Need To Downsize

I have my mother's stamp collection and mine. Took a sample to a coin and stamp collector's store, and he basically told me to use the stamps, that they really have no value. I have pages of mint stamps and a lot of blocks of stamps from the 70's and forward. Some older. Do they have value? How do I find out? Unfortunately, grandsons are not interested in collecting.

A catalogue from your local library will give you an indication of a dealer's selling price. In general, recent stamps - and recent pretty much means back to WWII in the case of US issues - are worth more as postage than as collectables. At least you can use them - currency changes in most European countries mean that the scope for using common material on letters is quite limited.

cyoung, Greetings:

Think of this as a magnificent way to learn every possible way to count-up to 49c (the current basic US letter rate).

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Since you probably did not pay for the stamps from your mother's collection, so you could put them together in large face value lots ($100 or so) and put them on ebay at some starting value well below the FV. Every thing you make is "profit" you can use for something else (grandsons' college fund?).

I concur with the others. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

If there's more postage there than you'll ever use, I second the recommendation to sell them as postage lots on ebay. You'll end up with around 70-80% of face value. If you have a few hundred dollars in total face value, it would still add up to a fairly significant amount of money that you'd get in one fell swoop rather than in the couple dollars or so a month in postage that you'll save.

Yes you have! That is a pot of Gold!

I agree! Sell them on ebay as postage.

Lots of $100 Face Value postage. Even $50 fv lots.

All The Very Best.

Hi,
Last fall I realized I had almost $100 in $0.25 unused USA stamps that were duplicates. I ended up using them on Christmas cards and other mail, and finished them off in the Spring. Sad to say, be most all of the unused USA stamps from the 40s forward are just worth face value for postage, and of course less if sold.

I think it is going to depend on the total value of the stamps. I wouldn't pay $75.00 for a $100.00 lot of plate blocks/sheets unless I had some idea what they were. I would only be able to use them for a larger size envelope such as when I send off for FDC's. We forget the average person doesn't use a lot of postage as they once did. All my bills are paid on line, communication is no longer done through letters, at least for me etc. etc.

If CYoung has thousand of dollars in stamps at face value that is a different situation. I would need to know more.

Need to know more is a thing I need also, before a final decision.

You may have errors or varieties that some people collect for more money than the usual stamps. Not everyone enjoys variety collecting of course.

You may have slightly older or more sought after stamps also.

Of course, spending your time emjoying and learning about stamps and searcing catalogues and ebay or other interesting web sites, auctions, etc., can be tiresome; but think of the extra knowledge you will have gained and enjoy having.

You yourself may also be interested in history, art, people, flags, many subjects, including stamps and the market. Stamps can be an eye opener to how many there are and how much knowledge they can hold and be of value, not just monetary value either.

Cam you show us any general pictures of what you actually have, to be more clear about what is of value etc.? Older or seemingly interesting stamps may be of more value also.

Your time invested can be of value to you only when you learn and are open to new things and the value of your time.

I think I have just one monthly bill that I still mail in, plus the occasional bill that pops up here or there. And, besides Christmas cards, I probably mail off half a dozen or so other greeting cards during the year. Literally, for my non-stamp collecting mail (excluding Christmas), a book of 20 stamps might well last me a year. I do use a lot of stamps to mail items I've sold, back and forth to dealers, etc, but a "typical" non-collector uses no more than a few dollars of postage per month anymore. If I weren't an active stamp collector, it might literally take me a decade to use up $100 in postage.

You summed it up nicely.
Tom

Give them to a charity such as Stamp Out Cancer sponsored by the QC Stamp Club, Moline, IL. They will auction the donation and provide a price realized which you can use as a basis for a tax deduction.

Not top dollar, perhaps, but you get a deduction and the money realized from the auction goes to the American Cancer Socity.

Don