Justin From Connecticut - Inherited Sizeable US & International Collection

Hi All!

As the title suggests, my name is Justin and I am from Connecticut.

Over the summer, my father handed over to me a fairly sizeable collection of stamps acquired by various members of my family. I figured what with the being locked down for who knows how long it may be a neat way to pass the time. Well, those stamps sat on a shelf for several months, and long story short I've just begun diving head-first into it about a week or so ago.

I'm sure it pains many of you to see this, but my intention is to unload the entire thing; piecemeal at first as I weed out the more unique items of my collection. Once I'm confident the rarities have been purged, I'll just sell the rest off as a lot or something, keeping a few things for myself, of course. I simply do not have the time or resources to maintain this large of a collection. If anyone has any suggestions regarding my approach I would be more than happy to hear it.

After a cursory once-over through the U.S. stuff, consulting regularly with Stamp World, Swedish Tiger, and eBay sold/completed, I was able to pull a decent number of what I interpreted to be of moderate value. I took some pictures, determined starting bid prices (probably was totally off with a lot if it), and got it rolling on eBay. I only have about 30 or so listings up currently.

I put the remaining U.S. aside for now (a lot of it is just worthless post-1960 bulk fodder), but I'll dive back into it once I've managed to learn a bit more from this community.

Now I started going through the International stuff yesterday. This is a lot more work, turns out. I honestly cannot hope to accurately assess any of this without either an extensive collection of catalogs that I can't afford (but oh how I wish I could) or the input and sage advise from a community of probably experts.

So yeah. That's why I'm here. I've been having a lot of fun unraveling each little mini mystery piece by piece, and I hope that by joining I can maybe turn this into something that lasts a lot longer than I originally intended. We shall see.

Looking forward to see where this goes!

Justin

Welcome Justin. Sounds as if you have done your homework and your decision to come here to seek information is a good one. The forum members are an invaluable resource. I very much look forward to reading your posts and seeing the material. Always a vicarious thrill to ride along on the journey.

Justin, I'm also from Connecticut and also inherited a large collection, or as another poster mentioned, a "hot mess" of US, International, revenue and others. Looking forward to seeing what you have.

Justin,

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

It is easy to get overwhelmed when someone drops into your lap such a massive treasure. Take your time to get your bearings. Even if you yourself do not become a long time active collector think about what means the most to you today and potentially your kids and other family members in the future. Even the most common material has greatest meaning to those who can say, "that came from my grandfather, etc."

Russ