The price of the collection just kept going up.
It started at $15, the dollar amount Dan Day was looking for a book of select late 19th-century stamps that had various cancellations and stamped dates. Then the price went to $20 and $25. Before long, auctioneer Ron Emery could hardly keep up with the two gentlemen who sought after the small piece of Day’s massive collection that he was ready to move on from.
As the price crept up in $5 increments, Day sat back and enjoyed the show. When the dust settled, the price tag had more than tripled and Day had a cool $55 to put in his pocket.
“Everybody brings in what they want to get rid of and prices it to what they want to get out of it,” said Day, the club’s president. “It helps to disperse of things people aren’t interested in anymore.”
That’s just how it goes sometimes when the Merrimack County Stamp Collectors get together for its every other month auction. Some stamp collections, groupings or individual squares are sought after. Others don’t get a single bid.
“It all depends on what people are interested in,” Day said. “Sometimes it gets interesting.”
You know what they say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
It all depends on what stamp enthusiasts show up for that meeting, what they put up for auction and if they pay the steep membership fee of $1 for that month.
The auctions begin at 1:30 p.m. sharp and last for about an hour to an hour and a half. But you’ll want to get there around 1 if you have anything you want to auction off or to take a look at what’s up for grabs that month. You don’t want to miss out on that one stamp to complete your collection.
During March’s auction, there was a full slate of stamps on the auction table, which is just a few folding tables set up in a small room in the Bow Mills United Methodist Church, so Emery had to move quick. If no one bid right away, he’d move on and if someone did toss up their hand to show interest, Emery sought anyone looking to play a little game of cat and mouse with the asking price.
“Everyone buys and sells, buys and sells,” Day said. “The whole idea is to have fun and get together.”
On this Tuesday afternoon, things sold for as little as 25 cents with a single bidder, others had a few interested parties that drove prices up to as high as $7. That is until Day’s collection came up for bid.
“They price it ahead of time,” Day said. “They know what they want for it.”
There were United States stamps, and foreign postage from places like Russia, Syria, France, Canada and British Africa. There were others that donned Elvis Presley and former presidents, as well as the Champion of Liberty Series.
Some people even threw in a couple of empty binders just to get rid of them.
Like just about any other auction you come across, you never know what’s going to be up for grabs when the stamp collectors get together.
And since most of our experience with stamps has to do with putting them on envelopes, we tried to soak in all the info we could.
If a stamp is unused and hasn’t been hinged then it can be worth a lot more than the price it cost when purchased at the post office. Now you might be wondering what hinged means and that’s a good question. Well, if the glue on the back has been used to either be stuck to an envelope or a collectors book, then the value is actually cut by 50 percent. No, not from the original price because who would want a stamp that’s been used and is worth at most 24.5 cents?
Actually, even if they’ve been used, old stamps can be sold for a good chunk of change. It all depends on the condition, how many were printed and what someone is willing to pay for it.
“The older the stamp, the more it’s worth,” Day said.
The stamp collectors meet the third Tuesday of every month (you’ve probably seen their notice in the bulletin board for years) at the church. That’s where they’ve been meeting for about 10 years, after their first home – The Centennial Senior Center in Concord – closed in 2006.
So every other month they hold an auction and the other months are just meetings. It’s where members or those interested in stamps but have never been (who pay the $1 fee) can talk about stamps, share new stamps they’ve acquired or look at other’s collections.
“It’s all different kinds of things pertaining to stamps and stamp collecting,” Day said.
If interested in the Merrimack County Stamp Collectors, contact Day at 228-1154.
