Michael5000 Exploits Certain Inefficiencies in the Secondary Philatelic Market

Although I haven’t been a stamp collector since junior high, I’m obviously something of a stamp enthusiast. I have long carefully bought the stamps that would be the most fun to send and, hopefully, to receive, and for the past several years, I’ve ordered my stamps in bulk from the USPS philatelic catalog. This always gives me a nice variety of current stamps.

But then there was the whole deal a few months back with my state stamps, when I discovered that they could be sold on Ebay for, at best, face value. After that, the phrase “at best” floated around in my head for a couple of weeks, bouncing off other phrases and concepts, until suddenly it occurred to me that I might be able to extend my stamp palette. I might be able to move beyond merely using a variety of current stamps to using a variety of vintage stamps, without paying any particular premium. Cool idea! But would it work?

Turns out, it works weirdly well. Perhaps a little too well. I marched onto Ebay, made a couple dozen lowball bids on a variety of out-of-date unused stamps, as a matter of experiment – and started winning auctions right and left. And lest there be any confusion, I am not saying that I bought vintage stamps at less than their book value, the more or less meaningless value assigned by stamp catalogs. No. I bought vintage stamps at less than FACE value. Often at less than 80% of face value. For instance, I bought sheets of 29 cent stamps (the current postcard rate) that were printed in the early nineties, when 29 cents was the first class rate, for considerably less than 29 cents per stamp.

Now there is a certain melancholy backstory to all this. This kind of buyer’s market almost certainly represents the decline of the fine hobby of stamp collecting.  It is very likely is the product of a great many strapped stamp collectors trying to liquidate their collections in an absence of buyers that have caught on to the fire sale. And certainly I’m not doing the great but beleaguered Postal Service any favors by cashing in the chips that they passed out during the Eisenhower administration.

On the other hand, I’m doing my little bit to shore up the weirdly diminished value of older stamps. And, more to the point, I’m having a ton of fun picking and choosing stamps, and with luck my more discerning pals will enjoy my quixotic stamp choices. And really, just owning this mess o’ serviceable paper ephemera is kind of a treat.