Stamps From The Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum

Hello, again!

In another thread I posted about some stamps my father had given my 10-year-old son to help pay for his college some day. As it turns out, the particular stamps I asked about in that thread aren't worth anything special (although I can apparently still use seven of them at a time to mail a letter).

Some of the other stamps my dad gave him, however, are (hopefully) a very different story. My dad purchased them awhile back (something like 15-20 years ago) directly from the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum (a.k.a the Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History) at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. I have no idea how famous this place is among stamp collectors, but it sounded impressive to me when my dad talked about it. I should point out, btw, that I'm an avid coin collector but know very little about stamps (just in case that wasn't obvious by now).

Anyway, these stamps are all on official "Scott" album pages and each stamp is identified with a Scott number. This has made it pretty easy to look up the stamps online and get some general values for most of them from websites that actually sell stamps (Mystic Stamp Company in particular has been a very helpful resource). Now, I know that retail prices found online aren't necessarily a valid way to find out what s stamp is "really" worth or how much I would actually be able to sell it for, but it's still nice to see that some of the stamps we have are selling for $500-1000 in mint condition (especially since these stamps all look to be in truly nice condition).

Anyway, I was looking on Amazon.com and noticed an official catalog by Scott that lists stamp prices and I was just wondering whether it would be worth getting or whether it would just reiterate what I have already found online? Are the prices in the catalog any more realistic? Does the catalog provide background and history of the stamps?

And, just for those who like such things, here are some pictures of some of the highlights from the collection. The pencil markings are all my notes based on the prices I found online and may or may not reflect reality, but I'd estimate we probably have somewhere north of $10,000 in value when all is said and done.



Oh, and I know this is the "Classic" forum, but the collection also included a small number of more modern stamps of which these are the highlights:

Although I am not a US revenue collector, I took a quick glance at my Scott catalogue which reveals that the values written on these pages are a gross exaggeration. I don't think any of those written values are accurate. Furthermore, there are a number of items that may not be what they are presented as (IE imperfs).

I have no idea what your father paid for these stamps, but I hope it wasn't even a small fraction of the values written on these pages ...

There are a number of revenue experts who will chime in with proper reviews, but take my message as fore-warning.

Brian

Thanks for the feedback, Rileysan. As I mentioned, the prices I noted were what one particular online store was asking for these stamps, and I'm fully aware that "full retail" is not likely to be close to what I would be able to sell it to a dealer (although it might be closer to what I could sell on ebay).

As for items not being what they are presented as, I'm reasonably confident that the museum would have gotten them right. My pictures are not the best, however, so it may be hard to make out the details in some cases.

With regard to the Scott catalog, are you saying that it does offer more realistic prices and values in general? If so, I'll definitely have to pick one up (although it looks like the latest 2015 version is awfully expensive, so I might see about getting one from 2014 or 2013).

One other thing...

The prices I got online reflect a range based on condition, the top price for being mint condition. I realize that none of the older stamps are in mint condition, since they are all used and cancelled.

As far as a Scott's Catalog goes, if you have a library close by, check with them. Usually you can find the latest copies in their reference sections.

Scott is the standard reference catalog used in the US and using Scott numbers and values are widely accepted in the American collecting community. It's very useful for that purpose. Scott values are over-inflated as well, but most collectors know this. Basically most stamps sell for somwhere between 10-50% or so of Scott values, with exceptions at the very high-end and low-end of the market, depending on condition and quality.

All right, I guess I will definitely have to re-adjust my expectations downward a bit. Thanks for the information.

While you remember your father telling you that he bought the stamps from the Spellman museum, he was probably referring to the annual stamp 'bazaar' (dealer bourse) held at the Spellman museum ... you should adjust your expectations accordingly, eg, they are former retail pieces, not former museum pieces.

That having been said, some of your stamps make me wish I knew more about manuscript cancels

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Well, my dad claimed that these were all part of the Spellman collection that the museum was selling off to make room for other stamps. But he could have certainly been mistaken. I just talked to him on the phone and he said it was probably 40 years ago and he can't really remember much of the details any more. He did confirm that they also had pages of mint stamps available, but he couldn't afford those and got the used ones instead. So, yeah, definitely not gonna pay for my son's college education. Still, I'm hoping we have a few thousand dollars in stamps when all is said and done, regardless.

It won't be anywhere near thousands of dollars.

Also, museums and libraries that receive donations from the public will often hold book sales (or in this case, stamp sales) to get rid of the stuff they don't want to house. It costs money to keep books or stamps or other museum artifacts. So that speaks in favor of these stamps being the cast-offs. On the other hand, if they were purchased at a dealer bourse held at the museum, they might be just regular run-of-the-mill stock, not cast-offs.

Then they were de-accessioned, period; if only that provenance would boost their market value!

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The exception to that rule is when a museum sells-off the items that it cannot afford to keep because they are too valuable, to wit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/a...ireland.html ... Sale of Old Masters Sets Off an Outcry in Ireland

Q/ Could barryg's Dad have bought the good stuff?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Revenue first Issue (1862-71)

Nice stamp! I don't have that one in the collection I received.

I have only that.

Alas, several of the stamps on the first two pages appear to be trimmed perforated stamps rather than genuine imperf or part perf stamps. The value of this group will be significantly less than the numbers written.