Organizing Covers For Resale

I have my covers organized by postmark.
I notice that covers with advertising or even just a business return address seem to be popular.
Would I be better to pull those covers out of their respective postmark collection such as split ring, RPO, slogan etc., and group them together?

Good question! Ultimately, It all depends on the buyer. Advertising and corner cards are very popular depending on what is advertised, especially with scarce companies, intercontinental mailings, and scarce or rare stamp combinations, markings & postmarks. And condition being an all important factor. Better ones can stand alone as single lots, but more common or lesser condition ones tend to be grouped.

To best get value out of the collection, you have to educate yourself with the resources published , auction catalogues of similar items, and dont forget to ask another well informed collector and dealers for information about the items. Oh yea, you just did. Sometimes a combination of a couple different grouped items together can attract attention from several different buyers willing to compete and bid more, to attain the select items they want. Good luck.

And I wish to add, it depends also upon the method, manner, type of sale and to whom (collector, dealer, auction firm, internet customer, approval circuit recipient, etc.) you are selling.

Thankyou both for your replies.
I'm organizing mostly for an auction that will take place after I pass on. ( I'm 82).
My method has been by postmark, but now am pulling out advertising covers and grouping them together, no matter the postmark.
So to summarize my question, I guess I'm wondering if this is worthwhile, or a make work project?
Most are ordinary, but some have good ads, pictures,etc.
If they have value as a postmark, I leave them in that collection. (ie. cancel used for short time,early/late date, obscure post office not open long).

If you look at how most dealers sell covers, advertising is definitely one category, though postmarks should be included in the description (especially if rare).

Some collectors look for both.

For the non-advertising covers, if the postmark is more important, then start with that in the description, but include anything else of importance (including back-stamps of course, addressee, etc.).

It's hard to provide much meaningful advice since you don't give us much to go on ....
Are there 10, 100, 1000, or 10000 covers?
Are they from the 1850s or 1950s?
Did you have in mind an auction house or eBay or?
How many are worthy of individual lotting? (How many retail more than $100?)
A few sample images would be helpful since there is lot more to postal history than the postmark.

Yes, initially, on the surface, it does look like a make work project. The auction house would know how to group/lot most bulk collections. Without seeing any of it, my advice is to label and describe any unusual nuances of as many items as you can and enjoy them in your own arrangement scheme. Alternately, pick out the best 100 items and put them in a special album to provide the auctioneer some guidance.

Here are a few covers. I have several hundred Broken Circle cancels from 1860 to 1900, plus smaller collections of Duplex cancels from that era.
Overall, I have many thousands of covers, including a large amount of Slogan cancels, and really, all types of cancels.


Thanks for the replies. They help.
I'm going to just pull out the very best advertising covers and leave the rest in their individual collections.
Ross

Thank you for sharing these images and the post.

I have a slightly different take than some of the other comments above, but would note that there is no right answer!

In my case, I am a long time collector of only Newfoundland stamps and covers. Since I pretty much have most or almost all of the stamps, I turned to Covers about 15 years ago. I now have about 550 covers.

I organize them first by the stamp number (NSSC or Unitrade) because I believe that is the way most collectors/ buyers first come to think about an item. And there are some guidelines on values by stamp number, so I can get a sense of $ value. Again--not to say that all buyers first approach this, because some sort by advertising logo etc.

I then index (in excel) all the other attributes like cancel date, to and from, advertising etc. So I have a fully searchable way to compare. But I have them first organized by stamp number.

I'd also say that you have some old stamps, and my suggestion is to focus your time on pre-WWII and sort and organize those....but covers after WWII in my view are basically without a market. Meaning--maybe sort the older ones by stamp number and the post WWII by topic or advertising?

No disrespect intended for other approaches--as I wrote--there is no right answer.

I agree to some degree about pre and post WWII, however, it really depends on multiple factors - again no one way to do it.

A scarce postmark after WWII can still be highly collectable. Some slogans are rare, etc. Some modern postal history does well based on destination, etc.

PS: I love broken circle (split-ring) postmarks. I have hundreds all organized on single or on piece. I never really got into covers, though I have some.