Where to buy from

[jon1984]

Hi everyone.

I inherited the stamp collection that my dad started when I was born and we that we added to later on together.

My dad used to pick up stamps from fairs and such.

I have since decided to carry on the collection but apart from picking up the odd few stamps at car boots and charity shops, I have not got a clue where to look.

I have noticed that there seems to be a lot on ebay but have no idea whether or not to trust these.

Does anyone have any advice they could offer at all?

Many thanks.

[Butterfly]

I have never had a problem with ebay, other than others outbidding me.
Ebay auctions often start at a really nice low price. Bid low for a while and let others outbid you fairly often and before long you will get the hang of it.
My only suggestion for ebay is to look carefully at the images for faults and look for any extra info added for that lot.
Choosing a buy site will depend a lot on your interests. Single stamps? collections? small lots of 20 or so? special topics? You will find other threads here also on where to buy.

[reichscollector]

If you start to get into a certain country/topic/era/etc it would help to get a catalogue. You can even buy pages of certain countries you are interested instead of a whole catalog you may not need. This will give you a general idea on what is a fair price.

I have bought from stampwants, delcampe, other nations ebay site, I have found sellers from Linns Stamp News and the American Philatelic Society magazine. I recently went to my first stamp show Texpex in Grapevine. I had the chance to meet some nice dealers and I picked up waaaayyyy too much material. Even members on stampbears have their own personal sites which are worth looking at.

Hopefully this was some help. Best Regards, Isaac

[Phil]

Ebay, for me, is by far the easiest way to acquire stamps. Now that said, since I have started buying on Ebay I have received my share of disappointments.
For the most part I have been pleased now, so I don't want to scare you. The disappointments have been few, but there nevertheless. My advice is to read the descriptions CAREFULLY! And above all, do not get caught up in the heat of the moment and think you HAVE TO HAVE THAT!
I promise you, another auction will come with what you want.
I think my biggest mistake came after I had narrowly missed (or so it seems) several auctions and was determined I was going to win the next one. Well, I won it. Paid $80 for a bunch of junk!

[Deleted]

For eBay I always set a firm ceiling in my mind for what I will bid. For sets and individual stamps I check the prices for eBay sellers offering the same items on Buy Now terms - it amazes me that bids often go quite a bit higher than the prices people could get the same stamps for in a fixed price eBay sale. The view I take is that more stamps will come along, so why pay over the odds?

[Craig]

When I was actively buying collections and big lots, I primarily stuck with eBay and Vance Auctions. Haven't been disappointed in the least. For filling holes, Stamps2Go does the trick for me.

[SWH]

A far as online buying is concerned I have been quite happy with ebay - as long as you are indeed very careful in reading the descriptions.

Aside from where to buy it is also important to decide what to by. Kiloware to accumulate as many stamps as possible at the lowest cost per stamp - but with many duplicates. Collections/albums/big lots - higher cost per stamp but much less duplicates? Targeted stamps - no duplicates but you'll be paying the price.

And to know what to buy you may want to decide first what you want to collect and where you stand with your current collection. I for example collect worldwide and started out buying collections. As my collection matured I moved to buying targeted stamps to fill the gaps.

[kacyds]

Normally I will purchase lots/collections/albums/hoards etc from ebay. I set a limit on what I think its worth and normally will wait to the very last minute to bid. I have won some and lost a lot of auctions this way. But the way I look at it, if you lose one there are many more auctions out there to bid on. 

If I need a certain stamp to fill in a hole in my collection, I normally will buy it directly from www.stamps2go.com/. Have bought many stamps from that site since 2008 and never had a problem.

Getting back to buying collections on eBay or other auction sites. If you don't mind selling on those sites then I would highly recommend buying bigger collections/lots and sell what you don't want or need.

A few years ago, I was looking to purchase the 3 US Graf Zeppelins (Scott# C13-C15). Not wanting to pay what most sellers wanted, I waited to spot a collection that included the 3 Zeppelins. I saw one come up, and waited to the last minuted and bidded. I won the collection of all mint US stamps that included most of the early airmail stamps with others. I paid $625 for the collection. Now, Im sure you rolling your eyes and wondered why the heck I would pay that much for a bunch of stamps. 

But here is the rest of the story.... 

I kept just the 3 Zeppelins and listed the rest of the stamps, individually on eBay. I sold off the rest of the collection for a little over $1000. After paying my eBay fees, postage and the original $625 for the lot, I got my 3 Zeppelins for free and still had a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket.

I have bought many collections like that one, kept what I wanted and still made money above what I originally paid for the collection.  3920004554

So what I am trying to say, Buy Collections/lots/albums/hoards etc and turnover what you dont want to make more money to buy more lots.....