FDC Collection From Great Great Uncle

HELLO EVERYBODY,

I believe this is my first post. I'm usually on the coin side of this area. But anyways my grandfather has sent me a package of about 250 or so FDC's mostly between 1930's and 50's. I've look on ebay and other online retail places for prices.

Could anybody explain why arn't FDC really wanted right now?

Thanks

There are people who do collect first day covers, but what is really important about first day covers is not so much the stamps as the cachet maker. It seems the market is oversaturated with them, especially from cachet makers like Art Craft, Art Master, Fleetwood and several others. Those that I mentioned were mass produced. People still collect them as the designs can be nice, but most sell for $1.00 or less with some exceptions. Now there are cachet makers with lower printing runs that do fetch higher prices. Some of the hand-painted cachets fetch higher prices. You can check out auction houses like Regency-Superior which frequently have these types up for sale. Condition is also a big factor too. The lack of a cachet on more modern covers lowers the value as well as addressed covers. If you come across any FDCs with letters inside that are promotional from a company then there's more of a value to the cover. The completed ebay auctions will help you to determine going market rates on like covers in your collection.
Hope that helps some and welcome to the forums,
Will

One reason, you had FDC-mania in the 1980s, and a lot of people got burned, price-wise. Also, the USPS ruined the concept by marketing uncacheted covers, to this day. Finally, the sheer dollar volume of FDCs discourages a lot of collectors, especially when they aren't "really" first day covers at all (often prepared weeks later).

The last insult to classic FDC collecting came from the computer, and software like Photoshop, which let novices whip up cachets in scarcely an hour; everybody got into the act, so to speak, the homespun FDCs were impossible to track and catalog, and the protocols just drifted away in the flood of do-it-yourself cachets.

I happen to think that FDCs of the 1930s and 1940s are very interesting, and a real challenge to collect. Some issues had 100s of cachet makers, and, like Ioor Cachets, some had a multitude of color combos so complex that two generations later, you can't be sure you have them all.

Earl Planty and then Michael Mellone compiled the first detailed FDC catalogs, and my copies are well-thumbed from frequent reference.

There are many who actively collect first day covers and there are some that are both highly collectible and even valuable. There is a society dedicated to first day covers, http://www.afdcs.org/, You will find many links and some guidance on valuing your collection. If your plan is to sell them If you find the value is very low you best bet may be to sell them as a single group of covers rather than individually. A good place to seek advice would be a local stamp club.

Good luck

Thanks everybody for your input. That explains a lot to me and it all makes sense. I have found most of them using mystic stamps website to get a retail price and most of them are around 3-6 bucks and I have some that are 20+.

Any information gleaned from Mystic will not be helpful in the real world ... or any world, for that matter. Mystic is the king of retail markup. Think of them as a movie theatre concession stand. Items are often marked up 300% or more. As Battlestamps stated, look at "completed" listings on ebay and you will get a better idea on true retail value.

Brian

An even better place than ebay is www.bidstart.com .
Is much more specialized in stamps than www.ebay.com/b/260/" rel="nofollow">ebay. They used to
be called stampwants.com, but branched out recently into
coins and other collectables. You can get a feel for real
world value by checking out sites like this for sold pieces.

Like mentioned, in no way, shape, or form is Mystic realistic.
They are way beyond even stealers, er, dealers, and catalog value.