I Am Unsure About What To Do With World Stamps

The album I have includes US stamps and world stamps. Most of the stamps are pre 40's.. If I decide to sell the world stamps, which book should I buy to assist me. When I have reached the amount of posts necessary to sell, I will probably have a contest or sell them separately. Thank you for your help.

With book, I suppose you mean catalogue. If you live in the USA, Scott might be your best reference guide. The numbers and descriptions will help you identify your stamps and inform potential sellers of what you have to offer. The prices may give you a comparison, but do not expect to get more than 10% - 15% of the quoted prices. Also, keep in mind those prices are for stamps in good condition.

If you think your market is in Europe, Michel is a much better catalogue. But costs, likely, will be high.

You might want to post some of the early Germany, France, GB stamps so people can get an idea of what you are talking about and give you a more relevant answer to your question.

Yes, I meant catalogue. Can I find it on Amazon?

If you only have older stamps, you might better look for an older edition on ebay. Which exact catalogue, someone else might best tell you. Prices can be steep, especially when bought new. It might not be worth it if the stamps are not valuable.

For a catalog try the local library reference area. The stampsmarter.com app of this forum is another option . Local clubs is still another choice

Thank you for your advice. I will probably post some of the GB, Germany French, and Australian in the near future.

Yes, post photos and you could get some guidance about valuing the collection.

At this point, you don't know if buying anything is worthwhile, thus I direct you to your nearest library for Scott Catalogs. If pre-1940, then the Classic is what to use, one volume and all the countries.

I shopped a few very good used book websites and managed to put together a complete set of 2023 Scott Catalogues (including the specialized US) for under $200. Every copy was a "used" library copy, and they are almost brand new. A fantastic way to get an almost brand new set for way less money!

There is really NOT a stampsmarter.com app on this website.

The Stamp Smarter Philatelic Learning Center website,

https://stampsmarter.org/

has several features that function as stamp identifiers for United States stamps (no world stamps, sorry), one of these can be found here:

https://stampsmarter.org/1847usa/AL...ntifier.html

It does display a catalog number, which is based on Scott, but it is designed primarily to provide different characteristics of a stamp so that the user can determine which variety he might have.

Another stamp identifier page is found here:

https://stampsmarter.org/features/H...fiersUS.html

The primary difference is in the way sections are organized.

The reason we have two different features with the same basic purpose is that the second one shown was created by Don Denman about ten years ago for the origial Stamp Smarter website, then later he was given the opportunity to preserve the 1847USA website when the original owner was no longer in a position to support it. Both have information about US istamp ssues up until about 2017.

MikeL

Edited to correct spelling of Don's last name. Sorry Don.

ack2394... Good score getting a complete set!

After giving it a few weeks and much thought I decided to keep both world and US stamps. My father put the stamps together in a set, which is where it will stay. I am going to collect the US stamps, I will keep the world stamps, together but will keep all of them. I was a history major in college and I find collecting stamps to be filled with history.

Depending upon the depth of how you want to collect in US stamps, it will also be challenging with the varieties, as an example, the Washington-Franklin series. If you are into history, you may wish to eventually get into postal history (the collection of stamped envelopes, postcards and wrappers). In the postal history I collect, I'm not just interested in the stamp and rates, but in who the receiver was, and where possible, who was the sender. That's part of the history of the cover.

Another part of a cover, postcard or wrapper's history is the postmark. The various postmarks of each town show the evolution of that towns mail handling.
Railroad Post Office markings are another branch of postal history.
One of the aspects of postmarks I enjoy is that they all have beginning and ending dates, usually expressed as Earliest Known Use (EKU) and Latest Known Use (LKU).

Postal history is definitely on my radar. I am enjoying my new hobby. There is so much history to learn, I feel I am just beginning.