Breaking Up Sheets And Plate Blocks Of Stamps Into Mnh Singl

I'm thinking of just breaking them all up, The plate blocks....and sheets into singles. All I have are MNH. What do you think? I have a couple hundred maybe 300 plate blocks. There doesn't seem to be any interest in plate blocks any more. The Post office ruined it when they started requiring 20 stamps to make a plate block. I also have several sheets and there is even less interest in sheets of stamps. I don't have anything newer in sheets or plate blocks than 1974 with just a few exceptions in the plate blocks. My Plate Blocks start about 1938. Chuck

TinMan,
I have sheets from the '30s through the '80s and plate blocks from the '30s through the '60s. I wouldn't break them up because I couldn't change my mind once I've done it. Most of these stamps are common, so how much would you gain by making singles from your multiples?

Karen

If that is what you really want to do, I say go for it. But you may want to chew on Karen's caution before you do.
I have broken up several sets of the 1976 US Bicentennial Souvenir Sheets and also a set of the Christopher Columbus mini Souvenir Sheets and used them for postage. I have not regretted that and doubt I ever will. I was actually a bit disappointed that some of the ones that came back to me did not get canceled.

No one really asked, but here's my philosophy on the subject.

To begin with, I 100% agree that plate block collecting has waned and few of them from the 1940's to present day have much of any value over face. However, having said that consider the following:

a. More and more collectors are tearing plate blocks up and using the stamps for postage, which to me means that in the future the availability of plate blocks will be proportionately less and could mean that prices will go higher in the future if there should be a recurrence in demand for them (admittedly a long shot).

b. Sometimes a lot of postal history can be told by identifying the plate number upon which the stamp was printed. How much more space does it really take to store plate blocks as opposed to four single stamps? Until you need to have a supply of single stamps, I would lean toward leaving them as plate blocks. You (or another collector should you sell or trade them) can always tear them apart later on. Once apart, though, they cannot be put back together again, so the value of the plate block, however minimal, is completely gone should you just tear them apart now for no good reason.

c. Fast forward to 2012 and the plate blocks of today (often in four corners of a sheet of 20) are a lot more common than the older ones where there was only one plate block for every sheet of 50 or 100 stamps. In reality, plate blocks today are not really necessary with computer-driven printing equipment, so they really stay on the stamps for die hard collectors (who, of course, add to the revenue of the US Postal Service by continuing to buy them). If you absolutely must tear the stamps apart, consider keeping the plate number "singles", that is the single stamp with the plate number selvage attached. Apparently this is becoming quite a popular sub-collecting discipline and, as was said earlier, if the plate number stays with at least one stamp, you may be able to identify a whole lot more about it than just seeing the stamp alone. Consider some of the other reasons for collecting plate number singles at this link:

http://www.apnss.org/intro.htm

Thanks everyone for your imput. This is something I've been thinking about for a long time but I hate to do something I might regret down the road. Although at 66 my road is getting shorter year ny year. Maybe the best thing would be to separate the sheets into plate blocks and see what happens and then after a year or two more then consider breaking down the plate blocks. What is bad is other than H.E. Harris I can't even find Plate Block Albums anymore unless I am willing to spend 3 or 4 hundred dollars and the stamps are not worth it. Is anyone interested in buying Sheets of Stamps? I would be happy to list what sheets I have in the Want To Sell section of SCF.

At the very least keep a plate single. Any dealer will tell you to break them down as there really is no premium for post 1940 plate blocks as they are literally a dime a dozen. If you have some that have superb centering, these will sell better as singles. If the centering is off I'd leave them as plate blocks since that would be the only thing they have going for them. Off center singles are hard to sell as collectors looking for well balanced margins will have nothing to do with these.

Not only you, but NO ONE can ever put them together again and there are only so many plate blocks and sheets out there. And there will come a day, maybe your grandkids, but you have them as they are and it's no work to keep them that way. (Matter of fact it is work to break them up). Hold on to what you have you wont regret it. IMHO