Inherited A Massive Collect From My Great Grandfather

Guys and gals, this collection is overwhelming. I have no clue what to look for. There is books, cards, and boxes of stamps from the US and worldwide dating from 1861 to 1945. I'm trying to sort and have been for a week now. Have almost every country on the globe. I have no where to take them to have someone look at whats here. I'm certain most of the stamps have small value. But there maybe be a few hidden surprises. Help!! I don't know what to look for. How can I educate myself to identify stamps. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome
You can start by posting some images here and folks will be able to better help you.
Don

Go to your public library (or on the Internet) and look for Scott postage stamp catalogs and books on stamp collecting and stamp identification, and then read. Be prepared to spend weeks or months figuring out what you have. Tiny details can distinguish one (valuable) stamp from another (cheap) one.

Older folks with collections ought to write down, for their heirs, a description of their collection and what to do with it after they die. It shouldn't be too hard to write down which stamps are valuable and where to find them.

And be careful how you handle the stamps! Do not use your fingers! Use tamp tongs, and be gentle.

Ok, I will take some pictures this weekend and post them. Any particular way I should group them? I have all the foreign countries in a tote mixed its the size of a large shoe box and 3/4s full of loose used and unused. I am attempting to sort out US stamps by year. Thanks and I will get you some pictures

Where do I find tongs for stamps? OMG this will turn into a obsession with me.

Danny, stamp tongues can be had from places like Hobby Lobby or Michaels. If you can not find them please use plastic gloves - the salt in your skin could harm stamps especially the mint ones.
If you show us some pictures, try to start with the older stamps.


Peter

You can buy tongs and other supplies on ebay or Amazon. You can just do a quick search for "stamp tongs" and it will pull up various results. Prices range from about $5-$10 or so, depending on the tongs.

If the collection is truly disorganized, you'll have your work cut out for you. If there are parts that are organized in some fashion - mounted in an album, etc - chances are that those are the "better" and more valuable parts of the collection. Most collectors will organize and mount their valuable stamps right away, whereas the cheap, common kind often come in bulk and can sit in a disorganized mess for some time before they get around to organizing them.

I second the recommendation to get a copy of a Scott Catalogue from your library. Just keep in mind that the prices you see listed there are in no way remotely realistic as to what you'll be able to expect to get for them, particularly if you sell the whole thing at once to a dealer. Anything you see valued at under a couple dollars or so is really worth pennies. Items valued at several dollars and up are usually worth somewhere between 10-50% of the catalog value to another collector, and probably half that to a dealer (even less if you're selling a big disorganized bulk lot). And that's if they're in good condition, if they're not in good condition you can reduce that even further. The purpose of picking up a catalog will be for you to just get a general idea of what you've got - whether they're all basically worthless or if you've got something worth a bit more. You might also want to search for a local stamp club in your area, as some members there might be able to help you out as well. Good luck!

There are a number of online stamp collecting supply companies that sell stamp tongs, as does Amazon. You might try http://www.subwaystamp.com/ or https://www.mdstamp.com/.

Or you could go to the Southeastern Stamp Expo which is being held in Norcross, GA this coming weekend. Show info at http://www.sefsc.org/. I am sure that someone there will be selling tongs and other collecting supplies.



Hopefully a health obsession!

Danny, one other thing you can do, and that does not really take a course in stamp collecting. Go to http://stamps.org and find the info on a stamp club near you. Contact them, and they most likely can get you in contact with one of their members who is willing to look at your stamps. There are at least three clubs in your area (SC) and with just a bit of luck someone will be close to you.
On the website, click on the first box ( stamp collecting ), then click on local clubs.


Peter

I have found this site to help me alot. I was and still am in the sorting and learning mode. I am having fun. the nice thing about this page it has nice photo's.

where to start. pick a country, I choose USA. then sort based on age. if you use this web sight you will see the stamps numbered from 1-4000, however kind of break them down to around every set of 300. then the older ones is were you could find that gem. good luck.
http://www.theswedishtiger.com

Personally, I like the 155mm long, point tip tong, available from many sources. I got mine from http://Amosadvantage.com for about $8.00. The tongs are made in Germany and are quite good.

dear all,

first, I never thought I could find a forum topic so close to what I need, let alone post sth in it.

the title says it all: I inherited an approx. 1 million piece collection from my grandfather. he was really into this and surely though the collection was valuable (when he left the country for business trips, which wasn't that easy in 50's hungary, he would put some of his stamps in an envelope and told my dad to sell it if something happened)

anyway, I am obviously an outsider but for me it's more about paying respect to the old guy by trying to find someone who would appreciate the uniqueness of his collection than making money from it.

I read some of the previous posts, so I know where to start looking around but I would very much appreciate if some of you experts could help me find the person described above.

cheers,
_b

Hi Benito, and welcome to the forum. Several years ago I found the contact addresses for two Hungarian stamp clubs, but now I can not find them. However, if you contact the Hungarian club here in the US at http://hungarianphilately.org I am sure someone can help you find a good person in Hungary.

Peter

Danny,

Excellent advice, as usual, from the other responders. I'll just add a couple additional points.

The Scott Catalog is published in 6 volumes:

Volume 1: US & countries A-B
Volume 2: Countries C-F
Volume 3: Countries G-I
Volume 4: Countries J-M
Volume 5: Countries N-Sam
Volume 6: Countries San-Z

...so plan on borrowing one at a time from your library.

There are several web sites I've used to help with identifying the issuing country of a stamp:

http://www.iswsc.org/iswsc_identifier.html
http://www.thestampcollector.net/wwidentifier.html
http://www.stampmasteralbum.com/For...fierHome.htm
http://www.stampswops.com/stamp-ide...cation.shtml

...and one more which you can find by Googling "connecting collectors".

When you post images use a scanner to capture in JPEG format at 300dpi which is usually good enough. Using a camera or mobile phone will generally not produce a clear enough image.

Good hunting!

Terry