Vatican Stamps 1952-1972

Hello Forum,

I have inherited a small stamp collection. I spoke to a local shop and they said they're worthless. I wanted to get a second opinion here. Here's a link to photos that I've posted on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jjr20...659042447064

I was wondering if any of them are worth anything? If so, what should I do with them? If not, should I just throw them out or is there anyone or place that would want them.

Thank you for your help.

thanks,
James

James, this is a remarkably well presented collection of mint stamps. It is not worthless, though one does not get rich with stamps. I'll see what I can do to get a rough, rough estimate of the collection's value.

Here is a similar collection that recently sold.
Don
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VATICAN-STA...047675.l2557

Okay, I checked the stock of one of my trusted dealers and, while it's true that you are missing the most valuable stamps from this 20 year period, a rough average of your collection's value can be obtained by counting the stamps and multiplying by 60 cents. On top of that, you have value in the convenience of a nearly complete 20 year run of stamps and a beautiful presentation album.

If you're interested in selling the collection, I might be interested, but I would insist that you get other opinions before we went further.

KGB,

Thank you for the information and effort. I would be interested in selling them to you.

When you mention other opinions are you referring to this forum? The one opinion that I got locally said they were pretty much worthless. But that's because he's not a collector and would have to auction them off. So, for him, they are worth too little to make the effort.

The are a total of roughly 617 items in the collection:
577 stamps mounted in pages (shown in photos)
16 postcards or envelopes mounted in pages (shown in photos)
22 stamps are loose (shown in last photo)
2 large duplicate stamps. These are duplicates of the large stamps shown in these two photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jjr20...59042447064/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jjr20...59042447064/

thanks,
James

Hi jj2005a

I think that it is a an amazing collection of vatican stamps, and anyone who collects vatican stamps would be happy to own them.
Regards
Horamakhet

Hello Forum,

If I wanted to sell these stamps, is the best way to put them on ebay? I've never sold anything on ebay. Is there a section on this site that would have any tips?

thanks,
James

1. Go to ebay and register yourself.
2. You will do better if this is not your first ebay sale or purchase. The number of transactions you have had is shown on your auction page and many potential bidders are a bit leary of someone who has never bought or sold anything there being a bit suspicious that perhaps someone is trying to sell something they do not actually have. The more transactions a person has, the more comfortable buyers and sellers are since a pattern of repeated succesful sells and buys shows them the person is more trustworthy.
3. Use your option to include up to 12 photos. More photos are better than fewer photos. Also, make sure you use a camera with the Macro setting on and so your photos are very sharply in focus and well lit. People will bid more if they can actually see what you are selling and the clearer the photos and the more closeups makes them willing to bid more. 4. Provide a reasonable write up - you need to sell it and so a single sentence is not going to do that. On the other hand, do not over sell it with a 3 page treatise.
5. Set your auction for 7 days. The 28 day option is unnecessary and often puts people off. The 3 and 1 opetions do not give buyers time to find your auction and place bids.
6. If you have the stomach for it, make your auction have a starting bid of 99 cents with no reserve. The lower your starting bid means the more people will be interested in getting a bargain and the more likley they are to bid. Once they get started bidding they are more likely to put in a second or third bid later on. Of course you might get caught accepting 99 cents but that is fairly unlikely since there are so many people looking at the auctions. No reserve is important since setting a reserve is shown on your auction and most bidders really hate reserve bid auctions to the point of not bothering to bid on them.
7. Figure out how you will mail it to the winner and determine what your actual cost for postage will be. Put that as the shipping cost in your auction. Do not try to make money on shipping and do not try to ask for both postage and "handling". Bidders hate "handling" costs and are less likely to bid if they think the seller is trying to make some profit on the shipping costs.
8. Allow international sales to trusted countries where the option to ship to an ebay international handling facility in Kentucky where they forward it overseas is done. This will increase the number of potential bidders and you will not get caught up in the sky-high international mailing costs that plague us these days.
7.

Kimo,

Thank you for such a detailed response. I will follow your instructions. I have two smaller lots of stamps that are not as attractive as this lot. I will auction these two first as sort of practice runs before auctioning these.

James