4 ms·

This was the plot of Brewster’s Millions https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088850/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088850/

• spacedcowboy 3y ago
  I thought buying a really rare stamp, then mailing it thus destroying its value, was pretty cool :)
  • hakfoo 3y ago
    That might not work as he expected. Some items are "condition rarities" -- it's worth a fortune in never used condition, but nothing special when worn. Other items are rare as long as they can be reliably attributed. You could run a 1804 US dollar over with a locomotive and it would still be worth six or seven figures as long as the date could be identified. I'd expect plenty of the "rare" stamps would hold a significant slice of value even used. Now, the fact you gave up possession of the expensive item is another issue. Returning to main HN stamping grounds: that's what makes some of these "new collectible" schemes sort of weird (i. e. professionally graded/certified video games)-- they're not necessarily trading on inherently rare items, just creating a "condition scarcity" economy that previously didn't really exist. It's not "the only one of its kind", it's "the only one the grading service gave 9.452345/10".
    • mikeryan 3y ago
      Totally pedantic here but he didn’t have to destroy the stamps value - he just had to transfer that value without “giving it away”.