Antonio, it depends what you have access to. Sometime last summer I bought a nice what I thought was a stamp collection for $500. About 15 dealer boxes, few albums and a box of postcards. Lots of Germany MNH, Vatican, some US, some Yugoslavia. etc Turns out it was some kind of old dealer stock. All in glassine envelopes, scott # on it and even on some the (totally outdated) catalogue value. After some dillydallying I finally got into it. Bought a complete set of scott catalogues few years old (mostly for ID purposes) and started looking.... Boy was it depressing. Nothing seemed to be worth anything. German Semi Postal sets that cost 10 bucks face or whatever years back sell for under 50 cents n here now. But after a while I found some goodies and sold quite a few already on here and eBay. But could not come up with a system to make real money on the everyday stamps. Did some bulk lots, no real luck. The real lifesaver was the scott #s on those envelopes. All in chronological order. So I took the scott, looked for anything from that era worth anything and checked if I had them. That worked pretty well. But then I realized the low value stuff isn;t worth any time spent on it. Bought a couple of bulk purchases here and there and it was FRUSTRATING as can be looking everything up and finidng out nothing was worth anything. So I played with postcards and after a while figured, WOW, that works a LOT better. Also postal history. Higher margins, much faster to process and a much higher chance to find stuff worth dealing with. I pretty much decided to give the remaining stamps to a local auction house and if I get 50 bucks back, I am ok with that. Number 1 priority will be postcards, 2nd old paper ephemera (been doing that half hearted for a while, but going to increase), 3rd postal history. Reason being, TIME...... I guess what I am trying to say is, find what makes you the most money in the least time. You can't do it all. And if you are looking for a hobby, then by all means find what is the most fun to you.
Best put your money in stock market. Back in the old days the catalogue values where used as a guide in exchanging stamps now ppl want to make money and treat it as an investment. Nonsense
Searching for the right stamp , cataloguing and mounting are real pleasures , BUT it's what I've learned. Hobbies should be relaxing. Making $$ out of philatelics...sorry, but that ship has sailed. Love buying things now that I couldn't afford earlier. The prices will continue to plummet. And for now that's ok.
Comments
it depends what you have access to.
Sometime last summer I bought a nice what I thought was a stamp collection for $500. About 15 dealer boxes, few albums and a box of postcards.
Lots of Germany MNH, Vatican, some US, some Yugoslavia. etc
Turns out it was some kind of old dealer stock.
All in glassine envelopes, scott # on it and even on some the (totally outdated) catalogue value.
After some dillydallying I finally got into it. Bought a complete set of scott catalogues few years old (mostly for ID purposes) and started looking....
Boy was it depressing. Nothing seemed to be worth anything.
German Semi Postal sets that cost 10 bucks face or whatever years back sell for under 50 cents n here now.
But after a while I found some goodies and sold quite a few already on here and eBay.
But could not come up with a system to make real money on the everyday stamps.
Did some bulk lots, no real luck.
The real lifesaver was the scott #s on those envelopes. All in chronological order.
So I took the scott, looked for anything from that era worth anything and checked if I had them.
That worked pretty well. But then I realized the low value stuff isn;t worth any time spent on it.
Bought a couple of bulk purchases here and there and it was FRUSTRATING as can be looking everything up and finidng out nothing was worth anything.
So I played with postcards and after a while figured, WOW, that works a LOT better. Also postal history. Higher margins, much faster to process and a much higher chance to find stuff worth dealing with.
I pretty much decided to give the remaining stamps to a local auction house and if I get 50 bucks back, I am ok with that.
Number 1 priority will be postcards, 2nd old paper ephemera (been doing that half hearted for a while, but going to increase), 3rd postal history.
Reason being, TIME......
I guess what I am trying to say is, find what makes you the most money in the least time. You can't do it all.
And if you are looking for a hobby, then by all means find what is the most fun to you.
EXACTLY today. Markets are down, that's when you buy
You could have made that same statement anytime over the past 30 years. No reason to think the next 30 will be any different.