There are a number of options the
collector has in both buying and selling covers, more than ever
with the advent of the Internet:
BUYING
- In the vast majority of situations, you're going to receive
exactly what you thought you bought, but you should always be
guided by the adage "Let the buyer beware." Unlike
some collectible hobbies, there is little problem here with fakes.
What you need to watch for are:
- Used and damaged covers being passed
to you when you were expecting the opposite.
- Flats - These are salesmen's samples;
they have not been creased and stapled and are not considered
collectible.
Aside from individual collectors
and non-collectors, flea markets, yard sales, and paper shows,
auctions offer the largest and biggest variety of covers being
offered. Ebay on the internet has
rapidly become the glitziest and most talked about auction, but
my own advice is to stay within the hobby auctions. On Ebay,
although there are lots of collectors selling there, there are
also lots of non-collectors hoping to make a killing on the junk
they just found in Aunt Edna's shoe closet. Many have no idea
of what they're selling and have no idea of the standards that
collectors expect. Also, the competition is often steep. If you're
not looking for true rarities, use the hobby's auctions and known
collectors. You'll be more than satisfied. The hobby offers a wide and steady array of
'sanctioned' auctions--club bulletin auctions, convention and
swapfest auctions, and hobby auctions on the internet. You can
check my own auction out as an example of the latter.
Prices are not set in this hobby. What sells for $10 today can just as easily
sell for $5 tomorrow and have no takers at all the day after
that.. It always depends on who happens to be interested at the
time. There are some general guidelines that you may find, but
they're just that...general. Current ball park figures
just to give you some idea:
- Average, run-of-the-mill covers
(and this is the vast majority of material) go for .04 -.10 cents
per cover, unless purchased in large, bulk lots.
- Prices will be higher, of course,
for the more sought-after types. To get an idea of which types
these are, look at the Treasure page.
- If you're serious about collecting,
your best bet, by far, is to get into the hobby--join clubs, make contacts,
go to meetings, swapfests, and conventions, if possible, and
trade. I've always found that most covers I want eventually come
to me through steady trading by mail. And, in the process, you
become much more knowledgeable about your hobby.
-
- DONATING: Before we go on to SELLING, please read the
Treasure
page to see why you're not going to become independently wealthy
by selling the covers you have. It may well be that the few dollars
you may get simply doesn't justify your time and effort in trying
to sell them. In that case, please consider simply donating them
to either a local collector or a collector who will reimburse
you postage, such as myself. They'll have a good home, and they'll be appreciated
and taken care of...and, when that collector passes on, they'll
go to another good home...because they stay within the hobby.
SELLING
- Basically, you reverse the approaches outlined above. Always
be specific about the numbers, conditions, and age of the material
you are selling. Buyers will also want to know which types you
have. It's not necessary to do a cover-by-cover inventory.
Your selling options include:
- Ebay,
but I'd prefer to see you sell within the hobby. Ebay is time
consuming, and they're going to take a healthy slice of whatever
you sell your material for.
- Directly contacting a collector
who buys collections and accumulations
in their entirety:
- -Loren Moore, POB 1181, Roseville,
CA 95678 (loren@bgsplanco.com)
- -Dan Bitter, 1800 Yosemite Place,
Edmond, OK 73003-4655 (auc4sdmc@aol.com)
- -Greg Lund, 7000 Rainswood Ct.,
Bethesda, MD 20817-2231 (Greglund@aol.com)
- -Bob Hiller, 2501 W Sunflower Ave,
#H-5, Santa Ana, CA 92704-7532
-Calvin Meider, 441 Lake St., Excelsior, MN 55331
- -Chester Crill, 1533 E. Woodbury
Rd., Pasadena, CA 91104
- -Clem Pater, 315 S. Front St., Hamilton,
OH 45011 (Patermatch@hotmail.com)
- -Mike Samuels, 2713 Woodley Pl.,
NW, Washington, DC 20008-1518 (Mksamuels@aol.com)
- -James Benes, 67 Bayberry Dr., Somerset,
NJ 08873 (JamesBenes@aol.com)
-John Williams, 910 Howard Ln., Vandalia, OH 45377-1866 (matchjsw@gemair.com)
-Ed Brassard, 101 Kristiana Way Belfair, Wash, 98528 360-275-4140
(match@tscnet.com)
-[For Labels only] John Nicholson, 7A Sycamore Place, Mount Pearl,
Newfoundland, CAN A1N 1P4
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- Consigning your covers to a club
to have them auctioned off piecemeal
in lots, normally through their bulletin auctions. In my opinion,
Sierra-Diablo
Matchcover Club has the best bulletin
auction, but many of the other clubs
have similar outlets. Any such club will
charge a percentage of the sale price, but you get higher prices
than the above option and the club does all the work. Downside
is that it takes time; usually, what you have is broken down
into individual lots and sold piecemeal through the club's bulletin
auction...and that bulletin doesn't go out every month.
- Contacting local collectors in
your area to see if they might
be interested in what you have. This is the easiest, quickest
way. Send me an e-mail giving me the nearest large city to you.
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