Hello From NY

Hello all,
Hopefully I found a pretty good fourm page for stamp collecting.

Long story short, my step father passed away recently. And while helping clear out his house I came across his stamp collection. There are stamps from 1847 to the mid/late 1970's.
There are block/plate set, first day covers, single stamps, foreign stamps from all over the world. Used stamps w/ post marks, sheets of stamps.

Now here's the dilemma that I'm in. I'm not a big stamp collector, but I do think there pretty neat to look at. I'm in the military and get moved around a lot. And there are 3 large boxes of stamps in folders, smaller boxes and what not. I'll be going to Iraq early next year. What is a good way to store them for long term with out damage, or would I be better off trying to sell them all to a collector at once?

Any help would be good.

Bones, the thing is..if you are going to sell to a collector..wht do you ask for an asking price?..i have been around stamps all my life and and know that its not easy to come up with an equitable price for both buyer and seller..if you know a reliable stamp collector thats interested in buying thats a good thing !!

Bones..check and see if there is a stamp club around your way..when someone comes in with stamps to sell at our club..they can ask different collectors and get a feel for what they have is worth..in other words you need a knowledgable person to help determine a worth for your stuff..get 2 or 3 offers..that should give you a ball park figure on the market value of your stamps...

Storage isn't bad for a few years if you have a storage area available that is average for light, humidity,temperature, and security. Light isn't usually too much of a problem because most of them would be in a closed album or storage box. Albums should be stored on edge rather than flat to prevent causing stamps to stick to the pages. Humidity for paper such as stamps should be between 40-60% to keep the stamps flexible and strong. Temperatures about what is comfortable for humans. Generally, I have stored albums for over 20 years in a bedroom closet with no problem here in a desert area with high humidity during summer monsoon season. The heavy duty Ziplock bags are very good for protection if you seal them when the conditions are normal as above. Some I left in a garage box by accident were OK also, except for some dust on the albums, and the garage reaches near 100 often during the summer.
Security is often the hardest part.When you are on the move,If you have trusted, knowledgeable, family, and they have a spare closet, offer to put a door lock on it for security. If you have a more secure storage place such as a bank box that would take an album page, pull out the US pages up to 1934 and store them there. The majority of your value will probably be there IMO. If you have room, do the same for Great Britain,Canada, France, Switzerland. Others may have other ideas.

Use a video camera and flip through each collection and store for insurance purposes. YOu should check to be sure you have insurance to cover in case of Fire, theft, Tornado, etc.

I really like the H.E. Harris Postage stamp catalog of the US/Can&Provinces 2008 , ISBN # 0-7948-2395-5 for references for novices. It is $16.47 on Amazon. Or borrow a Scott's catalog from the library. This will help you decide the value of the US/Canadian portion of your collection. We can help if you have problems on Identifications, etc. However, the prices in all catalogs are "optimistic" I buy a lot at 1/3 to 1/4 of the price except for certain short supply stamps.

Oh, and Welcome!

Jim

Welcome MP_Bones

Hope you decide to keep the collection. I think you'll find it very relaxing and rewarding. Sounds like you have a great head start.

Dianne

to the forum MP_Bones

MP-Bones

Welcome I also hope you decide to keep your collection and share it with us

Welcome! I think you'll enjoy this forum. I'm new, too - just learning my way around.

Judybug

Hi MP-Bones.

Great to have you here.

You should keep that collection. As Dianne said, it's a great form of relaxation.

Steve

to the SCF family!

Yu've received a lot of good advice. I might add that if you think there will ever be a chance that a family member might want to collect now or in the future don't sell. You would never be able to replace the material later for what you sell it for now.

Hey all, thanks for the advise and the great welcome.

to SCF MP_Bones.