Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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and I think a lifetime of collecting for only $500 is about what I might expect from you... and you from me. As Frank croons, you did it your way......
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I figure $10,000 over my lifetime is a conservative estimate. Someone may get fifteen hundred for them ...i had the fun.
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Gentlemen-what price can one put on developing heirlooms?
Dan C.
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I'm like Rip Van Winkle. I came back to the hobby after 35 years and found that prices of US stamps is pretty much where it was when I left around 1980. So does it matter that I bought like you, lots of cheap stuff with expectations of trading and selling, or the key classics I'm buying now for 10-20% of catalog value?
As of right now, I'm having fun putting everything into an organized album series as I always intended. Scratch that off the bucket list. And aside from buying 19 century and early 20th century classics, I'm still buying big lots of "stuff" and finding things I consider cool treasures.
Last week I was building pages for the 1966 commemoratives. I enjoyed that a whole lot! I always liked that era, probably because it's when I became aware of stamps. And I enjoy the poster art like designs of those stamps! They are pretty much worth face value, if that. But so what? It means I can have more of them!
I have no illusions that I'm building a nest egg. I know this all is worth little. I'm hoping that someday my yet unnamed and unborn grandchildren may want the big USA collection that dear old dead grandpa built.
And as I've told my wife, once I'm dead the party's over. So I won't know if above mentioned grandchild will trade the whole mess for a skateboard. So be it.
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Dan,
it's the height of the season, so, with some patience and willingness to look at several different farm stands, you can find heirloom tomatoes going for about $3.25 upwards of $6 a pound. Delicious
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"I figure $10,000 over my lifetime is a conservative estimate. Someone may get fifteen hundred for them ...i had the fun."
Cheaper than beer! Figure this. A case of beer is $20 for regular American brands. I buy one a week, which is $1,000 a year. So in the past 10 years, I've spent as much on beer as you have stamps in your lifetime!
I have no financial expectations from my beer purchases. I drank it, I enjoyed it and well, you know where it wound up!
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"At some point over the years i could have directed my attention and funds towards better thought out results."
Phil...
You forgot to tell everybody about the 250,000 shares of IBM you bought over your lifetime..
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I like beer and stamps... guess I am in for at least $20,000.
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As I've mentioned before, I paid $400 for THE HOARD. Concentrating on just selling "for cheap" and giving away freebies (except a small $10 purchase) and I've recouped about $250 to my PayPal Account so far with 80% of the stamps still hanging around. So I'd say it can be a pretty cheap hobby if you want (and are really lucky like I was).
As for the booze, stock picks, guitars, investing in friend's businesses, and lending money to my siblings? Uh, I don't want to talk about it...
Dave.
P.S. Once I'm up to $400 or down to 25% of the stamps I will switch to buying mode...
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Bobg, not really buy...most were from splits since 1966 ! I picked up some nice New Jersey tomatoes for $1.49 a pound mmmmm BLT sandwiches..nothing like it in season !
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I still think stamps COULD be an excellent investment vehicle. If you buy classics from a perpetually in demand area, only purchase the best condition you can find and be prepared to hold it for a very long time it will appreciate and beat inflation. I know the coin hobby publishes the green sheets that tracks prices of key dates over time. Is there such a thing for the stamp market?
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Ernie, some of the guys should still know if they do,but in the 1990s Linns stamp news used to graph the values of the classic U.S. stamps . It did not mean much to me at the time as i was never into premium U.S. stamps.
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My collection I would say it is pretty much worthless to a dealer, to me it is priceless, after all what kind of price tag would you put on 55+ years of enjoyment?
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Stampcollector said:
"to me it is priceless"
Love the passion! I love hearing other collectors talk about things they're passionate about. Even if you have no common collecting interest that excitement always shines through.
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I feel the same way...i have seen collectors sell or auction their collections off ...i don't see that in the cards for me..who else would care about my binders of classic Guatemala and Dutch Indies postcards and covers ?
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The enjoyment of the hobby and the friendships made are priceless....for everything else there is ------------
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"The enjoyment of the hobby and the friendships made are priceless....for everything else there is"
Amen. Hobbies are all alike, the same question came up on a model car board recently. I mentioned that I spent more in the social part of the hobby than on the kits themselves... that's the costs of attending club meetings and shows, travel costs including airfare, meals and hotels. I wouldn't miss that part for the world. I'm especially good at lunch!
One of my tag lines on message boards is:
"If it was just about the little toy cars, I would've lost interest a long time ago"
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"I still think stamps COULD be an excellent investment vehicle."
Don't tell that to a guy who paid around $10K for a set of Zepps 25 or 30 years ago. The key to that bubble was turnover. I watched in amazement as dealers a lot braver than I made money in both the up and down markets.
It is indeed about the hobby itself - if you are only interested in money you need to sell the things you would most want to keep.
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The dealers usually do all right.i remember the figure $8,000 for the zeps..crazy eh ? They was no scarcity of them. But its not for everyone..like a contractor friend of mine says "You don't get rich playing another mans game".
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"Don't tell that to a guy who paid around $10K for a set of Zepps 25 or 30 years ago."
"
i remember the figure $8,000 for the zeps..crazy eh ? They was no scarcity of them."
And of course the Internet changes everything. Right from my kitchen table I just reviewed at least a dozen sets of Zeps, mint and used (who the heck soaked those off the covers?) with "Buy It Now" prices starting at $700 to less than $1000 for a very nice looking set of plate number singles. And of course there are some dreamers with huge prices. I did notice that nobody was chancing starting $1 auctions!
And as you said, no scarcity. I'd think that they have a grand survival rate.
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Amazing how many folks could shell out $4.55 for a set of zepps when my Dad was making $18.00 a week !
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"Amazing how many folks could shell out $4.55 for a set of zepps when my Dad was making $18.00 a week !"
It's a funny thing. I am one who will complain about the vast number of stamps the USPS issues every year and the cost of keeping up with those, if I chose to.
I've been working on my earlier USA and as you mentioned the zepps, a complete set of Columbians in 1893 was $16.24 which was no doubt more than a week's pay! That must've caused quite a stir, as the next commemorative set, the Trans-Mississippi set is $3.80 face value. Still a lot of money back then!
Note that even with the above costs, the USPO from 1847 to 1947 only spent 953 Scott numbers in a century. And that includes collector listed items like grills and the Washington-Franklin varieties, of which the USPO didn't intend to create varieties, it just happened in the course of business.
Take the next 50 years. The end of 1997 landed at Scott 3175, or 2222 numbers more! That's over twice issued in the previous century. Take that and make it a century, and that's four times the stamps!
And it gets better. My 2016 Harris catalog ends at Scott 4985, which isn't the last issue of 2016, but good enough for this informal review. In the last 19 years they've issued another 2763 stamps! If this was a century, there would be 13,815 stamps! Enough to make your head spin!
(note- this is an unscientific analysis and may not be anywhere near correct. I do know there were Scott numbers missed over the years.) But still, man o' man!
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09:48:51pm
An exponential expansion.
One of our members recently mentioned reaching a goal of 100,000
stamps in his personal collection.
In the 1960s when I returned to the hobby that was a goal
just out of the reach of most collectors.
I recall hoping to acquire 80% of that number.
Today with well over 600,000 possible regular stamps,
(No flyspecs or shades included)
300,000 to 400,000 is achievable
by the average collector if s/he has room for the albums.
Between the cost at face value and the number issued
Most members choose to severely limit their collections.
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"$1,000 a year"
I'm almost double that in wine. (Life's too short to drink cheap wine).
"I mentioned that I spent more in the social part of the hobby than on the kits themselves"
I'm glad you mentioned that! I spent almost as much on pages, albums, and mounts as the stamps themselves for moderns, but presentation is part of the challenge and appeal for me.
Lars
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Its all relative..like one of my stamp collecting buddies rationalized...theres a big difference between making 40 thousand a year and making 150,000. Someone with deeper pockets usually thinks on a different level with their goals.
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I like retaining my childlike (childish?) approach to this. It is not an investment - it's a hobby that encourages my curiosity of the world, informs me on history, and (just between us - don't tell anyone outside SoR) helps me immensely in providing an outlet to maintain my ongoing sobriety.
Surprisingly, it also opens the door to many interesting conversations with strangers. And although many people (even some close friends) express surprise when I tell them I collect stamps it is amazing how many of them sincerely want to know more about the things I discover that I find interesting. And many also fondly remember collecting as kids and say "I'll have to dig up my old collection for you, let me know if there's anything cool you find".
My wife and daughters still laugh about how excited I was when I filled my first Steiner page of Germany stamps recently or when I found my first stamp with a CV over $2.00 (especially weird when you consider my business is to provide investment and tax strategies to HNW clients...)
So keep happy and healthy, have fun collecting, and don't worry about the dollars! That way there are no errors that can be made!
Dave.
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We have to remember the fun aspect of it..its easy for it to become more serious as we go along !
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My father introduced me to stamps at an early age and I started collecting in 1958. I had a two volume set of Regent albums and a Scott U.S album. As was typical I did not pay much attention to them after I was 15 or so. In 1988 I had heard that the stamp market had taken a big hit. I was in a hobby shop and saw some stamps for sale, I immediately fell in love with them again. I found a U.S. #75 for $4.00. It was in horrible condition but I had never thought I would get one when I was a kid, so I bought it. I soon found a dealer and a close auction house. When I started collecting again this time I had a big advantage because I still remembered so much about collecting the world and being able to quickly identify most stamps. The main reason I started again is because I just love them. I also thought I might be able to build my collection by buying mixed lots and selling the dupes. This should sound like a reasonable plan but the problem is having a lot of experience in the stamps you are buying. So I don't think I'd advise trying to get rich starting from scratch.
You really need to be able to catalog and know the values of the better stamps very fast to get great buys. I started out buying a Minkus world wide collection from a recently deceased professor. He had collected most of his life so there was pretty good coverage through out the world. I combined my childhood 2 volume world collection with the Minkus set and started looking for stamps. I quickly found out that the Minkus albums were not going to work for me as the numbering system as well as the layout for B.O.B. Is completely different than Scott catalogs and way to much time spent converting catalog numbers. It was one of the biggest mistakes I've made. I then decided to go for it and get Scott Specialty albums which had all the spaces and I also think they are the best all around albums made. I had several dealers keep an eye out for them and close to 10 years later I had 90% of them. At this early time I had a very good job and an extremely good source for stamps so I started accumulating the albums an adding to them. Most had a good many stamps so it saved time in transferring. After the good job washed up I had a very modest income but would spend most of my extra income on stamps. After the collection reached around a 1/4 of a million I though it might be good enough to show on the internet. I've been working on it and constantly adding and updating for around 15 years now and the collection is probably around 4000 strong now. Having the site up constantly pushes me to add more stamps all the time. Knowing that many people appreciate it makes me feel I am making a contribution to the hobby. I have spent quite a bit of money on the collection but I was fortunate to have good sources and it should be worth 2-3 times cost. I plan to keep adding to the collection but things look like they will slow down for awhile.
Really the most important tool to collectors is experience there is no substitute. Lacking that you at least need catalogs. I think it is safe to say that many of you have not read introduction to your catalogs. It is most comprehensive and is simply a must do if you are serious about collecting. Catalogs should be studied so you have the important information you need. If you use my site to view the actual stamps you will quickly have all the info you will usually need
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Great to see you posting Mitch !
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Mitch, I have your page bookmarked and use it often!
-Steve
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There are 2 questions -
1. For those who sell/trade. What price do you put on your time?
2. For those who buy. What price do you put on your time?
If you are selling as part of your hobby, the reward is as much about handling and remembering your stock as about the money you make (or not )- and that is part of the enjoyment. You are not making a living. If you are buying as a business your time is a cost if a hobby it is not.
Hobbies are a release from the problems in your life. If you take it too seriously it ceases to be a hobby. You can be serious about the material, but don't get too hung up about the logistics. For me stamps is a foul-weather option. If the weather is good I am outside, gardening or propagating plants. The only disadvantage to stamp collecting as far as I am concerned is that it doesn't get me outdoors.
My wife doesn't understand why I get engrossed ( never serious ! ) about my "crinkly bits of paper", but appreciates that I don't smoke,drink and chase other men's wives ( I couldn't do the last at my age anyway but she can dream !). In return I don't go on about her collection of handbags, or getting me to be her "gopher" when decorating, constructing fittings, bricklaying in the garden or rebuilding furniture.
I haven't bought any stamps for years. I am still sorting mounting and studying the stamps I obtained in very cheap bulk lots years ago. Eventually I might get around to offering some (all cheapo material)to trade for other cheapo material to study.
One advantage that is not often commented on is the brain exercise you get as a stamp collector. That is free, and even the mistakes you make contribute to that.
Once it ceases to be fun, or the money becomes more important than the interest, it's time to sell up and get out ( It won't be happening to me any time soon).
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"For me stamps is a foul-weather option. "
I was in a semi-dormant mode for some time and earlier this year got stuck in the house for a couple days due to snow and ice and it rekindled my serious desire to do more with stamps. My initial goal was just to inventory what I had accumulated and this was enough to get me going.
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Last summer my wife had heart surgery and I was in the house with her for 6-8 weeks, working from home. I didn't want to work on my model cars because it would take me to another part of the house, and create fumes and such that might not be good for her recovery.
So I stayed close to her and decided to sort out my teenage stamp collection as busy work. It was on my bucket list to do this someday, and it fit perfectly into my situation. My wife healed a long time ago, but it gave me the stamp bug again!
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At some point over the years i could have directed my attention and funds towards better thought out results.I was still purchasing bulk stamps thinking about swapping and possibly selling.Now i see what people are trying to sell stamps for here on the auction and its finally dawning on me. One hundred thousand 5 cents..do not equal $500.00 net. Looking on the bright side...i have had a heck of a lot of fun for what i spent per year !
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
and I think a lifetime of collecting for only $500 is about what I might expect from you... and you from me. As Frank croons, you did it your way......
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
I figure $10,000 over my lifetime is a conservative estimate. Someone may get fifteen hundred for them ...i had the fun.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Gentlemen-what price can one put on developing heirlooms?
Dan C.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
I'm like Rip Van Winkle. I came back to the hobby after 35 years and found that prices of US stamps is pretty much where it was when I left around 1980. So does it matter that I bought like you, lots of cheap stuff with expectations of trading and selling, or the key classics I'm buying now for 10-20% of catalog value?
As of right now, I'm having fun putting everything into an organized album series as I always intended. Scratch that off the bucket list. And aside from buying 19 century and early 20th century classics, I'm still buying big lots of "stuff" and finding things I consider cool treasures.
Last week I was building pages for the 1966 commemoratives. I enjoyed that a whole lot! I always liked that era, probably because it's when I became aware of stamps. And I enjoy the poster art like designs of those stamps! They are pretty much worth face value, if that. But so what? It means I can have more of them!
I have no illusions that I'm building a nest egg. I know this all is worth little. I'm hoping that someday my yet unnamed and unborn grandchildren may want the big USA collection that dear old dead grandpa built.
And as I've told my wife, once I'm dead the party's over. So I won't know if above mentioned grandchild will trade the whole mess for a skateboard. So be it.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Dan,
it's the height of the season, so, with some patience and willingness to look at several different farm stands, you can find heirloom tomatoes going for about $3.25 upwards of $6 a pound. Delicious
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
"I figure $10,000 over my lifetime is a conservative estimate. Someone may get fifteen hundred for them ...i had the fun."
Cheaper than beer! Figure this. A case of beer is $20 for regular American brands. I buy one a week, which is $1,000 a year. So in the past 10 years, I've spent as much on beer as you have stamps in your lifetime!
I have no financial expectations from my beer purchases. I drank it, I enjoyed it and well, you know where it wound up!
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03:41:28pm
re: Errors made in my hobby!
"At some point over the years i could have directed my attention and funds towards better thought out results."
Phil...
You forgot to tell everybody about the 250,000 shares of IBM you bought over your lifetime..
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
I like beer and stamps... guess I am in for at least $20,000.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
As I've mentioned before, I paid $400 for THE HOARD. Concentrating on just selling "for cheap" and giving away freebies (except a small $10 purchase) and I've recouped about $250 to my PayPal Account so far with 80% of the stamps still hanging around. So I'd say it can be a pretty cheap hobby if you want (and are really lucky like I was).
As for the booze, stock picks, guitars, investing in friend's businesses, and lending money to my siblings? Uh, I don't want to talk about it...
Dave.
P.S. Once I'm up to $400 or down to 25% of the stamps I will switch to buying mode...
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Bobg, not really buy...most were from splits since 1966 ! I picked up some nice New Jersey tomatoes for $1.49 a pound mmmmm BLT sandwiches..nothing like it in season !
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04:53:18pm
re: Errors made in my hobby!
I still think stamps COULD be an excellent investment vehicle. If you buy classics from a perpetually in demand area, only purchase the best condition you can find and be prepared to hold it for a very long time it will appreciate and beat inflation. I know the coin hobby publishes the green sheets that tracks prices of key dates over time. Is there such a thing for the stamp market?
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Ernie, some of the guys should still know if they do,but in the 1990s Linns stamp news used to graph the values of the classic U.S. stamps . It did not mean much to me at the time as i was never into premium U.S. stamps.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
My collection I would say it is pretty much worthless to a dealer, to me it is priceless, after all what kind of price tag would you put on 55+ years of enjoyment?
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07:00:55pm
re: Errors made in my hobby!
Stampcollector said:
"to me it is priceless"
Love the passion! I love hearing other collectors talk about things they're passionate about. Even if you have no common collecting interest that excitement always shines through.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
I feel the same way...i have seen collectors sell or auction their collections off ...i don't see that in the cards for me..who else would care about my binders of classic Guatemala and Dutch Indies postcards and covers ?
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07:31:01am
re: Errors made in my hobby!
The enjoyment of the hobby and the friendships made are priceless....for everything else there is ------------
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
"The enjoyment of the hobby and the friendships made are priceless....for everything else there is"
Amen. Hobbies are all alike, the same question came up on a model car board recently. I mentioned that I spent more in the social part of the hobby than on the kits themselves... that's the costs of attending club meetings and shows, travel costs including airfare, meals and hotels. I wouldn't miss that part for the world. I'm especially good at lunch!
One of my tag lines on message boards is:
"If it was just about the little toy cars, I would've lost interest a long time ago"
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01:31:51pm
re: Errors made in my hobby!
"I still think stamps COULD be an excellent investment vehicle."
Don't tell that to a guy who paid around $10K for a set of Zepps 25 or 30 years ago. The key to that bubble was turnover. I watched in amazement as dealers a lot braver than I made money in both the up and down markets.
It is indeed about the hobby itself - if you are only interested in money you need to sell the things you would most want to keep.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
The dealers usually do all right.i remember the figure $8,000 for the zeps..crazy eh ? They was no scarcity of them. But its not for everyone..like a contractor friend of mine says "You don't get rich playing another mans game".
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
"Don't tell that to a guy who paid around $10K for a set of Zepps 25 or 30 years ago."
"
i remember the figure $8,000 for the zeps..crazy eh ? They was no scarcity of them."
And of course the Internet changes everything. Right from my kitchen table I just reviewed at least a dozen sets of Zeps, mint and used (who the heck soaked those off the covers?) with "Buy It Now" prices starting at $700 to less than $1000 for a very nice looking set of plate number singles. And of course there are some dreamers with huge prices. I did notice that nobody was chancing starting $1 auctions!
And as you said, no scarcity. I'd think that they have a grand survival rate.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Amazing how many folks could shell out $4.55 for a set of zepps when my Dad was making $18.00 a week !
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
"Amazing how many folks could shell out $4.55 for a set of zepps when my Dad was making $18.00 a week !"
It's a funny thing. I am one who will complain about the vast number of stamps the USPS issues every year and the cost of keeping up with those, if I chose to.
I've been working on my earlier USA and as you mentioned the zepps, a complete set of Columbians in 1893 was $16.24 which was no doubt more than a week's pay! That must've caused quite a stir, as the next commemorative set, the Trans-Mississippi set is $3.80 face value. Still a lot of money back then!
Note that even with the above costs, the USPO from 1847 to 1947 only spent 953 Scott numbers in a century. And that includes collector listed items like grills and the Washington-Franklin varieties, of which the USPO didn't intend to create varieties, it just happened in the course of business.
Take the next 50 years. The end of 1997 landed at Scott 3175, or 2222 numbers more! That's over twice issued in the previous century. Take that and make it a century, and that's four times the stamps!
And it gets better. My 2016 Harris catalog ends at Scott 4985, which isn't the last issue of 2016, but good enough for this informal review. In the last 19 years they've issued another 2763 stamps! If this was a century, there would be 13,815 stamps! Enough to make your head spin!
(note- this is an unscientific analysis and may not be anywhere near correct. I do know there were Scott numbers missed over the years.) But still, man o' man!
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
22 Aug 2016
09:48:51pm
re: Errors made in my hobby!
An exponential expansion.
One of our members recently mentioned reaching a goal of 100,000
stamps in his personal collection.
In the 1960s when I returned to the hobby that was a goal
just out of the reach of most collectors.
I recall hoping to acquire 80% of that number.
Today with well over 600,000 possible regular stamps,
(No flyspecs or shades included)
300,000 to 400,000 is achievable
by the average collector if s/he has room for the albums.
Between the cost at face value and the number issued
Most members choose to severely limit their collections.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
"$1,000 a year"
I'm almost double that in wine. (Life's too short to drink cheap wine).
"I mentioned that I spent more in the social part of the hobby than on the kits themselves"
I'm glad you mentioned that! I spent almost as much on pages, albums, and mounts as the stamps themselves for moderns, but presentation is part of the challenge and appeal for me.
Lars
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Its all relative..like one of my stamp collecting buddies rationalized...theres a big difference between making 40 thousand a year and making 150,000. Someone with deeper pockets usually thinks on a different level with their goals.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
I like retaining my childlike (childish?) approach to this. It is not an investment - it's a hobby that encourages my curiosity of the world, informs me on history, and (just between us - don't tell anyone outside SoR) helps me immensely in providing an outlet to maintain my ongoing sobriety.
Surprisingly, it also opens the door to many interesting conversations with strangers. And although many people (even some close friends) express surprise when I tell them I collect stamps it is amazing how many of them sincerely want to know more about the things I discover that I find interesting. And many also fondly remember collecting as kids and say "I'll have to dig up my old collection for you, let me know if there's anything cool you find".
My wife and daughters still laugh about how excited I was when I filled my first Steiner page of Germany stamps recently or when I found my first stamp with a CV over $2.00 (especially weird when you consider my business is to provide investment and tax strategies to HNW clients...)
So keep happy and healthy, have fun collecting, and don't worry about the dollars! That way there are no errors that can be made!
Dave.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
We have to remember the fun aspect of it..its easy for it to become more serious as we go along !
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
My father introduced me to stamps at an early age and I started collecting in 1958. I had a two volume set of Regent albums and a Scott U.S album. As was typical I did not pay much attention to them after I was 15 or so. In 1988 I had heard that the stamp market had taken a big hit. I was in a hobby shop and saw some stamps for sale, I immediately fell in love with them again. I found a U.S. #75 for $4.00. It was in horrible condition but I had never thought I would get one when I was a kid, so I bought it. I soon found a dealer and a close auction house. When I started collecting again this time I had a big advantage because I still remembered so much about collecting the world and being able to quickly identify most stamps. The main reason I started again is because I just love them. I also thought I might be able to build my collection by buying mixed lots and selling the dupes. This should sound like a reasonable plan but the problem is having a lot of experience in the stamps you are buying. So I don't think I'd advise trying to get rich starting from scratch.
You really need to be able to catalog and know the values of the better stamps very fast to get great buys. I started out buying a Minkus world wide collection from a recently deceased professor. He had collected most of his life so there was pretty good coverage through out the world. I combined my childhood 2 volume world collection with the Minkus set and started looking for stamps. I quickly found out that the Minkus albums were not going to work for me as the numbering system as well as the layout for B.O.B. Is completely different than Scott catalogs and way to much time spent converting catalog numbers. It was one of the biggest mistakes I've made. I then decided to go for it and get Scott Specialty albums which had all the spaces and I also think they are the best all around albums made. I had several dealers keep an eye out for them and close to 10 years later I had 90% of them. At this early time I had a very good job and an extremely good source for stamps so I started accumulating the albums an adding to them. Most had a good many stamps so it saved time in transferring. After the good job washed up I had a very modest income but would spend most of my extra income on stamps. After the collection reached around a 1/4 of a million I though it might be good enough to show on the internet. I've been working on it and constantly adding and updating for around 15 years now and the collection is probably around 4000 strong now. Having the site up constantly pushes me to add more stamps all the time. Knowing that many people appreciate it makes me feel I am making a contribution to the hobby. I have spent quite a bit of money on the collection but I was fortunate to have good sources and it should be worth 2-3 times cost. I plan to keep adding to the collection but things look like they will slow down for awhile.
Really the most important tool to collectors is experience there is no substitute. Lacking that you at least need catalogs. I think it is safe to say that many of you have not read introduction to your catalogs. It is most comprehensive and is simply a must do if you are serious about collecting. Catalogs should be studied so you have the important information you need. If you use my site to view the actual stamps you will quickly have all the info you will usually need
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Great to see you posting Mitch !
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Mitch, I have your page bookmarked and use it often!
-Steve
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03:24:11am
re: Errors made in my hobby!
There are 2 questions -
1. For those who sell/trade. What price do you put on your time?
2. For those who buy. What price do you put on your time?
If you are selling as part of your hobby, the reward is as much about handling and remembering your stock as about the money you make (or not )- and that is part of the enjoyment. You are not making a living. If you are buying as a business your time is a cost if a hobby it is not.
Hobbies are a release from the problems in your life. If you take it too seriously it ceases to be a hobby. You can be serious about the material, but don't get too hung up about the logistics. For me stamps is a foul-weather option. If the weather is good I am outside, gardening or propagating plants. The only disadvantage to stamp collecting as far as I am concerned is that it doesn't get me outdoors.
My wife doesn't understand why I get engrossed ( never serious ! ) about my "crinkly bits of paper", but appreciates that I don't smoke,drink and chase other men's wives ( I couldn't do the last at my age anyway but she can dream !). In return I don't go on about her collection of handbags, or getting me to be her "gopher" when decorating, constructing fittings, bricklaying in the garden or rebuilding furniture.
I haven't bought any stamps for years. I am still sorting mounting and studying the stamps I obtained in very cheap bulk lots years ago. Eventually I might get around to offering some (all cheapo material)to trade for other cheapo material to study.
One advantage that is not often commented on is the brain exercise you get as a stamp collector. That is free, and even the mistakes you make contribute to that.
Once it ceases to be fun, or the money becomes more important than the interest, it's time to sell up and get out ( It won't be happening to me any time soon).
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
"For me stamps is a foul-weather option. "
I was in a semi-dormant mode for some time and earlier this year got stuck in the house for a couple days due to snow and ice and it rekindled my serious desire to do more with stamps. My initial goal was just to inventory what I had accumulated and this was enough to get me going.
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re: Errors made in my hobby!
Last summer my wife had heart surgery and I was in the house with her for 6-8 weeks, working from home. I didn't want to work on my model cars because it would take me to another part of the house, and create fumes and such that might not be good for her recovery.
So I stayed close to her and decided to sort out my teenage stamp collection as busy work. It was on my bucket list to do this someday, and it fit perfectly into my situation. My wife healed a long time ago, but it gave me the stamp bug again!
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