To Buy Or Not To Buy

If you read the comments left for the last post, you will see that collectors are starting to get wise to the Royal Mails new issues marketing strategy. If you ask me it is not before time, wising up can save them a lot of money in the long run.

Collectors of blocks / strips are their own worst enemies. It is they themselves who decide to collect these formats in the first instance. I can own up as to being one of the guilty parties. But no more, my new issue collecting days are over except for a few carefully chosen items.

Do you remember the gutter pair fiasco? These (pairs) were paraded as gold dust by dealers and many collectors went out of their way to acquire them. In later years when they wished to part with them they find that dealers are not interested in them at all and are offering less than face value to take them off our hands. The same can be said for early commemorative cylinder blocks / traffic light blocks etc.

The longer you are in this game of cat and mouse the more you learn. Basic values, no matter what the format are worth basically what you pay for them.

Clever marketing by certain dealers advertise WANTED presentation packs blah blah. A ploy? Do these dealers have stocks of these piled so high that they want to make us think they are rarer than they are? Just reply to one of these advertisements and say that you have 20 or so to dispose of. See the results!

Above are just a couple of questions to ponder over. So before you go out and spend a fortune that you can not afford on new issues, have a think. By all means do continue to buy mint stamps, if this is your wish, but like Larry and Robert say, choose what you are buying because you want them, not because its what the dealers and Royal Mail are telling you you need.

Replies are welcome.

....Roy