Towards the Future: Revitalizing my Old Postage Stamp Business!

I have long found that the spring is a good time to evaluate and either take on new projects, or find new and revitalized ways to get old projects jump started again.

Collectible older stamps from Denmark

One of the things I've mentioned from time to time is that one of the ways I (try to, anyway!) make a living is by being an online seller of old postage stamps for stamp collectors.

It's actually something I have been doing "formally" since 1988... the business has been somewhat in decline since the rise of email led to a sharp decline in the the number of snail mail letters people send. Still, the interest in stamps from long before the modern era remains pretty good, although there are fewer collectors worldwide than there used to be.

Anyway, as I was organizing my home office a bit yesterday and today, I realized that I still have quite a substantial stock of old stamps from way back when.

The way I usually buy "inventory" is to buy big lots and boxes from estate sales where someone who was a stamp collector many years ago died, and now all their things are being sold. People who organize estate sales generally know that stamp collections have "some value" but are seldom expert enough to actually go through a sizeable collection, so typically a person's entire holdings are offered up intact.

When I get the boxes home, I tend to go through it rather quickly and skim off the "high value" items for immediate sale, usually on eBay. That typically allows me to recoup the original expense of purchasing everything, and maybe gives me a modest profit.

Then I have an "unfortunate" tendency to stick "all the rest" into the closet to deal with... "later." Alas, I of often far too busy with other things to ever get to "later," so these boxes just tend to build up over the years!

Anyway, my recent organization made me realize that I still have a lot of stamps I could sell if I just took a little more time and effort to sift through it all... and there's lots of good saleable stuff there, it just takes a little more work to get it to market.

So I've decided that's one of the things I need to get on with, during the next few years.

I debated whether it would really be worthwhile, but I'm pretty sure there are still many thousands of dollars there... and that could go a long way towards rebuilding some of the investments we have recently had to sell in order to pay our back property taxes.

It's going to take some patience, but I'd say I'm ready for the task!

Thanks for reading, and hope you are having a great Friday!

How about YOU? Have you ever had a collection of some sort that also was quite valuable? Did you ever consider turning it into a business? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20220325 00:45 PDT
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