Last Nights Stamp Club Meeting..

Last night was our one meeting for the month since or 2nd meeting in November and December always conflict with Thanksgiving and Christmas..We had David Giles as a guest from Ottawa and as a sign of respect Bobgggg came up from Shrub Oak..about 63 miles South to see him again...but anyway..a young man showed up who inherited his Grandmothers collection...of course it was mainly first day covers a and mint postage and it seemed no one wanted to give him the time of day... I looked at his covers and he had some decent advertising covers mixed in with the 20 cent covers of the 1960's... I asked him what he wanted for the collection..i did not get much of a helpful respons... I told him I could give him 50 dollars for the lot but also suggested he may want to hang on to them for a while..which he finally decided to do....i have been seeing this quite a bit at our club meetings lately..i try to explain about the complexities of trying to sell stamps !!

I am going to an estate sale tomorrow. one of the things advertised is a 100,000 count stamp collection.

Bring your checkbook.i imagine they want to sell it intact !!

I get this also once in a while. People assuming that their fathers 75 year old stamp collection MUST have great value. Around a year ago, a neighbor of mine brought his father in laws stamp collection over for me to look at. He was marrying off his daughter, and to help him out, his mother in law gave him her late husband's childhood stamp collection to sell. He asked me what I would give him for it. I didn't have the heart to offer him $20; he was expecting to pay for the wedding with the proceeds. So I sent him to a local coin dealer who also buys stamps. Dealer refused to even make an offer. But at least he didn't think that I was trying to cheat him.

Philb,

Most members won't know who David Giles is !

And we still don't know why he ran off like he did !

Londonbus1....always tells Mummy where he's going !

Hi Philb

Your story sure has a ring of familiarity to it. Our club is still growing and at about 75% of the meetings we have people who come just as guests and the majority of the time they have stamps or collections to sell.

I have always stated that the hardest thing to tell a non-collector about his / her inherited stamps or collection is that 'old' does not automatically mean 'valuable'. Although there are exceptions to the rule, about 98% of the time, they are not worth a lot.

One of the first things that will tip me off about a collection's value is the kind or type of album they pull out of their shopping bag or box. If the album has either a picture of an astronaut or a cowboy on the cover, I know the collection is another run of the mill type and not worth much. If they pull out a blank covered album that is a 'spring-back' type or an old leather jacket type, or better quality I know then that the collection may have potential.

I think that most of us 'serious' collectors like to house our collections in better quality binders etc.

My opinion of course.

Chimo

Bujutsu

and well done to you for being the one who spent time with the man instead of ignoring him!

It is when the new widow find out the truth about that stamp collection that seems to hurt the most.

I stay in contact with David Giles. We have occasionally helped one another out with stamps. He from Canada, and me from the US. New issues are sometimes hard to get right away and I have sent him some and he to me.

He is really a decent guy, and his departure from SCF is to be regretted.