Ready To Throw It All Away

I think I am just frustrated that I cannot find any stamps that are worth collecting. Here is a photo of a few of my stamps that I cannot seem to identify. I have an idea of what they might be but I just cant say for sure. Are any of these worth keeping?

Seriously? Is this a joke post? Those Civil War covers are awesome! Let me send you my home address for you to unload them.

If I thru out every thing I didn't think was worth collecting, I wouldn't have anything to collect!

The covers are quite nice. I wish I could read the manuscript cancel.

The U.S. patriotic cover and two Confederate covers are very nice and definitely have value. The latter has selling prices on ebay anywhere from roughly $20 to $200 per cover. Better images to see condition, postmarks and stamps would help to ascertain a better value.

As for the stamps, the Washington-Franklin stamps can be tricky to sort as you have to pay attention to the perforations, watermarks, printing types, etc. Again condition is a factor. Rips, tears, creases, stains, etc. can knock down the value quite a bit. I do see one perfin in the lot, but cannot tell the type. It's the stamps punched with little holes. The stamp with the Seattle, Washi. is a precanceled stamp and some folks here specialize in it.

Please don't throw any of it away. It can be frustrating when you're new, but people here and even a local stamp club can help you to determine the Scott catalog numbers and organize what you have.

Welcome to this forum, shedug! I am glad you posted your concern. Hopefully we can answer your question and dispel any frustration you may have.
First these are very nice covers and well worth having. Secondly, decide what it is you want to get out of collecting and concentrate on that aspect, BUT, (and a big but), keep an open mind. You may find that another area piques an interest. I personally do not expect to get a return - this is my hobby. I would be surprised if I get much return on my investment, but I look at my investment as enjoyment.
The top cover is a civil war "patriotic" cover. The bottom two have Confederates States of America stamps and appear to be Scott's A4 - Jefferson Davis. All three have the potential to be valuable. I would suggest contacting a local stamp club and ask if there are any civil war experts who could look at them for you.

Thank you all for your comments. I started collecting stamps about ten years ago when a small collection of stamps were given to me. I spent some time researching the collection and then set the collection aside for several years. During this time I had been given several other small collections that I just set aside with the first collection. For the first time in four years I have gotten the whole collection out and started researching the stamps and trying to identify them. I am not looking to get a return out of the collection. I didn't realize how many stamps that I really had and how overwhelming it would be to try and sort and identify them all. Looking at each stamp and seeing that I always had the most common of stamps. Stamps that are so common you almost couldn't give them away. I started thinking maybe that's why they were given to me. I have so many duplicates. What do you do with the duplicates? Most of them don't have much of a value and I can't bring myself to throw them away. I feel much better after reading everyone's comments. I guess I needed to know that I did have something in the collection that others would enjoy seeing. It's not the value that I am interested in finding, I just needed to hear that I did have a few gems in my collection. BTW the U.S. Patriotic Cover contains a letter from a soldier, I believe. I will try and attach a scan of the letter inside the envelope. Sorry if I rambled. This has been a tremendous help for me. Thank you all so much.

I wouldn't worry too much about any of the stamps being considered "common". What might be considered a common stamp to one person might have an uncommon attribute to it, like a nice cancel, that will be very collectible to someone else. Also, I'm not sure how many different stamps have been issued over the years by stamp issuing entities, but I'll wager it's in the vicinity of 500,000 or so. Of those I'm sure the vast majority are considered "common". You can have a very nice collection of common stamps. I'm sure I have many thousands myself. Just don't get overwhelmed with all the varieties and identities. Take it slow and and enjoy it all.

Why on earth would you feel that way about that collection?? I would cut off one of James' fingers for anything on that scan! lol (Just kidding James) Serious;y those are worth some money despite any condition issues. If you have enough time please make better scans of each. especially that confederate cover!

Since you are not sure what you have, and did not mention having any of the key tools for identifying your material, I would suggest that you not think of ANY of your stamps as duplicates until you can match them with the listings in a standard catalog, such as the Scott U.S. Specialized. Anything on cover, or even on a piece of paper, showing a cancellation or other marking should not be removed until you know exactly what it is. Once you have the right tools, and have been able to identify some of your challenging items, you may discover what makes stamp collecting so intriguing to those of us who are really into it. Hang on for a great ride.

I have a trash bin available here if you'd like

Seriously, thought the covers are REALLY nice.

Hey!


{ Jeff, that's the only time having one of my digits threatened has ever made me laugh!
And or record, I was going to mention that I could present one of them to you for the operation, but remembered this is family forum. }

LOL I'm sorry James I had to do it... I am in a good mood.

No rocket science here. James, it simply means you won't be able to do quite as much in the digital sense, no matter how much you upgrade your computer. Possibly THIS, for instance...

Yep - we are in the digital age!

You guys are killing me :) LOL

I will see what I can do about getting some better scans up of the covers.