How Do I Value/Price First Day Covers

I have a box and a binder full of them but not sure how to value them and are the still worth any thing the collection is from 1936 to the 1970s

First Day Covers are on average not worth very much, but you can always check the sold prices on eBay
By the way, welcome to the forum

Peter

Some first day cover values are in the Scott Specialized catalog, but the Scott/Melloine First Day Cover Catalogue & Checklist is the best source. The last year it was published (that I'm aware of) was 2009. You can get a copy on Amazon or eBay. I recommend shopping around as some copies are very expensive ($200+). Good luck!

'
Cruel to say it, but your (presumably American) mid-20th Century First Day Covers may not be worth the cost of a catalog ... any catalog.

As with all collectibles, Kondition is King.

Beyond that, fashions have changed, and it is a buyers market, and the buyers are looking for the more-favored cachets (the artwork over on the left) and for the cover to be unaddressed.

Survey your lot, and post a scan of a few less-usual items ... scans are cheaper than catalogs.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Addressed or unaddressed? Cachet? There are exceptions but around .10¢ a cover.

Post some photos please.
and

If they are in perfect condition and unaddressed there could be a desirable cachet or two among the earliest ones or the ones with dollar value stamps, but in general FDC from this era tend to be sold in bulk lots on eBay for about 15 cents to 25 cents each, depending on several factors. The problem is that there are not very many FDC collectors any more - at least compared to what there were back in the day, and the supply of FDCs is very high. Most dealers will not buy FDCs unless they get a huge lot for very little since they can buy wholesale lots very easily. To give you an idea of how common they are, I just did a quick eBay search on US FDCs and there are over 225,000 active auctions for them today with few buyers. Most of those auctions have unrealistic starting prices and will go unsold. To get an idea what they sell for when they actually sell you need to ignore the starting bids of active auctions and instead filter for FDC auctions that have actually sold. Then you need to factor in the fees eBay charges the seller plus the cost of postage for the seller to ship the cover. And as in most cases sellers ask for payment by PayPal you need to factor in the fees charged by PayPal.

Don't care if FDCs are not valuable or much collected .I like'em anyway.

Ignore catalogs, ignore people who tell you what to collect, ignore people who tell how to collect.

Collect whatever you enjoy, collect in whatever way suits you. The only 'rule' is that you should be a good steward of the material you own.

Don

FDCs grew out of a legitimate collecting interest: EKUs (the Earliest Known Use).

As the hobby developed in the late 1800s and beyond, it was natural enough for collectors to want to establish the first known use of each stamp. The natural next step was to seek advance notice of when & where stamps would be released, so that collectors could create their own EKU covers. The Post Office began to cooperate, and the game was afoot!

Today, First Day Covers get a bad rap because of their infinitesimal resale value. Fair enough. Publishers & dealers pushed them for their long-term "investment" and "collector" value, but it turned-out that, like the various Franklin Mint products, the main value was that FDCs showed-up each month, period, and you got to open the package, handle the goods, ohh & aah at your new treasures, and put them away ... which was pretty much all they were good for.

All that having been said, I've got three nice things to say about FDCs:

1) I think they make a nice way to introduce strangers to the hobby. FDCs are TFP (Tongs-Free Philately) and, with their stamps & fastidiously neat cancellations & story-telling artwork (cachet), they are a whole lot more interesting than album page after album page of, uh, stamps.

That FDCs come with a cautionary tale - that stamps are subject to the same sorts of fads & fashions & nonsense that afflict most every other collectible - does not bother me; when I taught my kids about driving, for example, I included a lot of cautionary tales ... and everybody went on to get a license.

2) The AFDCS publishes a journal, First Days, which is a pretty good read ... even if you avoid FDCs like the plague. Tell 'em I sent you.

3) FDCs are as cheap as dirt, so you can give piles of them to very little kids. And, if the kid likes bicycles, for example, they are going to be way more impressed with the FDC of a bicycle stamp than with, say, a stamp.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who prefers addressed to unaddressed, because the addressed FDCs are covers that usually traveled thru the mail, where as the "C" in "unaddressed FDC" is best read as "Cargo")

Place stiffeners in the FDC and clip them to your spokes.

After you Varathane them.

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-c...polyurethane

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey