New Member Collection

Hello ,

I am new to the stamp world and have inherited a collection that my grandmother worked on for years. I took it to a local collector for an appraisal and he said it was worth $20-$40 . Looking for a second opinion
any advice appreciated. here is a link to some of the collection.

http://sgovictoria.shawwebspace.ca/...w/my_stamps/

thanks in advance

Nothing rare or scarce in there that I saw but I only did a quick glance. That being said I'd say it's worth more than $20 -$40. How much more ? Depends on a few things and I'd check the early GB & Australian stamps for inverted or sideways watermarks.

Looks like you have some early Canada too. "Large Queens" I think they are?? (I'm not a Canadian collector)

Derek

It is obvious that your grandmother loved her collection. She spent many hours accumulating and organizing the stamps. I think it would be a real tribute to her if you were to continue the collection by adding to the album. Most of the missing stamps are relatively inexpensive but the effort will be worth it. You will be keeping this part of her alive.

The collection is not worth a great deal in terms of dollars but is a wonderful gift which could open a great world for you.

If this is merely an unnecessary burden then bring the albums to another stamp vendor for a second assessment. There are no treasures on the album pages. You don't have to worry about being taken advantage of.

You received this piece of advice:




I don't imagine you have a clue about what a sideways watermark is. I wouldn't worry about this sort of thing. Very common stamps are sometimes printed in different formats. Specialists can spot these rarer printings but non-collectors would be somewhat challenged . Collectors who enjoy this sort of thing will look at tens of thousands of stamps looking for that elusive variety or printing type. The odds that you have a scarce item are very, very small. The Dutch stamps could also be rare varieties. So could some of the Canadian stamps. But I think your chances of winning a lottery are many times greater.

Thanks for the information guys . I think I will continue to add to the collection. It was never really my intention to sell it , just wanted to know what I am dealing with.

cheers

I second lordenning's advice. Build on it. I see a lot of nice Canada and Newfoundland stamps there. That appeared to be her specialty - probably because you're in Canada :)

What I would do would be to pick one of the countries in there for now, say Canada, and buy a country specific album that's much more in depth than the those worldwide albums. You'll be able to see small write ups of each issue, learn some new stuff, appreciate history a bit, etc..

Here's my Canadian album to give you an idea of the difference between a specialty album and the "all in one" type album - http://www.mystupidhobbies.com/Stam...Canada1.html and http://www.mystupidhobbies.com/Stam...Canada2.html I don't have a lot of Canadian stamps but this will give you an idea of the type of album that makes collecting much more enjoyable in my opinion.

Good luck with the collection and welcome to the forum

Hi Mike33 , yes those albums look like the way to go . I like how there is some detailed information about the stamp.
very cool . I could get into this . My grandmother started a nice collection in a time without internet so it must have been much harder to do . She literally travelled all over the world collecting stamps as she went, seems it would be a shame not to keep it going.

thanks for sharing.

Derek,
I'm sorry that someone put a dollar amount on something that brought your Grandma great joy. As collectors we have to remind ourselves that we all collect for different reasons. It would be interesting to me to know that your Grandma shared stories about her collection with you. That is where the value is. As for the stamps themselves I think it is wonderful that you plan to carry on what she started.
Collecting the entire world can be overwhelming. Most of us started with such grandious plans. My advise is to find an area or country that interests you and try to focus on that. Ask questions here. I have albums much like what you posted that I had as a boy. I can't or won't get rid of them. They have very little dolar value. You will find many of us here have those albums from our youth intact but our collecting interests have become more specialized. When I got back into stamp collecting I started looking more into covers, (stamps still on the envelopes) and postal history. I still collect worldwide but only up to 1900 and back of the book stuff. My postal history collection is really many smaller collections of items that interest me.
There are no rules, you make them up as you go. These little pieces of colored paper will not hold your interest for long unless you do it your way and find something that truly interests you.
Some examples of my cover collections are of states where I try to get as many cities as possible. I have Minnesota, Alaska and Hawaii state collections. I also collect 19th Century worldwide, different rates, cancels, destinations, certain stamps, usages, etc..
It is too much to list, but it all started with a collection much smaller than yours that I wanted to "carry on".
Please share stories and pictures as you grow your collection. We are a group of people from all over the globe with many different backrounds with great stories to tell.
Pat

A drawback of society is our having to put a dollar amount on so many things that it ends up altering the way we see them. It is okay in my opinion to ask but the dealer badly mishandled the entire situation. As I've said in earlier posts I spent a good portion of my life dealing with old collectible cameras and if handled correctly I could many times put a smile on the elderly ladies face that her husband who passed away chose his camera well and bought what he could afford at the time. He didn't buy it as an investment but to capture some of life's moments over the years. When people ask me today about my stamps I say I don't know, I'm enjoying the hobby. When I pass away I really don't care. I never got involved for money. I feel sorry for kids who get involved with baseball cards as investments because they're missing the fun of playing with them, using the dupes in their bike spokes to make noise. Mine were never in special archival pages never exposed to light. They were in stacks with rubber bands around them. Shame on the dealer!!
Tom

sdtom

Well said sir!

Thank you!!
Tom

you guys have given me a lot of information and I am quickly learning that this is a hobby I would like to continue in my grandmothers memory. She never shared many stories about her collecting with me , she passed away almost 35 years ago when I was 20 years old. The stamps have sat at my mothers house since then and she recently passed away so now I have them , and it has sparked my interest . I can see how collecting could be quite addicting , I love the art work on many of these old stamps and as I thumb through the pages it takes me back in time thinking about what was going on in the world when the stamp was created. I guess that's what its all about.

thanks for the info

My wife likes to poke fun at my 'worthless' stamps. I point out how it's a much cheaper hobby than a lot of the ones I tried prior, how it brings me joy and keeps me out of her hair for extended periods of time.

Also, since I'm a specific-genre collector of both war-era and war-themed pieces (time period and memorial pieces, respectively) it's a way for me to continue holding on to my military heritage. I'm sure there are more vets out there like me as well, but likely of an older generation (I'm only in my 30s).

In the end the collection is worth exactly what it's worth to you. To me, my collection represents snapshots of history which I otherwise might not be able to directly interact with. I can't afford a german wermacht helmet or an M1 Garand rifle, but I can afford a deutsches reich and 'win the war' victory stamps.

Another thing you can do to accompany your stamp collection is a coin collection of matching periods. If you want to collect something intrinsically valuable coin collecting is another good way to go, also has tons of historical value and usually retains and sometimes gains value on a regular basis. To me stamp and coin collecting go hand in hand. When I've got my WW2 Germany stamp collection underway I plan to supplement it with an album of WW2 german coins and bills. I'm sure there's a way to do that for the canadian coins as well.

Very nice collection Derek, and I echo what the others said. I can also confirm that while there are no gold nuggets in terms of dollar value, $20 - $40 was a typical dealer lowball amount. You would have spent much more than $40 to get this collection together in today's market and that's not counting the wonderful legacy of your grandmother you have the opportunity to continue.

Dan

If you do decide to get it reappraised, I'd suggest taking it to at least 3 dealers over all and compare the offers. This is my general rul when it comes to selling anything to a collector or company.