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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations December 31, 2005-January 1, 2006:

Vicious Circle

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries. 

The Scott stamp catalogues are the Bible for collectors in this country. They not only 
identify the stamps, but the editors canvass the market to figure values.

"We are one of the few catalogues that is a retail value catalogue, and we're serious 
about that."
RUNS :06

But there's a problem: Many stamp dealers routinely sell at a discounted percentage of 
those values, something chief editor Jim Kloetzel says is counter-productive.

"If we, for example, were to take those dealers as the only input for the catalogue, 
prices would spiral down to zero."
RUNS :07

But BUYERS also need to understand how catalogue values work. For one thing, there are 
different grades of stamps, denoting their condition and quality.

"The stamps that we're valuing are very fine stamps. Most early stamps are not Very Fine, 
and are correctly discounted."
RUNS :09
   
But when a stamp IS top quality, Kloetzel says both collectors and dealers should use c
atalogue values.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 
<I'm Lloyd de Vries of the Virtual Stamp Club for APS StampTalk>

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