Need Help - Inherited 10000 Worldwide Stamps 1870-1975

I have come across a large stamp collection that I have been asked to sell. I mainly deal in sports cards and memorabilia so I'm not particularly knowledgeable in this area although I have sold some stamps before.

I'll attempt to make this post as organized as possible but forgive me if I get off track, I have tons of questions.

The collection consists of approx 10,000 stamps from all different countries ranging in year from 1870-1975 (these are the newest and oldest ones i've found and i've only looked through 2% of the collection). They are stored in these wax paper like envelopes, most of which have some writing on them indicating what they are. Unfortunately, there is so much writing on the envelopes, I cannot tell what any of it actually means. For example ...



My ultimate question would be what is the value of a collection like this? I can provide as many scans as needed to help show what I have but since I have no idea where to start, I figured I would ask you guys before wasting my time scanning useless stuff.

A list of countries I know I have for sure are:
Great Britain
Malaya
Singapore
Southern Rhodesia
Tanganyika
Trinidad & Tobago
Papua New Guinea
St. Lucia
British Guiana
Ceulon
Pakistan
Sarawar
Rhodesia
Canada
Poland
Hong Kong
Egypt
Jamaica
Argentina
India
Belgium
New Zealand
Norway
Italy
Finland
French Maracco
Brazil
Netherlands
Japan
Australia
France
USA

There are also probably dozens of other countries but the ones I listed above were already separated.

The majority of the stamps seem to be used and I have up to 50 of any given stamp. So help me out people! Where do I start in order to figure out what I have??

Thanks in advance for any help!
-James

First what you got sounds like accumalation and not a collection .The value for 10,000 stamps could be from $20.00 and up . The stamp you shown is worthless it has 3 of 4 corners rounded.Lay a variety of them on a scanner bed and someone here will tell you if its worth your effort to go further with them .

Most of the stamps are in good shape. Very few have rounded corners such as the one in the first post. These are some of the ones I pulled from the first 15 wax envelopes. There are about 2000 more of these envelopes so I have no idea what could be in those. I know there are stamps that date back to the 1870s too as I saw one or two of them when I was sorting through everything.



-James

Well here is another option that was posted on another similar thread:

Find a stamp club near where you live, ask someone at the club if they could be kind enough to help you assess the value. You could start of your self by separating the older stamps which are usually more valuable in terms of Catalogue Value (CV).

However, even among older stamps it is very rare to come across stamps which are worth a lot.

And here is another point to be aware of:

Stamp catalogues give you rates which are usually a lot higher than the usual market rate. They are more like a price list for when someone wants to buy a stamp from a dealer.

Mind - the problem is, I have NO IDEA which ones are old since most of them have an array of dates written on the package. I've been trying to get in touch with someone locally but haven't had much luck so far.

-James

I would separate them into Mint stamps..meaning not used with the gum on the back..and the very old. And as mindpsyche said take them to a stamp club to get a valuation on what you have.

Or do a search on ebay under the stamps auctions..not buy it now. The buy it now sections are overpriced and unrealistic..use the words accumulation, hoard, box etc. and look for similar lots of the type that you have. Look for the auctions that are ending soon and that will give you an idea on how much people are willing to spend on such a accumulation and perhaps you can go from there.

Check your Canadian stamps; if you have any shown here then you have some old good items:

https://goscf.com/t/15300#15300

If you do good I have another 10,000 or maybe its an extra 0 on that. If you have no concerns on what you get, bring to a dealer and he will likely offer $10-50 depending what he sees quickly. Other than that the only reward is the knowledge you get sorting and looking things up. Always a chance of a diamond in the rough but even if you get the catalogs from the library (all 6 volumes) you can spend weeks/months/years on these.

Well I'm terribly confused.

Your thread title says you inherited the collection, but your post says you came across the collection and were asked to sell it.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm being picky, but if I'm going to spend time reading a thread and helping, I think it is only fair that the poster get the story straight...

If you inherited the collection, I'm willing to help. If it is simply being consigned to you to sell for a one-time profit... or is it a combination of both?

k

Like Stampnut pointed out, you can also separate Mint and Used (Mint are unused stamps without cancellation marks).

The older stamps will generally be less glossy and colourfull. If he kept stuff in envelopes with dates and catalogue numbers I am assuming it could be of some value. Maybe he intended to sell them at some point. Considering as you say there are stamps from the 1870's and if they are mint they could get you a few extra dollars :)

I would goto a stamp club and ask for someone to help, offer to pick up and drop them off if need be.

I would not go to a dealer until I was somewhat aware of the value for a simple reason. And I don't mean to bad mouth any dealer or dealer(s) but at the end of the day they are businessmen not collectors.

His interest will be in buying it for as low as possible to sell it for a profit. A collector on the other hand will give you a much more honest opinion. This is my opinion. This doesn't mean that all collectors are honest too :P

You just have to spend some time on it.

I suspect most of us here would like to sort thru that lot. With 10,000 stamps there are bound to be something of interest

The marks of the envelopes (1964 1970 etc) would appear to be inventory dates or similar plus an attempt at identifying the origin of the stamps. The brown marks are a sign of gum degradation of the envelopes. I'd suggest moving the stamps to new envelopes or stock books... but seeing as they have been in their present home for decades there seems to be little transfer of staining to the stamps...so far!

Stamps of 1870 vintage does not automatically mean valuable. Remember that the letter was one of the most common forms of communication and in some cases there were many, many millions of some stamps issued. Higher value stamps or blocks of four might be slightly rarer and thus of more value. Scans would certainly be of interest to everyone as we all have our favorite country, issue, era, etc and would enjoy the challenge of identifying/valuing.

Can you put up some scans of some Egypt, Canada, USA, Australia, Hong Kong, and Spain. These are my main areas of interest. If I am buying blind my offer wouldn't be a lot, but if I can see some indication of what you have it might be better.

Mant thanks
Terry