Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
For me it is a little unimportant stamp from Switzerland. It had the perfin "Tobler". I don't collect perfins, and many years ago I included it in a batch of worldwide perfins that I sold. I have never forgotten about that stamp ever since.
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Michael - I have saved a lot of perfins over the years, but have done nothing with them either. I am not familiar with "Tobler" ! Why was this so impressionable to you??
And yes, I have sold items that later I discovered I should not have for one reason or another. Usually because I want one for my collection and don't have it and have to re-buy, and again, usually at more than I sold the other one for. Go figure!!!!!
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Ah Michael, I can appreciate the loss of the Tobler perfin!
Toblerone bars are very popular here and I look forward to seeing many more when I visit Switzerland shortly (and maybe eating one or two).
One reason I tried selling stamps on StampWants (which I did for a year or two) was to try and stop feeling too possessive about the stamps in my collection and I have to say it wasn't too painful at all.
However, there have been a few items I've sold over the years when I needed money that I have subsequently missed:
1. An almost complete collection of Russian Civil War issues (South Russia/North West Russia/Siberia etc.) - just mint and/or used and probably quite a few forgeries but still it took me a long time to assemble them.
2. A very nicely cancelled GB stamp used in the Crimean War.
3. Selection of the large British Consular postage stamps from Madagascar.
4. Austro-Hungarian and French Post Offices in Crete postal history items that I sent to auction.
But who knows, maybe I'll replace some of these some day! 
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My regret is probably with my stamp albums...i guess we all start off pretty unsophisticated and 40 years ago the Scott International albums were held in some regard...over the years many new options(to me) have been revealed...i met collectors who used plastic stock pages as their albums and could move stamps around at will..then of course the internet and printer scanners made printed pages available..thank goodness for cover albums for my covers !!
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I will always regret cutting off stamps from covers!
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"I will always regret cutting off stamps from covers! "
That's one thing I will never regret ! If I hadn't done so I would have been kicked out of the house years ago !!
I used to collect Egypt some years ago and included in the collection were the small number of British Forces in Egypt stamps. (but no covers)
I had a used copy of the classic Jubilee Commemoration issue but it wasn't good.
Then I stopped collecting Egypt and as with all other collections I no longer add to, I sold or exchanged them.
Last year I was given a very nice collection to dispose of. Included in the semi-classical collection were a bunch of Forces stamps and covers and I toyed with the idea of keeping them for myself...but in the end they were all sold !
Now I regret it. I had been after a nice mint copy of the Jubilee for years and never found one, and here was one superb MNH marginal and also one on cover !! And I sold them both along with all the others.
I am still crying.
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I have no philatelic regrets because I don't look back.
My favourite American baseball player, Satchel Paige,
summoned it up succinctly:
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
John Derry
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Mine is not a stamp, but a watermark tray. I thought I was done checking watermarks and donated my old black glass tray in a box of stuff for new collectors. A year later I needed to check a watermark and bought a new tray. There is nothing wrong with it, but that plastic tray just isn't the same somehow.
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When I was a little boy my grand dad started me collecting. He gave me loads of his extras, but passed away before really teaching me. Later I sorted them into bunches inscribed post, posta... poste.... and odd lettering. A 5th category showed up and I asked my mother what the inscription said. Grønland Pakke Porto it said meaning Greenland Parcel Post. Huge stamps in different colors showing a standing polar bear.
I thought about it for a while, then concluded: Parcel post is not for letters! And then I threw them all out 
Years later when I got hold of a stamp catalogue I saw them and instantly recognised them, been cursing myself ever since 
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My regrets are three country collections I traded away about 15 years ago when I decided to "downsize" my collection: DENMARK, LUXEMBOURG, and BERLIN. Had some nice higher values in there, too.
Here I am now rebuilding those three collections and thinking of "what might have been."
At least someone else is (hopefully) enjoying those stamps.
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I agree with Larsdog - there is no substitute for a black glass watermark tray. The plastic trays just don't do the definition like glass. I have had mine for 50 plus years and I would really be lost without it. I have both, but I am not sure I could even find where I put the plastic tray. I know exactly where the glass one is at. I use it almost every week. Sorry for your loss Lars
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07:04:56pm
I regret having to sell both my early USA postally used album and a slew of silver and gold coins I had accumulated when I was going to sea to cover an expansion loan I took out for my business just as the economy tanked in 1972-73. There were some pre-civil war issues including both a USA #1 and #2, Guam overprints and US airmails.
The only good side is that while other businesses in the area foundered, mine held on and actually expanded.
At stamp shows I have often felt very poorly looking at examples of stamps I once had and could no longer afford.
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Another regret that came to mind is a box load of worldwide stamps that I unloaded back in the early 60's to get some money to work on my car. I am not talking a shoe box, it was a double size bankers box and had probably 200,000 + stamps in it. I can remember some of the stamps and know they are worth a fortune today. I sold the whole lot for $20.
Stupid huh !!! Hey I was in my teens and did foolish things.
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Ah yes the old glass watermark trays. I use a 4"x4" piece of black granite for watermarking. I can set several examples of the stamps side by side and add a couple drops of Ronsonol to the whole lot. When the stamps are dry they slide right off. Most granite shops have scraps or samples laying around they would give you for free. Ask them for a piece of Absolute Black(the one pictured isn't) or polished slate.I have yet to knock my watermark slab off the table and break it.
I'd mail one to anybody who wants a piece but the postage would be costly
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I regret not knowing the scissor happy individual that molested this stamp. I believe its a GB Scott#69 CV$450.00 but now worth nothing. This stamp also has the best example of watermark #23 I have. Now its only a reference piece.
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12:03:20pm
" .... I regret not knowing the scissor happy individual that molested this stamp. ...."
Yes, I'd join the lynch party with you.
I have an early Tasmania stamp that exists perfed and imperfed, one quite expensive the other not so much.
Sissor Happy Sammy trimmed away the evidence.
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I regret not having enough stamps like that when I was a child so I could cut them up and eventually give you guys something to regret (I would lay odds many of those scissored stamps were trimmed by children). 
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03:15:56pm
Did you ever have a stamp that you sold, traded, otherwise got rid of that you wish you had back?
For me it is a little unimportant stamp from Switzerland. It had the perfin "Tobler". I don't collect perfins, and many years ago I included it in a batch of worldwide perfins that I sold. I have never forgotten about that stamp ever since.
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like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Philatelic Regret?
Michael - I have saved a lot of perfins over the years, but have done nothing with them either. I am not familiar with "Tobler" ! Why was this so impressionable to you??
And yes, I have sold items that later I discovered I should not have for one reason or another. Usually because I want one for my collection and don't have it and have to re-buy, and again, usually at more than I sold the other one for. Go figure!!!!!
Login to Like
this post
re: Philatelic Regret?
Ah Michael, I can appreciate the loss of the Tobler perfin!
Toblerone bars are very popular here and I look forward to seeing many more when I visit Switzerland shortly (and maybe eating one or two).
One reason I tried selling stamps on StampWants (which I did for a year or two) was to try and stop feeling too possessive about the stamps in my collection and I have to say it wasn't too painful at all.
However, there have been a few items I've sold over the years when I needed money that I have subsequently missed:
1. An almost complete collection of Russian Civil War issues (South Russia/North West Russia/Siberia etc.) - just mint and/or used and probably quite a few forgeries but still it took me a long time to assemble them.
2. A very nicely cancelled GB stamp used in the Crimean War.
3. Selection of the large British Consular postage stamps from Madagascar.
4. Austro-Hungarian and French Post Offices in Crete postal history items that I sent to auction.
But who knows, maybe I'll replace some of these some day!
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Auctions
re: Philatelic Regret?
My regret is probably with my stamp albums...i guess we all start off pretty unsophisticated and 40 years ago the Scott International albums were held in some regard...over the years many new options(to me) have been revealed...i met collectors who used plastic stock pages as their albums and could move stamps around at will..then of course the internet and printer scanners made printed pages available..thank goodness for cover albums for my covers !!
Login to Like
this post
re: Philatelic Regret?
I will always regret cutting off stamps from covers!
Login to Like
this post
re: Philatelic Regret?
"I will always regret cutting off stamps from covers! "
That's one thing I will never regret ! If I hadn't done so I would have been kicked out of the house years ago !!
I used to collect Egypt some years ago and included in the collection were the small number of British Forces in Egypt stamps. (but no covers)
I had a used copy of the classic Jubilee Commemoration issue but it wasn't good.
Then I stopped collecting Egypt and as with all other collections I no longer add to, I sold or exchanged them.
Last year I was given a very nice collection to dispose of. Included in the semi-classical collection were a bunch of Forces stamps and covers and I toyed with the idea of keeping them for myself...but in the end they were all sold !
Now I regret it. I had been after a nice mint copy of the Jubilee for years and never found one, and here was one superb MNH marginal and also one on cover !! And I sold them both along with all the others.
I am still crying.
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The past is a foreign country, they do things different there.
11 Aug 2013
03:39:13pm
re: Philatelic Regret?
I have no philatelic regrets because I don't look back.
My favourite American baseball player, Satchel Paige,
summoned it up succinctly:
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
John Derry
Login to Like
this post
re: Philatelic Regret?
Mine is not a stamp, but a watermark tray. I thought I was done checking watermarks and donated my old black glass tray in a box of stuff for new collectors. A year later I needed to check a watermark and bought a new tray. There is nothing wrong with it, but that plastic tray just isn't the same somehow.
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re: Philatelic Regret?
When I was a little boy my grand dad started me collecting. He gave me loads of his extras, but passed away before really teaching me. Later I sorted them into bunches inscribed post, posta... poste.... and odd lettering. A 5th category showed up and I asked my mother what the inscription said. Grønland Pakke Porto it said meaning Greenland Parcel Post. Huge stamps in different colors showing a standing polar bear.
I thought about it for a while, then concluded: Parcel post is not for letters! And then I threw them all out
Years later when I got hold of a stamp catalogue I saw them and instantly recognised them, been cursing myself ever since
Login to Like
this post
re: Philatelic Regret?
My regrets are three country collections I traded away about 15 years ago when I decided to "downsize" my collection: DENMARK, LUXEMBOURG, and BERLIN. Had some nice higher values in there, too.
Here I am now rebuilding those three collections and thinking of "what might have been."
At least someone else is (hopefully) enjoying those stamps.
Login to Like
this post
re: Philatelic Regret?
I agree with Larsdog - there is no substitute for a black glass watermark tray. The plastic trays just don't do the definition like glass. I have had mine for 50 plus years and I would really be lost without it. I have both, but I am not sure I could even find where I put the plastic tray. I know exactly where the glass one is at. I use it almost every week. Sorry for your loss Lars
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
14 Aug 2013
07:04:56pm
re: Philatelic Regret?
I regret having to sell both my early USA postally used album and a slew of silver and gold coins I had accumulated when I was going to sea to cover an expansion loan I took out for my business just as the economy tanked in 1972-73. There were some pre-civil war issues including both a USA #1 and #2, Guam overprints and US airmails.
The only good side is that while other businesses in the area foundered, mine held on and actually expanded.
At stamp shows I have often felt very poorly looking at examples of stamps I once had and could no longer afford.
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likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Philatelic Regret?
Another regret that came to mind is a box load of worldwide stamps that I unloaded back in the early 60's to get some money to work on my car. I am not talking a shoe box, it was a double size bankers box and had probably 200,000 + stamps in it. I can remember some of the stamps and know they are worth a fortune today. I sold the whole lot for $20.
Stupid huh !!! Hey I was in my teens and did foolish things.
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Philatelic Regret?
Ah yes the old glass watermark trays. I use a 4"x4" piece of black granite for watermarking. I can set several examples of the stamps side by side and add a couple drops of Ronsonol to the whole lot. When the stamps are dry they slide right off. Most granite shops have scraps or samples laying around they would give you for free. Ask them for a piece of Absolute Black(the one pictured isn't) or polished slate.I have yet to knock my watermark slab off the table and break it.
I'd mail one to anybody who wants a piece but the postage would be costly
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To error is human -to really fowl things up takes a computer
16 Aug 2013
08:20:15pm
re: Philatelic Regret?
I regret not knowing the scissor happy individual that molested this stamp. I believe its a GB Scott#69 CV$450.00 but now worth nothing. This stamp also has the best example of watermark #23 I have. Now its only a reference piece.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
17 Aug 2013
12:03:20pm
re: Philatelic Regret?
" .... I regret not knowing the scissor happy individual that molested this stamp. ...."
Yes, I'd join the lynch party with you.
I have an early Tasmania stamp that exists perfed and imperfed, one quite expensive the other not so much.
Sissor Happy Sammy trimmed away the evidence.
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re: Philatelic Regret?
I regret not having enough stamps like that when I was a child so I could cut them up and eventually give you guys something to regret (I would lay odds many of those scissored stamps were trimmed by children).
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