stamp collectors on average are much older and I know that I am finding that as I get steadily older (I'm 71), it is more and more of a struggle to avoid grumpiness.

I agree sooo much, Snopes.

Unfortunately, people almost always fall in the same trap, they do research on internet and read things that say some (common) stamps are valuable, and, because a lot of people own these stamps, because they are very common, think they are valuable.


Experienced philatelists find that frustrating, but this is not a reason to be rude in their way to talk to newbies, this just makes things worse. They need to repeat each time the same thing, but if it's told carefully and with dedication, people will generally completely understand.

When I was a newbie myself and asked questions here, people were sometimes really rude with me. I was learning quickly, and I was understanding easily since they were giving me advice, but this wasn't a good way to learn, because it could have been made with more attention and kindness.

This is why, when I explain something to someone who has less experience than me in a subject, my favourite smiley is:


We do not do something to someone that we wouldn't want for ourselves to be done.

Well, it appears our community did the best we could given the information we had. Since there were no pictures or scans posted of the more rare items and very little other information, all we could do was refer the OP to a local source and hope that they received good advice. I'm glad the OP feels that they received a decent offer for their stamps and can afford a nice vacation.

I still have a gnawing feeling that if we had seen more, we could have directed the OP to other experts and perhaps gotten them even more, but that's all water under the bridge now.

My point wasn't really just limited to this particular discussion -- though some impolite language was definitely used -- it was about the community as a whole.

I'll give just a couple of other examples, though I could cite many.

After I discovered ancient and medieval coins in 1998, my enthusiasm for stamps took a back seat for a while. But a few years later, I rediscovered my longtime love for stamps and started looking for discussion groups on the internet. I found one based in Australia where the people seemed knowledgeable. In response to a posting about the need to use stamp tongs with dire warnings about what skin oils would do to stamps, I put up a post basically asking whether postal customers didn't usually touch stamps with their hands and whether there was any evidence that such touching damages stamps. There was an outpouring of vitriol toward me that was almost breathtaking, highly personal insults. I immediately went away from that forum (and from stamp collecting), a status that lasted quite a while. It was just so ugly. ||

Second example. There is a stamp dealer who attends shows in the DC area. On more than one occasion I've seen him be openly insulting and rude toward people who have their old childhood stamp albums and want to know if they're worth anything. I saw him tell one guy, without even looking at his album, that his stamps were completely worthless and they weren't even worth his time to throw them away. The guy was so crestfallen I thought he might cry.

There are really nice and generous people in the hobby and here in this discussion and on this website. But there is a streak of rudeness and nastiness in the hobby that should be called out as it is very off-putting to new and returning collectors (and to longtime collectors too).

I can't help but wonder, Snopes, if your experiences are symptomatic of something greater that few people talk about anymore - the continued devaluation of stamps that were once considered "investments"?

When I started collecting stamps in 1980 (I was 10 years old), the man who got me into collecting wisely warned me about putting too much emotion into the valuation of stamps. To a young kid, the idea of owning a stamps that was "worth" $10, $20, $40 or more was intoxicating, and it never occurred to me that values would ever go down. And here we are, some 45 years later where only true rarities have increased in value, and everything else has steadily decreased in price; putting a huge percentage of dealers out of business along the way.

The devaluation of stamps has been a boon for (younger) collectors like myself, who never imagined I could afford a full set of mint Columbians, etc, But for those who paid top dollar back in the 70s and 80s under the promise of long term investments that never panned out, it's a bitter pill to swallow - with ebay dashing any hopes of ever recovering their investments.

So now I come full circle to the aforementioned impolite, if not rude responses from our members and can only conclude that it's because stamps are common and stamp collecting easy with little-to-no return on investment, and we don't like being reminded of that fact every time a newcomer gets excited because a family member left behind old stamps. I still remember the excitement I felt when I acquired my first US stamp that was more than 100 years old and imagine that's what they're feeling when they post here.

Brian

We can have very long discussions about this, but the stamps posted by OP are not worth only a few pennies.

Rileysan - Your theory sounds plausible to me too.