Most
stamp dealers must regularly receive emails from members of the public
who are looking for some help in valuing stamps they have. I can only
speak for myself, but in many cases we
are unable to give an answer that is in any way helpful, without
spending so much time explaining things that it becomes a commercial
drain to answer such queries.
There is a difficult choice to make,
assuming that the dealer would like to be helpful; do they
{a} ignore
and delete the message,
{b} answer the enquiry fully, or
{c} give a perfunctory response ?
In many cases, none of these is likely to be a good business
proposition.
If you are the enquirer, here are some tips, hints and comments.
1. Never send your enquiry to multiple addresses. It will reduce your
chances of getting an answer, and, really, it is quite unfair of you to
expect all of these people to give you their time for nothing.
2. Don't attach scanned images that take up lots of file space. Even
with an ADSL connection, we've had people send us emails with
attachments taking several minutes to view. Very basic scans might be
ok, but really you should try to do without them.
3. If your enquiry is about a general mix of stamps, such as a world
collection, it is simply not practicable to do this by email. Whenever
possible, you should make the effort to find somebody who can look at
it for you. Try to find a stamp dealer or auctioneer, or a stamp club,
or a collector (this should be an experienced and active philatelist
with a grasp of market values). Bear in mind that the vast majority of
general collections are of little value.
4. Lists are of little use. An experienced dealer or auctioneer will be
able to properly view a general collection almost as fast as they can
turn the pages of an album. Lists are much more time-consuming to read
through. Also remember that the experienced eye will often pick up
useful items such as unusual postmarks or scarce shades, which the
owner would probably not list. On the other hand, obvious reprints and
forgeries can be dealt with in a moment, rather than finding the stamps
on a list but having to comment about the possibility of not being
genuine.
5. Be polite ! We get some emails (although thankfully most are
civilised and polite) which are blunt and demanding. You can guess what
most dealers will do with these ! I would consider "politeness"
to include giving your name, and your location.
6. Be honest ! We sometimes get enquiries asking if we have a
particular stamp in stock, when in fact the enquirer has one themselves
they want to know the value of. They clearly have a preconception that
we are not going to tell them the truth otherwise. Just remember that
honest questions normally get honest answers.
7. Remember that emails are a great way of having a correspondence made
up of a succession of short messages, so it is sometimes worthwhile
just making a brief enquiry in the first place, before spending time
writing long and detailed messages.