Does Anyone Have A Suggestion On What To Do With A Massive Collection Of 1950s-60s Plate Blocks

As a bonus in a collection I bought a while back I got 5 albums full of 50s and 60s plate blocks. In the 1955-56 book the person collected all four corners from every known plate. It must have been quite a project. It's all basically worthless from the standpoint of resale. Since they are 3c stamps it is basically worthless as face value also. But it is still quite the collection. Any suggestions short of a bonfire are welcome.

I have tons of them and have been using them for years to dress up my outgoing mail. I will leave the planet with many still left!

2 blocks per flat envelope shipped. They should be gone in a decade or so ;)

The low value makes them problematic. They work better on US #10 envelopes. Two 20c stamps + 5 three centers and you're in business!!

Yeah, these suggestions are about what I could expect. I guess they just will take up space for the foreseeable future. I find things like this that someone worked so hard on, that nobody wants, just kind of sad.

Well keep them!
Worms can turn.
If they are not "worth" much (whatever that means) then why break up
at all? stamps do not take up much room.

Sell as a collection

Try not to contribute to the "throw away society"

Rod - Are you saying that my popsicle stick collection should stay?

There was a time when Popsicle sticks were highly sought after; people used to use them for art projects.

Sell it intact? I have been interested in starting a plate block collection and have been shopping for plate block albums on eBay. I'm sure you would find an interested collector who would pay to give it a new home. Admittedly plate block auctions do not attract much attention (good for me ) but maybe put it Buy It Now and surely someone would find it eventually

I'm curious to know if they are preprinted albums (like Harris Plate Block album, or Scott Specialized Plate Block), or homemade albums.

Made many a organic compound for visualization using popsicle sticks and gumballs. Now what did I do yesterday

Use 9x12 manila envelopes for everything you mail out. There's plenty of space to use up those low denomination stamps.

First Class postage for the 9x12 is $0.98 for one ounce or less and $0.21 cents per additional ounce (that drops to 20¢ on Jan 24 2021). I just sent a sub- 2 ounce 9x12 using 2 x 20¢, 9 x 1¢, and 35 x 2¢; total $1.19

Very colorful envelope, and I used up most of my unused 1 and 2¢ 1954 definitive stamps that had gotten caught in a flood years ago and so had lost their gum.

The PO clerk had a ball hand-cancelling all of them. He loved it. The stamps were older than he was.

I could have used up the rest of my 1 and 2 centers, but the front of the envelope was getting pretty busy and I didn't want to encroach on the address label, so I decided to use the 20¢ spares.

tsmatx, that would be my first preference. I'd much prefer to find a collector who could work with it as a collection and not break it up. Here is a photo. It's 4 albums, not 5. As you can see it is a mixed bag. Two loose leaf albums with the intense coverage I mentioned - all 4 corners of every plate number. Then two quite different pre-printed albums.

My concern is that the postage will double the cost, but I'd be happy to find someone who wants it.

So yes, I'll probably try eBay. Now that listings are free for store owners (up to 10,000 listings or whatever) it doesn't hurt to try.

I'd either keep the set or sell it whole. It'd be sad to split up since the effort to reassemble such a collection today would be substantial.

BTW, postage for a domestic machinable 1 oz flat is currently $1.00, and the extra ounce 15 cents, soon to go up to 20.

risny,

I agree with your decision to try to sell it to a collector. Sometimes the whole is more valuable than the parts.

The previous posters are correct. Plate block (PB) collecting has fallen out of favor and individual PBs are generally not worth face value in the marketplace.

Yet there are PB collectors still around. The Durland Catalog of Plate Blocks still sells a few copies!

The collection you have came from a serious PB collector. The "goal" of PB collecting was all four corners of every PB number of a stamp.

You could reduce mailing costs by not mailing them in the binders, just the individual pages or just the PBs alone.

Of course there is no guarantee that they won't eventually be used for postage, but you will give what few PB collectors are left a shot at the collection,

Good luck!
Dan

Time is money. Using them for postage takes more time than the savings. If they do not fit directly into your collection they should be liquidated with minimal time investment.

Donate it and the get write off.
Don