05-06-2008, 02:37 PM
My wife and I went to an auction a few years ago, and there were several hundred lots of some guy's stamp collection. This was the type of auction where everything in the lot was "high bidder's choice". You would make a bid, and take as many lots as you wanted at that price. As the auction goes on, the price lowers (theoretically) every round.
Anyway, they had sheets of unused 32 and 33 cent stamps lotted together in several sheets. So, for example, one lot was 10 sheets of 32 cent stamps, the next could be 20 sheets of 33 cent stamps. When the bids got down to about $10, I realized nobody was buying any of the lots of unused stamps. Seems most people were interested in the old, used stamp books and other collectibles. So for the next bid, I bid $8 and my wife and I went through and bought dozens of lots of the unused stamps. We ended up with about $1,300 worth of unused postage stamps for about $200. I pulled out one each of the different sheets (yes, I collect stamps) and we've been using the rest as postage ever since. We've sent packages with a whole sheet of stamps on them (no complaints from the PO). We'll probably have these stamps for another 10 years or so.
Anyway, they had sheets of unused 32 and 33 cent stamps lotted together in several sheets. So, for example, one lot was 10 sheets of 32 cent stamps, the next could be 20 sheets of 33 cent stamps. When the bids got down to about $10, I realized nobody was buying any of the lots of unused stamps. Seems most people were interested in the old, used stamp books and other collectibles. So for the next bid, I bid $8 and my wife and I went through and bought dozens of lots of the unused stamps. We ended up with about $1,300 worth of unused postage stamps for about $200. I pulled out one each of the different sheets (yes, I collect stamps) and we've been using the rest as postage ever since. We've sent packages with a whole sheet of stamps on them (no complaints from the PO). We'll probably have these stamps for another 10 years or so.