Please Help Me. Advice. Or?

Are there any tips on what stamps I should pay most attention to? Country's, pre 19??... Commerative, revunue, post air, playing card, back of book stuff, special delivery, single issue. It cut, covers, must be centered, any. Rule of thumb ? Something like "if I see ***?*** then good/bad, or any sections I should pay more attention to. Or not,.... Litho... I acquired them from a long time friend who's grandpa died 10yrs ago and. No one went in house since. The were in a shipping box that went through mail in early 70s. The collected was a serious collected in 50s. I strongly believe I have serious value here.

It all depends on what do you want to do with it. If you want to keep it, you'll need to get several catalogs and start working your way through it stamp by stamp. Judging by the picture, your albums are in the rough shape. You'll probably want to slowly transfer them to a new albums. If you want to sell them, then take it all to a reputable stamp auctioneer in your area, they'll give you an advise on what it really worth.

Any way, you'll want to do something with it soon. Judging by the picture, the whole collection was exposed to humidity. Album pages are stained, and will inflict more damage to the stamps the longer it sits in your (attic, basement, closet). Remember, with stamps all of their value is in condition, a $1,000 stamp will not sell for a $1 if it's in a rough shape.

I would suggest focusing approximately on pre-1930 stamps. Afterward, stamps generally were produced in mass quantities, partly to cater to collectors, and many of those were hoarded, making them near worthless today. There are exceptions to this of course, but you'll need to do some research to find out what those exceptions are.

The two pages shown do not indicate this was a "serious" collection. One of the stamps has a large piece torn off. Sets shown are missing the majority of issued values; rather than 75% full, these 2 pages are less than 25% full.

Hopefully additional scans will illustrate stronger sections of the collection.

I have multiple albums, and yes they were exposed to humidity. They smell horriable so I put them in sealed rubbermaids with some baking soda inside. I'm still working on scans. Honestly I keep running into a wall by not taking It one stamp at a time. I get too ? I don't know the words. Taking a closer look I have roughly 10,000 stamps pre 1930. Most are in albums. Already identified. Some Albums are not in best of shape. Doing further research I'm finding some pretty valuable pieces. A few are hard to tell if any grill... Is it not smart sending maybe half my collection to mystic? Honestly a little extra cash this Christmas would be nice. The other half I can spend time finding my own gem or two. I can feel it in my gut there's a really valuable piece. I feel I kinda "desearve". Not meaning to sound bold. But why not me? Why not be the guy who found a long forrgotten stamp collection, worth tons of money? The way I see it just because I havnt found it doesn't mean it's not there

rubble ...

Remember that Treasure Island was a novel, not a documentary. You can try taking the lot to a dealer or an auction house or you can work through the albums yourself, posting scans here as you do so. Posting a parcel to anyone on the off-chance, based on what you've photographed thus far, simply appears likely to enrich the USPS.

Geoff

Understanding where the value may lie in a collection comes from PHILATELIC education and knowledge- whether yours or a dealer's. Best of luck in your pursuit Rubble.

rumble..do you have stamps that DO NOT have any black ink markings on front of the stamps? those are mint or unused stamps.. those stamps can be valuable if they are the high end number dominations on the stamps. For examples: COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION ISSUE, $1,$2, $3, $4, OR $5 Dollars? The TRANS MISSISSIPPI EXPOSITION ISSUE: the $1 dollar black of western cattle in the storm, $2.00 Mississippi river bridge from St. Louis,orange brown, even used can be worth money.. Do any of your stamps look backwards with the designs at all? those may be very valuable as well. Please check in your albums..

I would recommend, if possible if you can buy it is the 2015 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue 1840-1940 with front cover has picture of the rarest stamp, the British Guiana on this hardback book. It is about 150- 175 dollars in stores. This is fantastic one book to check and identify Scott number stamps from around the world including USA. You can order on line or possibly a book store can order for you if not available.
If you cannot afford this at this time, then you will need to check with local library research area which has scott books in their reference section. Or the wonderful suggestions what certain posters written here in the forum for different websites to help you out.
You should speak to someone in your local area if have a stamp store, stamp club or stamp show if you truly want to learn about stamps what you have in your possession..Stamps are investments too.Someone truly took the time to have those books collected for a reason as well.. Even with used stamps, some can be valuable from different areas around the world. There are steps to take to make sure if they geniune and not forgeries, certified for high value stamps ect.. I would also suggest you look at different auction houses on line to see about the stamps that are sold..Seigels, Cherrystone, Hammer, Spinks, a few mentioned.. You will get an idea what is being sold on market and rare ones ect
you need to also get a perforator stamp gauge to check the perforations on certain stamps that match the catalogue number including a special liquid to check for watermarks. There has been discussion of the topic in the stamp forum of the different preferences you can read too. With certain stamps to identify, it maybe necessary to double check it was correctly placed in your stamp books in sections, especially when you did not place the stamps in the book yourself.
I hope this information can be a little helpful for you to start on your way to understand the great collection you received.
Best Wishes,
Blazenstar

Revenues some high value stamps.If you have unused 3 cent playing cards that are imperforated with good margins or with pair of them...that is a very rare stamp..certain duck stamps..3 or 4 cents playing cards mint imperforated, the 40 cent unused imperforated inland exchange brown nice is a valuable stamp. the $20 probate of will, orange, $25 Mortgage, $50 Internal Revenue green,$200 US internal revenue green and red are valuable stamps, and the beautiful $500 black, green and red..very difficult to find..very rare stamp.

Where are you located? Maybe we can help you find a stamp store or stamp club or stamp show where these collections can be seen by someone with experience.

Please do scan the $1,000 stamps.

Are there now two threads on this same collection???

Oilver, if you're in a rush to figure this out, I strongly believe finding a local dealer at a stamp show or stamp shop will be of great benefit. You deserve to find out if you have any valuable pieces.

I finally was able to do a few scans, these are just some of my u.s. stamps out of two albums, a small fraction of what I have. I might have time to post a few of other countrys

Steiner pages. Lots of empty spaces