What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

@yirmeyahu - That's an unexpected and delicate situation you're in. I don't have any kind of similar experience and can't really give you any advice, but would just say I admire your intention to stay honourable. Many would not.

Tim - ha ha, good to see I'm not the only one with a Rio-issue...btw, thank you for mentioning the Botanic garden as a positive aspect, guess that's something for tomorrow then

Been slowly working on creating my database for Australia in Stamp Mate so I can start the process of laying out my Australia albums. Working on the Roos now, and the first series 1913-1914 watermarked with Wide Crown and Wide A has 84 varieties for Postage and another 48 varieties for Perforated "OS" official use once I got all the info correlated. No, I probably will never own all of them, but if I win the lottery one day I'll need a new "job" to fill my time, and will be able to go on the hunt and fill the spaces.

Sample of my database showing listings for the 1/2d and the start of the 1d values of the 1913-1914 First Roo series. "Specialist" is the Brusden-White Australian Specialized Catalogue numbers

Slowly identifying my Danish stamps, none that were too difficult but gaining quite a bit of general knowledge about the early ones...luckily none that were later reprints on yellow paper of early issues then I would need to call on Sorsch!

Recreated Robin Harris' "Basic Machin" album pages w/o the stamp images and only for stamps issued in the 20th century.

Tore up my office looking for my CD of Steiner album pages because I wanted to deal with some Mauritius material I've accumulated....and couldn't find it. Dangit.

Went to the office supply store today and carefully selected some acid-free card stock to print out Steiner pages...

...and checked my mailbox for the Steiner CD-ROM that I ordered a few days ago. It isn't here yet. The suspense!

Went to the local Staples & bought some materials for 2018 USPS issues. They had a BOGO on colored card stock, and & I had a $10 coupon for the total purchase. All set for 2018 cataloging and album placement.

I placed an order to Subway for some mounts and a UV lamp and lighted magnifier for my Dad.

Transferred from hinged Ambassasador Worldwide album to Vario pages:

Great Britain
Hamburg
Hawaii
Heligoland
1/2 of Hungary

Finding some beautiful imperf 19th century and early 20th century issues.

I've been working my through a pile of United States stamps today. Moving on to the flags soon.

Yimeyahu, it's refreshing to hear others dealing with that type of problem. I've run into a couple of times and I've always contacted the seller. Some have been adamant that they didn't want anything more while others were pleasantly surprised and grateful.

Be absolutely certain of any expensive stamps before you reach out. With the catalog values you are talking about, I'd send them for certification. Also, look very carefully at condition as that is extremely important with the higher valued stamps. A small crease or thin would drop those values precipitously and then you'd have gotten someone's hopes up for nothing.

Once you have certified stamps in hand, you could then approach a dealer or auction house to determine what they would be willing to offer. With a firm price in mind, then contact the seller and offer the same percentage you had originally as a bonus for the discovery of the more valuable stamps.

Hope this helps.

@Stampman2002, great thoughts and advice. I had considered the certification option and with some of the higher valued stamps, I will definitely pursue it. When a stamp expertizer certifies particular example is genuine, does he also provide a suggested value based on condition?

Yirmeyahu

The certificate is only to ID and describe the stamp condition. The value is given by the market for that stamp and can change over time and where it's being sell. Daniel

I've been working on getting my used Britain off the ground. Patiently waiting for the albums and first stamps to arrive. I may resume my Washington_Franklin ID project. I have hundreds of the 2 centers to go thru.

Jack kelley

Just finishing listing a lot of Skylab I and Skylab II covers from 1973, on ebay.
Some postmarked Europe, Australia, Papua New Guinea, etc.