Guess The Value

Hi all, my name is Chris. I recently got my grandpa's stamp collection. I am not at all a collector and have no idea of what I am looking at. Are there any guesses as to what the value is for a set of 8 books full of those 22kt gold replicas of United States stamps from the mid to late '90's? I also have several envelopes full of cancelled stamps and several sheets of non circulated stuff. For starters, let's just get thru the large leather bound books.

Any ideas, thoughts, or guidance is appreciated.

Thanks!

Sorry. I should have added this to original post.

These albums of gold replicas have novelty value only despite the huge cost originally paid. Maybe 10-20 dollars each on a good day, but some have sold on ebay for less than 10 dollars per album.

Just checking some sold listings on ebay that suggest these are ranging from about $10 to $30 per book (depending on how many covers are in each book). Here's one recently sold on ebay for $14 containing 73 covers, which works out to about 20 cents per cover:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Golden-repl...em2c970ec4a2

Don't be fooled by the "22kt gold" reference, as I have read several accounts about these so-called "gold" replicas were typically gold foil in the thinnest possible coating, usually over cardboard or some other cheap base. I believe someone once calculated the cost to recover any "gold" content from these items would far exceed any precious metal value they may have.

Bottom line: They are pretty to look at but far from having any significant value.

Thanks for the info. I realized that the gold was just a leafing and the value was not in the gold. Rather, the stamps were the focus. Maybe I'll inventory the rest sometime. I am sure there may be a gem or two.

Well, "pretty to look at" is in the eye of the beholder, so I won't quarrel with that. But as cachets, they certainly are not very original and would seem to appeal to those not familiar with modern cachet artistry. In my early days of FDC collecting, I bought one of these. But as I added covers with more traditional and original cachets, this one stood out from the others as cheesey and cheap. I think that, not the lack of any meaningful amount of gold, is why they have little to no resale value. I have paid $100 for cacheted covers that didn't have a flyspeck of gold filagree anywhere to be found on them. The value was from elsewhere. Denude these covers of any pretense of gold and what attraction would they have? None whatsoever. That is why they have no value to knowledgeable collectors.

Show us that envelope of used stamps please.

That may have some value for the age and even the prettiness of those used stamps or the cancels, or the sheets of new ones, usually not worth their face value except for use a s postage, depending.

Resale to a dealer is usually getting you a low price as the dealer needs to resell these for his business to succeed.

Collectors themselves value things more (usually) than dealers.

I was doing some research on these so-called "collectible" gold replicas and found that the source had been Calhoun Collectors Society, which ultimately went bankrupt circa 1984. Although this doesn't relate to the specific gold replicas in the initial scan, I found this quote from a lengthy legal action to be interesting:




In other words, you'd need about 2000 of those gold stamps to make a troy ounce. Even with today's $1208.20 gold price, it makes each of those stamps worth little more than 60 cents each, if it were marketable for its gold content.