Genuine Charity Kiloware - Is It Really Any Better?

I have spent the last week or so looking through about 7 kg of kiloware it was 99.9% British, it consisted of an accumulation of many other cherry picked accumulations of kiloware. it cost £10. I found one stamp with misaligned printing of some colours leaving patches of white, Three used Stamps had an overprint about Cancelled Post office stores department.Which are interesting but probably bogus. There are perhaps 20 or 30 relatively common stamps I need for my collection. As a financial exercise kiloware is futile in my opinion. Nevertheless I quite enjoyed the sorting while listening to the radio. I made up 55 bags of 50 different GB stamps my freind thinks he might sell, I also have a big bag of Security Machins I might be able to sell, or alternatively give to someone who collects these things. It passed time pleasantly during covid isolation, but in some ways it leaves me muttering to myself, get a life!

Similarly, I've acquired a couple of lots of cigarette cards recently. Three or four thousand in each, from which I extracted maybe twenty for my collection (although my collecting interests are narrower than they were). But I do find the sorting relaxing, and disposal of the unwanted stuff on ebay more than pays for the financial outlay.

I wonder who's buying kiloware these days?

When I was a kid, 50-odd years ago, this was a cost-effective way to get stamps, so I guess a lot of older collectors might still buy some.

What about younger collectors? I think if I was new to the hobby, one bag of GB charity kiloware would be enough to put me off ever buying kiloware again.

I'm taking a chance and buying a 4 kg package out of Germany. I've been away from my collection for almost 20 years and thought it might be a good way to quickly catch up. Hopefully, I'm can either sell the extras in bulk or trade them.

I get mine from a convent in Republic of Ireland. I have been doing this off and on since the 1970s. The convent is the "mother house" of the Order and most of the nuns are retired. The decline in Stamp Collecting means that it is harder for them to sell kiloware. I really like these folks. Genuinely nice people. And I really miss that I have not seen them this year. They actually have a mission station in South Sudan (and thats the one country that is really hard to get)...their own mail is posted in Kenya.
As a general rule, I get three different lots, Ireland SOARS (I collect these but as I now only have about 60 post offices to find, there is the law of diminishing returns...its easier to just go direct to the post offices) but I dont really mind the duplication and if I have too many duplicates, I burn them.
The second lot I buy are Irish commems...
The third lot is "World" . While I am obsessive about Ireland, I treat the rest of the world as fun.....and according to my spread sheet, I pick up about 1,200 "new" stamps from around 110 countries on the last three occasions 2017, 2018. 2019. There is always diminishing returns and obviously a lot of Germany, France, Belgium but this balances nicely with say a few from Ecuador, Papua-New Guinea, Senegal.
British kiloware is sold seperately but on my next visit (if I ever get out of this house!!!) I will pick up a British lot.

Does the convent ship lots to the US? If so, can you supply contact information, I'd be interested in trying one or two.

@MrH.......
The short answer is that I dont know. I would think the cost of postage would be too high.
I actually sent them an email earlier today just to keep in touch. Frankly the kiloware is not cheap but I think it is worth it because I have no postage costs.

I have not found a source for kiloware mixtures in the US. Everything appears to be coming from overseas and the cost including shipping is running about $60+ per kilo.

Just received my 4kg package from Germany, which arrived 7 days after payment. Looks to be recent mailings and collection remnants.
Lots of Germany as would be expected, but I've seen Australia, Peru, US, Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary. One item that popped out was a USA gift parcel tag with $2.10 in prexie postage.
At first glance it look like it will fill a lot of holes.
Not sure how to proceed, sort by country first or soak and then sort. I'm leaning toward sorting first and only soaking a few of each example I might need (the balance to be sold on Ebay).

Happy sorting! Definitely sort first, soak later - no point in soaking loads of stuff you don't want to keep.