Yeah I duplicate your general 35% rule. Shipping costs for online purchases and car mileage costs to a few local shows add to the target 1/3 cat pricing. I have a few select areas, such as Spanish colonies reasonably centered, which I will go significantly highe. The glory of worldwide collecting (even when limited through 1968) is that there is always a weak vacant section ready for acquisition. I rarely overpay my guidelines. I also have some active trading with local contacts which really dilutes the price and puts my prior accumulations to good use.
Oh man if i counted the mileage and the hours going to stamp bourses..the cost of a stamp would be astronomical..i can not look at it that way since i travel for most entertainmnt. My wife buys a bunch of stamps or covers on the internet from a specific dealer so the cost of postage is really minimal.
This is only loosely related to the topic, but I can't see where else to put it!
I'm facing a decision - the urge to open a new country collection has hit me! Or would I do better to concentrate more on the countries I already collect - there are 8 of them! With some, I'm left with only the high cost items to get, and there are also a couple of countries where I still have lots of readily affordable stamps to look for. Inner voices say grow up and concentrate on those gaps - they're not all beyond your means!
But the itch for the new is hard to resist. I'm thinking of Ireland (before the republic in 1948) or perhaps one of the Central American countries. This is because some time ago I bought a Gibbons Central America catalogue which I've never used! Maybe one of the smaller countries. And I need a defined period - I can't handle open-ended collecting. I suppose if I go for Cuba I could focus on the issues of the Castro years, after the news today. But on the whole I think Ireland would be better because I really like those issues of the 30s and 40s, and the stamps will be easier to find here in UK.
Or am I heading for a shelf of incomplete and undistinguished collections with none of the hard to get or more expensive items?
"I'm facing a decision - the urge to open a new country collection has hit me! Or would I do better to concentrate more on the countries I already collect "
If I stuck with the very few areas I started with until I neared completion with finding and purchasing those high-value/hard-to-find items to finish off each area of interest,
my collecting days would have stagnated a long time ago!
I say go for it, Neville!
You can still continue to pick up the occasional high value items for your original 8 while you are gathering the low value, easy to come by stamps needed to start a fresh collecting area.
I would suggest a Central American country - many are neglected nowadays and start-up stamps for them can be had for quite cheap......just my own opinion.
Whatever you decide, pick whatever sounds the most fun!
Happy Stampin'!
Randy
"Or am I heading for a shelf of incomplete and undistinguished collections with none of the hard to get or more expensive items?"
There's very valid arguments for both directions.
It boils down to collection vs. accumulation.
Obviously, the final analysis is that you should do what you want and what makes you happy but since you're even posing the question it leads me to believe that you'd really like to move some of your current collections forward. I say bite the bullet and purchase one of the more desired items for one your current collecting areas. The satisfaction gained from gazing down at the completed set and/or page will be immeasurable.
Strider, in stamps i can not resist a bargain...at my stamp club i am often picking up partial country collections that someone has lost interest in..something you might look at if you have access to a club or other collectors.
Ain't nothin' wrong with that Phil! You're always putting up interesting covers.
Strider:
I am partial to the airmail stamps of Central America ... you might consider taking a slice out of those countries (airmail, postage due, topicals, semi-postals, etc), rather than a single country.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
I am partial to the airmail stamps of Central America
That's all they Issue.....
OK lets see how the mathematics works, Went to the White Plains show today.. Picked up Swiss semi postals, and Yugoslavia complete sets.. total catalog value 630.75 Paid 185 bucks ( after a little bickering ) Gas 9.40 coffee Mickey D's 1.00 total spent 195.40
percent to catalog value 31 percent..that works for me
I had a limited collection - Germany - all eras and occupations and States, Imperial Russian and USSR, Nova Scotia and a few other Canadian provinces. I had a British Royalty collection that is pretty much done.
I've had Canadian stamps accumulating for years on end so last year I decided to go ahead and put them into order.
I figured that was all.
I love the history that each German and USSR stamp represents. Researching the events depicted gives me great joy but with a few exceptions the "stamps" part of those are pretty much complete.
Just happened across some 1943 Scott albums and I've always had an itch to collect worldwide but was overwhelmed with the thought of where to start and end. I didn't want every stamp ever issued but I also didn't want a mishmash from every country. These albums have given me the chance to start a world collection which has a definite beginning and end. There may be some countries listed that may never get filled - who knows? But I took the leap because I know it's going to be exciting.
So, if you've got an itch, my advice is to scratch it. It can only bring you more joy and happiness in your collection.
Kelly
Phil...all 4 stamp dealers were in attendance..along with the mad Russian who sells stamps , comic books and ww2 stuff..
Hey some of those swiss semi's have some high cat values (used )
As a teen, my sister got me interested in collecting. If it were cheap enough and was in my world-wide album, I'd buy it.
In my mid 20's, after serving in the military, I decided to specialize in only US unused, well-centered stamps. At that time, I bought only from dealer catalogs, and even offered a 10% premium for the best available. (Duh, what can I say ... I wasn't married then!)
I stopped collecting for a number of years. As a newly married man with a low paying job, I struggled to make my $125 a month mortgage payment (taxes, principal and interest!), and had better use for the money. (Got married in 1960.)
Later, with more disposable income, I resumed collecting, and gradually ... very gradually ... was able to build the collection (with a lot of help from EBay) into a catalog value of nearly $100,000.
Sorry if this turned into a mini-autobiography.
i can relate Carl, the kids always got first draw on any income..we had 3 children very close together so they were in college at the same time and like my wife says we had a fleet (5) of cars. Stamp collecting does require disposable income..many folks had it and more power to them.
But there are folks who don't understand that hobby purchases come only after all family obligations are met!
I see this in the model car hobby. There was one guy who had no job and had lost the family home and had moved in with relatives. His wife was working two low paying jobs while this goon sat home bidding on eBay! He'd do brag posts on the message boards showing the stuff he had won!
This is why so many of us took a long break from collecting during college and their first 10 or 20 years of their career.
I agree Chris. I just in the last couple of years have had the $ to get stamps. Always the family obligations came first. I am very much enjoying my stamps now. Being semi-retired give me quite a bit of time for stamps.
Heres how i roll, for the VAST majority of stamps for my worldwide collections probably like most people on Stamporama i look for the most economical combination of list price and shipping for the item..so i am averaging around 35 percent of what scott says. But not always, sometimes i feel like having fun instead of strictly business...lets say i see a stamp that will complete a page...total cost to me would be twice scott..but it satisfies me and in the scheme of things or the long run...it does not make any difference !
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
Yeah I duplicate your general 35% rule. Shipping costs for online purchases and car mileage costs to a few local shows add to the target 1/3 cat pricing. I have a few select areas, such as Spanish colonies reasonably centered, which I will go significantly highe. The glory of worldwide collecting (even when limited through 1968) is that there is always a weak vacant section ready for acquisition. I rarely overpay my guidelines. I also have some active trading with local contacts which really dilutes the price and puts my prior accumulations to good use.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
Oh man if i counted the mileage and the hours going to stamp bourses..the cost of a stamp would be astronomical..i can not look at it that way since i travel for most entertainmnt. My wife buys a bunch of stamps or covers on the internet from a specific dealer so the cost of postage is really minimal.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
This is only loosely related to the topic, but I can't see where else to put it!
I'm facing a decision - the urge to open a new country collection has hit me! Or would I do better to concentrate more on the countries I already collect - there are 8 of them! With some, I'm left with only the high cost items to get, and there are also a couple of countries where I still have lots of readily affordable stamps to look for. Inner voices say grow up and concentrate on those gaps - they're not all beyond your means!
But the itch for the new is hard to resist. I'm thinking of Ireland (before the republic in 1948) or perhaps one of the Central American countries. This is because some time ago I bought a Gibbons Central America catalogue which I've never used! Maybe one of the smaller countries. And I need a defined period - I can't handle open-ended collecting. I suppose if I go for Cuba I could focus on the issues of the Castro years, after the news today. But on the whole I think Ireland would be better because I really like those issues of the 30s and 40s, and the stamps will be easier to find here in UK.
Or am I heading for a shelf of incomplete and undistinguished collections with none of the hard to get or more expensive items?
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
"I'm facing a decision - the urge to open a new country collection has hit me! Or would I do better to concentrate more on the countries I already collect "
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
If I stuck with the very few areas I started with until I neared completion with finding and purchasing those high-value/hard-to-find items to finish off each area of interest,
my collecting days would have stagnated a long time ago!
I say go for it, Neville!
You can still continue to pick up the occasional high value items for your original 8 while you are gathering the low value, easy to come by stamps needed to start a fresh collecting area.
I would suggest a Central American country - many are neglected nowadays and start-up stamps for them can be had for quite cheap......just my own opinion.
Whatever you decide, pick whatever sounds the most fun!
Happy Stampin'!
Randy
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
"Or am I heading for a shelf of incomplete and undistinguished collections with none of the hard to get or more expensive items?"
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
There's very valid arguments for both directions.
It boils down to collection vs. accumulation.
Obviously, the final analysis is that you should do what you want and what makes you happy but since you're even posing the question it leads me to believe that you'd really like to move some of your current collections forward. I say bite the bullet and purchase one of the more desired items for one your current collecting areas. The satisfaction gained from gazing down at the completed set and/or page will be immeasurable.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
Strider, in stamps i can not resist a bargain...at my stamp club i am often picking up partial country collections that someone has lost interest in..something you might look at if you have access to a club or other collectors.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
Ain't nothin' wrong with that Phil! You're always putting up interesting covers.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
Strider:
I am partial to the airmail stamps of Central America ... you might consider taking a slice out of those countries (airmail, postage due, topicals, semi-postals, etc), rather than a single country.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
I am partial to the airmail stamps of Central America
That's all they Issue.....
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
OK lets see how the mathematics works, Went to the White Plains show today.. Picked up Swiss semi postals, and Yugoslavia complete sets.. total catalog value 630.75 Paid 185 bucks ( after a little bickering ) Gas 9.40 coffee Mickey D's 1.00 total spent 195.40
percent to catalog value 31 percent..that works for me
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
I had a limited collection - Germany - all eras and occupations and States, Imperial Russian and USSR, Nova Scotia and a few other Canadian provinces. I had a British Royalty collection that is pretty much done.
I've had Canadian stamps accumulating for years on end so last year I decided to go ahead and put them into order.
I figured that was all.
I love the history that each German and USSR stamp represents. Researching the events depicted gives me great joy but with a few exceptions the "stamps" part of those are pretty much complete.
Just happened across some 1943 Scott albums and I've always had an itch to collect worldwide but was overwhelmed with the thought of where to start and end. I didn't want every stamp ever issued but I also didn't want a mishmash from every country. These albums have given me the chance to start a world collection which has a definite beginning and end. There may be some countries listed that may never get filled - who knows? But I took the leap because I know it's going to be exciting.
So, if you've got an itch, my advice is to scratch it. It can only bring you more joy and happiness in your collection.
Kelly
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
Phil...all 4 stamp dealers were in attendance..along with the mad Russian who sells stamps , comic books and ww2 stuff..
Hey some of those swiss semi's have some high cat values (used )
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
As a teen, my sister got me interested in collecting. If it were cheap enough and was in my world-wide album, I'd buy it.
In my mid 20's, after serving in the military, I decided to specialize in only US unused, well-centered stamps. At that time, I bought only from dealer catalogs, and even offered a 10% premium for the best available. (Duh, what can I say ... I wasn't married then!)
I stopped collecting for a number of years. As a newly married man with a low paying job, I struggled to make my $125 a month mortgage payment (taxes, principal and interest!), and had better use for the money. (Got married in 1960.)
Later, with more disposable income, I resumed collecting, and gradually ... very gradually ... was able to build the collection (with a lot of help from EBay) into a catalog value of nearly $100,000.
Sorry if this turned into a mini-autobiography.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
i can relate Carl, the kids always got first draw on any income..we had 3 children very close together so they were in college at the same time and like my wife says we had a fleet (5) of cars. Stamp collecting does require disposable income..many folks had it and more power to them.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
But there are folks who don't understand that hobby purchases come only after all family obligations are met!
I see this in the model car hobby. There was one guy who had no job and had lost the family home and had moved in with relatives. His wife was working two low paying jobs while this goon sat home bidding on eBay! He'd do brag posts on the message boards showing the stuff he had won!
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
This is why so many of us took a long break from collecting during college and their first 10 or 20 years of their career.
re: Stamp purchasing practices !
I agree Chris. I just in the last couple of years have had the $ to get stamps. Always the family obligations came first. I am very much enjoying my stamps now. Being semi-retired give me quite a bit of time for stamps.