To sell or not.

Or,
As fritz would probably say ,"you could try writing a lot of letters".
Sorry
oldie.

Polarbear

A few years ago I was the Purchasing Manager in the Post Office responsible for the purchase of Stamps. I actually used to buy 5,500,000,000 of the things each year, so for nine years I was the UK's greatest stamp collector. In those days, my worst nightmare was that stamp collectors would find out my identity and plague the ass off me.

Stamp collecting is actually growing and the collectors have an increasing influence of the stamps that the Post Office and indeed foreign Post Offices buy. The level of gum, perforations, subject matter, number of issues is always discussed years in advance with representatives of the collecting fraternatity.

The millenium programme 1999/2000 actually brought about a significant increase in the level of collectors. Women in their 30's with high disposable incomes started collecting for children they never yet gave birth to.

The consensus of opinion is that wise stamp collecting could be financially rewarding in the longer term. Britsh stamps are the most collectible because of the high level of photo gravuere process which most countries do not use.

I get the distinct impression that your dealer is being greedy, so why not try Ebay or similar.

I cannot answer anymore questions today as I am organising a function in a local hotel and am about to depart to stay away overnight.

Regards

Mick

I'd try for another quote for the set, but also consider cherry picking the best & trying ebay - you could find that you'll get a lot closer to your target 22.5% of catalogue with these, & once you do, you can flog the rest on e-bay as one or more large "starter collections" with a minimal reserve, just to clear them out.

J

quote:

I cannot answer anymore questions today as I am organising a function in a local hotel and am about to depart to stay away overnight.

You will probably read this when you get back so I hope you had a good time.

My collection consists of some 5,000 first day covers, mainly Benham Silks. Hence the reasons for my storage problems.

I have seen covers on ebay and they fetch almost nothing, leaving me to belive that no one is collecting FDC's nowdays.

Regards

Nigel

My Grandfather throughout his Royal Navy career collected mint Red Cross stamps from all over the world, I can recall as a lad sitting on his knee while he proudly showed them to me when on summer holiday. Upon his death my Grandmother needing a quick sale at the time trusted a family friend to value them and subsequently sell them to him for quite a hefty sum. Sadly enough a month or two later another friend told her that upon research she'd realised by looking at the current Stanley Gibbons catalogue that Grannie had been stung for a decent 50% of their worth. Guess what ? That family (ex) friend was a Detective Inpsector in the Hampshire Constabulary, so no suprsises there then, eh Mick ?

Fritz Von Recalling Childhood in his innocence

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:
My Grandfather throughout his Royal Navy career collected mint Red Cross stamps from all over the world, I can recall as a lad sitting on his knee while he proudly showed them to me when on summer holiday. Upon his death my Grandmother needing a quick sale at the time trusted a family friend to value them and subsequently sell them to him for quite a hefty sum. Sadly enough a month or two later another friend told her that upon research she'd realised by looking at the current Stanley Gibbons catalogue that Grannie had been stung for a decent 50% of their worth. Guess what ? That family (ex) friend was a Detective Inpsector in the Hampshire Constabulary, so no suprsises there then, eh Mick ?

Fritz Von Recalling Childhood in his innocence

N.B. The geezer probably later became a senior officer in the Fraud Squad, lovingly known today as Scotland Yards Serious Farce Office for your information, innit

Define value though, value is only what the next person is willing to pay.

The problem with the stamp market is that it has reached saturation. Everyman and his granny is collecting stamps.

The biggest reason for selling is the amount of space they take up. They take up almost half a room in their boxes and I just havn't got the space thesedays.

Like most things it's a question of your own priorities and patience, and in essence stamps are at least slightly smaller than most collectable items, innit. An old girlfriend of mine's father sold his complete DDR mint stamp collection for well over DM 1 Million, I expect now they could be worth less, Luck of the draw I suppose ?

Fritz Von Now Mick's retired I fear the truth may never be known !

Thaks for all the advice,

I am getting a second opinion.

Regards

PB

The way I see it is if you can sell them for more than the cost and you get a 500 in the bargin which will give you years of 'tangible' joy get on and sell um!

If I could get cost then I could have two 500's but on what they are offering I couldn't manage one!