For broadcast on CBS Radio Network Stations 
June 19-20:


Internet stamp auctions.


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


The hottest thing in stamp collecting these days is Internet 
auctions, in both popularity and news.


This past week, Amazon-dot-com invested 45-million in the 
Sotheby auction house and announced a joint online auction 
venture.


Last month, two men and a teenager were kicked out of one 
firm for shilling -- conspiring to bid up the prices on each 
others' lots, using multiple identities.


There's also continuing concern about the high prices some 
stamps and stamp collectibles are getting in these Internet 
auctions.  Earlier this Spring, a cover -- that's a 
collectible envelope -- that would sell for no more than 
ten dollars at a stamp show, fetched more than two hundred 
online.


If you're going to buy at these websites, use the same rules 
of common sense that apply to other auctions.  First, know 
about how much an item is worth.  And second, know how much 
you're willing to pay for it, and don't let auction fever 
sweep you past that limit.


And that's stamp collecting this week.  

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.

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