Inherited Stamp Collection - Don't Know Where To Start!

Hello Everyone,

I recently inherited a stamp collection from my father. The stamps are organized into these big blue stamp books that look to be made by Minkus Publications (So the copyright information in the book says). There is also a region (Russia, India, etc) printed on the book in gold.

In the collection there are stamps dating back to the late 1800's (1880+) to mid 1900's (1960 or so). There are books from many different regions: Russia, British America, British Asia, British Oceania, France, French Community, and a few others. Some of the pages are filled with stamps, some pages have no stamps. On the pages, there are numbers where you put the stamps.

How can I go about finding the worth of these stamps? Is the a printed price guide that dates back this far, or are there guide online I can use? Also, are the numbers printed on those pages used to identify the stamps?

Please forgive my ignorance, I know nothing about stamps. All I know is when I put them on my mail, it gets where it's going. Heck, I don't even know what a US stamp goes for these days :)

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance!

Hi jaylach:

Welcome to SCF. Believe it or not, situations like yours are fairly common. I'd like to suggest that you first read a few similar threads.

Then post another message and we'll start converting you to a collector

KirkS


https://goscf.com/t/3997

https://goscf.com/t/4056

https://goscf.com/t/4046

https://goscf.com/t/3299

https://goscf.com/t/1365

Welcome to the Stamp Community Forum, jaylach!




The Minkus albums used catalog numbers from the Minkus New World-Wide Postage Stamp Catalog. Both the albums and the catalogs are no longer in print, as Minkus no longer exists intact and Krause Publications no longer supports the Minkus product line.

Therefore, DO NOT use those catalog numbers, as it will confuse other collectors and anyone trying to help you.

After looking at those threads KirkS linked, feel free to post any additional questions.

Kim

jaylach, Welcome! Your collection sounds rather organized, there is a good chance sound stamps could be special.
Pick up a Scott's Catalog from your local library that will help to get you started. If you can't fine items there, especially in Russia
section, I've have special catalogs, you can post an image and anyone on the forum can assist you.

Good luck!
Mike

Hello,
I am in a somewhat similar situation and am in the process of figuring out what I have - with much help from folks on these forums.

A few things:

You can probably get the "Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue" (or previous year's) in your library. It comes in 6 volumes and covers nearly all stamps. They also make a special USA only catalogue.

There are 2 other competing catalogs (at least) - Stanley Gibbons from the UK and Michel from France (?) so if you see stamp numbers on the Internet be sure which catalog the person is referring to.

If the collection you have is sorted by nation and year then it will be relatively easy to look up the stamps, but it can be pretty time consuming. There is not a picture of every stamp, so you will need to have the patience to go through all the little descriptions for some stamps. Also, note that at the end of each nation there is a section for things like airmail stamps, postage due, special delivery and other weird things. If you can't find a stamp in the catalog be sure to look there.

Most stamps from 1950 on (maybe earlier) are not worth too much, but there are many exceptions to that (some nations or particular stamps can be worth more that 10$ a few are much more).

The prices in the catalog are the price you would expect to pay from a dealer, so you will probably make less than half that when you sell them - or so I am told.

You can also use the search function on ebay to find the stamps, and if some have sold at auction you can see what they fetched. However, this process is VERY hit and miss so I don't recommend it as a first step.

That is all that comes to mind right off hand - good luck and please post what you do in the end.

John Paul

First off, thank you all for the welcome.. and the advice/help :)

I have read those posts linked above, and there was a lot of informative information in here. Looks like I need to get my hands on Scott's Catalog. Luckily, I have all the time in the world to go through these :P

I'm not expecting to make a lot of money off these. My dad always claimed to have a lot "gold in those stamp albums, waiting to be mined", but I'm not too sure I buy it. I've been an avid baseball card collector for years and fully understand that what you perceive something to be worth is usually a grouse overestimate, especially when it comes to collection you built from scratch.

Anyways, thanks again everyone for the help. I'm sure I'll be back around these parts every few days with stamp help :)

Welcome, jaylach. Feel free to ask us anything. There's enough knowledge here, I'm sure we can easily save you a lot of time and trouble.

Jaylach if you make any money..please come back and tell us..we will be all ears..i remember working with a guy in the late 70's or early 80's who sold his childhood baseball card collection..he said the buyer went right down the catalog with him and paid the current price..he received I believe $700 dollars and was very happy...but we know what happened to collecting baseball cards !!

jaylach

Wow, philb, I can guarantee those baseball cards bought in the late '70s or early '80s are worth a lot more now! The older cards have held their value nicely

Chequer right on the baseball cards..my sons say the same thing..but then it got corrupted..i remember young guys I worked with buying cartons to try and get the prize card.. I theenk theres no easy money !!

I collect hockey cards and yes, with "chase cards", the whole hobby has gone screwy (thank you, Upper Deck). It's gotten to the point that I don't even bother anymore -- I prefer to invest in the older cards instead now, and just buy the base sets when I see them.

I collected baseball cards too, finally I sold them all, but the Minnesota Twins. The best card I had was the 1969 New York Mets rookie picthers card
with Jerry Kooseman, Tom Seaver & Nolan Ryan and sold it for $2100. and I spendt maybe a penny for it.

Mike

I am selling a lot of my card collection now. Just don't have the space. I will concentrate on cheques and coins now ... although I'm certain there will be a few cards I won't be able to part with right away ... like your Twins, warrehouse. My cheque collection needs some serious organization though. Sadly, it's been neglected.

Saw my oldest son and his ladyfriend today at an art show they and friends were holding...he tells me that card dealers pay about 50 percent of the cards catalog value ...can you imagine the number of estatic stamp collectors there would be if they could sell their stamps to a dealer for 50 percent of catalog ????

Yes, that is about right. I used to be a card dealer. That wouldn't apply to commons though. I always found the large discrepancy between the catalogue value and the selling/buying price of stamps odd .