When Is It Worrth It?

OK, say you have an old-issue stamp that isn't of major value in terms of mintage/key anything. But yet it's basically mint grade. So what do you do with something like that? Use it as postage? Just stick it the collection nobody but you is going to care about when you're dead? What?

I come from the coin world, where you might have a mint 1957 Luncoln, but it's basically worth little more than just being a pretty penny. I imagine the same goes with stamps.

So, in terms of stamps, how do you tell?

Unfortunately without knowing what stamp it is, what year it was issued, what condition it's in, centering, perforations, etc. there is no way to accurately answer this question. Can you post a picture or scan of the front and back of the stamp?

There are two grossly misleading things at work in the stamp hobby.

- First is that the catalog values do not reflect actual market values; in many cases market values might only be 10% of catalog values and dealer may offer even lower.
- The second thing are some of the listing values on eBay; there are many 'wishful thinkers' (putting it nicely) asking prices that are no where near actual market values.

These two things can led folks to have unrealistic expectations as to stamp values.

(Note: Some stamps, especially those in the classic era, can have market values higher than catalog values but these represent a small percentage.)
Don

So if you had a mint 1957 Lincoln cent coin right now, would you spend it, mount it in your collection, give it to another needy collector, donate it to the coin club, sell it, or toss it in the bin? The answer is the same for stamps.

If it was a 1957 mint stamp, I'd use it for postage. I might do something different depending on what the "old issue" is.