Did I Make A Dumb Purchase?

I had no idea what I was doing as far as bidding by weight and it was on impulse..

I'm feeling a little worried that maybe I made a rookie mistake and got a bum deal? I've never bought by weight before. I found some rough estimates of what I can maybe expect by weight but I've got myself all nervous.

It should all add up to about 8.7oz. I stupidly didn't consider the fact that the covers are included in the weight.

it's $20 shipped (shipping cost more than I thought it would)
Am I an idiot?

Thanks for any insight..

I tend to disregard shipping prices when it comes to the enjoyment of the hobby, but will avoid and call out extortionate practices at every turn.

If you're building a collection of Hungary, and the cost of the item itself was reasonable, then I'd be happy enough.

It's all a learning experience though!

We all learn by experience. Usually, more is learned from not-so-good decisions.

From my experience, impulse can lead into a bad decision more than anything else. But, sometimes you get lucky.

the shipping was $7 so the items were $13. I always factor in shipping though as I am a poor philatelist haha.
I do really like the stamps from Hungary. I just don't want to be a chump :P
I like to be shrewd in my business dealings but I'm so new to stamps that I'm sure I'll make some dumb purchases.
I just want to know if I'm on the right track?

I've done the same thing myself a couple times recently now that I'm back in the hobby - purchased a lot by advertised weight, and then wondered if I overpaid. At the end of the day I chalked it up to a learning curve, and in both cases I was at least somewhat content with what I got for my money.

It doesn't sound like an expensive lesson, but now you will at least have expectations from what is advertised and can follow your gut feeling.

From the images I would say that lot would have bought about $5-$7 in a local stamp club auction so I think that you paid a bit more than market value. But I think the question is more; 'how much enjoyment will you get out of the purchase'? If you get several hours of enjoyment from the purchase by sorting, cataloging and mounting the stamps than it seems to me to be a pretty value for you. You certainly would have spent at least $20 if you went to a movie and got some popcorn. This is how I determine how to spend on stamps, you could call it the 'fun factor'.
Don

There might have been a better deal elsewhere, but you learn as you go on and if you are going to enjoy sorting the stamps and owning them then $20.00 is a good deal. Maybe not the best deal but the person who never made a mistake never did anything. I look at one of my stamps that cost 100s of pounds and realise I get more pleasure from stamps costing pennys that filled a noticeable hole in my collection.

Agree with Don. Kiloware purchases are about the experience of sorting et al, not the actual worth of the stamps. I'd say the few hours this will take you, whether in one day or spread over a few weeks, is well worth $20.

It looks like a good deal to me. 7$ shipping is normal in US now.
Question: did you know what stamps you were getting, say, seen some photos? Regardless about the weight/quantity, did you get the type of stamp you wanted? If yes, it is a good deal.

For an off-paper used lot plus covers, it's about what would be expected nowadays. Those are almost always going to have lots of Eastern European CTO issues. I will tell you the Hungarian sheetlet is a non-postal souvenir and that the Haiti birds were illegally sold. Still, those aren't the majority of what's in the lot and not a problem to me.

It's the shipping that's the killer here and will be with US postal rates being what they are. However, shipping from outside the US can be more reasonable depending on how much you spend. See also SCF's Nordfrim advertiser above, their offerings and their rate structure. Swan Philatelic Imports offers on-paper kiloware with reasonable shipping also. Both are priced in Euros which is low compared to $US at the moment. On-paper lots will be relatively recent issues. If you save your pennies and can swing like a $40 order, I think you'll find it to be worthwhile in terms of what you'll get and the shipping cost.

Kiloware and packets are a great way to expand your collection unless you demand complete sets. So can buying small country collections and lots on eBay, etc., taken from worldwide collections, to obtain older stamps. Now, if you were to go back immediately to the same seller of this lot, you will probably find that it might be substantially duplicating what you have already. So you might hop around to various sources buying (say) country lots. You'll get duplicates, sure, but not necessarily the same things over and over that had many of us as beginners spinning our wheels accumulating the commonest of the common that nobody would trade for.

So, lesson learned and more to be learned if you continue down the path of buying lots/collections/packets. You now have an idea of what these lots can be like and weren't repulsed like some people would be. Just in the time that will be spent going through the lot, I think you will get your money's worth out of it. Two maybe bad new movies at the theater or playing with stamps - it's your choice.

My opinion,
you did fine, in a week or so, all will be forgotten.

The problem with HUNGARY, is that often purchases
will end up with SHORT SETS, that is, the high value will be missing
from the set, and you have to search out and pay extra for 1 stamp.

The way around it is to buy complete sets or pages from a collection.

TIP
Open ebay, type in search "Hungary" and "Stamps"
then SAVE the search

Every morning ebay will send you their latest offerings
I often pay a $1 for a page of stamps, just to get 1 stamp

But that will get you familiar with prices, what are outrageous and what are bargains

Then I swap free with colleague, that which I do not want

This is what I am looking at this morning..................

@hy-brasil

Thanks for the info!
Can you explain to me about the Haitian bird stamps being illegal?
And what does it mean that the Hungarian souvenir sheet is non-postal?
Those are terms I've seen around but I don't fully understand.

if it weren't for the $7 shipping I wouldn't feel so bad haha.

Hi Lady Grace - First I just wanted to say I am so glad you joined the forum - I love your energy and perspective - and it is wonderful that you put yourself out there, it is the best way to learn fast. I, like you, am new to collecting - I might have a year on you :) I thought I would share my perspective and journey as a new semi youngish (lol not as young as you!) working mama that fell in love with stamps 2 years ago.

I started with thousands of truly unsorted stamps that my Aunt gave me (just in envelopes)- I had no idea what I had, many were older stamps- but all I know is I loved the sorting and learning, and was facinated with figuring out the countries - it took me like 3-4 weeks working daily just to organize by year and country and get them into Vario pages (phew). I got on here and made an idiot of myself many times - but I listened, like you to the experts on here and just started sharing what I had and I would get frustrated sometimes too. I quickly realized, if I really want to do this, I need Catalogues! And I also had to worry less about embarrassing myself. :)

Rod suggested I buy an old Scott specialized classic catalogue 1841-1940. That is what I used at first and Stamp World - and of course the more I learned, I had to find more updated catalogues that I found on 1/2 price books for under $20. That is when I really took off. Once I had an idea what some of the Cat values were (and took like 70% off that) I looked for large WW lots where I could see some high values (of course used) stamps and I would use that as a gauge to know if the purchase was worth the risk.

I found this dealer on Ebay that would put together these 1100 WW mixes and they would sit - so I would offer like $17 knowing if it had several pre 1940 stamps worth a few bucks and if the rest were .10-.20 cents a piece on average, I would be ok - because the learning and experience would make up the difference. Those lots were the best for my learning (now I can't seem to snag one - they go to fast!). I bought several my first year and built my countries up so I could decide where I wanted to focus. Next, as suggested, I started looking for small inexpensive country lots. I would study these older stamps and learned Watermarking, the importance of paper type, perf measurement, and most importantly the CONDITION of the stamps. and over time, I learned (some :) - I am always learning.

Anyhow - I have definitely made a lot of mistakes over these 2 years - however, because I keep educating myself and asking questions like you, I have also had some surprising discoveries! those discovers have allowed me to sell some stamps here and there to earn some $ to buy the stamps I really want. Last but not least, I know I have some fakes or forgeries in my collection. I am trying to learn more about it. At first it kind of stressed me (in particular my Mexico stamps) but now I see it as part of the history and that it is my collection and it is ok.

You are doing great!
Nora.

In recent times I get 4 dud buys to one good one.

That is the price I pay for my area of stamps.

Got to deal with the bad apples till I pick a good one.

That is stamping! Love it!

@Mrita75

Aw, thank you! That's so nice of you to say!
I certainly have a lot to be educated on. There are a ton of terms and subjects that are complete gibberish to me still... But if there wasn't a lot to learn it wouldn't be nearly as interesting as a hobby! Though not gonna lie, what I don't know is a lot and it can be overwhelming at times.

Haitian bird stamps: These are the notorious Audubon birds first seen in 1975, sold to the stamp trade by government employees but not produced by the Haitian post office. So, they're not genuine postage stamps. This was done more than once over several years with apparently 75 stamps in all. There are also other later issues made by printers for the former French colonies that are not genuine issues. These are all called "bogus" issues, completely made up. Meanwhile, "forgeries" are imitations of genuine stamps.

Hungary non-postal souvenir sheet: It does show a (printed cancelled) small issued souvenir sheet image on it but was not produced by the post office to be usable as postage -- it's not a postage stamp. It's just a printed handout/souvenir from a private club or company. There are many such sheetlets found from China typically given as gifts to stamp show attendees. There are posts asking about those elsewhere here on SCF.

Keep asking those questions! Nobody knows everything in stamps and we're always still learning new things here.