Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
He had both marked at $9.00 each, I offered $12 for the lot and he accepted. The album hasn't got any stamps and absolutely no sign of hinge remnants in it. I don't think it's ever been used. It only goes to 1970, but the coverage compared to my standard Harris Statesman, is immense. I figure the stamp packet has somewhere in the neighborhood of about 3-400 stamps and I could see from the outside that there were at least a few needed stamps in there.
Now to open it up and find that U.S. #1 that I'm sure has been missed by everyone that's ever owned these.
Hey, it could happen!
WB
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Oh, I forgot to mention, he also had two albums of FDC's that ranged from somewhere around 1990 to about 2005. It looked like they were probably put together through a collector program like Franklin Mint or the like. They were well organized and very clean. He said he counted 163 covers and wanted roughly $.50 per, I could probably offer a little less and get them. Even though it's not really an area that I collect, it is tempting to make an offer. Would $.40 - $.50 each, with the binders, be a fair deal?
WB
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I would think that FDCs in bulk are more appropriately priced at 5-10c each.
The fact that they are clean, and the assumption that they are sequential, adds a bit, but not too much.
The binders are worth a few bucks if 1) you have covers you'd like to mount in a binder, and 2) the livery (company name, logo, etc, on the binder) is not too oppressive.
2c,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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The album is a great find.
And I also love flea markets/car boot sales etc.
It always intrigues me that price (if not value) is determined as much by the venue as the item itself.
There is a "flea market price" and there is an "antique store with fancy address price".
But sometimes flea markets try to pose as antique stores....thats the problem.
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WB,
Ikey has it right..... unless there are gems among the FDCs, 50c is overpriced. $15 for the album is more than fair. But consider what you will do with them when you get them home
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Okay, it sounds like I'd have to insult him to make a viable offer, so I'll just pass.
I don't know what I'd do with them anyway, too modern to be of that much interest.
Thanks,
WB
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"... It always intrigues me that price (if not value) is determined as much by the venue as the item itself ..."
People have made a living running things from one venue to another.
The term of art is 'arbitrage'.
In our little world, dealers went running to Europe post-WW1 & post-WW2 with hard American dollars to buy collections they then sold at a profit in the USA.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Yoikes! 50c each for the FDCs? When I was cleaning out my US and Canadian FDCs from THE HOARD I was putting them in SoR Auctions at 3-4 for $1.00 usually and getting one bid on 75% of them, then putting the remainders together at 5 for $1.00 before they all sold.
I was just at a flea market sidewalk sale this morning at a mall surrounded by Senior's Apartments. One guy had a table of stamps - ordinary postcards for $1-3 and FDCs at $2-5. Packets of common stamps, many definitives, at outlandish prices ("25 Netherlands used stamps for $2.75") and other Worldwide stamps "Catalog Value $4.00 our price just $3.00" and "$50 Never Used Stamps Good For Postage - Just $45, 10% SAVINGS AND NO TAX!"
As a reality-check I said I would give him $100 cash if he let me take stamps and covers up to $200 of his inflated retail prices (a 50% discount). He said he'd go out of business doing that, so I asked how much in stamps he sold at these flea shows, and how many years would it take to get $100 in sales. His answer was unprintable...
Depressing. 
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I had to run up to the county seat this morning and stopped in to a flea market that I hadn't been to in awhile. I found the Harris Senior Statesman under a pile of books in a back room and the packet of stamps on a shelf up front.
He had both marked at $9.00 each, I offered $12 for the lot and he accepted. The album hasn't got any stamps and absolutely no sign of hinge remnants in it. I don't think it's ever been used. It only goes to 1970, but the coverage compared to my standard Harris Statesman, is immense. I figure the stamp packet has somewhere in the neighborhood of about 3-400 stamps and I could see from the outside that there were at least a few needed stamps in there.
Now to open it up and find that U.S. #1 that I'm sure has been missed by everyone that's ever owned these.
Hey, it could happen!
WB
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Login to Like.
re: I Love Flea Markets!
Oh, I forgot to mention, he also had two albums of FDC's that ranged from somewhere around 1990 to about 2005. It looked like they were probably put together through a collector program like Franklin Mint or the like. They were well organized and very clean. He said he counted 163 covers and wanted roughly $.50 per, I could probably offer a little less and get them. Even though it's not really an area that I collect, it is tempting to make an offer. Would $.40 - $.50 each, with the binders, be a fair deal?
WB
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re: I Love Flea Markets!
I would think that FDCs in bulk are more appropriately priced at 5-10c each.
The fact that they are clean, and the assumption that they are sequential, adds a bit, but not too much.
The binders are worth a few bucks if 1) you have covers you'd like to mount in a binder, and 2) the livery (company name, logo, etc, on the binder) is not too oppressive.
2c,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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03:22:43pm
re: I Love Flea Markets!
The album is a great find.
And I also love flea markets/car boot sales etc.
It always intrigues me that price (if not value) is determined as much by the venue as the item itself.
There is a "flea market price" and there is an "antique store with fancy address price".
But sometimes flea markets try to pose as antique stores....thats the problem.
Login to Like
this post
re: I Love Flea Markets!
WB,
Ikey has it right..... unless there are gems among the FDCs, 50c is overpriced. $15 for the album is more than fair. But consider what you will do with them when you get them home
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re: I Love Flea Markets!
Okay, it sounds like I'd have to insult him to make a viable offer, so I'll just pass.
I don't know what I'd do with them anyway, too modern to be of that much interest.
Thanks,
WB
Login to Like
this post
re: I Love Flea Markets!
"... It always intrigues me that price (if not value) is determined as much by the venue as the item itself ..."
People have made a living running things from one venue to another.
The term of art is 'arbitrage'.
In our little world, dealers went running to Europe post-WW1 & post-WW2 with hard American dollars to buy collections they then sold at a profit in the USA.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
Login to Like
this post
re: I Love Flea Markets!
Yoikes! 50c each for the FDCs? When I was cleaning out my US and Canadian FDCs from THE HOARD I was putting them in SoR Auctions at 3-4 for $1.00 usually and getting one bid on 75% of them, then putting the remainders together at 5 for $1.00 before they all sold.
I was just at a flea market sidewalk sale this morning at a mall surrounded by Senior's Apartments. One guy had a table of stamps - ordinary postcards for $1-3 and FDCs at $2-5. Packets of common stamps, many definitives, at outlandish prices ("25 Netherlands used stamps for $2.75") and other Worldwide stamps "Catalog Value $4.00 our price just $3.00" and "$50 Never Used Stamps Good For Postage - Just $45, 10% SAVINGS AND NO TAX!"
As a reality-check I said I would give him $100 cash if he let me take stamps and covers up to $200 of his inflated retail prices (a 50% discount). He said he'd go out of business doing that, so I asked how much in stamps he sold at these flea shows, and how many years would it take to get $100 in sales. His answer was unprintable...
Depressing.
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