stainlessb
Member 
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,642
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Jan 25, 2019 2:14:17 GMT
I have entered "phase 2" of my return to stamp collecting, having spent many hours in recent months, sorting, soaking, and culling thousands of world wide stamps. As I do not collect WW, my goal is to sell off, and I'm not back in the hobby to make my next fortune, but rather back enjoying the way the stamps just take me away and the enjoyment I derive. therefrom
I have a 2017 Scott, and I'm aware CV is alot like MSRP...some wishfull thinking at best by the manufacturer...or a marketting method to make folks thinks what a great deal they'tre getting.
So, question 1, assuming no high value stamps , would "lots" of stamps by country be better than separating by year sets?
Question 2- separate mint from used?
photo's- I see some of the posts have absolutely stellar photo's- are these hi-res scans, or are you using a camera mount? (even something to make a cell phone parallel to the stamp to avoid trapezoid stamps...) I see this this as an asset to offering stamps to others.
I'm not looking to make offering stamps a second career. It's more in the line of I need to move the WW stamps elsewhere, make some room, and focus on US
not to mention United Nations (have many) , which i likely will not keep, both because the ground to make up is enormous to be current, I find many of the modern UN stamps to be about as interesting as I find modern US, and as I was told by a stamp dealer, a decent UNalbum has a higher cost than a collection is worth ... due to the fact that UN stamps aren't used to mail...sounded a BIT ODD, but I notice the later years I have are all mint, other than some FDC's.
anyway- I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this that cares to offer an opinion
Cheers
S
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firstfrog2013
Member
Posts: 3,276 
What I collect: BNA Liberia St Pierre U.S. Bolivia Turkey
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Post by firstfrog2013 on Jan 25, 2019 4:02:31 GMT
stainlessb as to question one either way makes some sense to me.If you have complete year sets that would probably be a pretty "hot" item but that would depend on how long you plan to hang on to them til a buyer shows up. Which leads to the other side.If you have large lots of country specific stamps they I think would move good. Question 2 There are many collectors that only collect used stamps so mingling them may be detrimental. "photos' seen here are (mostly) scans.There is nothing like a good scanner. They need not be expensive my $40 scanner is quite adequate as is my $25 USB microscope.Adjusting the resolution to 300 is satisfactory for most of my purposes.
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Jan 25, 2019 13:27:45 GMT
I agree with firstfrog2013! Year sets are great. If they are all mint or mint never hinged or used all the better. People want MNH (mint never hinged) over mint hinged. Used with a great cancel can add to the price. The larger the lot, the lower the price. So for more bang for the buck, year sets or nice individual sets will get you more than a full collection in an album. A scanner is a necessity. Camera's take OK photo's, but a scanner is much better. It can provide high resolution images of a flat object. Whereas a camera photo will be skewed somewhat. Just look at the various items scanned & photographed. They aren't hard to tell apart! |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2019 13:51:33 GMT
So, question 1, assuming no high value stamps , would "lots" of stamps by country be better than separating by year sets? Question 2- separate mint from used? Year sets, if complete are better for a collector and generally easier to sell but I would say they should be in mint conditionphoto's- I see some of the posts have absolutely stellar photo's- are these hi-res scans, or are you using a camera mount? (even something to make a cell phone parallel to the stamp to avoid trapezoid stamps...) I see this this as an asset to offering stamps to others. Sellers who have good images do far better than those who post blurry little images but if the stamps are modern that may not be as important - the description is important since the majority of sellers on eBay type places don't properly describe them and most don't seem to know what a mint stamp is. As for the quality of images - very important - it shows you are professional - again especially important for older more valuable stamps . A decent portable phone can make a very good image IF you have a stand to prevent distortion and blurring plus extra lighting. A dedicated $50 Canon LIDE scanner with the right software will produce great results. Most all-in-ones are not very good unless you think your fussy, pale, out of focus images are just fine.not to mention United Nations (have many) , which i likely will not keep, both because the ground to make up is enormous to be current, I find many of the modern UN stamps to be about as interesting as I find modern US, and as I was told by a stamp dealer, a decent UNalbum has a higher cost than a collection is worth ... due to the fact that UN stamps aren't used to mail...sounded a BIT ODD, but I notice the later years I have are all mint, other than some FDC's. I believe that after 9/11 UN stamps were no longer used for mail and are now basically "souvenirs". I believe dealers & collectors used to be able to buy large quantities at a discount from the UN building and mail them out from there but this was curtailed after 9/11 for security reasons. This really de-valuated existing collections - so unless you have older ones and some limited issues - keep them |
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,642
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Jan 25, 2019 14:22:26 GMT
Canon LIDE has been ordered! I had though about building a stand for the iPhone... but I think I just saved time and money ordering the scanner!
Year sets seems the consensus- now to see how many of those I can assemble!
Thanks everyone!
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Post by jimwentzell on Jan 25, 2019 15:03:09 GMT
I can confirm the lack of demand for United Nations stamps/collections. I was nearly begged (seriously!) by a collector-friend to take a complete UN/NY collection "off his hands" as he had absolutely no demand for that area. Even after listing online, so he said.
I am now the proud owner of a like-new Lighthouse Hingeless album (including slip-case) which includes the Scott #38 souvenir sheet, all in mint NH condition. The stamps run to about 2005, but do not include Geneva and Vienna issues. I paid, well, let's just say about or less than what the new Lighthouse album lists/retail for.
There are many reasons for the lack of demand; other than simple demographics (declining collectors) there are/were just way more collections and stocks of UN/NY issues years ago. Many collectors (like myself, in the early 1970's) were intrigued by their marketing beautiful issues and even using real stamps on their correspondence with collectors. A big depressant several years back was the UN's disallowing large mailers to use older UN issues on packages (such as auction house catalogues) brought in to be mailed from UN/NY post office. That action alone had to make buying ANY older UN issues at ANY price a non-starter!
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Post by jimwentzell on Jan 25, 2019 15:07:45 GMT
I am not sure if UN stamps from or before a certain date are demonetized entirely, but if the USA ever demonetized their postage stamps (last done in Civil War times) the market for mint US would also plummet. Liechtenstein, I think, at some point many years ago also demonetized previously valid forever their older stamps. These actions are not good for collectors seeking to sell their mint stamps or collection!!! Probably a start of an interesting thread.....
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Post by jimwentzell on Jan 25, 2019 15:17:26 GMT
Scanners are way better than iPhones (or any other phone). Especially for covers or larger (pages) of stamps; you get a true image not distorted by angular issues.... Guess which picture was taken by cell phone and which was scanned: (at 300dpi)
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nikhil
Member
Working on Australia, GDR, Japan
Posts: 552
What I collect: I collect WW. Looking for early issues.
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Post by nikhil on Jan 25, 2019 16:05:01 GMT
Yes. The difference is clearly visible.
When the image is taken from a phone the image is at an angle which can be seen on the 2nd pic.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2019 20:36:37 GMT
Scanners "can" beat out hand held phones 99.9% of the time. But I do a lot of research and so many scans I see (the majority) are just plain terrible - blurry and colorless without detail.
Scanners can scan many stamps at once - a good technique to get overall better color rendition since the scanner/application has to decipher many colors at the same time and get a better average. "Most" phones lack high end image processors and the users lack photographic techniques and supplementary equipment like a proper stand to prevent angled, fuzzy images. You should be able to take a decent image and magnify it without it looking worse whether you use a camera or scanner although a large number of stamps at once do challenge any camera/phone
So overall, for most, a scanner (esp. a dedicated one) is by far the best choice. If you have the equipment and technique, a photograph can bring out details a scanner cannot reproduce due to lacking depth of field.
These two were photographed in macro mode to bring out the paper texture and embossing but in reality, way too time consuming for general use.
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Post by billfromlachine on Jan 25, 2019 21:05:01 GMT
stainlessb,
I agree it makes more sense to separate out the mint stamps from the used.
As a matter of fact I tend to have more success buying lots at auction when it's a mish mash of mint and used stamps.
That way I cherry pick the stamps I want to keep and sell off either the mint or used surplus stamps to subsidize my keepers.
Also I'd break it down to fairly manageable sized lots since some people are missing only certain years of stamps from a given country.
Just my 2 cents for what it's worth.
Here's a mixed lot of mint and used stamps I won recently and it was quite a bit below my normal maximum bid amount.
Regards from Canada
Bill
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,642
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Jan 26, 2019 0:37:51 GMT
Scanners "can" beat out hand held phones 99.9% of the time. But I do a lot of research and so many scans I see (the majority) are just plain terrible - blurry and colorless without detail.
Scanners can scan many stamps at once - a good technique to get overall better color rendition since the scanner/application has to decipher many colors at the same time and get a better average. "Most" phones lack high end image processors and the users lack photographic techniques and supplementary equipment like a proper stand to prevent angled, fuzzy images. You should be able to take a decent image and magnify it without it looking worse whether you use a camera or scanner although a large number of stamps at once do challenge any camera/phone
So overall, for most, a scanner (esp. a dedicated one) is by far the best choice. If you have the equipment and technique, a photograph can bring out details a scanner cannot reproduce due to lacking depth of field.
These two were photographed in macro mode to bring out the paper texture and embossing but in reality, way too time consuming for general use.
These are spetacular photos!! I have a dissecting scope with T-mount, but I don't think the field is large enough (and a T-mount digital camera is $$$$... ) I used an old OM-1 |
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Post by jimwentzell on Jan 27, 2019 17:01:16 GMT
I agree; the detail above is better than I ever thought could be digitally reproduced! Which can only bode well for the future of detecting, educating and warning of forgeries, alterations, etc. Not to mention flyspecking and checking for variations in printing methods!
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,642
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Feb 2, 2019 2:38:12 GMT
The scanner arrived today and I brought home a 6' table to set up as a realistic (and useable) work area ( rather than atop, around my keyboard and any adjacent open space), rain is forecast all weekend...so a-stamping-we-will-go!
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