Don't Know Anything About Stamps, Found These At A Thrift Store!

Hey everyone!

As the title suggests, I don't know anything about stamps. BUT! My partner bought a bunch of stamps at a thrift store the other day. She was planning on using them for arts and crafts and I thought....hmmm...maybe we should give these a google and make sure they don't have any value. Then! Lo and behold, we started realizing some of these things are actually worth something!

I think the main ones that have value are image 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. But check the other ones out and see if there are any of value that someone can spot. I'm wondering if there are any hidden gems but also if anyone is interested in them or knows of a place where we can sell them? Anyways! Thanks so much for the help! Look forward to chatting! And to be honest finding these and searching for the values and histories has been a lot of fun and given me a new appreciation for stamps!

No hidden gems, but that is exactly what you could expect from a thrift store purchase. I like the idea of using them for arts and crafts projects.

Agreed there's nothing of real value here, nickel box stuff all of it. Use it for arts and crafts! Repurposing stamps gives them new life

To be frank, unless you stumble across a valuable variety (odds are 99.999% against this), you won't be able to sell these as a lot for more than a few cents. Thrift stores are essentially the bottom of the ladder for philately. Folks new to the hobby sadly fail to appreciate that catalog values are very often x3-x5 times retail price, and so usually grossly overvalue what they possess.

First off, welcome.

Second, a variation on your question is a daily occurrence here. We see a lot of common stamps, so it is easy to make a quick assessment that is right almost all the time. That said...

Superficially, most of them appear to be very common stamps. A few are a little less common, but not rare. That said...

There are occasionally uncommon or even rare stamps that hide in plain sight because of small differences that go unnoticed by most people.

When you assess the perforation holes around the stamps, and then check the watermark in the paper, and look those up in a catalogue, you'll find that some of the New Zealand stamps could have a chance to have a little value. Likely nothing like the values printed in the catalogues, but more than minimum. Keep in mind that condition is extremely important, and age alone is not a marker of value, by itself.

Unless someone is willing to put in the time to learn about the variations (and invest the money to buy reference material), those varieties just keep circulating around until they get recognized, if they ever do.

So, it is safe to say that they appear to be generally common, though it is possible that one or another of them is not common. Highly unlikely, though.

To find a buyer for these, you'd first have to identify something interesting, so that you can properly describe it to a buyer. General unidentified assortments are exceptionally common and don't sell for much.

You might be thinking, "that's why I'm asking you guys." Practically speaking, you need to have the stamps in hand to fully identify them, so we aren't going to be able to do that for you.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/393217775054

I guess the main find was the Maori village one. I found this link on eBay. And I thought maybe they were just trying to scam people but then I found another for $2300. I'll keep looking and try and find it.

Thanks for all the response!

Also does anyone have sources for how you go about finding the value of stamps? I can't even find these so called catalogues?

That Maori village stamp comes with two watermarks (1935/1936). The 1935 one has little value, the 1936 one has some value and has different perforation varieties. None are worth very much. Those Ebay listings may be tax fraud, or someone is just trying his lick hoping for an ignorant collector to overpay by almost that exact amount.

Furthermore, condition of stamps also is important. Quite a lot of your stamps are in bad condition. That Maori village stamp is among those. Even if it is the more expensive stamp you will not get much for it.

https://www.stampworld.com/en/

"Maori Village"
Please direct me to that stamp.


That is a Maori Carved House, (Whare) not a village.
20c at best
If Perf 14 x 15 then $5 ?




Contact the seller and offer yours for $500 ?

Try stampworld.com catalog for free or pay $$$$ for Scott catalogs.

Check your local library or used bookstore, look for a Scott catalog (multi-volume set). There are plenty of other publishers around the world (Michel, Yvert, Stanley Gibbons, etc), but in North American at least, a Scott would be your best bet. Online, Stampworld is a great resource.

Want to know the value of that New Zealand stamp?

Here are two of them, offered for 99 cents - no takers.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2755611724...9SR-b4mLiuYQ

That's the reality.

So much fun for so little money. Well done.

I've forgotten its origins, but when I got into stamp collecting as a kid, I was given a round tin about nine or ten inches in diameter completely covered with common worldwide stamps. I still store random used stamps in there, mostly envelope tear offs. Someone made a fun use of extra stamps and I still appreciate it all these years later.

Make something! :