Let us start with a little bit theory. If you buy a stamp, you pay its price. After many buyers have bought such stamp, the median price can be calculated and published in stamp catalogues as a value. The individual prices can differ, depending on actual demand and supply.
To determine catalogue values of GBLA items, as seldom offered and never in large quantities, it was necessary to consult advanced buyers. The result is the GBLA Encyclopaedia and Stamp Catalogue. While the average stamp value is slightly over 20 PCU, individual values differ considerably, being between 1 and 100 PCU for real GBLA stamps. The imitations are much less. As UK is the principal market for GBLA items, the rate 1 PCU ~ 1 GBP was used.
If your goal is a large GBLA collection, individual values are of paramount importance and the catalog is a must. If your goal is to have just a few stamps, simply buy the ones you like. Probably they would cost about 20 GBP/stamp, though the real value would be only about 5 GBP/stamp. It is because the largest number of GBLA stamps is valued 5 GBP.
So let us see some sales results. First are shown results of a few stamps from 2021, where I was the seller, so with a correct and detailed description of items. As most buyers tend to purchase cheaper stamps, we can see that cheaper ones sell over catalogue values, sometimes considerably, while rare stamps attract interest of only a few advanced collectors. Note that my opening prices were only 80% of catalogue values - I was testing the Catalogue values.
As we have an unexpectedly high inflation, the recalculated prices would be already about 100% of the catalogue value, now. If you are interested in purchase of the same stamps, you are welcome to contact me and I will do my best to supply them. They are all from the collection of Captain Benda. Some are available on covers, too.
A try has proved that market has accepted inflation. Note that collectors, who are in contact with me, do not buy at ebay as they can order GBLA items direct from me, without ebay fees.
Let us have a look at sales from other sellers. The same result. Relatively cheap GBLA stamps sold high over the Catalogue values. Just it is not always so, I have picked a top result. And note there was only one bidder. Obviously, he had not known the catalogue value.
What about covers? As I sold some only as a private treaty, they are from other sellers. Some covers were incorrectly described as rarities or the only known (real rarities are the linocuts by Marian Kasprzyk) and reached more than a double of Catalogue values. Regardless if circulated or not. The reason is obvious - most GBLA collectors specialize in covers. Note that ebay sellers can use various tactics.
If they know the value of their items, as was my case with the stamps, they can start with a serious price, say 50 to 150% of the catalog value. There is quite a probability the item will be sold.
If they do not know the catalog price, they tend to start with a higher price. There is always a chance they find somebody who is also ignorant of catalog values. If there is no such buyer, the item can be offered again and again.
Following very nice sheet was offered as "The world's only sheet of 9
GBLA commemorative mail stamps". Well, if you need one, drop me a line. I have a few in my collection....
The same item remained unsold when offered again, though much cheaper.
Another way is to start far below the real value. There will be many bidders, which attract even more ones. Naturally, there is a theoretical risk the item would sell too cheap. In reality there is usually no such risk. The seller either has many followers or has somebody to bid against real bidders. I do not say following items are such cases, but be careful if the sale is a private listing with bidders' identities protected.
Sometimes items are offered at crazy high prices. The goal is to attract attention and contacts.
On the basis of sold auction prices, the actual ratio between catalog values and actual prices can be calculated. Naturally, the shown items are only examples. If you browse through auctions, you can add more items to have the calculation more precise and keep updating it. Some items sold cheaper, some more expensive. Important is the average ratio to Catalogue values.
Just take care not to buy imitations. Mini-sheets of 4 stamps sell 7-10 GBP, but the value is only 0,50 GBP. I know collectors, who set for a large collection and spent hundreds of GBP buying imitations. So they saved 100 GBP on the catalog, but lost hundreds, as the total value they got was only about 10 GBP. They started from the incorrect end. Learn a lesson from their mistake.
If the buyer won just the following MS, he spent 12.50 EUR on the item plus 15 EUR on postage, i.e. 50 times the Catalogue value.
This one even more.
