Hobby Downsizing.. Please Need Help And Advice.

Good Morning,

Long time reader, first time stamp forum contributor. With all the expert advice on this forum I could really use some help. First a little back story and please don't bang your head on the desk as say "not another one of those..."

I collected stamps in my youth like most on here. My grandfather was the one who really exposed the world of stamps by enrolling me in the PCS but as usual playing army, sports and then girls became the priority. College age came and girls again were the focus. My albums went up into the attic and were forgotten about until this year

As I can't remember anything from thirty years ago, I'm at a serious disadvantage. Grades, condition, etc.. I would like to keep about ten of my favorites and submit them to PSE. Not for value (that I have no clue) but for simmental reasons. I have a very young daughter and would like to preserve them for her also.

Currently the albums are sitting in a storage tube. Should I sell them as I suppose they aren't even worth the postage to sell? No pun intended. Save them? This would be nice but I am an avid collector of banknotes, raw gems, coins and HOF sports memorabilia - and my man cave is overflowing and time to limit.

Time to focus my hobbies a little more specific..per the wife. Advice please;
1) Sell on ebay in bulk? I can't imagine they are worth much.
2) PCS in their binder or broken up? (couple years worth.)
3) How to submit my keepers to PSE with no clue on each stamps info. This is a total lose to me!

Thanks for any and all advice!

LJS------Welcome to the board , my advice is to past them on to your daughter but first spend time working on them with her and build memories with her . My collection contain a stocksheet of stamps my daughter at four years old soaked and dry in the sun and then she filled the stocksheet ---priceless for that page she worked on .

Long John Silver...Welcome to the forum...There is only one question to ask yourself..""Do I want to collect stamps""...I intend on handing down my collection to my 4 kids after I am gone, what they do with them then, is up to them..

Usually when the drive to collect is gone, so is the motivation to fiddle with selling it off.

Perhaps it's time to face a few facts. If you no longer have the skill or motivation to do a good job of selling them yourself, which is what I hear you saying, then you will have to settle for much less than you have put into them (however much or little that might be). If you cannot offer them on consignment through an established dealer, online or at a show, then you may need to commission one of the companies that act as seller agents on ebay. You will lose the costs of these services.

Or you can take your chances putting it out in a series of bulk lots, and be done with it quickly. You stand to get better bids by going through a recognized seller than by putting it up there yourself as an unknown. But with stamps, and so many other collectibles, it takes time and effort to get your money back, if that is even possible at all. You have to decide which is more important to you, and balance out the effort and the likely return.

Regarding picking which stamps for PSE expertizing, I see no substitute for sitting with someone knowledgeable and going through page by page to pick. I suggest you find a local club and attend a meeting, or go to a local show and ask around, or contact a local member of APS. Through the club or show, you may even find a buyer for the material you don't want. I don't think items (1) to (3) in your list are things you can do at home, solo, on the internet.

I would love to collect but unfortunately I do not have time any to devote to it like it deserves, but I still find time read the forum boards everyday during lunch. I have to admit, I'm lost most of the time in these discussions for I am really a beginner. Scotts, reissues, value..oh my. You know the story.

I'll just clean them up a little bit and store them away. I would still like to send some odd ones away to display in the glass cabinets, hence the PCS.

What is the best approach to submitting to PCS? I looked at the submittal form and was lost to pricing, descriptions, etc... I guess I can send in a blank submission form...lol

PSE not the other acrom. Sorry I have some other things that need grading and my currently at work. Thank you all for this is great advice.
The only local club around has four members last I saw in '09 and they were about twice my age. Doesn't look good around here... That's why I listen to everyone on here.

From your last comment, I'll assume your are in the 30/40 YO range. That makes the chances of your collection having anything of value very slim. Even mint stamps from that era would be worth only a % of their face value.

Either list it all on ebay and be happy with what you get or pass it on to your daughter or a friend and see if it interests them.

You didn't say which part of the country you live in. Here in the Front Range of Colorado, we have the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library, which is a .501(c)3 educational charity. I've given bulk stuff to them several times for their fundraising auctions, and then I take a modest tax write-off. There are some other philatelic libraries scattered around the country that may hold similar fundraisers. You can get a listing of the libraries off the APS web site (American Philatelic Society; www.stamps.org ). The American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) may do likewise; it's affiliated with the APS.

Because the RMPL is a non-profit, and totally volunteer operated, bulk lots often go for a bit more than something that just gets consigned to e Bay.

If you decide you don't want to bother with selling them you might consider donating them. There are a lot of organizations including some for veterans, Boy Scouts and other examples listed in this past post:


https://goscf.com/t/37432&SearchTer...ion,veterans

Also some organizations such as goodwill.com will sell donated collections to raise money for their charities.

It would still be a good idea to find out what your collection might be worth so you can have a basis for deducting your contribution on your taxes.

Long John Silver Welcome to SCF. I tend to agree with Floortrader. One you are young and if you notice many if not the majority of collectors today started young. Stopped and stored for several years then picked the hobby back up in our elder years. I started when I was about 13 and stopped about age 18 then started back when I was 64. I have my original album that I and my parents worked on at our kitchen table. Precious memories. I left my original album pretty well in tact and started fresh with the American Heirloom. I still occasionally go back and look at the stamps my Parents and I worked on. You mentioned a daughter to pass some of your collection on to. Why not wait until she is about 8-10 years old and introduce her to stamp collecting with her own album. You not only will build precious memories with her but have a way in the future to pass your collection on to her. If you try to sell your collection you can only expect to get about 20% of the value back. The memories and relationship will be worth far more value than the money you will realize. I rest my case. This of course is just my opinion.

I'm not quite sure why you want PSE certs unless you already know you have some scarce/valuable items. Why not just pick out your top 10 stamps for whatever reason and frame them?


2x on having someone else look through everything to set some direction for you.

How large is your collection and what areas? Just USA?