Any Postage Stamp Collectors Out There?

Bill Arnold

1974
Staff member
Messages
8,622
Location
Thomasville, GA
LOML inherited a collection of stamps from her grandmother a few months ago. There are a few stamps dating as far back as the late 1800s and run all the way through the 1900s. Her grandmother meant well and had mounted a lot in collector books. My wife had actually helped her grandmother with some of the collection back in the 1950s and early 60s. Since that time, most of the collection was tossed in cigar boxes and shoe boxes. There are literally thousands of stamps! My wife has now sorted the stamps by denomination and used/unused and is getting them in some kind of order.

I have spent many hours researching a few hundred stamps that, for the most part, are in mint condition. There are a handful of full sheets as well as many 4-stamp corners. I created a spreadsheet to keep track of the stamps I've researched and, so far, the catalog value would fall somewhere in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. When LOML finishes sorting the remainder, we'll add them to the list in some fashion.

Can someone point us in the direction of a person or process of getting a fair price for the collection?

Thanks!
 
Bill i collect stamps. Thing is with the economy the way it is the "value" in collecting is not there the way it was. This hobby is pretty much going to the grave with me. From what i have seen the value is in very select stamps and specific areas similar to coins.

So many old timers are selling their stamps that the majority of the stamps that have been in my affordability level are pretty worthless as far as meaningful money goes.

I still think its a great hobby and something that gives you a broad understanding of the world. Great for geography and history knowledge. But i guess google and wiki peadia spoilt the fun of this.

The guys that will really value a collection charge a service fee for it. I know my Dad wanted this done with the stamps he has.

There was also a distant relative that really invested substantially in stamps back in their hey day and when they passed their collection which actually contained pristine sheets of stamps and special collector error stamps was deemed to be pretty valueless.

There is also the issue of the fact that the guy appraising it is usually a collector stamp dealer. So fox and hen house rules apply.

You might want to try this forum

http://colnect.com/en

I was looking there when i wanted to see what my payphone phone cards are worth. Found i should have ditched the one worth $250 when it was worth $250 before cell phones came around.:rofl::rofl:

Call me hoarder for short.
 
There was also a distant relative that really invested substantially in stamps back in their hey day and when they passed their collection which actually contained pristine sheets of stamps and special collector error stamps was deemed to be pretty valueless.

.[/QUOTE]

My stepfather was a huge dealer/collector.

The stamps he purchased at auctions back in the early 70s, retained their value and then some.
When he died, all the plateblocks and sheets that he paid an average of 5 percent above face value and held for years, we ended up licking most of them for postage for years and years, the rest was mostly sold off as postage 10% below face value. Nobody wanted a bunch of 3 cent stamps.
And we went to every major stamp dealer in Manhattan.
 
Hi,

Well, in this case I am grandfather.

My dad and I collected stamps when I was in grade school (1930-1936). We collected blocks of 4. I have not looked at them for over 40 years. As I remember some of the unusual stamps came in a different format than the sheets.

I have 1/4 cent (McKinley as I remember) and 50 cent airmail (Remember, at that time you could buy a new Chevy for under 2,000. 50 cents was serious money).

The postmaster at Guasti or was it Alta Loma would call dad if any unusual stamps appeared. We would go out and buy some of them. The population of Guasti or Alta Loma was probably well under 500 so it was a "Folksy" post office.

At one time Guasti was the number one place in the nation for murders per capita. I guess one murder every few years could put you in that category if your population was small enough.

Guasti and Alta Loma were both located in the largest wine vineyard in the world at that time. Now they are both in the middle houses, malls, schools, etc.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
I have my grandfathers and fathers stamp collection. Thousands of stamps in albums and cellophane envelopes. I started to collect them in the early 60's and quickly lost interest.
I would like to have the collection appraised and sell them but I have no clue as to where to go either.
 
I have been collecting American stamps for almost 50 years and inherited collections from my uncle who collected in the 30's.

I have been adding and improving the collection as new stamps are issued and when money permits me to buy better grades of stamps that I have.

Trying to sell a collection is difficult. Most people look at the values in catalogs and add them up and think they have a valuable collection but as we all know there is a big difference between wholesale and retail.

If you can find a buyer who will give you 10 cents on the dollar for the collection you may be lucky. Then again if you have some really valuable issues they may be worth more than the rest of the collection put together if offered through an auction.

Here is a link to reputable appraisal services through the American Philatelic Foundation. This organization will appraise and help you sell your collection for a price. Hope this helps...

http://www.americanphilatelic.com/appraisal.html

Here is a link to the American Philatelic Society site to help you locate dealers.

http://www.stamps.org/directories/dir_DealerMembers.htm
 
Thanks for the links, Mike. There's a lot of information on each one that should be helpful. We don't have anyone to pass the collection to, so LOML might just take whatever to have it out of the way. :dunno:

...
Here is a link to reputable appraisal services through the American Philatelic Foundation. This organization will appraise and help you sell your collection for a price. Hope this helps...

http://www.americanphilatelic.com/appraisal.html

Here is a link to the American Philatelic Society site to help you locate dealers.

http://www.stamps.org/directories/dir_DealerMembers.htm
 
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