I Have Some Work To Do

Just received this from a clean out guy. He goes into houses and cleans them out, almost every stamp in on paper, thousands of them.



What's the fastest way to remove all the stamps I am thinking 5gal bucket.............Thoughts?

Thanks

Don't! At least not by putting everything in a 5 gallon bucket!

You will want to do it slowly.

Also, you will want to separate the stamps that may be on colored paper, as those will likely run and could ruin the whole lot of stamps in the process.

You will also need an adequate place to dry the stamps that do get soaked off paper.

You shouldn't rush the job. It can be very rewarding to soak off the stamps and gradually place them in an album, but there's no rush.

Cutting corners by suggesting that you soak everything together will only lead to disappointment.

Well... HOORA! that's a lot of fun there!
Here's what ya do. As suggested, separate the stamps. I would first separate by country. Tupperware containers work great for this, and another task later. They're cheap at second hand store too. I order manila stock pages to store my stamps after soaking cuz they are inexpensive, but they require a bit of finesse not to bend stamps. (open the pockets with your tongs before inserting stamps.
Start with your favorite country and remove all colored paper, but keep it as a country set away from the white paper. Now that you have all the white ones aside, go to the kitchen. The most I have done at one time is maybe a thousand. That took a couple hours.
Take a glass 13x9 baking pan that's clean (important) use one drop of blue liquid dawn detergent and fill 3/4 full with warm water, not hot. Put enough stamps to make a solid layer. Here's where I push them to the bottom and get a coffee.
After about 15 minutes, most if not all will have separated. some will require a gentle massage to get ALL the gum off the back of the stamp.
Now fill another container with cool water to rinse the stamps. Swish gently or just dip several times.
Place face down on paper towel to remove excess water droplets. Transfer to your drying medium. (I use card stock, white is best). I stack my card stock pages thus; 2 pages with stamps in between on top of a very flat hard surface, then I put my Strong's concise concordance on top. so its, card - stamps - card - card - stamp - card and so-on.
the next day I sort my stamps by denomination in my stock pages. If I don't have stock pages then I use storage containers with small compartments from Michael's crafts.

I'd pick a dozen or so, soak 'em, fix them up to dry, and then do another dozen or so. If you put more of them in the water than a dozen or so something will happen, you'll get distracted, and you will wind up leaving one or more in the water for WAAAY too long. As WT said, colored envelopes may run or in worst case you may ruin a stamp. Do white or light colored paper first, and colored paper in smaller batches. Change your soaking water often. Use one container for soaking, and one for an after-bath-in-and-out-wash to remove all gum/ink/dirt or anything the soak loosened.

After three batches or so force yourself to take a short break...if you don't you will get in a hurry and mess up some perfectly good stamps. You are a collector...it's supposed to be fun...who cares if it takes many months to get it all done?

Most of the stamps are U.S., I can't wait to dive in and see if there are any gems. I usually do soak them in a clear glass try, but this is going to take days to accomplish.

I never heard of using a drop of liquid soap to soak off does it help?

I did find one bag that was filled with lose stamps off the paper so while I am soaking I'll be sorting..............

Thanks as always, what a great site this is........

It wouldn't hurt, and can be helpful for dissolving any stubborn gum or "sort of loose" dirt. It might even work better if you used warm (not hot) water. Use a second bath of cold water after soaking (use fresh and cold-cold-cold water) to remove and residual dirt or soap. Warm water (and certainly hot) will make colored paper run onto stamps and into water...cold water will do better. Some say a drop of soap helps harden paper fibers but that is way beyond me. Change water after two or three batches or when you see any crud in the water. I use butter tubs to soak in...that's how small my batches are.

Going to try the liquid soap. This is going to be quite a project I might start tomorrow night......

Just remember to take your time. Another thing you can try for some fun is spread a bunch out on the table and see if you can pick out a handful of cool lookers, then soak those.

I try to see if I can remember which ones I need to complete an album page. Just as an example.

I agree with Buck on forcing oneself to take a break. When I did my last large batch it took several hours and quite a bit of coffee. But I was determined despite my wife pleading with me to give it a rest. But that's how I am, I have a lot of experience with tedious tasks. I worked at viewmaster for cryin out loud, and was an accountant for 15 years.

Keep it fun and post more pics!! See ya gotta take a break to post.

To soak stamps off red or green Christmas-card-envelope corners, for instance, use ice water with a sprinkling of salt to chemically "fix" the colors, remove the stamps as quickly as possible, and rinse several times.

Looks like a lot of fun and lots of great advice.

Good luck!

Hi Joe Stamps,

guykickinit's advice is good. I also would do the sorting first to eliminate any heavily obliterated, creased, torn, stained or otherwise damaged stamps. The rest I would sort into two piles, one for those of particular interest, higher values, keepers or other good finds. And one for the common, low value stamps. Then start soaking and drying pile one a few at a time so that accidental damage can be eliminated.

Terry

Im gonna have to try the salt water trick!!

That's a lot of stamps/fun right there! As stated profusely above do it slowly. I once tried the bathtub with a big lot once...It fastly go out of control. Some got ruined and no room for drying on that scale at least fast enough to keep up with the load. Just take my advice and don't use the tub! lol

I generally use two stainless steel bowls for soaking, I guess they are a gallon. I start with warm to hot water, then a change of water (the other bowl) 5 minutes later, then back to the first bowl 10 minutes later; in between, I fish out all the pieces of scrap paper the stamps were on.

Wow! You do have some work to do. I have a little myself, but not near as much as you. I picked up a little box of used stamps at a flea market that I need to sort through and soak.

Also, don't be afraid to set ones aside that just look neat on the paper. Maybe they have a nicely struck cancel that is half on the stamp and half on the paper, but a full clear strike. Remember, you can always soak them off later, but if you get too hasty and soak them all off, you can never go back and put them back on.