Help! (And Hello) Recently Inherited My Father's Collection

Hi all. We have recently inherited my father's lifelong stamp collection, mostly commonwealth.

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to realise the value of this for my mother. I am prepared to put the work in to sell these individually if necessary - is ebay the best place? (my dad was active on ebay selling off the less interesting stamps in his collection).

My current stamp knowledge is poor - I have the stanley gibbon catalogues, some tweezers, and so far have managed to identify most stamps using SG and ebay (actually ebay seems very good for identifying stamps - put in the country, colour and face value - and up pop the pictures).

Anyway, would appreciate anyone's thoughts...

Kind regards,
RJ

Have the same question. I have a bunch of stamps collecting dust that would probably be better served for someone else.

I can help and make this easy for everybody------post a list of the firms and the amount your dad spent on stamps.

if only it was that easy, he's been buying and selling at trade fairs, clubs and ebay for the last 60 years!

Hi and Welcome rj1978!




Your quote sounds like your Dad had a lot of friends in stamping. There must be a quality contact for you in there some where. Maybe your Mother might remember someone.

And or sell some of the collection, start collecting yourself and become a regular visitor here on SCF.

Always Happy Stamping.
KGV

This is the #1 question posted on this and probably most stamp forums. The good thing is you said the magic words that your willing to put in time and effort which is key. What took your Dad 60 years to learn/ accumulate can not be transfered into the best value by dumping it. Reality is in most cases you will not like the answers or valuations you get. Few collections even on mass qty scale have alot of value and that is the hard truth. Over the 60 yrs your father would have had countless hours of enjoyment that far surpasses the monetary.
All that aside - Condition is critical- Catalog values are next to pointless and ebay is a fairly good bearing of what something is worth. Take a few scans (you'll need them for ebay anyway ) and post some pics here and I'm sure some will chime in with some truthful answers for you. On the rare occasion people who have inherited a collection can sometimes find that the hobby is better than they thought and carry on the family tradition.

My dad always said he was whittling down his collection to just the valuabe stuff, but I don't think he did it fast enough!

I never caught the bug as a child, but having spent a few hours trying to figure it out, its a maybe. I'm just a bit afraid of missing some crucial mark or colour variation..

Anyway, will put more effort in, then post some scans...

thanks all

rj1978----Thanks for answering my question ,it doesn't sound like your Dad's collection needs a specialist or a expert.It sounds more of a hobby and no great expenence was made. As was suggested by others have one of his friends stop over and make some suggestions or ask a local club to help out .Don't worry about missing something valuable,most likely he had more common material by reason of his buying as you stated.
If you can in general terms how was the collection kept .Is it in stamp albums ,which ones ,on black stock pages ,or glassine packets as sets or by country ?Did he spend money on catalogs or reference books ? by answering these questions many others here can give you more correct advice on how to sell it .Was he a member of any Philatelic organization because most offer member family assistance .

Show a few scans of what you consider to be some of the better items.

Okka