Fair Value For Stamps In Bulk?

Hi Everyone,

After having spent the last month sorting through a coin collection left to me by my father (a work still in progress over on the coin forum), I don't think I have it in me to do it all over again with his stamps.

There's roughly 6 full albums worth of stamps along with a couple small boxes filled with individual ones inside white envelopes.

In any case, my question is, what is the best way for me to get a fair value for the collection in bulk?

I really would rather not have to sort through it all like I did the coins, so I'm hoping to find an answer that doesn't involve trying to ID each individual stamp. :)

Hi and a big unfamiliar.

Get yourself to 50 posts and sell them on SCF. Best way I would Say.

Who knows after 50 posts (which will not take long to get) you just might want to collect stamps as well or a bit of both.

Give yourself a bit of time to think it through.

All The Best. KGV.

Any other suggestions?

I genuinely didn't come here trying to sell it to anyone here, but more curious about when and where I could do so without the hassle of having to individually ID thousands of stamps.

Me and my father inherited from my grandpa, same as you.. A vast coin collection and a stamp collection. We started sorting the coin collection first as well, it took 1-2 years for us to find all the coins that was hidden in the house and to sort them. We sorted through roughly 29 000 coins.. And now we're sorting through stamps, which most probably are more in quantity since they're easier to store in quantity.

I find it great fun to just simply sort things like this. Start sorting by country and then just take 1 country each time and look in a catalogue. It's fun! Let it take the time it takes. Who knows, you might have something of value. I advice you to look through it at least.. If there are any problems, this site is the best site for help. :)

Good luck with selling or sorting!

Selling via auction house (search on SCF here, sorry I don't know them right off) (Seigal?) if the stamps are worth anything.

If mostly common or in bad shape them you can sell on ebay yourself by album or lot.

Take some to a stamp club nearby or a stamp store (if any exist) to get an idea of value OR post some pics from each country (oldest first) here and see what the folks think and what to do. New topic for each country so title attracts the knowledgeable people.

Hard to say without seeing the quality of whatever you have. Condition is paramount.

You sell in bulk expect bulk prices. Sell in small groups better and singlely best. Time spent versus price realized.

If stamps are in full albums already sorted by country and in somewhat date ranges I see alot of sellers offering 2-10 pages from albums and basically just stating approximate dates. As you know with coins knowledge is MONEY and a basic coind with certain stamp may be worth 10x what the typical is-- same principal here altjouh wih most stamps to a lesser extent. I would suggest looking at the collection as a whole based on what type of coin collection he had- Idea being that if he took alot of time and had some better coins the chances would be that he also put alot of effort into his stamps. I know its apples and oranges but collectors tend to follow simular traits across their specialties. If the coins were a hodge podge with a couple gems here and there the stamps may follow suit. However if the coin colection as pristine with rarities and high values I would suggest that there may be diamonds in the stamps as well. We would certainly be able to help quickly with some scans- Se what countries look well attended to and scan the first couple pages assuming oldest first. Pay particular attention to China as it is a hot commodity in stamps and south america and russia are gaining ground as well. If there is a good older US Canada australia and Gb there is potential for some good ones as well.

Hi 'unfamiliar' and welcome.

You will have to decide the amount of time that you want to invest in getting your 'fair market value'.

With a minimum amount of time you could go to a bricks and mortar stamp store, now becoming more rare, and have them look at them and give you an offer. The amount will typically be a lot less money than other options.

Then in order of your investment in time you will typically gain more money by:

1. Contact a stamp auction house that specializes in the countries you have (Google search), tell them roughly what you have, and if they decide to include them in their next auction then you will have to pay to have them registered and sent to them. They will take a commission on a sale, and send you the remainder.

2. Breaking the collection into country lots, scanning them and placing them on ebay or another auction site with a minimum bid of $1.00 and hoping that collectors will see the valuable stamps and complete on price.

3. Go to your local library and using the Scott stamp catalogues, determine what you have, and what their catalogue value is. Keep in mind that the market price for stamps is typically 15-30% of their catalogue value.

Finally you could go to your local stamp club, that would typically meet once a month or more often and show your stamps to them to get some knowledge as what you have so that you can decide what route to take with them.

Good luck!

So what did you end up doing with the coin collection?

Thank you all for the advice.

nitrolures mentioned that China is popular now, so maybe I'll take a picture of a few of the China pages and post them in the appropriate forum here to get an idea if the collection is worth sorting through.

Does that sound reasonable?

As for the coins, I've kept the really valuable ones, the sets, etc and plan to pass those down to my son. He had boxes of junk silver, too, which I felt was worth selling at the current price of silver -- so those are gone.

Now I'm sorting through his ancient coins and will decide on what to do with those once I get a feel for their value (ie are they worth keeping and passing down or not).

I see a lot of ads from Mystic stamp company that they buy collections. I don't know what kind of prices they pay, but myabe you could get them to look at it and see what they come up with. You don't have to accept their offer if you don't like it.