Stamp collecting for beginners — 05. Where to buy safely

Sooner or later every collector buys stamps, and most beginners make the same few expensive mistakes on the way. None of them is about choosing the wrong stamp. They are about choosing the wrong place to buy it, or the wrong way to pay.

There are four main places to buy. Each is good at something, and each has a weakness worth knowing before you start.

Post offices and the philatelic bureaus

New Indian stamps are sold at face value by India Post. Larger head post offices have a philatelic bureau or counter that stocks recent issues, miniature sheets and first day covers, and many will apply a neat cancellation if you ask. India Post also runs a Philatelic Deposit Account scheme, under which new issues are set aside or sent to you as they come out — a later guide explains how it works.

Good at: new issues, at the lowest price they will ever be, in perfect condition.
Not good at: anything more than a few years old. Once an issue sells out at the counter, it is gone from the post office for good.

Dealers and stamp shops

A stamp dealer buys collections, sorts them, and sells the stamps individually or in sets. Some have shops; many now sell mainly by post, at stamp fairs and online. A good dealer is the most useful contact a beginner can have: they know the market, they can tell you what something is, and they want you to come back.

Good at: older stamps, complete sets, honest descriptions, and advice. Most established dealers accept returns if a stamp isn’t as described.
Not good at: bargains. You pay for the dealer’s knowledge and time, which is fair — and it is still usually cheaper than a mistake.

Ask other collectors which dealers they trust. Reputation travels fast in a small hobby.

Auctions and online marketplaces

Auctions — from established philatelic auction houses to general online marketplaces — are where scarcer stamps and whole collections change hands. Prices can be lower than a dealer’s, and sometimes much higher when two determined bidders meet.

Good at: choice, and occasionally price.
Not good at: protecting a beginner. Read the terms before you bid:

• Buyer’s premium. Most auction houses add a percentage to the winning bid, plus postage and tax. Work out the full price before you bid, not after.
• Descriptions. An auction lot is usually described once, briefly, and sold as seen. Study the photographs and ask questions before the sale.
• Your limit. Decide the most you will pay before bidding starts. The excitement of the last minute is how people overpay.

On general marketplaces, the seller matters more than the stamp. Look at their history, their feedback from other stamp buyers, and whether they say what happens if the stamp isn’t as described.

Swaps with other collectors

Swapping is the oldest way to build a collection, and still one of the best: your duplicates go to someone who needs them, and theirs come to you. Swaps also put you in touch with people who know more than you do, which is worth more than the stamps.

Good at: filling gaps cheaply, and meeting collectors.
Not good at: anything of real value until you know the person. Start small, agree the details in writing, send by tracked post, and photograph what you send. The collectors map and directory on this site is a good way to find people near you; a local philatelic society is another.

Red flags, wherever you buy

• A price far below what anyone else asks. Rare stamps are rarely cheap by accident. Forgeries, repairs and stamps that don’t exist are.
• Photographs of the front only. Ask for the back. A seller who won’t send one is telling you something.
• Stock images or pictures copied from a catalogue, rather than of the actual stamp.
• Pressure — “only today”, “another buyer is interested” — on anything except a timed auction.
• Payment that can’t be reversed, asked for by someone you don’t know. Use a method with buyer protection until a seller has earned your trust.
• No returns, or no clear statement of what happens if a stamp isn’t as described.

Keep every invoice and every message about a purchase. When you come to sell, or need to prove what you bought, a paper trail is worth having. In the next lesson: the different kinds of stamps you will meet — and why collectors treat them so differently.