Help With Selling A Collection

I am a coin collector too.
I got my stamps when my father passed.
He never taught me about stamps either, so I was at a loss.
Just looking at what you have shown so far, it looks like you were left some
very nice stamps, but very common. My father's was much older than yours, and
all the holes are filled where you have empties, and when I took them to dealers,
they didn't want to pay anything for his, so you will most likely get lowballed on
yours. I guess that's why they call them 'stealers'...

In the end, my father's collection, while huge and impressive looking, was worth
far less than the sentimental value, so I have slowly become a stamp collector, as
well as continuing with my coins. When money is tight, the stamps keep me busy since
they are much cheaper to collect than coins. Then when money is good, I work on coins.

The general rule of thumb is that stamps from WW2 on sell for around face value if
unused, and used stamps often sell by the pound, literally. I know dealers
that sell these stamps for less than face value for people wanting a discount
form of postage! So, to sell them for 70c on the dollar, you know they are giving
far less. I know of one with boxes of unused postage as old as the 1930s that he
sells in bulk for less than face! There are some exceptions, but not many.

Before the 1930s you start getting more and more stamps that have some value if in
used condition, while the unused start moving beyond face value as you go back in time.

What you have pictured from the 1920s-1930s are very nice, unused, and worth more than
face, but they are still close enough to that WW2 era that they still command only
small figures. You have one stamp from my favorite set, the Pan Americans, but it
is also the most common stamp in that set. If he had filled all of those holes in
that set with unused, you'd have some good money.

The blue Columbian is pretty much the same. I have many hundreds of the 1c and 2c
from that series. They came from stamps by the pound groups. But then some of the
others in that set are among the most expensive stamps you'll find. So it's not
always age and condition, but also which ones you have for a given set.

Anyway, my advice would be to keep the collection as an aside to your coins, and
play with them when you are bored with coins or want something cheaper to play with
until your coin allowance comes back. You have a nice start there, and probably won't
get much offered for it unless you have yet to post some much older/more rare stuff.

I forgot to mention that while catalogs have alot of great info,
the values listed are only for the absolute, most PERFECT possible
examples of the stamp listed. The catalog value is almost NEVER
what a stamp get RETAIL, much less wholesale, which a dealer will pay.

Think of CV being the value of an MS-70!
If yours is a 69, the value will be less,
and only go down from there.

The most common stamps often sell for 20-30% of CV (catalog value).

The best way to judge the TRUE fair market value of what you have,
and a way to judge how your stamp stacks up in condition, is to
check a large auction site and see what completed listings of that
stamp you are researching have sold for. Same way you would research
a coin value on ebay... The best site I know of is www.bidstart.com ,
it used to be StampWants, and is much more accurate in values than
www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay. They used to be only stamps, but have branched out into coins
and other collectibles. Look up some of your stamps there to get a
feel for the values.

Here is a completed BIN listing for a group of stamps you have:
http://stampwants-stamps.bidstart.c...58429/a.html