Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
New here, recently inherited some stamps from my parents, mostly PRC China from 1949 - 1988. I spent a last few weeks sorting these, got really into it.
Although a good collection, but still a lot missing, so would love to start looking out for missing ones to complete sets.
been on ebay and stampworld, but finding it hard to find individual stamps out of a set.
any advise here on what's the best way to go about this?
regards,
R
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Welcome to the club! The SOR approvals and auctions would be a great place to start looking for your missing stamps.
WB
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I've been a member here for only 6 months, and like you, I had wondered how I would fill all those holes in my collection.
Once I had checked out the auctions and approvals, I knew that I had found the treasure trove I had been searching for.
Whitebuffalo is right. This is a great place to start!
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Welcome R,
White Buffalo and Benque have put you on the right trail. After a while, look about you
on the members page and find those who share your collecting interests- all here are a friendly bunch and would be happy to talk 'shop'. Chances are you might be able to help them as well.
Best,
Dan C.
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PRC China is an area one can more easily find singles for sale out of sets. Probably because many full sets are scarce and expensive.
Stamps2Go would be a good source, also the APS internet sales. My guess would be the sales circuits would be priced way high. It is a challenging area to collect. You know you will never complete it, it becomes a game of percentage of completion.
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Many thanks guys, appreciate all your comments and i will look into them!
regards,
R
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if you have lists of what you want, don't be shy about posting your wants
and you can always place ads to buy stamps in our DB
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Yep. There are many here who'll be happy to get you stamps that you need. To get to the classified ads section, from the blue menu bar at the top of this screen, click on SHOW TOPICS, then scroll to the bottom of the screen. Be sure to read the rules for using the classified ads. A link is provided in that area of the board. You can offer to buy, sell and trade. Have fun filling those spaces!
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Stamp dealers often bought and sold what are "short sets," consisting of all but the one high-denomination, high-catalogue-value stamps. A few years ago, my stamp club received a gift consisting mostly of a few score packets containing short sets of British Commonwealth stamps that had been issued in the 1960s and 1970s. We sold them at auction for more than $1200, which shows that they are hardly worthless! However, you have identified a common problem, which is obtaining those high-denomination, high-catalogue-value stamps.
Three suggestions:
-- Buy complete sets to obtain the one high-value stamps, then sell the short sets. You won't make money, but you'll get some return on your purchases and you'll get the stamps you want.
-- Publish want lists here at Stamporama, and ask eBay to notify you when particular stamps come available.
-- Get in touch with China collectors to see what they might have available for purchase or trade.
Bob
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Certainly looking here in the auctions and approval books for China is a great option, as well as posting a wantlist of what you're looking for.
If you're not familiar with HipStamp, it may be another option for you. Because of the way it's set up for sellings (just a flat monthly fee, no per-item listing charges), there's no disincentive for sellers to list individual and/or low-value items, so you may have some luck finding what you're looking for.
The site is supposed to be able to handle SG numbers in its search, but you might have better luck if you're able to supply the Scott numbers instead. If you do try to search by SG number, be sure to include "SG" in the search; otherwise it will return Scott numbers.
I just did a quick search for PRC and found about 12,000 listings within the China category.
https://www.hipstamp.com/category/china/85/?keywords=PRC
The site is based in the US and thus has a preponderance of US sellers and buyers, but many will ship overseas. I *think* the search is supposed to be smart enough to show you only those items where the seller ships to your country.
Hope that helps!
(Full disclosure: I have a small presence there, but have no offerings for China in general nor the PRC specifically.)
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Something you should know is that China is probably the most difficult country to collect these days. The reason is because in the last 25 years or so China has become more open to the world and are experiencing a higher level of freedom and disposable cash than they had in the past. With over a billion people there seems that many of them are interested in collecting and have pushed the values of stamps up to a level that no other country enjoys these days. While most countries stamps can be had for 30% of catalog value Chinese stamps are generally priced at 100% or more. When I started collecting again in 1988 China was just starting to take off and I have bought very few Chinese stamps since then. I decided to concentrate on everything else instead and being content with the fairly decent Chinese collection I amassed during my youth. Maybe someday in the near future it will come down enough to get me interested but no one can predict that. As far as where to get stamps, most have been already noted with Ebay probably being the best. The problem though is everyone knows of the situation and nearly everyone is overpricing them compared to any other country.
If China is the only country you are interested in then that's where you are. If not you might find greater reward in collecting other countries.
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I agree that posting a Want List here is probably a wise first step, but in addition to all other options previously listed, I would check Stamps2Go.com. You can see everyone that offers a particular Scott catalog number for a particular country and place your order. I've used them quite a bit for my topical collection because I'm buying a small number of stamps from a large number of countries, and there seems to be one or more specialists for many of those countries.
Happy hunting!
Lars
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Chinastampshere.com, however I cannot comment as to quality having never purchased from there
Regards
Richmond
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Delcampe is good for single stamps, but tends to be pricey - also being based in Europe postage will be high to you guys across the pond ( actually with the value of the pound against the Euro it's expensive for us Brits too !).
It might be worth your while to buy a small accumulation containing the stamp(s) you need then trade or sell the balance here.
One tip - bear in mind a lot of us here are pesky foreigners and can't tell a Scott catalogue number from an Albanian Frog , so a brief description in addition to the Cat.no. might help when setting up trades or purchases.
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"One tip - bear in mind a lot of us here are pesky foreigners and can't tell a Scott catalogue number from an Albanian Frog , so a brief description in addition to the Cat.no. might help when setting up trades or purchases."
I just Luv the "Albanian Frog"
Stevo
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Stevo
I just picked it up out of the air - on the grounds that my normal comparison terms are not suitable for a family board !
Malcolm
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Albanian Water Frog technically . . .
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Tastes like chicken?
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"The frogs’ legs I ate in Albania were from wild frogs and very flavorful."
A digression . . but a fun one.
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You can have frog legs...I'll take chicken wings !
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12:20:46pm
Hi all,
New here, recently inherited some stamps from my parents, mostly PRC China from 1949 - 1988. I spent a last few weeks sorting these, got really into it.
Although a good collection, but still a lot missing, so would love to start looking out for missing ones to complete sets.
been on ebay and stampworld, but finding it hard to find individual stamps out of a set.
any advise here on what's the best way to go about this?
regards,
R
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Welcome to the club! The SOR approvals and auctions would be a great place to start looking for your missing stamps.
WB
Login to Like
this post
12:52:16pm
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
I've been a member here for only 6 months, and like you, I had wondered how I would fill all those holes in my collection.
Once I had checked out the auctions and approvals, I knew that I had found the treasure trove I had been searching for.
Whitebuffalo is right. This is a great place to start!
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Welcome R,
White Buffalo and Benque have put you on the right trail. After a while, look about you
on the members page and find those who share your collecting interests- all here are a friendly bunch and would be happy to talk 'shop'. Chances are you might be able to help them as well.
Best,
Dan C.
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
PRC China is an area one can more easily find singles for sale out of sets. Probably because many full sets are scarce and expensive.
Stamps2Go would be a good source, also the APS internet sales. My guess would be the sales circuits would be priced way high. It is a challenging area to collect. You know you will never complete it, it becomes a game of percentage of completion.
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02:30:39pm
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Many thanks guys, appreciate all your comments and i will look into them!
regards,
R
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
if you have lists of what you want, don't be shy about posting your wants
and you can always place ads to buy stamps in our DB
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
02:45:31pm
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Yep. There are many here who'll be happy to get you stamps that you need. To get to the classified ads section, from the blue menu bar at the top of this screen, click on SHOW TOPICS, then scroll to the bottom of the screen. Be sure to read the rules for using the classified ads. A link is provided in that area of the board. You can offer to buy, sell and trade. Have fun filling those spaces!
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Stamp dealers often bought and sold what are "short sets," consisting of all but the one high-denomination, high-catalogue-value stamps. A few years ago, my stamp club received a gift consisting mostly of a few score packets containing short sets of British Commonwealth stamps that had been issued in the 1960s and 1970s. We sold them at auction for more than $1200, which shows that they are hardly worthless! However, you have identified a common problem, which is obtaining those high-denomination, high-catalogue-value stamps.
Three suggestions:
-- Buy complete sets to obtain the one high-value stamps, then sell the short sets. You won't make money, but you'll get some return on your purchases and you'll get the stamps you want.
-- Publish want lists here at Stamporama, and ask eBay to notify you when particular stamps come available.
-- Get in touch with China collectors to see what they might have available for purchase or trade.
Bob
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Certainly looking here in the auctions and approval books for China is a great option, as well as posting a wantlist of what you're looking for.
If you're not familiar with HipStamp, it may be another option for you. Because of the way it's set up for sellings (just a flat monthly fee, no per-item listing charges), there's no disincentive for sellers to list individual and/or low-value items, so you may have some luck finding what you're looking for.
The site is supposed to be able to handle SG numbers in its search, but you might have better luck if you're able to supply the Scott numbers instead. If you do try to search by SG number, be sure to include "SG" in the search; otherwise it will return Scott numbers.
I just did a quick search for PRC and found about 12,000 listings within the China category.
https://www.hipstamp.com/category/china/85/?keywords=PRC
The site is based in the US and thus has a preponderance of US sellers and buyers, but many will ship overseas. I *think* the search is supposed to be smart enough to show you only those items where the seller ships to your country.
Hope that helps!
(Full disclosure: I have a small presence there, but have no offerings for China in general nor the PRC specifically.)
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Something you should know is that China is probably the most difficult country to collect these days. The reason is because in the last 25 years or so China has become more open to the world and are experiencing a higher level of freedom and disposable cash than they had in the past. With over a billion people there seems that many of them are interested in collecting and have pushed the values of stamps up to a level that no other country enjoys these days. While most countries stamps can be had for 30% of catalog value Chinese stamps are generally priced at 100% or more. When I started collecting again in 1988 China was just starting to take off and I have bought very few Chinese stamps since then. I decided to concentrate on everything else instead and being content with the fairly decent Chinese collection I amassed during my youth. Maybe someday in the near future it will come down enough to get me interested but no one can predict that. As far as where to get stamps, most have been already noted with Ebay probably being the best. The problem though is everyone knows of the situation and nearly everyone is overpricing them compared to any other country.
If China is the only country you are interested in then that's where you are. If not you might find greater reward in collecting other countries.
Login to Like
this post
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
I agree that posting a Want List here is probably a wise first step, but in addition to all other options previously listed, I would check Stamps2Go.com. You can see everyone that offers a particular Scott catalog number for a particular country and place your order. I've used them quite a bit for my topical collection because I'm buying a small number of stamps from a large number of countries, and there seems to be one or more specialists for many of those countries.
Happy hunting!
Lars
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re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Chinastampshere.com, however I cannot comment as to quality having never purchased from there
Regards
Richmond
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10:00:23am
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Delcampe is good for single stamps, but tends to be pricey - also being based in Europe postage will be high to you guys across the pond ( actually with the value of the pound against the Euro it's expensive for us Brits too !).
It might be worth your while to buy a small accumulation containing the stamp(s) you need then trade or sell the balance here.
One tip - bear in mind a lot of us here are pesky foreigners and can't tell a Scott catalogue number from an Albanian Frog , so a brief description in addition to the Cat.no. might help when setting up trades or purchases.
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re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
"One tip - bear in mind a lot of us here are pesky foreigners and can't tell a Scott catalogue number from an Albanian Frog , so a brief description in addition to the Cat.no. might help when setting up trades or purchases."
I just Luv the "Albanian Frog"
Stevo
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03:32:34pm
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Stevo
I just picked it up out of the air - on the grounds that my normal comparison terms are not suitable for a family board !
Malcolm
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re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Albanian Water Frog technically . . .
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re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
Tastes like chicken?
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re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
"The frogs’ legs I ate in Albania were from wild frogs and very flavorful."
A digression . . but a fun one.
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04:45:55pm
re: Newbie - advice on finding single stamps to complete my sets
You can have frog legs...I'll take chicken wings !
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