Nowadays, the question we ask ourselves most when faced with a philatelic commercial transaction is that relating to the market price.
How much is an antique collector's stamp worth in money?
Currently, the many online sales platforms, public auctions with third-party material, and private accumulators offer an enormous quantity of material, mostly of a common nature, at negligible prices.
The result is a very high supply of goods which however meets very limited demand, causing the average price of the object to collapse.
But what is actually being proposed?
By carrying out a careful statistic of the goods offered, one finds very high percentages of defective or very defective specimens, fakes, fakes (regumming, sometimes imaginative compositions of stamps and cancellations, etc.) and so on. With the aggravating circumstance that the truly rare and interesting stamp is never found.
This essentially means that the offer is certainly there, and it is also high, but by skimming all the adverts and reducing them to the bare minimum, the truly interesting material for the collector is essentially tending towards ZERO.
The problem is that this immense market - let's call it mass - filled with filth affects those who have no skills, those who like to wallow in trouble, those who hope to make a great catch (and are almost always caught) etc.
The gist is what we hear and see around; that is, the false impression that the stamps are worth little or nothing, that if you buy at Sassone catalog percentages higher than 4% you are wrong, that "sooner or later the piece will come cheap to me" and so on.
Auction houses generally offer more valuable material, often objects from large disused collections; recently, for example, the Bolaffi auction house has sold the collection of Umberto Hess, a great collector and personal friend of mine who passed away suddenly last summer, and the immense accumulation of Saverio Imperato, another great collector and collector, is being sold at various auctions of every sort of Ancient Italian State in all its forms and typologies.
But in reality, despite having an average level that is decidedly higher than that of online platforms, these auction houses are ultimately reduced to offering "what they have on hand", or "what the convent can pass". They have no stocks, they do not own warehouses, they simply hesitate to auction what is commissioned to them, in a completely casual and uncritical way.
So even in that case the realized price is influenced by various factors, namely: who is interested in that object and in that historical moment in which the auction takes place? Generally the collector focuses on some particular piece, especially if it is missing from his collection, and in this case prices skyrocket. In all other cases the objects, if they attract interest or in any case have potential buyers almost immediately, are purchased by traders who naturally pay wholesale prices for them.
The result of all of the above is simple to understand; the average collector, poorly informed or a lover of "auction profits" (be they those of platform auctions or those in traditional public auctions) convinces himself that "the market price" is that of the realization, without caring about the fact that that price can refer to:
- A defective part
- A fake or rigged piece
- A piece that did not arouse interest in the collector and was therefore purchased by a dealer at prices lower than the actual selling prices
- A common or otherwise available piece
And it assimilates this realization price, relating it to the catalog value of the object, to how much you have to spend for an example to purchase for your collection, independently:
- From rarity
- From quality
- From the ease of finding it in the desired state and condition
- From the origin: it's one thing to buy on online platforms by jumping from the plane without a parachute, it's another thing to buy from a professional, perhaps competent, who guarantees you the piece purchased and also - one day - its repurchase.
I recently received several missing items from the Italian area, used stamps from the Kingdom with original cancellations for example, but also much more. Among others, I was asked about some high values of the Summer Camps for Children, used with ORIGINAL cancellations. It goes without saying that there are very few of these stamps in the requested state; but I have them.
To my request for 35% of the catalog value for these very rare and untraceable stamps, I was answered:
“Eh, but I paid 15% for the rest of the used series (editor's note: the “common” stamps which are also found on registered letters or postcards). I can reach a maximum of 20%!”
To my reply:
“Yes, but excuse me, how long have you been looking for that original used gray L. 5 + 3 stamp? Have you ever seen it at any auction?”
Answer:
“I once saw a collection that had it in it, but I would have had to spend a huge sum to collect it and I didn't need all the other pieces…. I have been looking for it for twenty years but no auction house has ever offered it as a single and guaranteed item and I don't trust online platforms as most sellers are not able to guarantee a piece like that".
Here, I leave it to you readers the honor of interpreting this article of mine, which is just a taste of what I will write to you in the coming times, with the aim of clarifying, once and for all, what the true market price of the stamps is it is not a "unique" price but depends on the stamp, its quality, its rarity, its general characteristics. And then we will also focus on the value of that same stamp not at the time of purchase, but also after purchase, to give a measure of how important it is to spend your money well and then one day find yourself with a valuable collection that will be coveted by new collectors and not thrown on online platforms or in various sales but valued at the highest level at the moment in which it will be sold.
HI!
1 comment
Una persona competente, di più, uno studioso, che oltre a fornire materiale di qualità anche a chi non ha grosse cifre da investire per( non sempre si può aspirare al francobollo perfetto ) chiudere una serie o chiedere una serie, ti accompagna con pazienza e passione alla scelta dei fb spiegandoti i motivi dei suoi suggerimenti, persona rara ed estremamente gentile, e onesta, io mi sono trovato benissimo e mi sento di consigliarlo caldamente ad altri collezionisti, sicuramente vi troverete bene