I Have To Get Serious About Liquidating Dad's Collection...

If you don't live close to an Auction House then I can see that ebay is very helpful. I have thought of sending particular stamps to California to sell but the postage is getting expensive. Prices will be higher, though.

Spink Shreves is in Dallas, Texas at 800-556-7826 so there is coverage by the big Auction Houses in Texas. If you lookup the yellow pages for Stamp Auctions Texas, you get this:

http://www.yellowpages.com/dallas-tx/stamp-dealers

mobilman44, why are you assuming the auction house has to be near the seller? There are several houses I could recommend that would take the lot, but wouldn't be nearby. Why should that eliminate them from consideration? You can ship anything just about anywhere, and with enough value, the house may even pay the shipping bill (probably not in this case, but as a general rule w/ more valuable/desirable consignments.) Picking the right house is far more important than worrying about saving $50 in shipping here (IMO.)

BTW, I'm not sure I agree with your comments about ebay either. The likelihood is that an inexperienced seller will NOT do well, and a competent (public) auction house would do better. While all of what you said about ebay was true at one time, IMO it is no longer the case. The current fees, selling restrictions/requirements, dwindling user base, etc., has changed the landscape there. BTW, I speak as a user who registered in Feb 1996 (probably earlier than anyone here) and is still currently a powerseller & top-rated seller...

I personally do not enjoy selling on ebay. It's hard work, the buyers are not the best, cheap bidders, sometimes even mean people.

Also true that ebay "Used to be" a great place to sell but it is much worse now. I used to buy and sell great stamps on ebay. Now, I don't feel I will get a good price for any good stamp so I won't list anything expensive.

Notice any pricier stamps on ebay are cheaper but most times have faults, etc. It's more of a dumping grounds now. But a good one if you want to sell those cheaper stamps.

Again, there are a whole lot of variables out there in determining what avenue a specific seller will capture the most return on the items in question. And, I would urge the OP to explore all the positive suggestions given in this thread.

For me personally, I would be extremely hesitant to send off items to auction elsewhere. But, others may be a lot more trusting than I am. And if it works for them, great!

My comments on selling on ebay - and I should have mentioned other sites - reflects MY experiences over the last several years. YOUR experiences may be different, and I understand that.

The fact is, I only took the time/effort to post on this thread to offer some positive suggestions to the OP, as I feel for his plight.

Many mid-range auction houses have been in business 20++ years, often with many of the same people there the entire period. There are several I could recommend that you could trust 100% with sent material.

One of the biggest mistakes I see is someone giving a stamp estate to a local auctioneer or pawn shop that doesn't know stamps. While mobilman44 didn't recommend doing anything like that, I'll mention it because it happens very frequently and the outcome is almost always a disaster.

For collectors reading this thread, PLEASE take 5 minutes and put something in the front of your album (or leave instructions with your will) with names & contact info for dealers, auction houses, etc., that you'd trust to handle your estate (or at least help advise the heirs.) I can't tell you how many times something simple like that would have gotten the heirs thousands (or tens of thousands) more in realizations and saved them many hours of aggravation...