Catalog Prices - with Inflation and scarce material
One my pet peeves.. :-) I had a catalog producer email me this morning complaining about my pricing of non scott listed telegraph and Telephone stamps. a particular stamp in point he was probably wanting.. was priced at $17 in his catalog and he asked why I have it priced at $21. :-) it should be @ $45+ . He created the catalog about 5 years back . The prices in his catalog are insanely cheap as opposed to the material's numbers in existence. I mean does he really think all you have to do is create a catalog and then the prices are real? I am sure the reverse is true also? :-) You have to see the humor in the attempt. I also saw this happen with Mexico Revenues and the catalog a few created with bad pricing.. Even Scott copied their prices. :-) Once Scott gets involved it generally kills the price structure that is based on reality.
People are so accustomed to paying 10-30% of Scott prices to actually think this is the way things are. I feel better items in the Cinderella and WW Revenues could and should command 2-3x full catalog prices. Most all revenue catalogs are at best a guide of what exists out there.. but forget the prices posted. almost all are very very low and totally unrealistic as such.Including most all of the Barefoot & Hall catalogs including the Asia and Uk proper, British colonies catalogs. as far as the old Dustin and Forbin catalogs.. at least they have a good excuse being so old. Other than the Scott catalog on normal listed BOB and Revenues - most all (ALL?) Cinderella and Revenue catalogs are Low with maybe the exception of the Van Dam Canada Revenue catalog. (i rarely sell Canada revenues because of this because they are as common as most USA scott listed BOB revenue stamps)
The Series of USA Springer Catalogs on non Scott listed Material as a good example on collectors having enough sense to realize the value of material as compared to catalog pricing. some very inexpensive items there sell for 100X catalog prices and the few serious collectors will pay almost anything to get their hands on a few of the stamps :-) a good example of how demand and reality work out in time.
also if inflation hits harder we can expect the Better scarce Material to be priced at Catalog + prices even on the more used postal stamps in my opinion.
People are so accustomed to paying 10-30% of Scott prices to actually think this is the way things are. I feel better items in the Cinderella and WW Revenues could and should command 2-3x full catalog prices. Most all revenue catalogs are at best a guide of what exists out there.. but forget the prices posted. almost all are very very low and totally unrealistic as such.Including most all of the Barefoot & Hall catalogs including the Asia and Uk proper, British colonies catalogs. as far as the old Dustin and Forbin catalogs.. at least they have a good excuse being so old. Other than the Scott catalog on normal listed BOB and Revenues - most all (ALL?) Cinderella and Revenue catalogs are Low with maybe the exception of the Van Dam Canada Revenue catalog. (i rarely sell Canada revenues because of this because they are as common as most USA scott listed BOB revenue stamps)
The Series of USA Springer Catalogs on non Scott listed Material as a good example on collectors having enough sense to realize the value of material as compared to catalog pricing. some very inexpensive items there sell for 100X catalog prices and the few serious collectors will pay almost anything to get their hands on a few of the stamps :-) a good example of how demand and reality work out in time.
also if inflation hits harder we can expect the Better scarce Material to be priced at Catalog + prices even on the more used postal stamps in my opinion.
Comments
This is a new one to me. The Baltic Expo was an art, industry and handicraft exhibition held in Malmö in 1914, with exhibitors from Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Germany. The four swans representing the four participents is the same idea as the latter Norden Swans issue. I am listing it in my Store at a guesstimate of $5.00.. What is your read on it. Dan
I know the catalog and the author that you're referring to. I actually contributed much of my material to his book. I similarly thought that his values were on the low side.
Having written one or two catalogs myself, maybe I can provide some prospective.
So, once you're writing your catalog and have an organized listing of and you're showing perforation gauge, dimension size, image, date, and whatever else information that you want to include, you come to the "catalog value." On the one hand, if it's way too low, then the reader will think that that item is easily available. If it's too high, then the collector will think that they have a true rarity in their hands.
The trick is to find the mid-point, using 2021 dollars, to indicate a reasonable balance between how common or rare a certain item is, versus how many people on the planet even care about this item. I personally have many items that, as far as I am aware, are unique. But what is the "catalog value" of them, if no other copy is available for sale? Scott uses dashes, when they have no clue. Which basically makes the finished catalog nearly useless. Catalog numbers with dashes. Great.
Personally, I take into account the actual real-world value of a U.S. dollar, which, to be frank, is not much. For example, none of my catalogs have fractional dollar amounts in them. Items that I feel are worth considerably more than a minimum get a reasonable value, but these values are all subject to change, based on the enthusiasm of what a certain collector might pay.
For example, if I see something that I've never seen before and it is in my collecting interest, then I bid whatever my checking account might bear. And if I should win the item, then my following interest plummets to near zero if I should see another example. A written "value" in someone's catalog somewhere means nothing to me.
Just some thoughts.
Jim
No single company represents "the market," much less the participants in any one particular auction from a company. That is why catalogue values are necessary and relevant (to the extent that collectors understand their limitations). The catalogues (ostensibly) reflect the prices realized from many sales and many auctions, to derive a "market" value.
The old saw that a stamp is worth only as much as a collector is willing to pay for it is patently fallacious (don't go there, George LOL). Nobody is going to sell me a USA zeppelin for $10 just because that is all that it is worth to me. The seller knows it is worth more - much more. How? From the catalogue.
Why did dealers get so upset in 1989 and 1990 when Scott adjusted most of the valuations downward to better reflect retail values? Because customers still expected to buy at the same discount from catalogue value, even though these new lower catalogue values already reflected those discounts.
Whether one believes Scott values are ridiculously high or insanely low is beside the point. Over time, you have learned how to correlate Scott Catalogue values to retail prices, and make your purchasing decisions accordingly.
Not for a minute do I think that the catalogue naysayers believe their own words, vis a vis CVs, and by extension, the catalogues themselves, being meaningless or worthless. Why then do they even purchase newer editions. Again, I don't believe they are spending $600 a year so they can find out the Scott numbers for their little pile of recent Great Britains.
This all reminds me of a meme from many years before "meme" was part of the popular lexicon. To paraphrase, apropos philately, "Stamp catalogues are like Big Macs; a lot of people who won't admit it eat 'em up."
Catalogue value is a base for what an item might be worth and nothing more. It all depends what someone is willing to pay for an item and nothing more.
Back in the early days of Ebay I bought a size 10 Byrd Expedition cover off a stack of 50 identical covers from another dealer at a show - they had been held by a rubber band the cut halfway through each cover - I paid a buck for it.
It brought just under $200 on Ebay. I sent a congratulatory email/invoice. His response was along the lines of "Congratulations my axx it is from an undocumented coal stop on the southbound run and there are only two people in the whole world who care.".This was back when bidders were identified and a few weeks later the dealer that sold it to me put one of his remaining 49 covers on and it brought $10.
Price for scarce items represents a fleeting point in time.