Expert Auction Estimate

I do wonder how someone who is claimed to be an expert for an auction platform can value a set of stamps (unmounted mint) with a catalogue value of € 250 at € 150 - € 180, before auction fees (9% + € 3) and postage (€ 10.80 Dutch domestic registered post). My experience with the 0utch seller of higher quality items, often with a certificate, who is offering the item at this auction platform is good.



Especially when the same item can be bought for € 125 post free from a brick-and-morter shop's website. My experience with this shop is good as well.

Catawiki says:
"This estimate helps guide you when bidding. It's carefully calculated based on demand, quality, rarity, and ownership history. We can't guarantee the object will sell, resell, or appraise for this amount."

But a similar set with the same estimate of €150-€180 attributed to a different expert sold on the same site for €75 a year ago.

It will be interesting to see what this set sells for. (The current bid is €28.)

For new readers and new collectors ,the questions here need some explaining .This is my point of view .

First we are talking about a set of stamps that catalogs $30.00 mint hinged and $230.00 mint never hinged ,big big difference .

The first thing comes to mind is why and does it make sense to cheat people and make some fast money .

The difference is the gum on the back of the stamp. So most collectors like me will take the mint hinge set for their collection .

The mint never hinge is more for a few specialised collectors and also the investors in the hobby ,no reason for anyone else to get into this expensive set MNH .

Now anybody who owns this set would like it to be MNH . Well how much that cost to have a expert regummer to do the job . Cost is about $25.00 for the whole set . So that is understood that it would be profitable to play around with the gumming .

Now everybody wants to sell it as a $250.00 set . So if a seller tells you it is MNH you have a problem .

Now here is the problem for you to think about regumming has gotten so good that many expertising commitees no longer state a opinion on gum , let me say this again experts are not sure . Now faking gum is not about mixing up your own gum but it is now remove the gum from a like stamp and move the gum to the desired stamp {got that }.

That set needs to be sold with a certificate ,but the cert . needs to address the gum because that is where the value is .

All expertisers that are considered reliable in the Netherlands - and those are the only ones that matter - will mention whether or not the gum is original if unmounted mint. They do not expertise every country but are highly experienced expertisers specialised in Dutch stamps.

The fact that unmounted mint sells for many times the price of mounted unused shows the popularity of unmounted.

As pjr pointed out, an earlier set sold through the same platform sold for € 75. This is about the correct price and not a price you would require a certificate for in the Netherlands. In the case of the set on offer: the seller is a very reliable and knowledgeable seller.

The point here is not whether or not you can re-gum stamps. The point is that the so-called "experts" on this site tend to highly over-estimate stamps. This is not the only extremely overestimated item offered. The current "expert" that posted the estimate, recently, took over the Dutch auctions from another who posted similar ridiculous estimates.

This, also, is the site where the expert for the GB and Commonwealth section (a dealer from the UK) 'selected' and estimated a very expensive GB King George V shade that showed a certificate with an evidently incorrect stamp (the certificate, actually, was for the described stamp that was not the one offered) and a clearly showing incorrect watermark that was catalogued at just a few tenners.

The auction firm I use states the estimates as a band, e.g. £300-£350, where the lower figure is the reserve. But that's a physical auction where, if the lot doesn't reach its reserve, the consignor has to collect the item the next working day.

In this case the successful bidder's going to have a warm fuzzy feeling. "The estimate was 150 but I won the lot for only 75, therefore I got a bargain". Or something like that. This is Dutch Stamp Auctions, which I guess is a Dutch auction for stamps, so maybe they should be starting at the estimate and working down till someone bids.

It started out as a wiki-based catalogue for collectors in general. The auction side of the venture was sold and the catalogue, now, is called LastDodo. Both are not limited to stamps. It was started by a colletor of comic books. The LastDodo stamp catalogue is run by clowns.

Catawiki has a presence in seven countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The Dutch, Belgian, and German stamp auctions are the most frequent and include higher quality material. Still, care should be taken before bidding. There are a few non-stamp sections (e.g., jewelry) that bidders complain about forgeries and fakes.

I very much doubt anyone paying € 75 will get a warm feeling because it looks like a bargain compared to the estimate.

Normally, they do not accept reserves. The exceptions, however, are plenty. The seller of above item is one that, most of the time, is allowed to set a minimum price. Quite a number of his lots keep being offered. He does offer rarer items of very much above-average quality.

Edit:



It is an auction of Dutch stamps.

FOR NEW READERS AND COLLECTORS ------- My whole point of asking for and getting a certificate is NOT questioning the honesty or expertise of what he is selling to me . I already know the seller is good .

Now think this out .

I need the cert . because someday I need to sell that stamp . Now are you going to believe the stamp is good from me ---the answer is NO ,I never claim to be a expert on stamps but a worldwide collector . So I keep and desire cert's on my better stuff . My Swiss Canton collection all have good cert's and in a few cases duplicate cert's .

Cert's are desired WHEN I SELL . Remember all those experts who I bought stamps from many are already gone ,so you as a buyer need something to help your decision what to pay for it .

And this from someone who has, frequently, questioned the usefulness of any certificate that is more than a few years old.

If you sell, and when you sell, you can submit the stamps for a certificate that is not many years old, especially when prospective buyers suspect Quatsch.

Not sure where you came up with that ?

This is not a universal truth. Depending on the collecting area, old certs can be infinitely more useful than current ones.

For example, in the U.S. revenue field, a PSE cert issued within the last 10 years isn't worth the paper it is printed on, in my personal opinion. Ever since they stopped farming out the expertization to recognized experts like Eric Jackson, Richard Friedberg, Ron Lesher, et al, and took it inhouse, they have issued some of the most egregious opinions imaginable.

Conversely, I have and have sold items with PSE certs from the 1980s through early 2000s (one item as recently as 2 weeks ago) where the expertizers on the item are printed by name on the cert. Those certs are worth their weight in gold so to speak with the right combination of expertizers. Having a 30-year-old cert with Eric, Richard, and Robert Cunliffe named on it is about as ironclad an opinion as one can get.

Similarly, PF certs from certain time periods are much more reliable than others.

APEX certs *can* be worthwhile. Even though the expertizers in question are not named on the cert, if you are an APS member APEX will tell you who the expertizers were on any given cert. That is extremely valuable information, no matter the age of the cert.

It's more like 20 years......that's when they went "in house". Time passes quickly.

I am surprised to discover that there are online Dutch auctions for postage stamps, from a firm whose motto is "Pleasure and Profit". That's also the motto of the Association of Professional Widows.

I do wonder where you found that. Their motto is

Taking their husbands from petite mort to grande mal seizure.

What part of "Catawiki" was incomprehensible?

Dutch Auction has nothing to do with Catawiki, is not Dutch but from Jersey, and I wonder how many Dutch stamps other than a few in a worldwide collection have ever been auctioned by them.

@Flightle_Bee
"I am surprised to discover that there are online Dutch auctions for postage stamps"

Why are you surprised that a country with one of the biggest philatelic communities has stamp auctions? Or are you surprised that the Netherlands has internet? It's not running off windmill power.
I am Dutch and I can tell you, there is nothing surprising about it.

The next screenshot you posted is of a completely irrelevant website and doesn't even showcase the alleged motto you mentioned. You seem to be making a joke out of this thread, and even though it's not my thread, it annoys me.