Sorting Large Accumulation Of Postal Covers

I am burdened with the familiar problem of disposing of a large stamp and postal history collection in order to settle an estate. The most pressing issue at the moment is how to sort suitcases full of US and foreign covers, stampless through 1980, so they can be easily evaluated by an auction house or someone wishing to buy the whole lot. My fiduciary responsibility is to get the best price for the heirs without having to become a knowledgeable seller-- which could take a good number of years with this type of material. So, sort by type, era, county, or don't bother -- just sign up an auction house to cream for single items and lot up the rest? Looking to do what is responsible but still realistic in terms of time invested. It's a long question but short answers are welcome.

1st....contact a local dealer to look at.
He will give you the best advice upon viewing the lot.

Sparky45, Kevin gave you great advise. If you live some place away from where a stamp dealer is you can try contacting a stamp club in your area. Stamp clubs all over the US are listed at http://stamps.org .

Peter

Chiming-in to third the suggestion.

Do what you would do with any other asset you know nothing about, and are not about to learn anything about: get quotes, and get out.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

http://stamps.org/Inherited-a-Collection ... "If the individual who owned the collection was an APS member who passed away within the past year ..."

1. If you are not already a member, join the American Philatelic Society - their headquarters is in Pennsylvania and their website is https://www.stampcommunity.org The cost I think is $36.75.

2. Once you are a member, and before you talk to dealers or anyone who offers to buy the collection/accumulation, it would be worth while to contact the APS to access one of their services for members that they call Estate Advice. You can see that part of their website at this address: http://stamps.org/Estate-Advice

3. APS members will also get the monthly APS journal that is called "The American Philatelist". The big dealers advertise in it. Some of them advertise that they are going to be making trips to certain regions of the US and that they will be happy to include a stop at your house to look over what you have and either buy it outright or talk to you about how to put into one of their upcoming auctions. I do not think one dealer is going to be dramatically better than another in terms of what they might offer unless your collection/accumulation has some very desirable rarities then it might make a difference among dealers who tend to specialize in one part of the world or another, or in one specialty or another. The APS Estate Advice folks can help you sort that out.

No reason to join APS....
It will not get you anymore $$ for the items.

The APS Estate Advice is not dependent on, or triggered when, the executor joins:

"If the individual who owned the collection was an APS member who passed away within the past year ..."

http://stamps.org/Dealers ... the APS find-a-dealer page; no need to wait for the hardcopy magazine to arrive.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

You could be sitting on $100 or tens of thousands of dollars so I like the advice above, get 3 quotes and get out. Covers bring in a whole new element compared to stamps and it gets a lot more complicated and brings in more intricacies.

The sender
The receiver
The Stamp or multiple Stamps
Cancellations
Routing marks and auxiliary markings
origination and destination
Date & year
Condition

Stamps are somewhat easy to value compared to covers

I don't think anyone has yet answered the real question of the original post, which is not whether a dealer should be consulted, but what to do before marching in with suitcases of random material. My answer to that is: sort first by country of issue of the stamps; then by year or at least era or decade; and place bundles from countries in the same continent or region together, e.g., North America, South, Western Europe, Africa etc. And put everything on edge in shoeboxes or similar containers rather than flat bundles.

cjpalermo1964....did you not read the topic???

There would be no need to sort by country, year, etc....
A compentent dealer knows what is included...period.

Notice the words 'responsibility' and 'responsible'.

Boxes of stuff tend to get the boxes-of-stuff-price.

Yes, sparky45 could add value by adding time and, as s/he clearly realizes, that time/value thing can go on awhile ... the question is where to stop.

For a paid executor with a law license billing at lawyerly rates - who is dealing with piles piled into suitcases - doing much more than "get quotes and get out" as is would be irresponsible.

For an unpaid executor, unpaid family member, unpaid friend with time on their hands, the time/value math can be a little better because the time matters less, and because the value can include more than raw cash.

CJ is right that the narrow question was "how to sort".

Kevin is right that the best answer is "let the dealer's eyes do the sorting".

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Kevin: of course I read it. Every word. You are not always correct or complete sir.
There are plenty of dealers who would be grateful for the simple organizational step I suggested, and it likely would save them time and reduce the likelihood of a low ball offer. If you had thought it not necessary, you could have answered that part of the original post. Period.

I'm I the only one to read stampless cover up to 1980 ? Are they any cover with stamps ?

Pretty sure he means stampless covers through covers with stamps from 1980

sparky45 - I have just completed settlement of my uncle's estate, which had numerous and varied collections.

While all posts so far have had solid advise, I am going to offer a rather different opinion. Please bear in mind that I have no information on the financial situation of the heirs and you did not say whether you are the attorney or simply the PR/executor. However... since you did not say anthing about "final expenses" it appears that this is simply to make disbursement to heirs.

Right now, all you have is a big, nasty pile of paper and heirs with no investiture in the potential value of that paper. Whether you decide to sell it in bulk for $1, or $1,000 or $10,000 the heirs are not losing money or being ripped off. Inheritance is a gift from the decedent, nothing more. Without being a "knowledgeable seller" you are spot-on that the time involved would be prohibitive.

Unless you simply want to deliver boxes of proportional weight to each heir and say "Here is your share of the stamp collection. You can do with it what you will.", the RIGHT FIRST STEP in your situation is to get a national-level dealer or auction house to assist you in evaluationg the collection. Not sure how to get one? Check the collection itself, perhaps you'll find a firm the late collector dealt with.

The folks here who say to sort are correct, the others simply are not. I would sort simply but concisely - US, British, German or other similar in-demand countries, then go continental. If you are confident enough to break down stampless - 19th C - early 20th C then do so. Otherwise, trust your expert.

My personal advise from one executor to another would be to get the estate settled ASAP.

Feel free to contact me directly. Not a dealer. Not a lawyer. Just an executor who might be able to save you some PITA learning curve time. IMLTHO the forum discussion may cause more problems than it resolves... and I experienced exactly that on two non-stamp forums trying to sort out disposal of collections.