How To Sell Old Stamps?

Many years ago I inherited a stamp collection from my grandfather. Some stamps were in an album but most of them were just in a cigar box. I'd like to sell them, but how?

I've sorted them, roughly, by language, and put them into bags. Almost all of them are pre-WW II, some pre - WW I. I sent the whole thing off to Mystic, along with some plate blocks from the 50's and some first day covers. Mystic returned them pretty quickly with a poorly photocopied form letter saying it didn't meet their needs.

Mystic sells stamps by the pound (as does Kenmore) but doesn't seem interested in buying stamps in bulk. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Don

Hi ddreisba,

Put them on ebay with good photos and detailed descriptions.

Good luck!
- stamporator -

Don: welcome to the web site (your 7th post). Before looking to sell these stamps, you may want to check to see if you have stamps of any value, more than the minimum Scott catalog price. Most larger libraries will have a selection of more or less current Scott catalogs. You're not looking for the exact current value, but more to get a picture of value for the past few years. Bear in mind that even pre-WW I stamps can be pretty common and of minimal value. It may be that your stamps are mostly common values and thus Mystic wasn't interested. Companies that sell in bulk, like the two you name, also like to spice their lots up some with higher value items.

Your 1950s plate blocks are best used as postage, especially the 3 centers. I have a bunch of them inherited from my father when he passed away in the early 1990s. Same for 1st day covers; those from that time frame are generally of minimal value. Too many people saved this stuff during the '50s, thinking they would make big bucks when they sold.

You may end up just giving the stuff away to an appropriate charity. I live in metro Denver, home of the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library. I donate a lot of my common stuff, IF in good condition, to the Library for their youth program. The tax write-off is modest; just because a stamp catalogs, in Scott, the minimum 25 cents doesn't mean it is worth 25 cents.

It maybe a laborious task but good advice was given to you. The three cent stamps are tough because they can only really go on a large envelope. A small envelope won't hold 17 of them! If you find they have little value you could donate them to my stamp class. It would be much appreciated by me or any stamp class or club.

I think you can trust Mystic - who are not famous for leaving money on the table - that you have no treasures lurking within.

Unless you *really* like paging thru books, I'd take a pass on cataloging the stamps one-by-one.

Thought experiment: if you found a stamp that you could sell for U$D 100 after 20 or 30 or 40 hours work, how would you feel?

I would find a target for donations. You can search SCF - best done from google, from outside of the site - for 'donate'. You might also decide that helping someone else make a living is also a worthwhile form of charity, and ask someone who sells packets to just take them off your hands.

As to that U$D 100 you missed, carry some hard candy, and see how many times you can pop one in your mouth and skip the drive-thru.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

You could open a stamp store, what with rent, utilities, insurance, and taxes - your monthly outflow might be south of 5000 US$ per.