Many collectors believe full time stamp dealers have the best of all worlds. They work and earn their living while being involved with stamps, their greatest love. While the truth is often a little different, as business people, stamp dealers have business concerns as well as philatelic enjoyment. But we in the trade are quite fortunate to be be able to thoroughly enjoy the product that we sell.
Collectors, too, can be stamp sellers. They do not have to open a shop. They do not have to take a table at a Bourse, or make up counter books, or any of the aspects of stamp dealing that they may not want to do. Indeed, not entailing expense is one of the leading advantages that collectors have going for them; when they enter part time stamp dealing they work in their stamp den, and their stamp work is their hobby, the profits from their sale helping to finance their hobby if they wish.
Right now, among the largest stamp sellers in the country are the thousands of collectors who market their stamps through American Philatelic Society sales circuits. The commission is 20%, and collectors mount, catalog, and price stamps that they wish to sell in specially prepared books that are purchased from the APS. Over 8,000 collectors participate. The Value of the books in circulation are over $8 million. Annual sales exceed $2 million. Advice is available from the Sales Circuit staff. Write to Gordon Wrenn, APS Central Office, Box 8000, State College, PA 16801. The key to successful selling through these circuit books is popular material (US & British Empire are favorites) and fair prices.
Many collectors use the sales circuit of the APS in conjunction with their active collecting. They know that by buying collections, lots, or groups of stamps (usually at auction), they can significantly lower the percentage of catalog value that they pay for the unit as a whole. This is because the group is larger, and little or no dealer labor is involved in the sale as no one but you must pick out, sort, advertise, and invoice the individual stamp that you want. If retailers are asking 50% of catalog for their wares, you can bet they are buying their stamps in lots at auction at below 25%. Retailers essentially are manufacturing their stock from this raw material, investing not only their capital but their labor. Many collectors today are buying these same types of lots that dealers buy and are removing what they need for their collection (at the same small fraction of catalog) selling the rest off at retail through circuit books. The only drawback for this is the 18 months that it takes from the time you first prepare an APS circuit book until it is returned to you with the unsold stamps and a check. But once you have established a roll of books going that their collecting habit cost them very little indeed.
Many collectors like the comradery and the give and take that surrounds bourse dealing. Mounting stock on counter pages is a good way to present your material at bourses, especially better items. But many would-be stamp dealers are finding that an effective, easy way to sell at bourses is to take an old collection that has been laying around and place it on your bourse counter with a set of Scott catalogs with a sign saying “All stamps 30% catalog” or “U.S. 50%, British 40$, Latin America 30%” or any way you wish to move on how you view the market. You will be surprised at the number of sales you will make.
Advertising in stamp magazines is expensive and unless you are well known, generally not lucrative. Many collectors are wary of ordering something like stamps by mail from an unknown unless the prices are low and if they are low, that itself triggers a new set of worries in prospective buyers. Unless you are advertising for ego purposes or to acquire a mailing list from respondents (and there are better ways to do this) a good rule of thumb is that you should have the inventory to sell, if you received the orders, for 10 times the cost of advertisement. So if your surplus Belgium has a selling price for $500.00 do not place a $100.00 ad.
Many collectors prefer not to be involved in circuit books and bourses and have a good deal of surplus material that they wish to sell in order to acquire material that they need. These collectors should spend time organizing their material prior to contacting a stamp dealer or auctioneer. Sorting by country and topic helps raise the price realized considerably. As most collectors collect this way and most dealers deal in only one or two areas, a large mixed group is usually sold to a dealer’s dealer who does the preliminary sorting work at a profit. This is work you should do yourself. Stamp dealers really sell more than just stamps. They sell their time. Any work that you can do that better arranges your collection is not only fun but will increase your final yield.
Try as we will to avoid it, every collection has duplicated and unwanted material. There are profitable ways of disposing of this material and while you do so you not only enjoy the fun of working with stamps but you free up funds for items you’ve always dreamed you would own.