Every places i go, i buy some souvenir sheets, plates of stamps and first day cover. I also collect all issues of stamps in our country. Thinking now and then, is there any promising returns on those mint stamp i kept. Used stamps is not my liking but i have some of old local stamps since i was 13. I prefer collecting mint issue. I am not planning to sell any of those but probably my grand children will inherit them.
Not worth a pinch of shit! Stamp collectors are dying. I go to a quarterly stampshow and the prices just keep plummeting.
There are some rare stamps that can still be worth more but Sammy is right, their values have plummeted and continue to do so. There are no new collectors, it's over for stamps forever.
Sad but true. I have a friend on a market stall and he keeps getting offers to buy stamp collections but he can't shift them and the people selling all want a fortune for the albums. It is not all bad though. While the market was flooded with a ton of product in the 80s, stamps that are older than this do still have a market. Once you take away all the mass produced recent product and you start looking at the older, harder to find, items then you can see some that have held their value. Granted, few new people are joining the hobby but there are a ton of old time collectors who are still enjoying it. They are prepared to pay good money for a stamp in good condition if they haven't got it in their collection. Same as always, Desirability, condition and rarity will all determine the value. You might find that one or two stamps in the collection are worth more than all the others put together. Whether that is worth your time to go through them I am not sure. I have a large collection that I inherited. I can't be bothered to learn... colour varieties, perforation varieties, how to spot a fake, how to grade a stamp, which stamps are worth holding on to etc. so they just sit in a box taking up space. Anything else, e.g. putting them in an album, cataloging, mounting them, taking them off the envelopes, is just going to cost me time and money with little hope of getting anything in return. This is a timely warning to all those with coin collections. Dump all the crappy low value coins. Only keep the high value coins. Because when you pass it on, if you give them 20 albums full of crap coins and one album with expensive ones then either a dealer or a rubbish bin is going to get the lot for nothing. Stamp collecting was popular when letters were popular, email has killed the hobby (That and the post offices of the world churning out hundreds of 'commemoratives') Phonecard collecting was popular when public phone boxes were necessary, mobile phones have killed the hobby (That and the Telecom companies of the world churning out hundreds of 'commemoratives') Coins were popular when high street shopping was popular, credit cards and internet transactions have killed the hobby (That and the Mints of the world churning out hundreds of 'commemoratives')
JNS, if I were you, I'd consider selling your modern day stamps and then use that money to buy precious metal such as silver platinum or gold. Some of the older Australian stamps may do ok. (Examples below). To keep stamps, first-day covers etc etc in mint condition, is a dang pain in the back-side and if you have the misfortune of fire, flood etc, you'll loose the lot, atleast with a bar of silver or gold you have something to pass-on or sell. As a selling "trial", why not keep a spread sheet of your stamps and then compare what they sell for on ebay (You could use the sold function on ebay to get an idea of what your oldest stamps are worth). 6d Kangaroo stamp http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_...+stamp.TRS0&_nkw=6d+Kangaroo+stamp&_sacat=260 3d Kangaroo stamp http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_...+stamp.TRS0&_nkw=3d+Kangaroo+stamp&_sacat=260 Emu stamp http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_....H0.XEmu+stamp.TRS0&_nkw=Emu+stamp&_sacat=260 KGV stamps http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_...0.XKGV+stamp.TRS0&_nkw=kgv+stamps&_sacat=3468 Tasmania http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_...TRS0&_nkw=Tasmania+Australia+stamp&_sacat=260
Many decimal Australian stamps are really only worth face value. The days of where Aussie stamps are considered to be an investment are over. However, online bidding on many pre-decimal stamps is strong among collectors. So with mint pre-decimal prices will hold. At least you have bought "Mint" stamps and that is a bonus as "used" decimal stamps are almost worthless.
Hi holdfast, thank you for nice advises, the same to you all guys out there. I joined local clubs. I started moving them and converting to silver coins. Modern stamps now bye bye... Still tempting too buy highly collectible pieces from post office. Mint old stamps, I still holding them some dtd 1920-1970s. I got some type sets of ecuadorian, philippine, german, caribean countries and some countries in europe. The quality and mint stamps still in my possesion which mostly 1960s. It is hard to disposed abt 40k of stamps. Almost 8 full large books plus modern sheets. I collected them for almost 20 years and 1 junior stamp collection when i was in high school. Well i am doing it slowly, trying to win from my collection. This stamps really help me in times i am alone.
Jislizard, Thanks for the timely warning about crappy things. I do appreciate it. I will start also to move some of old local silver coins. Actually my wife telling me that she has no appeal on those coins. I got some alfonsos, isabelas and huge usphil coins in my collection. These are some examples which does not appreciate due millions minted and available in the hand of our local collectors. Probably need to shift with 999 coins and keep only the better ones. Since there is a temporary spike of silver today, probably a couple years to wait till its price stay its momentum. I accumulated them in 3 years of attending auctions and online biddings. I would probably liquidate them and move to gold coins. Stamps are moving slowly as i mention but needs a lot of patient to win. Need to resale and group them topically or year sets as available. 50s or 100s per envelope been moving out sucessfully in recent months. I Hope can get even little return than losing some money of it. The hardest to sell are the mint sheets which i dont like to cut for pieces same with modern first day issues. I am not moving them because i need but for practical view which i seen on yours. I have still long line of patience in doing this matter because i am in my prime.Thanks a lot for your good points.
I took a long a load of Phonecards to our local club, 'The Redcliffe Coin and Phonecard Club'. I couldn't give them away, the people who had a phonecard collection are not buying any new ones and they don't want to sell for a loss so they just have boxes of old cards sitting around. I have gotten rid of 90% of my 50 cents coin collection, I got them from circulation so I just spent them. We do hae a new member who has gone into stamp and coin dealing so there is still some money changing hands in the hobby. Sadly at 40+ I am the youngest member in the club, we do have someone younger but he has just started collecting coins and just started a family so I have a feeling I know which one will be taking up most of his time. To be honest, there are more interesting things to do now-a-days than to sit around putting stamps in albums so it is no surprise that kids aren't getting into the hobby.
Our clubs are inviting new students on the hubby and we tried to promote them but kids are tech-ie nowadsyd and not interested on this tedious but enjoying endeavor. Well i have a 5th year automatic issue of all stamps from post office and might stop next year for 2017. This is like a subscription. I will move definitely most of them and convert them to PM. It takes some emotions on releasing some new stamps in the beginning. Probably old coins that i kept might be the same.
Oz, thanks for your links. I might do the same, got same mint condition from 70s-2015 that i have. Late 60s colours are still white but already started to have brown foxing in its perf. I actually using local classfd ads in disposing my stamps.
Lets not start posting pictures! I will be forced to get them all out of the wardrobe for a photoshoot! All of them are Greek Stamps from 70 to mid 80s and there are loads of them. I don't know much about the Greek stamps but I do know that their first day covers have multiple combinations of envelopes and stamps on them for each issue and I have three sets of each, not counting the number of sheets and blocks in the little glassine envelopes. I should probably put them in an airtight container at the very least but I don't want to spend a ton of cash.
Jislizard, That is the problem with me. I do not know also the present value. I have not seen old stamps from Greece. Probably your collection will be the first. What i did to the albums, i wrap it with cling plastic wrap all around then put it inside big plastic ware.
I use the Glad Bags Zip locks to put the albums in and then I put them in a plastic box with a lid and then sticky tape around the lid. But that is not ideal and was only a temporary measure about five years ago. It doesn't help with sorting them out. I want to get some better storage but I don't want to over capitalise. However it might be 100 Years until they go up in value again so whatever storage I get has to be up to the job or it isn't worth bothering at all. I don't want to put them in albums because they take up too much space, but I need something to keep them flat and protect from folds or scratches. Moisture is a definite issue. A problem for another day...
I bought all my albums in Italy. It cost 35euro each. A very thick indeed. Sorry got to screen shot them because im in mobile now.
