Inherited Substantial Un Collection

My father had a UN collection consisting of everything imaginable from founding through 2001. Complete singles. Blocks. Sheets. First day covers Cancelled as well from the UN philatelic department sending everything to my father. Multiples of everything. Cartons and cartons. How to value and/or sell?

Welcome to the forum. UN stamps have been discussed a lot here. The market for UN is extremely weak. Here is one link I will try and find others.

https://goscf.com/t/11231&whichpage=1

https://goscf.com/t/51394&SearchTer...ited,nations,

Hi redwood, Thanks for the welcome and the quick reply. I'll check out those links. I'm 64, was an avid stamp collector through young adult-hood, and then tailed off. I also have a pretty good personal US collection through the 70's and some interesting "world" sub collections. The massive UN stuff of my father's, I need to convert to cash to distribute among my brothers. I probably have sheets of some of those rarer stamps , but I haven't catalogued it all yet (hours and hours of work it seems). All suggestions would be welcomed! Also, I recall that cancelled UN stamps , on the original envelopes, can have value because they're harder to get - must be mailed from the UN. All mine are from the NY UN.

UN collections are frequently sold intact through auctions. Just about any Rasdale, Regency, or other midlevel auction house will have a few UN collections and stocks in their auctions. Regency has a collection in its upcoming chicagopex auction that is NY from 1951-88, with some sheets, stationery, more than 450 covers, etc. Estimate is $200-$300.

Your collection is better since it goes up to 2001, but in a sense the duplicates and volume work against it. Consigning to an auction house might be a good move - you don't have to invest the time in it, and the house has the same goal of maximizing realization. This may be the way to go unless he had specialized material (different printings and margin imprints on the first new York issue, the precancel, etc.)

Thanks Paper, and Randy. I'm not in any major hurry, so I'll probably take some time, review and catalog everything, and determine whether breaking up portions (if quantity works against us) would be worthwhile. I also enjoy the collection, and so am considering keeping the nicest (not necessarily most valuable) components for myself and then my kids.