My Latest Addition

Kevin - I had not read your posting before I submitted mine.
Kevin is 110% right in every respect.
B

I disagree with that statement and my mid-life crisis has zero to do with your stamps (Which are very nice !). Which of these 2 stamps do you believe has more value ?

Stamp 1



Stamp 2



Also, are they original gum or re-gummed. Purchasing 100+ year old stamps that are never hinged and not part of a block is a risky proposition without a reputable certification.

If you like to display them as is, leave them as is. If you want to sell them, I think you need to know for sure what the condition of the gum is. Then you would need to remove them.
If you have an aching need to know what condition the gum is in for your own peace of mind..., then you would have to remove them.
If you want to transfer them to an album... well I think you get the idea.
Myself, I love the display as is.

@stallzer: I agree its a risk I am willing to take

Newsflash.... the display takes (away) from the value...
to anyone whom believes it enhances the value of the
set - in any way, shape or form, I have a nice stone
bridge for sale over the East River in NYC... why?
because it has PCS's name assocated with it, tarnishing it...

Get real, FCS... as revcollector so eloquently stated...
PCS is a major ripoff entity, bad reputation, with no
philatelic credibility established whatsoever... if I
had come upon this set in the PCS folder, the very first
thing I'd do would be to remove the stamps and then
deposit the display where it belongs... in the trash...

C'mon disi123, let's not get carried away. There is nothing about the display folder that would actually diminish the value. There is zero difference between that display an a hingeless mount on an album page. Yes it might not be for everyone but the display certainly does not hurt it IMHO

To me, monetary value only matters if you're trying to sell it or insure it.

The only thing that really influenced my decision to leave it. Or at least the major thought was. If I put them in my Album. Only I will see them and appreciate them. If I leave them in the display and hang them on a wall in my Family Room, Den or wherever you would choose. Everyone that comes in that room would see them. I don't collect stamps to make a profit because then only your budget controls what stamps you can buy or to see how expensive a stamp I can buy. I collect for the sheer pleasure. Nobody else in my Family is interested in stamps so when I die they will probably go into a garage sale or be sold on ebay for high bids with a one or two line description..

Any display that you hang on the wall to display stamps would have to be very sophisticated to prevent the stamps from being damaged by continuous exposure to daylight. Keeping them in a closed album will keep them fresher looking for the long haul, but nobody gets to see them. A few moments in a scanner is a compromise one might make toward having something to show. But the last place you want to put a valuable set of stamps is in anything on the wall. Consider the Shrine of the Book and the penance for unearthing ancient texts and putting them on public display. For how long?

@stampcrow - when you start paying more than $1000 per stamp, you will care about preservation. When the monetary value is significant, and you have an outlay to protect, then the value will matter to you. But I know your point, and my angle on the same thing is that having a sensitivity for preservation should not wait until it's just about the money. When the stamps are ruined by abuse, they are permanently lost to us all.

essayk What you are saying is true. What I did was to keep the display and hang them on the wall and then I bought single stamps to put in my album. Of course you probably couldn't do that with high value stamps.

essayk, I had not considered damage from exposure. That's a horse/argument of a different color. I would be concerned about preservation, no matter the cost outlay or value. I just hadn't thought of that in this case. I have the limited sight of an accumulator not the wisdom of a true collector or investor.

I resonate to your reply, Tinman. I get it. Here's my story.

Back in 1966 I was getting ready for a piano recital in the basement of the Menasha, WI public library; and there, prominently displayed on the wall, was a "stamp map" of the United States, which members of the local stamp club had covered with unused commemoratives in key places from across the country. I was so enamored of it that I rushed out and ordered a map that H.E. Harris was selling, and proceeded to gather unused examples of as many of the stamps as they illustrated, and a bunch more that were not pictured but had logical spaces, to mount on the map. A few used examples had to fill in, and a few others "got away." But when I got it all together I built a frame from wood molding which I stained and varnished, bought a piece of window glass at the hardware store, and hung it on the wall by my bed. Archival display? Not even close.

That map hung there until my parents died and I retrieved it. It has been hanging on walls in the places we have lived since then, and I just took a look at it a few minutes ago. Nearly all of the stamps are easily recognized and don't seem to have had much change in color - but I know that is an illusion from what has happened to some. I shudder to think what comparisons to examples of the same stamps in an album might reveal. The 1c defense issue of the 1940s was mounted over a section of ocean, and the stamp is now about the same color as the ocean water around it. The 9c prexy has gone from bright pink to a pink so pale it is all but completely washed out. The lettering on that stamp is quite illegible, but it had a cancel which now stands out more prominently than ever. Nearly the same thing happened to the 10c prexy, and the 20c Golden Gate issue from 1922 is valiantly trying to remain carmine rose, but is now down to a blush. The 3c Everglades issue with the White Heron looks about the same as always, but the Puerto Rico commem from 1949, which used to be a dull green, now looks grey. An unused 2c Columbian, the priciest thing on the map, is well defined, but dull.

Why do I tell you this story? Because although I was a kid in high school at the time, I did this as a philatelist, inspired by the example of other philatelists, using materials I purchased from a philatelic outlet. Although never entered in a competition, it was by any standard a philatelic display. But here's the question, knowing today what I do about archival preservation and the need to safeguard the stamps I collect, would I do it today? And my response is that if I felt about that project today, what I felt about it back then, I would not hesitate to do it again. In fact, I have not taken them down even now. To the extent that inexpensive common stamps are expendable, there is room for special philatelic uses and displays, which can be great sources of satisfaction to the creator. Creative uses of stamps ought to be appreciated and enjoyed, so long as they are not depriving the collecting community of rare and otherwise inaccessible material. An old Menasha, WI stamp club saw it that way, and so do I.