Do You Prefer On Paper Or Off?

I'm looking at grabbing some kiloware and wondered if people have a preference on paper. Off paper has the obvious advantage of no soaking required. But do you find a quality difference? Is off paper more picked over? Any difference in duplicate prevalence? Any other reasons you personally prefer one or the other?

Apologies if there are other threads on this topic. I tried searching and didn't have much luck.

Background: my international stamps are mostly from my childhood collection and consist largely of kiloware and CTOs purchased in the mid to late '80s. I'm curious how kiloware has changed since then. Is it still heavy on 1940s-1970s definitives featuring Franco and a few European royals? #128578;

One advantage of on paper over off is you can get the full postmark.

Another is a more accurate representation of the stamp's true colour, if the ink is fugitive.

In general, the most recent stamps will be on paper… I would recommend trying a sample of both!

Kiloware in bulk off paper generally for me has too many damaged stamps in modern mixes. Plus rejects off paper. Can be very ugly.

On paper depends on what country you are after. How their self adhesives are like to get off paper and how. There is a year when changes to self adhesive took place per country to help you understand what can be done and how from the years the kiloware is said to include within.

Have always been a kiloware sorter. Love doing it. Can still clearly remember 50 something years ago sorted Australia 1914 to 1938 King George V Side Face definitives issues in 5lb lots being an union bag full at a time. It was such an exciting kiloware on paper to sort, so varied. Totally fascinated me as a child. Even modern kiloware this day still exciting to work with, same reasons.

Kiloware has fallen apart in availability of postally used stamps. Must be careful of kiloware from the 80,s & 90's as a general rule this era of kiloware is extremely high amounts in current kiloware for sale. So this kiloware sould be cheaper than most. Need to be careful if possible not to get a lot that has been picked over full-on 30 x . It is hard to get real good kiloware in small bulk lots as the cost becomes a huge issue. As more people that want the kiloware than there is available.

This may be a dumb question, but when you say kiloware from the '80s and '90s, do you mean most of the stamps in it are from those years? Or do you mean the kiloware was literally put together back in the '80s/'90s and has been floating around since then, getting picked over and resold ever since? In the latter case, I suppose the contents wouldn't be much different than what I got way back then. I think to start with the only international kiloware I'd be disappointed with is one that was still mostly the same stamps I was finding in the corner store "kiloware" stamp packages over thirty years ago. Well, that or a truly massive quantity of duplicates...

Also, when you say "small bulk lot", what is small? A thousand or two stamps? And does a large lot arrive by the wheel barrow or or in a UHaul?

Nice to hear from you Callon.

Never a dumb question. Ask away...

Yes as you say about the 80's & 90's kiloware comes in many ways as you can imagine. What I was getting at is if the mix lot of kiloware you are considering purchasing, get the seller to tell you what stamp release years you have in this kiloware for sale am interested in. Get them to answer all your great questions just like here to get to know your kiloware before you buy it as best you can.

Small bulk lot...on paper there is approximately 4,200 stamps on paper per kg or 2.2lbs. Up to a KG I would call small bulk lot.

If I was you I would look for kiloware that covers more issues from the 2000 to 2010 is a good target for you and hopefully some of the hard to get very recent issues are included. Yes there will be lots of duplication in your kiloware where ever it comes from. At times I have sort kiloware for sale and have done a couple of 100 stamps with all the rubbish taken out of the mix plus the defins that take up 50% of your kiloware is lessened by 40%. This type of kiloware can be a bit more expensive but you get better value. Half the fun of kiloware is buying it. You are on the right track. Hope I have been helpful.

I finally did get a little kiloware. I realized where I am with my worldwide collection, it's mostly just what I had from my childhood stamp collection, and having the goal of filling in some "new to me" stamps there, I don't have to be all that picky. Plenty of kiloware will be full of stamps I don't have, so I spent all of $5 and something and got 500 off paper stamps from an e-bay seller who has tons of good reviews for his kiloware. I got over 80 countries, not that many definitives, some CTOs but not a huge number, very few duplicates, and some really interesting stuff. For example, there's a stamp from Central Lithuania, which I just learned today was Polish occupied land in Lithuania that issued stamps from 1920-1922. Cool.

I just ID'ed another one that's from Armenia and based on an old thread here at Stamp Community is probably a forgery. Hah!

As my collection grows, no doubt I'll need to be pickier about kiloware purchases. Thank you for the tips on what to look for.

I'm still working on the harder to identify stamps, and I should get another thousand stamps in the mail today or tomorrow. That'll keep me busy for a bit.

Hi Callon

Great to hear about your kiloware buy.

Sound like you choose a good lot of stamps that suit you.

Nice to do searches on some stamps for more detailed information.

Yes, the searching we can do is remarkable. I've been on the world wide web almost since the web existed, and I'm still amazed at what's available now. I can upload an image of a stamp to Google search by image and often find information about it with a click. Wow.

After learning from this forum that the Armenia stamp in my first lot was a forgery, I became suspicious of the one from Central Lithuania. It turns out it's likely a forgery too. At least I'm learning some stamps to be suspicious of and they were dirt cheap.

I finished the first 500 and am well into the next thousand stamp lot. Now I'm eyeing a 1 lb lot. Help! hah... plus working with my old untouched in decades world wide album (Harris Ambassador) has me checking out album upgrade possibilities. As I like having the stamp images on the page and I don't want to pay too much, the Harris Statesman Deluxe is my top pick right now.

If paying for kiloware by weight, single paper is better than double paper.

I prefer paper off.

First, one needs to find dealers with as few duplicates as possible, and kiloware often means duplicates and triplicates and dozenicates.
While off-paper is probably more likely to lose valuable stamps by the trader, my biggest disadvantage is the shipment fee, since I'm neither from the US nor from Europe, and that's why I prefer off-paper.

On paper is my personal preference.

All the people commented have great points in terms of pros and cons for on and off paper. For me, I really enjoy the experience (the whole process) of having stamps soaked, dried, then mounted or placed in a stock book. That's the reason I am willing to pay extra for the shipping fee.

PS - sorry forgot to mention, I am not a fan with the self adhesive stamps and I can't say my experience with them being the best.

There was a discussion about "unpicked" lots of stamps, from online, mostly eBay, dealers.
I think it's safe to assume that with on-paper, the dealer couldn't pick out the more valuable watermarked stamps.

I prefer on paper.

I usually prefer off paper but that purely because I often buy by weight and every little gram shaved off means more stamps for my money.