Pcs 1901 Pan American Stamps

I have the set in a PCS folder. I originally bought them to put them in my binder. Is it wise to remove these stamps from the folder and put them in an album or is it smarter to keep them in the PCS folder?

If this is the folder or "folio" you're referring to, I think I'd leave them alone. If you want to sell them in the future, giving the buyer the option to retain them in their original state is best. Once you destroy the "folio" there is no way to put it back into that state. If you leave it alone, the next buyer can do as he pleases.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...Sold=1&rt=nc

I seem to recall there was also some previous discussion that some of the stamps may not be as pristine as they appear in the folio (i.e. hinged or damaged gum, etc.) which could have an affect on future value.

Of course, these opinions are based on the idea that you want to sell them; if you just want to retain them for your own collection, the choice is, of course, yours.

hmmm.... a puzzle!
Soak off a stamp needed to fill a hole, whilst destroying an FDC by PCS, or retain the 25 cent value of the cover.
Conundrum!

No soaking is needed, and it's not a cover. It's a folio with stamps in capsules. So the choice is whether to break the capsules in order to retrieve the stamps for mounting in a conventional album. There is a prior thread on this subject that revolved around (a) whether the capsules could be broken without damaging the stamps and (b) the concern that once removed, the owner would discover that the stamps had disturbed gum and/or were previously hinged. In other words, PCS didn't necessarily use unmounted mint stamps when preparing these folios.

Thanks for the info. I think I'll leave them as is. I did peel one capsule off very gently and the back of the stamp did not look very good. The front looks mint. They are easy to peel off by using a blunt object to gently ease them off of sheet. You can stick them back on just by putting them back with a tiny bit of pressure. I didn't remove the stamp from the capsule.

In the past I have spoken with a few of the dealers who sold stamps to PCS back in the day. They would buy stamps that looked nice on the face for 10-12%% of cat and sell them for 18%-30% of cat to PCS. That means regums, reperfs, and heavy hinged stamps are very likely to be the norm rather than the exception. As long as they looked nice on the face.
I seem to recall that the person in that other discussion removed his stamps and said they were MNH. Alas, regummed is far more likely. There is nothing wrong with buying one of those sets as long as the price is right, low.