Apraisal Related: Difficult To Value Csec (China) Albums?

Hi guys,

I'm a 43 year old IT professional that started collecting when I was quite young... Only I didn't know it. :)

In the late 70's my father worked for a US based chemical manufacturer. During that period, China and the United States were enjoying improved relations and my father made a brief business trip.

As was his tradition; he returned with gifts from this huge mysterious place. I had asked for a large kite and my mother wanted something made of jade... We we both sorely disappointed as my father only had time to visit one shop. It was during the "Cultural Revolution" and he wasn't allowed to wander about looking for a kite.

My mother received a hand made silk flower and I received a stamp album. They were accepted with less than normal enthusiasm.My mother never let go of any gift from my father so they were both carefully stored and cherished. I was not to see the album again for 30 years.

The events that led to the the re-discovery of my latent philately are too sorrowful and personal to talk of in this (hopefully) cheerful post. Suffice it to say that opening the box that contained the stamps and flower reminded me of the happiness on my dads face as he described the trip. I was also struck with the beauty of a gift that I had long forgotten.

Owing to the circumstances, I found myself needing to report the value of these gifts to the IRS...

The flower turned out to be worth more than the combined net worth of everything I own (I was absolutely gobsmacked). The stamps however have proven to be more difficult to value due to the fact that the export albums for the early 70's are impossibly rare. The "Expert" opinion was somewhat aggravatingly vague. I'm hoping the membership here can point me to a more "expert" opinion.

Pics of album follow:












There are many other pages in the album. All the stamps are perfect and the album is complete.

Do any of you know someone that could put a definite value on it?

As with alot of chinese stamps they have recently jumped and alot can be worth many times catalog but it is difficult to know which are doing the best. Basically the 50-60-70's Peoples republic seem to be the hot ticket and from the looks of the couple pics you may have a good album value wise. Best to do an ebay search and you will see some of the higher priced listings. If you can post better pics of each page someone here will likely be able to give you much beter info.

Welcome to Stamp Community Forum, Magik!

I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

But it's nice that you've gotten excited about stamp collecting again!

You do have a nice album, but the real value will be in the stamps, because of the current speculative activity. The stamps you have shown are from the late period Cultural Revolution. There is less speculative activity during this period, but still pockets of good value. The top page you show has a 2011 Scott catalog value of $57 (PRC 1204, 1207a, 1209-1210, 1215-1217), and the bottom page is $333 (PRC #1067-1071, 1074a, 1075).

They would go for higher than that at the right auction. However, for IRS purposes, using the 2011 Scott catalog values is sufficient.

I (and I'm sure others as well) would be more than happy to help you with the catalog values if you put up more pictures.

It looks like you have a very very nice collection of PRC during the late period of the Cultural Revolution. Brings back some collecting memories for me as well.

Kim

Beautiful album and stamps too. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your help. The question of valuation stemmed more from the fact that not many of the full CSEC albums were ever sold. This one (more or less) contains every issue from 70-73. (yes 100+ stamps) There was some question of that making it surpass the Scott values. I'll post the rest. They really are quite beautiful.

That's just the typical sales pitch by the company peddling their wares to other companies. It falls in the same category as "limited edition", "special numbered edition", "limited distribution", "rare and hard to find", "signed certificate of authentication"...

Trust me, the stamps are worth far more than the stockbook with the vendor logo plastered on it.

Also, I probably would not keep the stamps in that album. Although the album does not appear to be made in China, it is of the Asian manufacturing style of that period -- so it is very unlikely archival, although it does appear to be in excellent shape. Given the value of the collection, I would think it wise to store the stamps in something more archival. No rush, though, since the album does appear to be in excellent condition and apparently properly stored over the years.

I'll work on IDing your stamps with 2011 Scott catalog values later... I'll enjoy looking at the stamps first!

k

Ahh, that was my thought too. Uncle often looks sideways at such things though.

Looks like someone might have played with the stamp a bit in the past, as some of the sets are a little intermingled. I've listed the sets in "approximate" order of appearance on each page:

1199-1203, 1187-1189, $28
1194-1198, 1211-1214, $219.25
1218-1221, 1126-1129, 1114-1116, $182
1143-1148, 1208, 1004, 1108-1113, $254
1076-1079, 1099-1102, 1122-1125, $172.50
1131-1142, $27.50
1222-1227, 1149-1154, $72
1239-1341, 1190-1193, 1181-1186, $36.65

Remember, these are 2011 catalog prices. The prices in the 2012 catalog will be higher. Also, Cultural Revolution era PRC is one of the few areas in philately where the retail price is guaranteed to be higher than the catalog values, and still going up...

You do NOT have all the stamps from 1970-1973, unless you still have a few more pages you haven't posted. It's still a very nice collection. I'll let you add up the grand total.

Thanks for the pics! It's been many many years since I last touched my PRC collection -- it's archived somewhere in a box, so it was fun looking at your collection!

k

Thank you khj. And yes, there was a 6 year-old with shaky tongs admiring them 30 years ago and there's a second album to the set.

Magik, your screen name is very appropriate. There is definitely some magic in finding something like this that has memories as well as value. The best part is you get to preserve it now so that the memory can perpetuate itself. Get a good archival stock book or stamp catalog and have some fun. Be sure to keep posting pictures and the more close up the better. Great to have you with us and you have some terrific stamps there! - jeff

Keep in mind that I'm quoting you Scott catalog prices for IRS purposes and because you did not indicate you were interested in selling. I certainly hope you will decide to get back into stamp collecting and continue to participate here on SCF. Because of the continued speculative nature of the PRC stamp market, actual retail would certainly be higher, and for some of those sets, double or even triple catalog value -- such is the nature of the speculative market.

For IRS value if it holds tax implications I see nothing wrong with going at the minimum value and cutting that in half. A lawyer once told me that when it comes to valuating for negative purposes to look at the items as if you had to toss them in a 1 day yard sale and get what you could.
Very nice stamps and hope you will stick around and continue collecting.