Advise Needed For Selling Inherited Collection

Hi all
I just inherited my fathers stamp collection. He collected Mainly but not exclusively US since the 1930's . The collection is made up of stamps from 1850's until 2012. Mint, used, first day of issues, envelopes, postcards, document airmails,plate blocks.

I would like to sell the collection. can anyone offer any advise in how to establish true value, and way of selling quickly?

Thanks

Go to your public library, go to the reference section, look for the Scott catalogs, the will give you a value for each stamp. If you go to a stamp show, a dealer may offer you 1/3 the Scotts total value. Keeping that in mind, you may want to keep the collection.

Thanks for the advise. 1/3 scotts price is a little depressing. there are thousands of stamps when you account for multiple used, plate blocks, etc.

Gary...keep in mind that most stamp dealers sell stamps at shows at a price of 50 percent of catalog value. They need to make some sort of profit.

Gary, true value and selling quickly don't really mix. The quickest way to sell the collection would likely be to unload it all at once. From and buyer's perspective though, if I am buying a big lot of stamps I am going to expect a pretty reasonable bundle discount. So the price per stamp, as it works out, is going to be pretty low. In order to get top value you will have to catalogue, evaluate, and probably even sell each stamp one at a time. This, of course, would be a very time consuming process.

Your best bet to unload the lot would be to look for a major stamp auction house and try to consign the lot or sell it to them so they could auction it off. Going this route you need to expect a certain percentage will go to the auction house and the remainder would come back to you. I am not really familiar with the auctions houses operating in the US, so hopefully someone else will chime in or you will have to do a bit of searching on your own.

Thanks for your reply. Is there a minimum value that an auction house needs to see before they get involved?