Help With Stamp Collection

Hello everyone, just joined the forae.

I have in my possession a few books of stamps - mostly Romanian, some interesting ones like DDR and North Korea.

I have no idea what they are worth and I don't even know where to begin.

Do you folks mind taking a look at some of these stamps and giving me some clues and pointers? I'll post pictures below.

Thank you kindly.

Welcome to the forum! We LOVE pictures, so please post them in the appropriate area. I must warn you that, more than likely, you have relatively common stamps, so please start at the very earliest (oldest) ones and post just a few for our comments. Big pictures are the best, so be sure to use the Free Image Optimizer from this website. (Be sure to practice first ...)

Glad to see another Chicagoan on this website. Stamp collecting fills those long winter months, right?

Haha, yeah, especially last one.

I'm uploading some pictures to Photobucket and I'll post them here shortly.

That's about the extent of it.

There are some cool Asian (Chinese, North Korean, Mongolian) stamps, some from the old DDR and Czechoslovakia, and a whole lot of Romanian stamps.

Are they worth anything more than a conversation starter?

Thanks for the help everybody.

sadly no .

Agree, sadly no on the value, but as a conversation starter, there are lots and lots of fun and beautiful stamps in that collection. Stick around and join in the conversation.

That's alright, they're still pretty. I enjoy looking at them from time to time.

That's a good start, you can arrange them an add more, if I was to start again, I will forget those printed albums and make one with only the stamps I like.

$ value no. I do like the Mongolia stamps. Many of the stamps are cto ( cancelled to order) a term worth looking up. I did at one time interest non collectors by showing off my nudes on stamps collection. A lot of colorful topicals here. This all could be the start of a beautiful relationship. This post should be moved to the modern stamp forum.

CTO - cancelled by the issuing authority, to be sold to collectors.

What makes them hold no $$$ value? They're "run-of-the-mill"? Not in good enough condition? Not old enough?

I know very little about stamp collecting - most of these I inherited from extended family ...

cto mass produced and not postally used. To me, more like labels and stickers than postage stamps. There are as usual exceptions and just my opinion. Having said that, I do enjoy looking at your stamps. My nudes collection were mostly cto and a lot of fun.

Makes sense, thank you for the information.

I agree with redwoodrandy. It's debatable whether they actually are postage stamps at all, since none of the CTO ones, which make up the bulk of the collection, serve any real postal purpose and have never been near an envelope. Not all of them fall into that category though. You have some Finland, Spain, Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands etc which are for real, although no value as they are very common. (Note the political geography - Western European states = ordinary postage stamps, Eastern Europe = not.)

I do like the Romania stamps with the portrait of King Michael in the oval frames. They're from 1947 - no monetary value, but I'd be pleased to have them in my collection.