Stamp Collectors

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Any stamp collectors on the board?

I just inherited my Dad's childhood stamp collection. Lots of pre-wwII era Canadian and US stamps and some international ones. I'm trying to figure out the value of them.

Random googling just left me confused. Any suggestions?

I don't really want to spend a bunch of money on this, just curious.

Thanks,

PB

 

[Wannafish]

Go out and buy a "Scott's Stamp Price Guide". If you are interested in those stamps it'll be the best $29.95 you can spend.

Several years ago I bought a collection of american stamps which included dates from 1897 thru 1965 at an estate sale for $200.
Priced individually, they were worth ~$650.00.
Current value is over $3000.00. At least that's what the price guides say...now if I can only find someone to pay that much.

Good luck with yours.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Thanks - I'll check that out! Is it largely American stamps or does it cover the international ones too?

PB

 

[Junkman]

I used to collect stamps, but that was a very long time ago. What I learned was that many times the value of the stamps if you were to sell them, was less than the value of them when used for postage. I had seen it many times when a person died and the spouse tried to sell the collection that its value was less than face value. In more than one instance, I would buy the entire collection and then sell the stamps to a business that used them for postage. Scott's book is like the car dealers book..... it is a guide, but it doesn't truly reflect the market place in every instance. If you have a particularly rare stamp, it has value, but remember, that the US Mint printed stamps in the millions and to this day, you can still buy full sheets of old stamps from the main post office in Washington..... The main value of a stamp is when there is a printing error. The last one that I remember, the government printed thousands of them after it was discovered, so "ordinary collectors" could have one in the collection. A stamp once purchased and the government has the money, hopes that it will never be used.

 

[BigAl]

Any stamp collectors on the board?

I just inherited my Dad's childhood stamp collection. Lots of pre-wwII era Canadian and US stamps and some international ones. I'm trying to figure out the value of them.

Random googling just left me confused. Any suggestions?

I don't really want to spend a bunch of money on this, just curious.

Thanks,

PB

My wife inherited her great grandfathers and grandfathers stamp collection . I looked at it one day and most of the countrys do not even exist anymore that she has stamps from . My Mom did some checking, when she was still alive , with a stamp collector shop . She told her to put it in the bank deposit box because it was worth a fortune . I have no idea . Stamps are not my thing . I guess someday the kids can fight over it .

 

[Junkman]

Collectibles fall in and out of favor. What was hot a few years ago is dead in the water today. My mother collected 18th century china and today, you can barely give it away. All the buyers for the china are now located in Europe and it is very hard to sell and get a decent price, not to mention the problems with fraudulent payments when you sell on eBay. If you have no interest or sentimental value to you, then you should just sell it and take the cash. I have a friend that still has a 1953 MG Mark III in the garage that he bought back when he first started driving in 1959. As he put it, if he sold it in the 1960's, and invested the money, he would be far ahead. Problem is that today, there are very few collectors of cars like that. Look what happened to the Model T and A..... the values are stagnant...

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Thanks guys, that's kind of what I was thinking. I haven't heard much about stamp collecting these days. When I was a kid in the early 70's it seemed to be much bigger.

I'll probably invest in the Scott's book and see if anything shows up as super rare. My Dad does have some old misprint types from Canada. I think the Canadian ones may be of more value up in Canada than in the US.

Got some pre-WWII German ones with Hitler on them. Lot's of old third world countries like Rhodesia too.

 

[humor_me]

Random googling just left me confused. Any suggestions?
PB

Usually, when I'm random googling it leaves me confused too. That's why I think of what I want to look for and fill it in in the small "search" box and then just hit enter.

This works much better than random googling.