Suggestions On Where To Sell A Large Collection

Where would a good place OTHER than ebay to sell a collection of around 2000 or more stamps?

The collection has been graded by a Investment firm in Las Vegas. Stanford Meyers. All stamps are VF 80 or higher.

99% of the collection are unused and have been in protective covers

I have stamps from 1840 to around 1980 so how should I put them up for sale?

They are all US stamps, none foreign

They are commemorative series stamps if that makes a difference

What is the value of the total collection? What stamps do you have? What I mean there would be a difference depending on what you have. Commemorates from the 30's on are plentiful and cheap sometimes sell under book value.

Of course the first commemoratives are a different story. Then it will depend on what stamps you have and how the graded etc. Do they come with certificates to make sure they are not fakes or have been repaired etc?

So until you say what you have and show some photos it is a little hard to really give an opinion.

Lots of questions to get to the right answer............ What are the stamps stored in (i.e. album, stockbook, envelopes)?

Having 2000 stamps seems like a lot, but as collections go it really isn't. And of course, the value of most - even mint - is often minimal.

I apologize for being "negative", but as mkfarm indicated, only pics of the older ones will give any hints as to value.

By the way, don't be too quick to eliminate ebay, as it is will give a better return than any professional buyers out there.

The contract that Stanford Myers has with me (incase of lose or damage) says the replacement value is 97,800
as of last April when I sent it to them to be graded. All stamps were kept in albums in the little black protective "slides" and then each page was put in a plastic page cover. All stamped have a grade of VF 80 and above. There is paper work for them all. (paid a good chunk for it too)It took 3 graders a month to grade my collection if that gives anyone an idea of how many stamps there are..

That price does not include the Columbian Proofs and a set of 1840 Penny Black, blue and red, I had those brought in later and graded also at VF 80 and above.

Who is STANFORD MYERS is that a store front business ? They are not listed as a investment firm and they are not known experts on stamps ,are they members of the APS.

They are out of Las Vegas. here is the website

http://www.merchantcircle.com/busin...702-395-4834

will try to get pics from them tomorrow!

Greenlant408,
Well, from what you indicated, you may have some serious money here. That being said, if you sold the entire collection to a dealer you would take a significant beating (think Pawnstars). Selling to an individual collector would be difficult I would think. Soooo, I come back to ebay. As you are aware of the big dollar stamps (w/grading), I would sell them individually on ebay. Otherwise, I would list them on ebay by country - with pics and full descriptions.

The best time (for a seller) is typically winter, and I would start the auctions at the minimum I would take for them.

I've been selling on ebay for over 10 years (model trains, art, sporting goods, stamps, coins) and find that a reasonable market value prevails much of the time. And frankly, getting anything close to market value is more than you are likely to get elsewhere.

By the way, this collection sounds really nice......... why are you looking to sell it?

try bidstart or delcampe. cheaper fees

but you'll still need to upload pics

Why am I selling? It is just sitting on the shelf and I am newly disabled Army vet, single father of 2. It wouldn't hurt to have some $$ to help with the bills not to mention Christmas is coming.

It was going to be a retirement but as we all know, things change so I had to adapt.