Getting On A Bit - What To Do With My Stamps?

Of and on for the past 70 years, I have been collecting stamps. Over the years, my collecting habit narrowed down to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, mainly because those are the countries I inherited from my father.

Now, there is really nobody in the family or friends who have any desire to collect stamps so I am slowly trying to sell them off. I must say that this has been a pleasurable experience - it's just like collecting in reverse. I have tried ebay over the past years but the results hardly seems to justify the effort. Even with my better pieces, I seem to realize only about 10% of catalogue. I'm not sure that going the dealer route would be any better. My brother inherited the balance of my father's collection and got about £300 for what surely had a catalogue value of at least £10,000, including several award winning pages from his time with the Scottish Philatelic Society in Edinburgh. (After winning for several years in a row, he was taken aside and quietly asked not to submit anything for a few years!)

There must be a number of you out there in a similar situation. What has your experience been? What has really worked for you? Your comments will be much appreciated.

Frank.

I've collated information on places to donate stamps.

Pass me an eMail, and I'll pass you a PDF.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I watched, fairly recently, a colleague with a nice collection,
sell on ebay.
He employed a philatelic ebay power seller, on his behalf,
and sold complete pages.
He knew and trusted this fellow, and whilst I didn't take particular notice,
I believe his collection was sold over a period of 12 months, and realised around $30,000 ?

There is a member here on SCF that would, I believe, bear witness also.
I wish not to divulge names, and I am unaware what commission was paid,
but this could be a route for you to consider.
Good Luck.

ikeyPikey:

Many thanks. As a new member I am not yet able to contact other members. I have asked the Higher Authority to forward my email address to you.

rod222:

Many thanks. I guess that there is a bit of distrust floating around on the Internet so ebay buyers are perhaps unwilling to pay too much in case of fraud, etc. Selling through an established power seller sounds like a good idea. Many thanks.

Frank.

Frank,
not sure about distrust, from my observations, ebay can be quite a bore with vendors offering single stamps,
the big trick is to offer complete pages.
If you have an ebay power seller, with an established palmares, and a broad philatelic client base
then you are ahead of the game already, providing the commission structure is reasonable.

As I see it the stamps do not have to change hands, you just supply the (good) hi def scans of the stamps
to the power seller, and perhaps supporting text.

It all seems smooth to me, but always keep in mind, the world is full of trickery. Be on your guard.

I know personally, I save / budget and buy collections, part collections, pages, spending around $100 a shot, when I can afford.
One ends with good quality stamps, with good set runs, and (generally) good vendors.
Cheers