In Over Our Heads!

Hi There,
My fiancee's dad passed away last year and we inherited his collection, much of which was in turn passed down to him.

Among the several boxes of stamps/envelopes are many (hundreds of) cachets, dated 1943-48 and loads of them are quite spectacular political WW2 anti Germany/Japan/Italy, many of which are also FDCs. Also others e.g. Roosevelt FDCs with FDR cachet and so very much more. There are also many other dates/themes including different state anniversaries and FDCs etc but the list is too long for this first post lol.

We live in Christchurch New Zealand, and if finding a philatelist with good knowledge of these covers was difficult before, it has become near impossible since we lost so many buildings/businesses in the 2011 quakes, so we have no idea where to take these to be assessed.

However, we are about to travel. We will be in the U.S.A. from the end of May until the end of June, the longest stop being 2 weeks in L.A. from May 26 to June 9, then 4 days in Vegas and 4 in N.Y.C.

Is there someone in these areas - preferably easy to get to as we have no transport - we can take a small selection of covers to be viewed? Are there any particular dates/events/themes we should pay special attention to? There are just so many of these covers we have no idea where to start!

I can post some images on here if it helps, but need some idea of what to look for/which to single out.

Thanks :)

JennaMac,

Welcome to the forum, always good to hear from anyone from New Zealand, the land of Hobbits.

1st, the good news. There should be a lot of places to bring a sample of your covers to be looked at. Visit the LA Yellow Pages for dealers or go on line to look for stamp clubs in the area.

2nd, the bad news. From your brief description the collection may not have a lot of monetary value as the markets were flooded with FDC and Commemorative covers of all types during the 30-50. Unless you have a unique cover I wouldn't expect a lot.

3rd, more good news. Keep the collection intact and if the interest ever hits you then you'll have a head start on your collection or pass in on to your next generation.

I would suggest that even before coming to the States that you get a copy of Scott's Specialized Catalog and check out the covers, both catalog value and information wise. If you do decide to sell to a dealer, expect to be given very little for it. I'm hoping that you will decide to keep the collect and grow it.

Stamp collecting is like having the chills. It comes and goes in waves. The interest is high then it may go away for awhile. But, it'll come back.

Art

Like Art said, most of it is mass produced and of very little value. However, if some of them have caricatures of Mussolini, Tojo, Hitler, etc with slogans, these can be of interest to collectors.

While in NYC check out The Philatelic Foundation, 341 West 38th Street, 5th Floor. I stopped there a few months back. Very accommodating! They took a look at a few items I had. Met the President of the foundation. Really nice people.
Check out their website. Probably would be a good idea to call in advance.
Oh BTW as for
It's NYC. No car needed.

JennaMac, Greetings:

Well, you certainly have things backwards; right-thinking people check the stamp show calendars *first*, and then schedule their travel ;)

Of course, this is only to be expected from someone who lives in a country where the toilets flush backwards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect ... which, in true WikiPedia fashion, both confirms & debunks!

Although what you are looking at is stamped cacheted covers, that does not necessarily mean that the philatelic market is the best place to maximum their cash value. For example, for 'patriotic' and 'FDR' material, you might do better at an ephemera show:

http://www.flamingoeventz.com/show-calendar.html
http://www.flamingoeventz.com/show-...ra-fair.html

(Philadelphia is a cheap 2-hr bus ride from New York City, and chocka with Americana, including the US Mint gift shop.)

http://www.postal-history.com/showpage.html 01/June in Van Nuys CA suits your schedule but, like the others, I expect you would be better-off adding to your collection rather than by selling it.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Hi JennaMac,

Post images of several of your "WW2 anti Germany/Japan/Italy envelopes". These are called patriotic covers and may have some value.

Welcome to SCF, JennaMac! As Jenny2U suggested, it would be helpful if you are able to post some images here. If nothing else, I believe that would allow some of the members with knowledge in this area to help you figure out which sorts of covers to bring with you to the US this summer. :)

I am really an amateur in the hobby of Stamp Collecting. I've only collected about ten years. But like the others have advised you. Keep what you have and start collecting. Or at least hang on to them for a while. Stamp collecting in the U.S. is a dying hobby. Values are at rock bottom. I have a Stamp and Coin shop near me that buys sheets at 30% face value and sells at 60% face value. Like about 30 cents on the dollar for Mint and way less for used. Used sell on ebay by the pound or Kilo You can by 1500 used stamps off paper for around $13 U.S. Dollars. Sorry their is isn't better news. I had 200 Catchets I couldn't even get $1 each for and I had about 400 FDC I finally after a year trying sold for all for $175 to another Dealer. The Stamp shop didn't even want them.

Here is a post that just came in to me from another thread here at SCF. I will try and paste it to give you an Idea of values.

TheArtfulHinger
Valued Member


United States
128 Posts

Posted Today 22 Min ago Show Profile Email Poster [TheArtfulHinger's SCF Auctions] Bookmark this reply Add TheArtfulHinger to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

I try to use current commemoratives to mail ebay lots I sell as collectors seem to appreciate it. I do often use discount postage on other mailings, or for the second or third ounce, but I always try to use at least one recent issue. I know I could save a dime or so per mailing, but it's not that big of a deal. Plus recent commemoratives have the added benefit of retaining some of their value as used collectibles. About six months or so ago I sold a small kiloware lot of recent forever commemoratives on paper that I received on mail and, to my shock, ended up getting somewhere around 40-50% of FACE value (and fairly close to actual catalog value). Contrast that with a recent sale I made of a used accumulation of 3-20 cent issues (commems and defins), for which I got about $11 for an entire pound off paper. Nice used examples of current commemoratives can be hard to find, and collectors generally appreciate getting them on their mail. At least I know I do.

Yes, please post some photos of some of your covers. Try to include some representatives of the various kinds that you see. Posting photos here is free and the folks on this forum will give you some good feedback. Definitely talk to some dealers, but keep in mind that they must make money, and has already been mentioned, from your brief description it sounds like most or all of these are going to be very low value and so a dealer may not want them at all or else pay pennies on the dollar for the catalog value of the stamps. They generally price this sort of material as havin no inherent value and instead price their time they have to put into marketing them and tieing up their money until they can sell them.

It is possible that you may have a few good things, but until you post photos there is little we can say.

Once you have a good idea, you might think about selling them yourself on ebay, perhaps in lots of 5 or 10 or 20 covers at a time to attract bids. You might do better with that than selling them to a dealer who needs to make a profit to stay in business.

I don't suppose there is any chance of there being early covers, from the 1800s or before? That is the kind of material that tends to sell for better prices.

JennaMac already said 1943-48 so these are the most common. Therefore see if you have any older than 1943 before posting them and I'm not sure if the 50 post rule still is on effect or not.

Hi again and thanks for your responses!

I had a quick flick through the boxes and pulled a few of the covers I described earlier. I didn't have long as we are in final travel prep stage now, but I found some of them.

I fully understand and respect the 50 post rule on selling/trading and photo posting, but please let me be clear that I am not wanting to sell this collection at this stage, I am only wanting opinions on whether they do in fact have value - especially because if they do, we will add them specifically to our contents insurance policy. We lost too much in the quakes here to allow anything of value to go unprotected :)

Having said that, I will try to post the images. Failing that, I'll post the photobucket links - but if any mods decide they should not be posted, please delete them and I will find advice elsewhere.

I do however appreciate the advice you've given so far - from the tips of my hobbity toes!














Aaaaand on posting them,I realise my scanner cut off the stamped edge anyway lol... but you get the idea. I can re-scan any individuals (or all) or find other covers if suggested. Again, you're all great and I appreciate your help :)

Jenna

I was glad to hear that you plan on keeping them.
As a very general guideline, on covers, they are usually worth more to the collector than anyone else. Insure them at replacement cost or catalog price whichever is higher. One with a catche is worth much more than one without. One with a war related theme is worth more than another. One that celebrates a special event, first flight, first route and sign by the pilot is great.

There are many catagories one could assign a cover to and several have crossover catagories. Any cover from the 18th century should be investigated or at least researched a bit as they could be something special.

Art

Hi JennaMac,

Your "Radio Tokio" and "2 down, 1 to go" (and perhaps 1 or 2 others) patriotic covers are probably worth US $10-$20 each. Your other patriotics are generally worth between US $3-$7 each. Your FDR FDC's are extremely common, so sadly have almost no value. The 1 plus side is that they were mailed outside of the US, but this is dependent on whether they have a New Zealand receiving cancel on the reverse side (still worth very little though).

Personally, I don't think it's worthwhile for you to take these to be viewed by anyone in the US. It may be easier for you to look them up on ebay - all your patriotics were printed (and saved) in great numbers, so you can pretty easily decide for yourself whether to include them in your insurance policy (for accuracy, make sure to check sold listings).

With respect to some of the other opinions, if you decide at some point not to keep them, I'd suggest listing the illustrated patriotics individually on ebay. You may be surprised at what some of them will bring if listed properly with the appropriate keywords.

Also be aware that the first few scans with the color cachets that shows at the bottom "Copyright American Art Service" are typically worth a bit more than some of the other covers because of their (a) color printing; and (b) comical sentiments.