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New Member
United States
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I have approximately 4000 unique stamps and approximately 6000 in total. I used a phone app, PhilSnap, to get an idea of what I had inherited. The app values my collection at about $400,000. It takes the average price from a range of values and assigns the value. A large percentage of my collection is in mint fine condition. Most of the stamps are before 1900, and not older than 1950. I want to donate this collection and don't know who to ask about it . I'm here looking for advice . Thank you . |
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Pillar Of The Community
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Pillar Of The Community
United Kingdom
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Moderator
United States
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I have a really hard time thinking that you have something worth the value you indicated. How did you come upon this collection? Did you collect it over many years, and purchase with certificates, or did someone give it to you? I have no idea what PhilSnap is, or how accurate their guesses are. Without seeing some, I would guess we're talking $50, not $400,000. At your valuation for about 6000 stamps, that would be an average of $66.67 each stamp. Most stamps from 1900 to today are valued more like 30 cents each in the best condition. Can we see some examples? |
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Pillar Of The Community
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Pillar Of The Community
Netherlands
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If you read online reviews, you get the impression the app is considered brilliant by the ignorant treasure hunters and hailed by the more knowledgeable collectors who then go on to state it, mostly, gets it wrong.
It would be interesting to see some of your results. Most expensive stamps are varieties of cheap stamps. This type of app, usually, cannot tell the difference. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
7081 Posts |
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Please post images of the three highest-valued stamps, so that we have an idea what the app is looking at. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
4336 Posts |
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You all are missing the point. The high value, ON PAPER, is what matters for tax purposes and is not something the OP is interested in selling, but as a balancing write off.
No one here needs to look or decide on any of his material. His stated is goal to donation, not sell. I gave him an answered which will provide the tax receipt.
I recommend he NOT PROVIDE ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION to the SCF folks. This is between the OP and the IRS. |
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Bedrock Of The Community
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Quote:
I'd forgotten that, in the US, charity is a tax dodge. Why is this poster even here. |
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Pillar Of The Community
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While Stamps for the Wounded is a fine organization, it would be approprite to note this text taken directly from their own webpage. I suspect other charities will have similar language. I cannot see the IRS accepting PhilSnap as a place to get a "qualified appraisal". Quote:
Per IRS guidelines for charitable organizations, our acknowledgments do not include any valuation for non-cash donations. SFTW will not endorse any valuation that the donor places on the donations.
Donation acknowledgments will be sent to you by mail after we have processed your donation. Please allow 8 weeks to receive the acknowledgment. This is particularly true at the end of the year when we receive many donations. If you wish to ensure that you receive your acknowledgment before January 1, please ship your donation to arrive no later than Thanksgiving in Dunn Loring.
If there are specific details that you wish to have included in the acknowledgment, such as a descriptive listing, please send a legible copy of those details with the donation. We will include your description by reference in our acknowledgment.
If you wish to make a donation in memory of a loved one who has passed away, or in honor of a living person, please include the name of that person and the details in a note inside your donation parcel.
SFTW does not provide tax advice about the deductiblity of donations nor will we advise on how to establish the Fair Market Value (FMV) of donations for tax purposes. Consult with your tax advisor and/or the published information available from the IRS.
Please be aware that if the total FMV of all non-cash donations made in one year by a donor of the same type (such as stamps and stamp collecting materials) exceeds $5,000, IRS guidelines indicate that in most circumstancs, the donor must obtain a "qualified appraisal" of all the donated materials. Information on what constitutes a qualified appraiser are in the IRS publications. In those cases, Form 8283 Section B must be signed by an officer of SFTW. The appraisal must be obtained by the donor before sending any of the materials to SFTW. We do not have information about appraisers who are willing to do so for tax purposes. You may wish to check with the American Stamp Dealers Association or the American Philatelic Society for stamp dealers in your area. And as noted in previous replies above, many expensive stamps look very similar to cheap stamps and vice versa. There are many threads here each month regarding the subleties of watermarks, shades, perforations, fakes/forgeries, etc., which no doubt will elude PhilSnap's capabilities to differentiate. |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
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Again the donation value is between, the OP, their CPA and the IRS.
The IRS provides guidance with Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property. |
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| Edited by Parcelpostguy - 02/09/2026 3:54 pm |
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Bedrock Of The Community
United States
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And the recipient of the donation, as clearly shown above. They will be the only determining factor of value in the end, because whatever their donation receipt states will be the value. Not what the OP states it is worth. |
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Moderator
United States
5097 Posts |
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 . I once donated a collection to a local stamp club. They had a qualified person, who has dealt with the US IRS multiple times give me a valuation. The proper forms were signed by them and I submitted to the IRS with some difficulty, but no audit. Eventually came out to a significant offset to a very large tax bill that I had that year. But I'll admit, that I had a large, up-to-date spreadsheet with current Scott values for each and every stamp that I donated. I realistically valued at the proper condition, and did not automatically value everything at Mint Never Hinged, perfectly centered condition. I think the most expensive item in there had a catalog value of about $300, and the least was 5 cents. The final tax form paperwork valued everything at about 65% of what I thought, and I had kept records, though not all in receipts, for all that was purchased by me, or inherited from a relative or friend. A lot of time and work went into that, but the final outcome was favorable for me. And, it should be noted that you need to itemize your deductions to get the big benefit here. I think the OP will find that if they donate to most places without documentation or an appraisal, the most they could write off is $5000, and that is an offset from taxable income. The net effect may be lowering your tax burden by about $1500, depending on your tax bracket, but could be much lower. Good luck. |
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Pillar Of The Community
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It goes without saying, or maybe it doesn't, but no one should ever make tax decisions based on what they read on a forum. If a person doesn't itemize, they can pretty much forget about tax benefits of noncash donations.
The opportunity for learning here can come from looking at a few stamps that the app valued highly.
My 2d. |
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Moderator
United States
5097 Posts |
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In the first and only post from the OP, we had the question Quote:
I want to donate this collection and don't know who to ask about it . I'm here looking for advice . Thank you . I guess we can't really tell whether the OP just wants to find a place to donate the collection, or whether they have an idea of some type of monetary transaction/tax credit for this donation. Unless we hear back from the OP with some clarity, we are just discussing how some of us would deal with this situation, and have our own biases on whether we just give it away, or whether we go for a tax deduction. My first thought was that we were looking for some sort of tax deduction, but now that I've reread the question, maybe they are just asking where to donate it. |
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Replies: 43 / Views: 2,514 |
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Posted 02/08/2026 6:23 pm
Donate
