My Friend Found An Old Album...

My friend found an old album of stamps she got from the Belgian Congo and wants to sell them either locally or on ebay, but has no idea how to price them - I don't know much about stamps myself, but figured I could help her out by asking the internet for her.

She's got quite a few uncut sheets of stamps from the Belgian Congo in various denominations that are all mint, she says from the 1950's, and wants to cut each stamp out and sell it individually on ebay. It seems to me they would be more collectible as whole sheets. Would it be better for her to cut them up (& how?) or sell as sheets?

I looked around for a couple of hours online but couldn't find her stamps anywhere – any suggestions on where to find similar stamps?
Any help is greatly appreciated!

http://www.congostamps.com/

try this link

Nice - I found this info on one set:
"Apparently there was a man in Belgium named van Bierbeek (spelling?) who worked with the printers and made many variations and curiosities in the Belgium and Belgium colonies stamps."

How should she price them- individual or uncut?

I think you'd get more value leaving them uncut, unless you have complete sets. The 20c Rhino is Scott 307 & has a catalogue value of 0.30c for a single stamp. The 40c Giraffe is from the same series, Scott 308 with same value. Selling them individually you'd be lucky to get 10c each, hardly worth the mail. You normally see issues like this in sets, with each value of the set. Catalogue value for this set of 12 stamps is around $7, so you might get a few dollars for a set of singles. If she has a sheet of each value and wants to break them up, I'd at least be selling them in sets, not individual stamps. You'll need to identify which belong in each set.

The middle one is worth more. Scott 255 issued in 1948, with a catalogue value of $6 for a single. The entire set of this issue comprises 26 stamps starting at 10c and is worth about $80. So it really depends on whether she has the whole sets. I see on ebay sets are listed as buy it now for close to full value (eg $6 for the set with the Rhino & Giraffe) I have no idea how they sell though.

Hope that helps.

Balf

I can't offer any advice on foreign (non U.S.) but I must admit that those giraffe and Rhinoceros stamps are very eye catching! Nice collection!

@Balf: Thanks for the info, this was very helpful! I was able to find the catalogue values for them at
http://www.allworldstamps.com/resul...=937&range=N

@I_Love_Stamps: They are very nice- I don't collect stamps myself but I can certainly appreciate fine art!

Adamblan, another good Samaritan deed, you could assist your friend becoming a SCF member, which in the long term may help with her find.

lol - She's not exactly internet savvy, so I'm helping her get set up online.

If anyone's interested you can see her collection at
http://imgur.com/a/3771z#gIQzM