Conditions Of Stamps In Collections And Storage

I have 2 quick questions from a new guy to the hobby.

So far I've only been buying MNH for my collection. I'm trying to decide if I want it to stay that way or start buying Used or MH stamps up to a certain date, say 1930. I was curious what conditions are in your collections and how you decide what condition to get.

Also, I'm using 102b cards for my long-term storage except for my US collection. Was wondering if this is OK or am I going to have issues down the road?

Thanks for any help or advise

It's totally up to you. If you're looking for resale value to certain collectors, then MNH could be appealing. However, if you are just looking for face appeal, then a Mint, No Gum, well centered stamp may be the best option.

My opinion is that for most of us MNH becomes impractical at some point from a financial or availability standpoint, or both.

I also preferred MNH for a while in the beginning until it became clear that I was passing up better centered stamps at times for perfect gum and paying more in the process which made no sense.

Of course, I am speaking in terms of moving beyond minimum catalog value stamps. And sets become an issue since it can be harder to put together or find a complete set of say nine stamps with each in MNH condition AND well centered.

It became to confining to build something based upon the state of something people don't see for the most part. Kind of like purchasing whitewall tires and facing them inward.

The 102 card topic I can offer up my lengthy experience on. I would store gumless stamps and stamps I could tolerate losing in 102 cards long term. I would not store stamps with gum on them long term, especially multiple singles (sets, etc.) where they could partially or completely end up on top of each other. 102 cards tend to get stored in a file system state (red boxes) and get compressed while the same time the paper backing card absorbs moisture from the air and the plastic keeps it in. Not a good situation for paper.

People will point to all of the dealers that store in 102 cards without hesitation but those dealers keep their pricier things in better storage solutions for a reason.

Again, this all comes down to stamp value and risk tolerance.

This is 2025 not 1965 when MINT NEVER HINGE was a poplar collecting method . Back in 1965 a collector would pay extra to buy M.N.H. .

Back then it was common for sellers to make it a point that it was M.N.H. which is fine for the investment crowd .Sad to say that group of collectors all but disappeared .

Where M.N.H. is still a major point is those classic stamps that command high prices at auction . But today for the collector it is a thing of the past and safe to say anything under $25.00 get no better results in the market place .

That has not been my experience, and maybe it depends on the collecting area. Unless you are talking face value postage where hinging doesn't matter, a hinged copy of the same set will sell at a great discount from the MNH set, if it sells at all. Especially with "under $25.00" items where there is a plethora of both hinged and never hinged available, the hinged ones are hard to sell at any price.

I will add that in my experience collecting Russia, the sets of the 1920's through 50's command large premiums MNH and competition is strong for them. Hinged material can sit for a long time even at deep discounts. After the 60's you can't give away hinged material.

Going backward in time, I've got all MNH for all but a few scare varieties back to the 1920s when hinges start regularly sneaking in. Then before about 1880, I have few MNH stamps. By the 1860s I mostly have used.

A consideration: used or NG stamps are easier to care for and have less risk of damage over time.

I agree with Zebra & Rog

I'm dumbfounded by the opinion MNH is a thing of the past. It's not - especially in areas I specialize in like Germany 3rd Reich stamps, which command huge premiums for NH. If any of you have tried collecting MNH Germany Zeppelins (esp. Chicago, South America, and Polar) you know what I'm talking about!

I will stick with my point of view ,that MNH collecting is a thing of the past . Yes there are pockets that collectors still continue viewing stamps as having a premium . But over all there are very few collections that come up at stamp auctions that are MNH only .
As stated earlier ,the interest is only in pre-1940 better catalog stamps

The silly stuff that a lot of collectors do that makes me laugh is all the collections I see the people are spending money on mounts to put in cheap mint stamps in mounts that already have hinge marks on the back .

I have always preferred used stamps, probably from many years of collecting revenue stamps. I will take double transfers either way, although I still enjoy finding them used. MNH never mattered to me. My other collection is postal history and documents, so again it does not matter.

Glad that some believe MNH is a thing of the past 'cause that's what I collect unless there's no other choice.

Thanks everyone for the comments. From all the replies I can see that everyone collects different. When I started collecting stamps earlier this year, I started with MNH. Just thought it was the thing to do, buy "mint". I was a topical collector and all the stamps I was buying were complete sets 1960's to present MNH. There's a ton on ebay. Now that I want to collect worldwide, I decided that mindset is going to change. I'm honestly not worried about my collection value. I was all about value with my past hobby and feel I missed out on some cool stuff because it didn't meet my condition requirements. I want to build a huge worldwide collection. I believe I can accomplish that with F/VF or VF Used stamps. More bang for my dollar and I'd rather have a Used than no stamp at all because MNH is out of my price range. The journey begins today!

As for my storage dilemma using 102b cards, I believe I'm going to switch everything over to Vario stock pages. There are countries I have 1-50 stamps of and some 100+. Just have to figure out how I'm going to organize it. Any advice will be much appreciated.

Again, thanks for all the comments.

Mike

Hi Mike, welcome to the hobby! Storage is something that all us world collectors struggle with. With my modern stamps beyond 2000 or so, I tend to leave them on the 102 cards and put them in a four pocket pages in a binder. It can get bulky but it does solve a couple issues. They are identified and I don't need hinges or mounts or album pages. 102 cards could be put in red boxes, but how does one look at those? I use Vario pages too for post 2000 stamps as well. Especially countries like Japan and France where they really still do love their stamps (and one can get postally used) Collecting without gum has other advantages like less bulk and less appetizing to all those critters that are after a nibble. If you want to tackle the world, I would suggest getting ahold of something like this https://gvstampauctions.hibid.com/l...?ref=catalog. The auction had labeled this as supplies, but if you look carefully there are some nicely hinged stamps inside and the binders look to be in great shape. Plus you wouldn't have to print out 3,000 Steiner pages. True these are Master pages so of course many pre 1940 spaces for stamps are missing. Organizing is at least half the battle.

LANDOQUAKES --- Nice set up of albums on the bookcase .

Thanks floortrader, They are hard on the wrist though!