Help...seeking Advice...collection As An Inheritance

Hello All-

I'm new here, and new to stamps.
Not sure, but suspect somewhat common entry point for many to stamp collecting...my father passed away a short while ago and left his collection as an inheritance.

My father pursued a good many collecting paths with uncommon intensity...meaning, he collected everything, in multitudes. But the stamp bug certainly bit him good. The result is, I have what I understand to be termed an "accumulation" rather than a "collection" to wrap my head around, assess it's value, and with any luck find a way to liquidate the majority of it and obtain the best value possible, acting on behalf of my fellow siblings, the responsibility has fallen on me. The volume is modestly put...overwhelming. I am not talking about a dozen binders and 1 box of stamps here...more like 23 bankers boxes, 12 being solid (bulk/sorted) stamps.

Knowing my father, my gut is that there's likely not any significantly high-value (papered) stamps in the lot...at least I haven't run across any indicators/clues yet. On other hand, he wasn't simply buying strictly kiloware lots. I believe he truly loved them, viewing them in all their variety, and sorting them as an activity to pass the time. His declining health limited his mobility, yet his high tested intellect fueled a steadily increasing passion with this. Stamps where not his only thing, but he was extremely active with it. He suffered from severe depression, as evidenced in just the stamps alone, he clearly had a whopping case of OCD, and would go stretches of isolation and not answering his phone. Not stated disparagingly, but to help illustrate what I am viewing of his collection.

Going through it, at first glance it appears a giant whopping load of stamps...but looking closer to viewing the level of sorting, and the ends he went to with it, it is truly remarkable when considering the time and effort involved. Again, this was not his only 'thing', so it makes it all the more impressive. The larger picture is a staggering volume, for one who lived in same 2-br apartment for his last 25 years. As stated, while his health increasingly slowed him down and limited his mobility, he increased his purchasing activity...meaning he had stamps coming in from dozens of sources daily. In last couple years, his daily life centered around daily 3:00 pm mail delivery, which was delivered in 1-2 large corrugated bins the PO used for bulk mail. This is when he began his day, and got busy.
God bless my father, I love him dearly and miss him. It's difficult to go through this collection and view the evidence of countless hours he spent with this, and to try and grasp the state of mind, the 'space' he was in as he spent his time, often very isolated.
I suspect some of you who may have taken up the task of sorting a kilo of stamps may understand the rather obsessive/compulsive state that gets a hold of you and compels toward completion the task.
I understand already from the little I have dig into so far.

So, here I am. Learning what I can, and considering the options. The volume involved frankly makes about every turn look 'daunting' to say the least. However, being that I am my fathers son, I have the same genetic 'stuff' in a way, and a capacity to tackle complex problems. Only time will tell if I am up to this challenge...


The obvious options so far are:
A. To find a dealer that will take it off our hands (at whatever cost offered) and be done with it.
B. Dig into it a bit and ascertain approximate bulk market value and (then) proceed with above with a bit better bargaining strength to possibly make out better.
C. Really dig into it and push sorting to next (bulk) level and sell lots ongoing.
D. Step-up and set up shop for the long haul, and sort out the good sets and individuals, and the remaining bulk lots for sale ongoing...become somewhat of a stamp dealer to include hiring an experienced philatelist to assist. I do some web-development, and creating a site, and listing auctions is not out of my capacity, but the volume and per-item price points, state of popularity of the hobby vs. nintendo...well you know. Add the return for time spent...makes this seem an untenable option. Most of you know what it takes to scan a stamp...there are just not enough hours in a lifetime.

What would you do...? To be clear, the volume present would take years to sort...literally, at least to the point of getting everything back into packets. Matching with catalog numbers and labeling/pricing...well that's a whole other dementia I would rather not think about at the moment...(shivers). Interested to hear how the collectors here might weigh in on this...


I have a couple questions...hopeful some of you may know answers:

1. SOFTWARE I have looked online at some collection management software packages. The claims on the websites are impressive, to include automated identification of stamps even..a bit more than I am looking for really, and suspect that to be equally as time consuming
What I am interested in (I think), is something that obviously correlates to Scott Catalog, is relatively easy to use, and importantly provides capability to print out envelopes/cards like dealers sell stamps in.
Second part to this question would be ON THE HARDWARE SIDE:
Are any of you aware of any specialized small-format quick-scanners and/or printers that are available for the stamp collector/dealer for the above purposes? I have seen small/portable USB (business-card) scanners that work quite well for that purpose. They are quick also. Has anyone seen or used one of these for stamp images, or used something similar sucessfully?
Specifically interested in finding a good solution for printing packet/envelopes...seems a regular desktop printer would be a nightmarish jam-o-rama, and source of ceaseless frustration. Maybe someone has found one that works fantastic for this?

2. TOPICAL BOOKS What are your views on the effort vs. return potential of creating topical books and selling them that way. My thinking is that this may appeal to possible buyers who are clearly outside the box of 'stamp collecting' and possibly widen the marketing options for me. I would suspect that someone into 'aviation' for example might enjoy a nice bound book chock-full of an impressive/endless variety of w/w aviation stamps, and so on with (warranted) topical subjects that may appeal to people with possible means/tastes. I also reason into this that such an audience may not scrutinize individual stamps, or even view them in the way a true stamp collector, and view a given book more as a whole object of interest/curiosity rather than a 'collection'. Just trying to entertain options outside the box as well as in...all 23 boxes that is.

Ok, that's all for now...if not way too much already.
Thanks for taking time to read, and I greatly appreciate any/all feedback you may have to offer.

Sincerely,
Fishead

I think you explained the picture of this expansive collection pretty well. The only unanswered question is do you have a mass collection of low valued common stamps or do you have some value. I am unsure if the collection is mostly US or a great mixture of both.

I would love to see some of the early USA stamps to see if you do in fact have some value. I couldn't even start to handicap the foreign stamps.

In any event my guess is that you have some value. Some things to consider though. Don't ever sell to the person who does eventually does the valuation of the collection. This is not wise and unethical for that person to do.

Do expect to be offered anywhere from 20% to 30% of the total value of the collection. There may be some exceptions on certain stamps.

A wise investment on your part might be to purchase a Scott catalog to help you determine if you have any valuable stamps. Of course you could try posting some there are enough people here that can help tell you what you have.
`
There are many good services for stamp evaluation. you might want to look through this web site for additional information.

http://www.stamps.org/

The APS (a non-profit, member-supported organization) offers a selling/appraising pack containing guidelines, suggestions, and the names and addresses of APS-recognized professional dealers for people seeking an equitable offer for their material. This information is available for $30 ($40 outside the US), postage and tax included, from the APS, 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte, PA 16823. Make checks payable to APS and ask for the selling/appraising pack. Most of this information will be found at various locations on this website.

Hi mkfarm,
Thanks for the info and sage advice.
I have a full set of Scott catalogs A-Z couple US, and some other ones as well. I believe they are in the '02 range...sufficient. Have an older Michel I've used a bit for the German stamps...wish they had in english.

I think I also have one of the APS sales kits you mention, he must have ordered but it is unused. Unfortunately I would need many thousands of their circuit books for the volume I am dealing with here. The submit/sales online may work for interesting things I find...
Any ideas/experience in doing so and how things seem to move selling this way? Curious, if this is effective way to sell...or if items stay posted for months on end without a snif....?

At any rate I have been to their site before, but have taken another look and spent some time reading there again today, thanks for reminder.

From my point of view it would depend on how much time you wanted to spend with the project, how much you enjoyed it, how important it was to you to get everything you could get out of it dollar-wise without working for 65-cents an hour if the material was not better value stuff, and how much it might otherwise interfere with the rest of your life.

I went through a similar situation after my father died a few years ago. He also collected many things but saved almost everything. Once Alzheimer's set in, he really couldn't deal with any of what he had accumulated. And it was a good-sized house. I dragged as much of it home as I could before my mother and brother threw it all away (my sister wasn't going to drag any of it off to Florida) and while I've managed to sell some of it off on ebay, a lot of it is still here and in my way, especially boxes and boxes of books.

Funny, but it wasn't long after I started selling some of the stamps, that I decided to begin collecting, once again, something I had given up on some 30 years prior, and started buying stamps on ebay, too.

From my experience in both buying and selling on ebay, I can offer the following suggestions.

1. If you don't want to spend a lot of time with it, sell it all off by the carton. If you show a lot of photographs and list them properly, these can sell very well and sometimes at surprisingly good prices. And it won't take up the rest of your life.

2. If you want to actually deal in stamps, rather than go the APS circuit route, get a basic ebay store for $15.95 per month plus listing and final value fees, scan your offers and list them there. I believe this will cost you less than APS fees and the turn around will be much quicker and if you list a lot of stuff, some of it almost immediate rather than waiting months for APS circuit books to make their rounds. You just have to have a lot of material listed to make the monthly subscription worth your while. With several hundred to maybe a few thousand items listed, you could be seeing sales notices in your email every day, just about any time of day. But you have to research the availability and going prices of anything you offer in your store, and price accordingly. Even the APS states not to sell at a straight percentage of catalog but somewhere near the going rates of advertisers in the philatelic press. On ebay, it would be at a competitive rate for ebay. You will find that some material is common at even a small fraction of catalog and you need to price this accordingly, while some is not being offered at all and you might be able to get full catalog or close to full catalog for it.

There are other stamp selling sites such a Stamp Wants coming online, but I don't believe they quite have the audience ebay has buyer-wise, even it they do cost less or possibly nothing to use. Setting up your own site would not only mean the work needed to do it, but also the ability to drive the kind of traffic you need your way.

Many sellers complain and even leave, but to me, ebay is worth their cut, even though it keeps increasing. Some buyers might complain about the added handling fees you might charge but it you study what is being done and are not unreasonable in seeing that your ebay and PayPal fees are covered when selling low-priced items and combine shipping at reduced rates for multiple purchases, you'll do alright feedback wise, too, with all but those who expect you to work for nothing and give the stuff away, besides.

Of course, depending on what you have, you can do this in different ways, such as list the better items in your store and parcel out the rest in cartons at auction or break it down and sell similar material in auction lots. But with any mixed lots or collections, be sure to show plenty of photos and make your description enticing.

Hope this helps. Any questions, just ask.

Fishead....

Mods advice is spelled out pretty good.....I can't think of anything to add at the moment.

If you have the time and have no need of turning this into cash quickly this might be a fun venture. A hobby and being able to make an income form it can be fun.

Hello again and Thanks All for your feedback!
Mod, thanks for taking the extra time!
Been chipping away here, only seem to have caught a cold, darn it all.

To answer couple questions best I can. My impression is the vast majority are common low value stamps. However that's my impression as I don't know exactly what I'm looking at for one. And, not sure your definition of low value. I'd say it's safe to assume there are not $500 and above valued stamps in the mix. But not at all uncommon for him to spend $1-$20 or more for single stamps as evidenced in the thousands of packets. As stated, he was not buying bulk, but individuals and sets in the usual packet/sleeves dealers use.

After spending a couple long nights pulling things together into similar categories, here is what I have in general terms:
(all in standard bankers-boxes)

1 box (full) US
3 box (full) US FDC's w/several albums
2 box (full) TOPICALS approx. 1/2 box volume sorted..birds, fish, etc.
1 box (full) w/w COUNTRIES sorted by each specific country
3 box (full) w/w Sorted more generally..mint, old-mint, used, old-used
1 box (full) ROYALS sorted in various degrees, and bulk
1 box (full) full sheets, multi, still in sleeves, dealer book sheets
...something I'm missing...anyway 12+ full boxes of pure STAMPS.
Oh, it's the Jars I'm forgetting...
The Jars number 30 total, and make up some of the (box) volume in some of the boxes above.

2 boxes of albums that have stamps in them..mostly full, US, topicals, royals etc. that constitute more the finish guts of the 'collection' that he actually managed to put together.

1+ box (full) of books and Catalogs
1 box (full) of supplies and tools
2 box (full) of albums from Co's like Kenmore where he was having packets of pages+stamps sent ongoing. So basically ready made albums.
3+ boxes of albums- more of same many pages, but without the stamps, and a number of empty binders.

Quick couple shots/descriptions below and I'm off to rest...

Here's approx 2 boxes of Topicals. The bags laid out front are sorted topic specific. There are 8 of the "Jars" I've mentioned...sorted as "topical", rather in a to-be sorted further by topic state. Under the Jars in the box are many large bulk bags level to bottom 4" of box.
Who knows when I get into the w/w stuff, but from sorting through (one) jug I've found only a dozen or so categories, so I'm thinking he was buying them like that. You'll see there are paper clips on some, yes I know...not good for stamps, I'm picking them out as I go. A few I see it's put a crink on, but majority, mint sets and the like are a-ok still thankfully.

Anyway, all I have time for tonight, I'm tired.
More later, and more pix/less type now the background has been laid out.

Cheers all and thanks for looking and the feedback!








Another grouping all labeled: w/w oversized, multiples, & specials



w/w SM DEFS x4 Jars and a few bags

Wow, I can relate, your father was an accumulator as well as a collector..nothing wrong with that..many of us are...one suggestion, after you are with us a while and reach 50 posts..i know there are people here many starting out that would be interested in purchasing some bulk lots of some size...take your time..enjoy the learning process !!

Modern_who I know 65 cents an hour does not sound like much..i am sorting stamps as I sit here..but its cheaper than going to a therapist...i am somewhat relaxed as I sort away !