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#1
05-11-2009, 10:47 AM
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Bob- I don't know if the stamp market is so distressed (it probably is) or that the catalog is simply way off. We have the same issues in the baseball card hobby with printed prices that do not reflect the market.
If a stamp lists say for $800 but it can be bought on ebay for $125-150, perhaps that is the real value and the catalog is wacky. Could you imagine if Scott's decided to print next year's book to better reflect the true value of stamps, and proceeded to lop off 80% of the previous year's prices? It would likely cause the stamp market to collapse. Regarding plate blocks- all the ones from the 1940's up are worth a little more than face value, with the exception of some high value ones (a plate block of the $5 Hamilton would have some real punch). If he has some between 1900-30, there's a chance some are valuable. 
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#3
05-11-2009, 11:44 AM
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Actually the stamp market it extremely strong
As others have stated generic, average condition stamps are and have always sold for a fraction of Scott catalogue value, mint stamps bringing a percentage of face +/-.
However high grade and or rare stamps are extremely strong right now. Many of the recent auctions have set many records for individual stamps. Graded or certified stamps are the area of strongest interest to collectors of US stamps at this time. As an example a highest graded PSE 98 Jumbo used copy of Sc #8a that I was quite interested in recently sold at auction. The catalogue was $1,250 the estimate was $5,500, which was also the opening bid. The price realized was $20,000+ the juice. This is just one of many examples from that particular sale. There were many more from this auction and others this Spring. Scott Last edited by sb1; 05-11-2009 at 11:47 AM.
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#4
05-11-2009, 12:08 PM
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Scott is correct, but the number of stamps that fall into that gem category is extremely small. Nearly all stamps typically transacted have at minimum small flaws, and often are poorly centered with narrow margins. And these sell for a fraction of catalog.
Scott 8a is an early 1850's stamp and quite scarce. Of course if it is a gem PSE 98 it is going to sell for a huge premium. But maybe 1 in 10,000 examples would fall into that category. You are citing a high end extreme, and that area of any market is always in high demand. Please note each of my paragraphs begins with "Scott" but are entirely unrelated. Last edited by barrysloate; 05-11-2009 at 12:09 PM.
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#5
05-11-2009, 12:19 PM
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I can relate, I am sitting on 10s of thousands of dollars in face value stamps from the 60s-70s. I have thoughta about going through them but I just don't think it's worth the time as I have yet to hear from anyone that there is anything worth a thing. Most are 6,8 10 or 12 cents, but damn sheet after sheet adds up to a huge value fast.
I found some neat baseball and football sheets from 69 that are probably worth more as a sports collectible then as stamps. How I wish my grandmother collected cards or almost anything aside from stamps but that and coins were the in thing then.... James G
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#6
05-11-2009, 12:27 PM
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James- when I was growing up in the late 1950's and early 1960's the big thing was Proof Sets. Every year my dad would send away to the Mint for a bunch of them. We felt certain they were going to be really valuable one day.
If he only took the same amount of money and bought boxes of baseball card wax packs and put them away unopened. But nobody ever thought of doing that. And that's why they are so valuable today.
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#7
05-11-2009, 04:01 PM
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I think maybe the term face value was misused. Maybe he meant book value. If it was face value, then the collection is worth at least that much - I believe the post office will take it back and pay you at face value.
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