Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Now for the problem! Not many UK dealers have much LA stock, so I looked at SOR, eBay and Delcampe. Then Stamps2Go. Trouble is, the postage usually exceeds the cost of the stamps, so I need to find dealers who have a lot of stamps from several LA countries. That way I can put together an order where the postage isn't wildly out of kilter with the cost of the actual stamps. But how to find dealers with lots of stuff? Delcampe seems the best bet, but to find them I need to eyeball the dealers' offerings for each country in turn, and then check whether one of them has the specific stamps I'm looking for. They tend to have loads of definitives but not so often the items I've chosen. When I search by seller, I get loads of pesky covers - but I don't collect them!
I did look at Stamps2Go, which lists their stamps by dealer but the biggest dealer there doesn't do scans! Never ever! So much checking is needed to ensure that I've got the right stamp.
I could just buy sets from eBay regardless of the cost - they tend to be mint, and more expensive than if I choose used. This would be an expensive way to collect my choices for 16 countries.
Have I just chosen the wrong countries, or am I living in the wrong country?
Strider
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I find that the more recent (1990-2020) LA stamps are even harder to find than the old ones. Unfortunately I do not know the answer to your question. If print volumes are low it is understandable how stamps will be more difficult to find. There are also very few collectors on Ebay or any other site from the LA countries selling stamps.
There is a solution that works for most collectors - selecting a country that is relatively easy to track like Germany, France, UK, Japan, Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand...
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Ita all relative..my wife wonders why i complain about 2 dollars shipping and then will drive 350 miles each way to a stamp show, where i will pay a dealer full catalog for an item i could have got for less on the net !
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Strider: If you look at Approval Books, there are 31 books currently under "South and Central America. Several books are by the same sellers so it should not be too hard to begin a new collecting area such as Latin america. Most stamps are usually used, but the cost is minimal, and I am sure most sellers will give you extra time to build up your total so that shipping costs are not too high relative to your purchases. I find Approval Books the ideal vehicle to begin accumulating in a new collection area, or to fill in the many gaps one has before you can be considered as "a specialist". Often (but not always..depends on the sellers) better stamps will be listed in Auctions at the same time as the Approval Books are active, with higher valued stamps there, so you have two vehicles to build up a new collection.
I started 3 years ago, and I am just at the point where most of my Latin America countries have a good collection base to start getting more ambitious with rarer stamps ahead.
Rrr...
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I suppose it is a matter of supply and demand. There are far less collectors of Latin America than of countries such as Germany, Japan etc. Apart from that, most Latin American countries cannot be compared with the mentioned 1st world countries. They are less developed, less populated and will therefore have far less mail traffic.
Personally I see bucketloads of older Latin America in collections and accumulations, but that's most of the time the same bulk stuff from the 1930s to 1960s. After 1975 or so, it becomes very difficult to find stamps. Let's not even talk about the 2000s...
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Just my 2 cent(avo)s worth: I believe they are using more and more franking labels and postage meter imprints even on postcards and standard letters, at least in South America.
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12:08:29pm
It's very interesting to check out auctions and approval books and note which countries are really popular. I also find it interesting how quickly newer stamps disappear from some of these countries. I have cutoffs for all countries I collect because the newer stamps are so incredibly numerous. To collect newer stamps from a country like Poland or Russia would require a new album every couple years! Obviously the stamps are being produced for collectors only and it really amazes me that they are even recognized as being for postal use and hence should not be recognized by Scott's.
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"To collect newer stamps from a country like Poland or Russia would require a new album every couple years! Obviously the stamps are being produced for collectors only and it really amazes me that they are even recognized as being for postal use and hence should not be recognized by Scott's."
Stamps such as described above by Harvey are trash. They are nothing more than printed "Beannie Babies", worthless and contrived novelties which deserve to be ignored.
For anyone reading this and wondering what Beannie Babies are (hopefully the craze was limited to the US), in the 1990s, in the United States, bean-bag toys called Beannie Babies were produced and sold, or given away at fast-food restaurants. The maker made 100s of varieties of these trinkets, each with a name. They were very popular. Many people collected them under the misguided belief that they'd be worth something in the future--that they'd actually appreciate in value despite being made by the millions and common as dirt. It was a gimmick that made the manufacturer rich. With an isolated exception, they are worthless.
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"Many people collected them under the misguided belief that they'd be worth something in the future--that they'd actually appreciate in value despite being made by the millions and common as dirt. "
Rick is correct in this instance, and it's applicable to most things.
Which is why it is always best to collect what you love and what interests you, then you won't need to worry what the masses are doing.
Incidentally, my niece carried around a Beanie Baby catalogue when she was still in single digits; she happily showed me many of her Beanies and the price projected in 10 years time. For all her other successes, she can be forgiven this odd misstep.
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12:51:25pm
Ar the risk of becoming the target of a flock of lying over ripened tomatoes, let me repeat the Herman Hearst dictum; " ....If it is made for collectors, it is not collectable. ...."
Amen.
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"" ....If it is made for collectors, it is not collectable. ....""
But where do we draw the line?
It can be argued that any commemorative stamp is created with the collectors in mind.
We can also argue that any topical definitive stamp is created with the collector in mind.
Before long we will see ourselves limited to small and mostly unattractive stamps depicting numbers or the faces of country leaders, most of them with tarnished reputation.
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03:26:18pm
Whenever I go to the post office I'm amazed when I look in their display and see all the new stamps that have come out. I have a Canadian cut off of 1988 so I don't even collect the new stuff. Is it ever used on mail since all I ever see them use are meters? In my humble opinion these stamps have (almost) no postal use whatsoever. So maybe they are only for collectors and probably have been for quite a few years. Scott implies that if stamps are not for postal use they will not recognize them!!
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"I have a Canadian cut off of 1988 so I don't even collect the new stuff. Is it ever used on mail since all I ever see them use are meters?"
Most Canadian stamps are available in booklets of 10. A booklet of Sharks will have two sets of 5 stamps each in it. People will buy those and use them on Christmas mail or other mail presumably. I buy booklets of commemoratives for business use all the time, although I am convinced 99% of them will finish their lives in the company's trash bin.
There are two main problems killing our hobby in Canada
1. The Pitney Bowes meter machines
2. The rolls of 100 definitive stamps they sell to bigger businesses all the time.
If the above two go away, I will be in a stamp collecting paradise :-)
And just imagine what it would be like if they had to use mandatory stamps on parcels !!
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I find the lack of stamps here in the US too. Every January I mail out 1500 postcards advertising my club’s annual model car show. My local post office is a good size one but they won’t have 1300 Forever postcard rate stamps, nor 200 international rate stamps in inventory. Nor will they have broken sheets. So I will let them know what I need about a week ahead and they are happy to help.
In the end I needed six more international stamps and the clerk just cranked out meters for them.
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I'm getting a bit disheartened! I decided to look at the Latin American countries, and I live in UK. I looked at the Gibbons cats for Central and S America, and drew up a list of the more attractive stamps from each country - mainly from a period roughly 1900 to 1950 or so. I find more recent stuff doesn't hit it for me. Most of this material is low cost - with a few notable exceptions. I then tried to find the Scott numbers for my selections, using Colnect. I usually prefer fine used to mint - items that have been through the post. Are you keeping up with all this?
Now for the problem! Not many UK dealers have much LA stock, so I looked at SOR, eBay and Delcampe. Then Stamps2Go. Trouble is, the postage usually exceeds the cost of the stamps, so I need to find dealers who have a lot of stamps from several LA countries. That way I can put together an order where the postage isn't wildly out of kilter with the cost of the actual stamps. But how to find dealers with lots of stuff? Delcampe seems the best bet, but to find them I need to eyeball the dealers' offerings for each country in turn, and then check whether one of them has the specific stamps I'm looking for. They tend to have loads of definitives but not so often the items I've chosen. When I search by seller, I get loads of pesky covers - but I don't collect them!
I did look at Stamps2Go, which lists their stamps by dealer but the biggest dealer there doesn't do scans! Never ever! So much checking is needed to ensure that I've got the right stamp.
I could just buy sets from eBay regardless of the cost - they tend to be mint, and more expensive than if I choose used. This would be an expensive way to collect my choices for 16 countries.
Have I just chosen the wrong countries, or am I living in the wrong country?
Strider
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re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
I find that the more recent (1990-2020) LA stamps are even harder to find than the old ones. Unfortunately I do not know the answer to your question. If print volumes are low it is understandable how stamps will be more difficult to find. There are also very few collectors on Ebay or any other site from the LA countries selling stamps.
There is a solution that works for most collectors - selecting a country that is relatively easy to track like Germany, France, UK, Japan, Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand...
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Auctions
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
Ita all relative..my wife wonders why i complain about 2 dollars shipping and then will drive 350 miles each way to a stamp show, where i will pay a dealer full catalog for an item i could have got for less on the net !
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Approvals
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
Strider: If you look at Approval Books, there are 31 books currently under "South and Central America. Several books are by the same sellers so it should not be too hard to begin a new collecting area such as Latin america. Most stamps are usually used, but the cost is minimal, and I am sure most sellers will give you extra time to build up your total so that shipping costs are not too high relative to your purchases. I find Approval Books the ideal vehicle to begin accumulating in a new collection area, or to fill in the many gaps one has before you can be considered as "a specialist". Often (but not always..depends on the sellers) better stamps will be listed in Auctions at the same time as the Approval Books are active, with higher valued stamps there, so you have two vehicles to build up a new collection.
I started 3 years ago, and I am just at the point where most of my Latin America countries have a good collection base to start getting more ambitious with rarer stamps ahead.
Rrr...
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Approvals
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
I suppose it is a matter of supply and demand. There are far less collectors of Latin America than of countries such as Germany, Japan etc. Apart from that, most Latin American countries cannot be compared with the mentioned 1st world countries. They are less developed, less populated and will therefore have far less mail traffic.
Personally I see bucketloads of older Latin America in collections and accumulations, but that's most of the time the same bulk stuff from the 1930s to 1960s. After 1975 or so, it becomes very difficult to find stamps. Let's not even talk about the 2000s...
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05:08:40am
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
Just my 2 cent(avo)s worth: I believe they are using more and more franking labels and postage meter imprints even on postcards and standard letters, at least in South America.
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
12 Feb 2020
12:08:29pm
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
It's very interesting to check out auctions and approval books and note which countries are really popular. I also find it interesting how quickly newer stamps disappear from some of these countries. I have cutoffs for all countries I collect because the newer stamps are so incredibly numerous. To collect newer stamps from a country like Poland or Russia would require a new album every couple years! Obviously the stamps are being produced for collectors only and it really amazes me that they are even recognized as being for postal use and hence should not be recognized by Scott's.
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re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
"To collect newer stamps from a country like Poland or Russia would require a new album every couple years! Obviously the stamps are being produced for collectors only and it really amazes me that they are even recognized as being for postal use and hence should not be recognized by Scott's."
Stamps such as described above by Harvey are trash. They are nothing more than printed "Beannie Babies", worthless and contrived novelties which deserve to be ignored.
For anyone reading this and wondering what Beannie Babies are (hopefully the craze was limited to the US), in the 1990s, in the United States, bean-bag toys called Beannie Babies were produced and sold, or given away at fast-food restaurants. The maker made 100s of varieties of these trinkets, each with a name. They were very popular. Many people collected them under the misguided belief that they'd be worth something in the future--that they'd actually appreciate in value despite being made by the millions and common as dirt. It was a gimmick that made the manufacturer rich. With an isolated exception, they are worthless.
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re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
"Many people collected them under the misguided belief that they'd be worth something in the future--that they'd actually appreciate in value despite being made by the millions and common as dirt. "
Rick is correct in this instance, and it's applicable to most things.
Which is why it is always best to collect what you love and what interests you, then you won't need to worry what the masses are doing.
Incidentally, my niece carried around a Beanie Baby catalogue when she was still in single digits; she happily showed me many of her Beanies and the price projected in 10 years time. For all her other successes, she can be forgiven this odd misstep.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
21 Feb 2020
12:51:25pm
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
Ar the risk of becoming the target of a flock of lying over ripened tomatoes, let me repeat the Herman Hearst dictum; " ....If it is made for collectors, it is not collectable. ...."
Amen.
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re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
"" ....If it is made for collectors, it is not collectable. ....""
But where do we draw the line?
It can be argued that any commemorative stamp is created with the collectors in mind.
We can also argue that any topical definitive stamp is created with the collector in mind.
Before long we will see ourselves limited to small and mostly unattractive stamps depicting numbers or the faces of country leaders, most of them with tarnished reputation.
Login to Like
this post
This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
21 Feb 2020
03:26:18pm
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
Whenever I go to the post office I'm amazed when I look in their display and see all the new stamps that have come out. I have a Canadian cut off of 1988 so I don't even collect the new stuff. Is it ever used on mail since all I ever see them use are meters? In my humble opinion these stamps have (almost) no postal use whatsoever. So maybe they are only for collectors and probably have been for quite a few years. Scott implies that if stamps are not for postal use they will not recognize them!!
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this post
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
"I have a Canadian cut off of 1988 so I don't even collect the new stuff. Is it ever used on mail since all I ever see them use are meters?"
Most Canadian stamps are available in booklets of 10. A booklet of Sharks will have two sets of 5 stamps each in it. People will buy those and use them on Christmas mail or other mail presumably. I buy booklets of commemoratives for business use all the time, although I am convinced 99% of them will finish their lives in the company's trash bin.
There are two main problems killing our hobby in Canada
1. The Pitney Bowes meter machines
2. The rolls of 100 definitive stamps they sell to bigger businesses all the time.
If the above two go away, I will be in a stamp collecting paradise :-)
And just imagine what it would be like if they had to use mandatory stamps on parcels !!
Login to Like
this post
re: Collecting the wrong countries! Woe, woe!
I find the lack of stamps here in the US too. Every January I mail out 1500 postcards advertising my club’s annual model car show. My local post office is a good size one but they won’t have 1300 Forever postcard rate stamps, nor 200 international rate stamps in inventory. Nor will they have broken sheets. So I will let them know what I need about a week ahead and they are happy to help.
In the end I needed six more international stamps and the clerk just cranked out meters for them.
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