Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Thanks.
Adam
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Equatorial Guinea stamps from this (Macias Nguema) era are not listed on Scott. Also Stanley Gibbons and Yvert list very few stamps as most of them saw zero to very little genuine usage.
Michel on the other hand gives a pretty decent simplified listing of these. Yours is Michel #1370-1385, catalog value for the whole thing is 90c, real world value is what somebody's willing to pay (these are pretty common and easily had).
-k-
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Keijo,
Thanks for the information. From what I could tell, the prices on ebay and other sites was in the $2-$3 range. I guess this illustrates the limitations of Scott catalogs.
Out of curiosity, do you have a full set on Michel catalogs?
Regards,
Adam
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Perhaps slightly unfair to Scott (and its British and French equivalent). These stamps (and many others) do not see the light of day in the countries whose names they bear, nor are they used for postage, unless by collectors willing to travel. They are better thought of as stamp-like labels, produced in vast numbers for the less discriminating topical collector, and catalogues would soon become unwieldy if they included them all.
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Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like there is zero demand for these, yet how is it that there are so many of these offered on auction sites like ebay? If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?
Regards,
Adam
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"If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?"
Ah! The very core of eBay!
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"If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?"
There are some people who do collect them.
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"If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?"
"Ah! The very core of eBay!"
Sadly reflected even more broadly in trying to buy stamps from the great (philatelic) unwashed/scammers personally, at flea markets, in "antique stores" or on local selling sites such as Kijiji. People will offer to sell ANYTHING they think someone/suckers will buy at ANY price they think someone/suckers will pay. And if they wait long enough SOMETIMES it happens! (Leading to rinse & repeat behavior on their part and mimicking behavior on the part of observers).
How many frustrating times (it's closing in on a dozen for me already) have you looked at collections for sale (usually inherited from "Uncle Wilbur") where people are asking a laughable amount based on what they saw similar stuff listed for - as opposed to sold for?
I think we should start a separate thread to post the most ridiculous listings we have found...
Dave.
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Hi Adam;
If you like them, then collect them, and ignore the naysayers. If you find some of these just add a blank page to your album and mount them.
Topical collectors are not purists like SOME of us. They just buy and collect what they like, and what appeals to them.
I once sold a set of 8 Austrian stamps to a man in Belgium. He did not collect stamps at all, but was a huge fan of operas, and he idolized the composer Verdi, who scored the music for an opera depicted on one of the 8 stamps I sold him.
But my very first sale on eBay (2007) was to a man in Finland. He was not a stamp collector, but collected anything to do with tobacco or pipes. He bought an 8 stamp set of stamps about agriculture. One stamp pictured a tobacco plantation. He probably threw the other 7 stamps away.
This sort of sales is only possible with internet keyword searches. So that non-collectors can find things like tobacco, trains or operas, even if they are just stamps.
Just stayin' dry....
TuskenRaider
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That is a very elegant grasshopper! 
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All the way from Malawi ! I was doing mushrooms..but they fill up a stockbook too quickly, i still pick up giraffes,elephants ,penquins and insects as they come along !
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"All the way from Malawi ! I was doing mushrooms.."
Whoa! Doesn't that belong in the "stamping with a buzz on" thread??
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Adam, for the record, I have a stock book with a good number of Equatorial Guinea stamps in it. I have sold a few stamps from Equatorial Guinea in the approvals books. Also, if you recall, every now and then I post a "Want to Buy" classified for Minkus pages for Equatorial Guinea.
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@Adam...
"Out of curiosity, do you have a full set on Michel catalogs?"
Yep - I've got a full set of regular Michel catalogs (different editions/years, but still complete coverage of the world).
But in addition of those Michel has got about 50+ special, thematic etc. catalogs. And I'm lacking most of those.
@Guthrum
"These stamps (and many others) do not see the light of day in the countries whose names they bear, nor are they used for postage, unless by collectors willing to travel. They are better thought of as stamp-like labels, produced in vast numbers for the less discriminating topical collector, and catalogues would soon become unwieldy if they included them all."
I slightly disagree with this. I admit that postally used Equatorial Guinea is pretty scarce, somewhere along the lines of postally used Ajman etc, - but it does exist. Just looking into my collection, the ratio of CTO vs. postally used is about 1000:1 (and when adding up duplicates etc. true ratio is likely closer to 5000:1). As far as I know, there are at least three postal historians/cover collectors fighting on any genuinely used stuff that comes out (and the prices can go pretty wild).
There are some bogus issues in late 1970s, but they are a totally different topic. And on wider scale, just about most developing countries have got to deal with various 'illegals'.
I admit these are mostly topical 'wallpaper' without true postal needs - but the same can be said for most of the modern issues. Do French really need 200+ different stamps per year? Or the Americans
100 stamps year? All those stamps could be easily replaced either with labels or well aimed set of definitives (that was used for a decade or two).
-k-
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Keijo, I take your point - indeed even as I was writing my comment I was asking myself about the general trend of over-production among major stamp-issuing countries.
Of course there is markedly less postal use of stamps anywhere these days, and that trend will continue, possibly until all stamps are produced merely as nation-based collectibles, with little or no relevance to how that nation wishes to advertise itself to its own people, or to other nations.
This is doubtless why many who write to this board collect no stamps produced after a given date, generally preceding the use of electronic mail, social media, etc., for business or leisure communication.
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Where can I find this in Scott? I have found info. online that it is from 1978, but I don't see it listed.
Thanks.
Adam
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re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
Equatorial Guinea stamps from this (Macias Nguema) era are not listed on Scott. Also Stanley Gibbons and Yvert list very few stamps as most of them saw zero to very little genuine usage.
Michel on the other hand gives a pretty decent simplified listing of these. Yours is Michel #1370-1385, catalog value for the whole thing is 90c, real world value is what somebody's willing to pay (these are pretty common and easily had).
-k-
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
Keijo,
Thanks for the information. From what I could tell, the prices on ebay and other sites was in the $2-$3 range. I guess this illustrates the limitations of Scott catalogs.
Out of curiosity, do you have a full set on Michel catalogs?
Regards,
Adam
Login to Like
this post
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
Perhaps slightly unfair to Scott (and its British and French equivalent). These stamps (and many others) do not see the light of day in the countries whose names they bear, nor are they used for postage, unless by collectors willing to travel. They are better thought of as stamp-like labels, produced in vast numbers for the less discriminating topical collector, and catalogues would soon become unwieldy if they included them all.
2 Members
like this post.
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re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like there is zero demand for these, yet how is it that there are so many of these offered on auction sites like ebay? If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?
Regards,
Adam
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this post
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
"If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?"
Ah! The very core of eBay!
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11:40:54am
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
"If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?"
There are some people who do collect them.
Login to Like
this post
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
"If no one buys them then why do people bother to list them for sale?"
"Ah! The very core of eBay!"
Sadly reflected even more broadly in trying to buy stamps from the great (philatelic) unwashed/scammers personally, at flea markets, in "antique stores" or on local selling sites such as Kijiji. People will offer to sell ANYTHING they think someone/suckers will buy at ANY price they think someone/suckers will pay. And if they wait long enough SOMETIMES it happens! (Leading to rinse & repeat behavior on their part and mimicking behavior on the part of observers).
How many frustrating times (it's closing in on a dozen for me already) have you looked at collections for sale (usually inherited from "Uncle Wilbur") where people are asking a laughable amount based on what they saw similar stuff listed for - as opposed to sold for?
I think we should start a separate thread to post the most ridiculous listings we have found...
Dave.
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
Hi Adam;
If you like them, then collect them, and ignore the naysayers. If you find some of these just add a blank page to your album and mount them.
Topical collectors are not purists like SOME of us. They just buy and collect what they like, and what appeals to them.
I once sold a set of 8 Austrian stamps to a man in Belgium. He did not collect stamps at all, but was a huge fan of operas, and he idolized the composer Verdi, who scored the music for an opera depicted on one of the 8 stamps I sold him.
But my very first sale on eBay (2007) was to a man in Finland. He was not a stamp collector, but collected anything to do with tobacco or pipes. He bought an 8 stamp set of stamps about agriculture. One stamp pictured a tobacco plantation. He probably threw the other 7 stamps away.
This sort of sales is only possible with internet keyword searches. So that non-collectors can find things like tobacco, trains or operas, even if they are just stamps.
Just stayin' dry....
TuskenRaider
1 Member
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re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
That is a very elegant grasshopper!
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Auctions
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
All the way from Malawi ! I was doing mushrooms..but they fill up a stockbook too quickly, i still pick up giraffes,elephants ,penquins and insects as they come along !
Login to Like
this post
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
"All the way from Malawi ! I was doing mushrooms.."
Whoa! Doesn't that belong in the "stamping with a buzz on" thread??
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10:08:16pm
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
Adam, for the record, I have a stock book with a good number of Equatorial Guinea stamps in it. I have sold a few stamps from Equatorial Guinea in the approvals books. Also, if you recall, every now and then I post a "Want to Buy" classified for Minkus pages for Equatorial Guinea.
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
@Adam...
"Out of curiosity, do you have a full set on Michel catalogs?"
Yep - I've got a full set of regular Michel catalogs (different editions/years, but still complete coverage of the world).
But in addition of those Michel has got about 50+ special, thematic etc. catalogs. And I'm lacking most of those.
@Guthrum
"These stamps (and many others) do not see the light of day in the countries whose names they bear, nor are they used for postage, unless by collectors willing to travel. They are better thought of as stamp-like labels, produced in vast numbers for the less discriminating topical collector, and catalogues would soon become unwieldy if they included them all."
I slightly disagree with this. I admit that postally used Equatorial Guinea is pretty scarce, somewhere along the lines of postally used Ajman etc, - but it does exist. Just looking into my collection, the ratio of CTO vs. postally used is about 1000:1 (and when adding up duplicates etc. true ratio is likely closer to 5000:1). As far as I know, there are at least three postal historians/cover collectors fighting on any genuinely used stuff that comes out (and the prices can go pretty wild).
There are some bogus issues in late 1970s, but they are a totally different topic. And on wider scale, just about most developing countries have got to deal with various 'illegals'.
I admit these are mostly topical 'wallpaper' without true postal needs - but the same can be said for most of the modern issues. Do French really need 200+ different stamps per year? Or the Americans
100 stamps year? All those stamps could be easily replaced either with labels or well aimed set of definitives (that was used for a decade or two).
-k-
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Equatorial Guinea Sheetlet (Insectos)
Keijo, I take your point - indeed even as I was writing my comment I was asking myself about the general trend of over-production among major stamp-issuing countries.
Of course there is markedly less postal use of stamps anywhere these days, and that trend will continue, possibly until all stamps are produced merely as nation-based collectibles, with little or no relevance to how that nation wishes to advertise itself to its own people, or to other nations.
This is doubtless why many who write to this board collect no stamps produced after a given date, generally preceding the use of electronic mail, social media, etc., for business or leisure communication.
Login to Like
this post