I Was Given A Bunch Of Loose Stamps That Had Been In A Flood. . . Are They Worth Trying To Save?

Getting a bunch of anonymous opinions on the public forum only goes so far. A few of the potentially higher value stamps have been identified for you and you have been given advice as to getting it certified. Since, obviously, anonymous online opinions are not something that you would want to use to make disposition decisions (like 'is it worth continuing to work on these') that might involve a lot of money. If you potentially have some high value stamps and the folks here are offering opinions, I do not understand why you consider this 'I Make no claim of having found a Stradivarius or Monet either. I did not come here looking to sell anything." Did you want the community to NOT identify the potentially higher value stamps? Why is it important to ID some of the potentially higher value stamps? Because if there are high value stamp/cover in this group, then identifying them and getting them expertise is paramount. It would be reckless to tell you, 'sure, go ahead and soak the rest' if there are potentially high value stamps.

I am unsure why your expectation would be 'positive thoughts' as opposed to getting accurate help on what your next step might be. And that is exactly what you have gotten in this thread from the majority of replies. As Moderator, I look out for any personal attacks and no one has come close to doing that. I think you have gotten accurate feedback; have the community help ID those stamps worth getting certified, hold off on soaking or working on the reminder of material until you get those results back. The expertise results will help you decide how to proceed because posting an image of a $500k stamp, even if the other stamps may not have huge value, is going to make responsible folks tell you to stop processing the rest of your material until to get a 'in person' examination of the stamp.

Imagine what would happen if the largely anonymous community simply told you, 'oh the stamp $500k stamp is probably fake, so go ahead to soak the rest of the material. You move forward and ruin other stamps with great value; enough value to make you kids lives much better? Does that sound wise?
Don

Speaking of value-
There are a couple of items with catalogue value (CV) over $100 each. Now, as was stated earlier, that isn't what they will sell for, or what they're worth. The CV could be what you might expect to pay for that item from a dealer, when the item is in excellent condition- perfect perforations and excellent centering of the image on the stamp.

That being said, it's a really nice find. I think what you were hearing was conversation between SCF members, and a few folks telling some of the other SCF members that they were in la-la land. Once you've been here for a bit, you'd find out who the members are that have knowledge and experience with these issues. If there isn't experience, it's just speculation, and that isn't fair to anyone.

Hope you'll stick around-- Thanks, Ray

One bit of context the OP is probably missing: fraudsters have been faking high-value stamps for over 150 years. OP either has a fake 85D or a real one. The consensus here is that it is fake, but that does not mean anyone thinks OP is the faker. Anyone that that collects these kinds of classic stamps will eventually run into a stamp that *might* be a rarity to find out later that it is a fraudulently-altered cheap stamp. This community is great because there are real experts here that can quickly help a novice or non-collector when this happens.

As I said before, this find has real monetary value. The members here are trying to help you determine if you have a few hundred dollars of value that might make sense to donate or if you have 6-figures of value that should be expertized and sold for big money. . .There are a ton of stamps to look though - you found one that might be worth a lot. . .there are probably others. The "85D" is likely fake, but it is possible you have $100 or maybe even $1000 stamps hidden in your collection.

Don't go, you have done a awesome thing saving those!
I see where you may feel characterized and get defensive.
But please it's not always how it seems, you should stay, You have a GREAT collection! Lots to learn from!
The community here will help you find the potential value of what you have, There is more then a little bit of pocket change there.
but if you still plan on giving them away,
let me be the first to throw up my hand as high as I can and say "pick me, pick me" for any draw!