Valuable Canadian Stamps

I am so new to this all, so please bare with me. I am sitting here looking at a Canada and Provinces binder and I am wondering which stamps are considered valuable. The addition that I am looking at has a copyright date of 1974 (if that makes a difference at all). They are all certainly amazing but curiosity is getting the best of me and I am wondering which ones are the most collectible/valuable.

Also, slightly off topic, on the bottom of the first page of this binder it states: "First supplement needed for this album: 1974 Supplement, available January 1975" What exactly is a "supplement"?

CluelessCollector...(so am I)

Thanks wert. I really am completely clueless when it comes to this stuff; however, I do have the stamp you posted on here earlier that has the cent sign in front of the number....thought that was interesting :)

Most albums only came up to a certain year. Of course, more likely is you bought your album at a particular point. The supplements are the "add-on" pages you need to bring the album up to date. There is usually a supplement for each year. Generally speaking they are of the same format and look much the same as the rest of the album.

Go to the Canada Post web site ,, go to the collectable page they have 2008 unitrade Canadian stamp catalogue for sale the cost is only $10.99 with shipping and handling the total will be $15. this will help you out big time

Dave9911, can you still get the supplement for 1974?? Also, when it comes to purchasing stamps to finish the collection, I notice that the earliest date in this book is 1851 and the latest 1979....typically, how expensive are Canadian stamps that fall between these years??

For Canadian stamps specifically? IrishJack is right on that one. No Canadian collector should be without one. the Unitrade Catalog is for all intents and purposes the Canadian Specialized Scott Catalog, It uses Scott numbering for the most part, except for where Scott's doesn't list a particular variety.

Okay, going to check out the Unitrade Catalog since I have hundreds of Canadian stamps here...some of which are really old.

Is anyone familiar with the collectors album called "The Universal Stamp Album"? It was printed in 1959 and has stamps from all around the world. The one I have is in fragile condition but there are so many interesting stamps in it. I assume I would use the Scott catalog to figure those ones out, right?

You can certainly use the Scott catalog for the most part. When it comes to the many varieties of some of the stamps in the rest of the world you may not find the detail in Scott's. So for the German collectors there is Michel, the British collectors tend towards the Stanley Gibbons. But for a general purpose world wide lot, I use the Scott catalog that that generally works for me.

So, I just found a copy of the 1995 addition of Unitrade in this huge package I received today...is this extremely out of date?

Hi Clueless (never thought I could say that without it being an insult) Your 1995 Unitrade prices will be off, but the rest of the information is still good. Variations, printings, even designers. That should probably do you for a while.
Welcome.

As a general rule, the stamps from 1851 to 1900 are most valuable with a few exceptions. From 1900 to 1935ish, mainly the 50c and $1 denominations are valuable. Everything after 1940 is pretty common.

Exceptions are plentiful when you start looking in more detail (errors, varieties, shades, etc)

A lot of the Express Post and some airmails are worth a bit, as well.

That 1995 Unitrade is definitely dated.

The 2006 edition of the Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps was the first in a new format by the new editor
Robin Harris and makes anything published before obsolete.

I would recommend you getting one issued after 2006.
As mentioned before, Canada Post Philatelic sells 2007 & 2008
for 10.74 + HST, no shipping charges anywhere.

You will have lots of fun poring over this catalogue.

I just realized something now that I found the Unitrade book; there is a box with the collection that have stamps in clear tiny envelopes all which have numbers that correspond with the book. I had no idea why they were packaged like that or what the numbers meant. Now I do! There are well over 1000 of them....this should be interesting.

Look for everything numbered below around 230. Definitely worth checking out.

Hi Clueless

Welcome to the forum

I agree with everyone in here who has suggested the Unitrade Catalogue and album for Canada.

Unitrade is considerec by a lot of Canadian collectors as the philatelic 'bible' for Canada and the provinces. I don't think that you can go wrong ising them for reference etc.

Chimo

Bujutsu