Extensive Collection - How To Sell For Best $$$?

Hi, some of you may know me from the Coin Community Forum. I have an extensive collection of old world stamps I got from a great Aunt when I was 11 years old. It contains over 1100 stamps, from late 1800's to 1950 or so froma ll over the world.

I collect coins, not stamps and would like to sell the collection. What is the best way for me to maximize the $$$ I get for the set? It is in a 1952 World Master Global Stamp album.

Thanks
Jim

I don't think that selling a collection of stamps is all that different from coins. How much money you will get for them depends on how much time you invest in selling them. The easiest way would be to take the collection to a dealer and ask for an offer. If he likes what he sees, he may offer 10%-15% of catalog value. If he doesn't need what you have, he may not make any offer. The most time-consuming (but a much more profitable way) would be to break down the collection into individual sets and single stamps and sell them one-by-one on ebay with good pictures and descriptions of them, noting their condition, catalog numbers and values, and carefully noting any faults. Something in between zero effort and a lot of effort would be to break the collection into single country lots and sell these lots one-by-one on ebay with pictures, using more general descriptions of condition and value, and highlighting the best stamps from each country.

Sell on ebay, a good idea.
However, we in China for sale on ebay. Receivables compared trouble.

Before you you go to the trouble an expense of listing individual stamps on ebay, you should have some idea of just what you have and their worth. Listing individual common stamps is not very worthwhile. Right now at 20-cents for an item beginning at 99-cents or less, this can really add-up. And that's not counting gallery or photo fees or final value fees or PayPal fees when you are paid. Plus what your time might be worth. Inexpensive stamps are generally best sold in lots. Either the complete collection or broken down into individual countries on pages if the countries have enough stamps to warrant that. So first, know what you have.

Hello again. I'm not trying to run down your aunt's collection, but a lot of collectors would begin collecting and never get seriously involved, maybe picking up some packets of the common stamps of the time.Looking at this realistically, 1,100 stamps in an album that holds upward of 50,000 (I have a copy of the 1958 edition, here, and it holds 58,000 stamps) is not evidence of a serious collector likely having spent any significant sum on building a collection and in buying more worth-while items.

If the book is in nice condition and the pages are clean and the collection has not been remaindered, the album in itself could be worth more to someone than its contents, the contents being an added bonus and selling point.

Go to ebay and do a search on "Master Global" and see what is listed and how it is doing. Take a look at "completed listings" to see how the albums have fared recently. Save a search for "Master Global" and you will get an email every time one is listed. Study the listings, save them in "items I'm watching," and see how they do.

The fact is that if someone didn't spend good money buying good stamps, you can't expect the collection to be worth good money, now.

I second the last post. I have a Citation album from my childhood. Last year, I went through it and discovered that almost all the stamps were literally worth about the paper they were printed on. Oh, there were a few exceptions and of course, many of them are beautiful (and old).

But I discovered that the Citation Album is actually fetching pretty good prices on E-Bay!

As far as determining value, my library has the Scott catalogs to check out. That's how I did it. I guess you could check one of them out - maybe "A-C" and just check those. If all you find are common stamps, then you've got an idea. However, if you find some that have a relatively high catalog value, you may want to investigate further....

Selling at a stamp club or fayre would be better than on the net.
Postage is now a crippling factor.

More specialized places online, like www.bidstart.com, are better places to buy and sell vs www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay.

The album itself may be worth more than the stamps if it's in good condition.
Common used stamps from the 20th century to date often sell by the pound! Literally.

Jim,
I would seek out a local auctioneer that specializes in postal material. In most cases you will get the maximum return with the least investment. If you try to sell to a dealer you will get 50% of value at best. Remember they need to make a profit on resale. If you decide to sell on ebay etc. the onus is on you to identify, value, package, ship etc. Again finding a local club will help with direction to the best local resources. If you want a few names of auctioneers repost and I'll be happy to provide.