where to sell stamps?!?!?

jclm_2

hi,

does anyone have any advice for me? we have an ancient book of stamps (it was my OH's mum's collection). it's quite a large book with stamps from everywhere! we tried to sell it on ebay but no one was interested:o

is there anywhere else we could try to sell it? or does anyone have any ideas about what we could do with it?

many thanks

xxx

Crowqueen

First of all, eBay is a great place to sell stamps but you've got to know what you're looking at. Most of the value in stamps is sales to other collectors retail on eBay, so instead of just putting up the complete collection for sale, browse the categories to see if you can find what you're looking for and can identify the sort of stamps you have. Also, many libraries have stamp catalogues available so take the book with you, get out a catalogue, and have a go. You might get the bug yourself. I did - I started off looking on eBay for Soviet bloc political propaganda for research for my writing (which has largely driven my eBay habits and has finally borne fruit) and found stamps were the cheapest way of collecting it. Now I have a large but mostly inexpensive collection because after a while the collecting bug took off.

Chances are if it is just something you have found in an attic somewhere you may be over-valuing it. Most people's stamp collections are not worth very much, and bulk collections also only really attract dealers looking for lots to break up and sell on at a profit, so it may be worth putting some time into looking at the stamps, sorting them into specific lots and selling those lots as attractively displayed and priced as possible. There is a large collection of resources out there; one place to start is the eBay stamp chat board, a small but dedicate community who are friendly towards new people. I used to be one of their club officers but I very rarely contribute as I haven't had much money to continue with the hobby of late (but you've made me think I should try and work on my Baltic States collection...!!).

However, done properly, you can get a decent amount out of it. There are specialist stamp sites out there but a well-researched listing is likely to get more takers on eBay where there are a bigger pool of buyers than relying on dealers (who may undervalue) or on auction houses who are only likely to be interested if you have absolute rarities.

Good luck. We need fresh blood in the hobby.

http://chatboards.ebay.com/chat.jsp?forum=1&thread=28 - this is the link to the board.
http://www.iusc.org/ - this is their homepage.

hermum

There was a similar post last month, I don't know what the answers were but this is the thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2222833
There may be some good advice on there for you.

soolin

Just to add that whilst I still have several box loads in storage I did sell several albums and a shoe box of loose stamps (world wide ones) for £6 at a recent car boot. That is the only interest I've ever had and I have been hawking them round for years now.

[Deleted User]

Please please don't take this as a put down because it is not intended to be. If you don't know much about stamps you are unlikely to know how best to dispose of them. If you look at a stamp catalogue, the prices there are generally for stamps in excellent condition. The prices quoted for cheaper stamps reflects more on the cost of the dealer supplying them than it reflects value. Catalogues usually give a comprehensive description in the introduction/notes setting out what the prices reflect.

Age is no indication of value, and a large accumulation of cheap stamps is unlikely to create much interest. A catalogue will give you a guide. Stamps that are rare now, generally, were rare when issued.

Why not borrow a catalogue from a library, pick a random sample of what you have, look them up in the catalogue, THEN see if they are on Ebay and how much they fetch. That might give you a general steer about the kind of collection you are dealing with, and what the approach of the collector was. I don't know what the market is like just now, but a dealer will rarely if ever pay anything near the catalogue price, as they will have to sell it the stamp/s for less than the vaule shown and try to make a profit.

Hope this helps!

WR

Crowqueen

soolin wrote: »

Just to add that whilst I still have several box loads in storage I did sell several albums and a shoe box of loose stamps (world wide ones) for £6 at a recent car boot. That is the only interest I've ever had and I have been hawking them round for years now.

I think stamps need a more delicate touch - the market has been flat of late, the credit crunch did a lot of damage to the stamp/postcard collector market and certainly to my hopes of turning pro. I don't think I'd enjoy selling just any old widget but I did enjoy selling my collection when I had it. I put a test auction up last autumn but got no interest. But there is still stuff listed and it must sell.

Shoe-boxes full of stamps are best provided for people to pick through at a penny a stamp or something like that. A local shop once allowed me to take a bag-full home and sort through at my leisure and pay for any I kept. Sorted into, say, 100 boat stamps or 100 bird stamps they make more attractive packets.

It probably takes a lot of time to sort through and list cheap collections, but I've always found eBay a good place to buy/sell cheap lots of stamps as long as you get the perspective right and don't go for trying to sell bulk stuff which isn't worth a lot. Sorting and listing as small sets is usually a better retail strategy but is time-consuming and unless you know or learn more about it probably doesn't give a good return for the time spent.

RuthnJasper

jclm wrote: »

hi,

does anyone have any advice for me? we have an ancient book of stamps (it was my OH's mum's collection). it's quite a large book with stamps from everywhere! we tried to sell it on ebay but no one was interested:o

is there anywhere else we could try to sell it? or does anyone have any ideas about what we could do with it?

many thanks

xxx

I would advise contacting someone from Stanley Gibbons - they're the "official" stamp collecting people and very professional (my brother used to like stamp collecting when he was younger). I'm sure they can offer some advice - genuine collectors may tend to shy away from Ebay for fear of fake goods/scams. Here's a link to Stanley Gibbons' website: http://www.stanleygibbons.com/stanleygibbons/view/content/sg_homepage.

Hope this helps. Best wishes. xx

jclm_2

thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!! that is a great help. i love this forum! xxxxx