Stamp Pricing Books And Websites

I've been using Stampworld and it's ok I guess. I really hope they finish up the forum soon.
And as far as stamp pricing books, any suggestions? We have both US and World stamps. Thanks for everyone's help.

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Scott and Gibbons both produce multi-volume worldwide stamp catalogues. Scott may be available from your library, or older editions will be available cheap on ebay. Bear in mind that the prices quoted are for stamps in pretty much perfect condition (which most of those in old albums aren't) and that the catalogue prices can broadly be multiplied by 20% for Scott and 10% for Gibbons to get a real world value. Stamps at the bottom end of the price range in either catalogue will, in essence, have no or minimal (i.e 1 c or 1p) value.

Do you plan to continue the collections or get rid of them? You'll probably get more satisfaction from the former, and the value - or the lack of it - won't matter in the slightest.

I appreciate your help. I am looking more to just selling them.
We have too much stuff in the house and trying to get rid of what we can.

I will state that most if not all online pricing catalogs will overstate the value by a significant amount. If you are selling you get much much much less. Condition determines a lot.

If you want a one stop place to identify and get a relative price consider Mystic Stamp's online price list (way over priced) but has images and information to help.

http://www.mysticstampcatalog.com

Another comprehensive source is Brookman's price listing. Again, high pricing but gets you in the ball park. They have minor varieties that Mystic does not show.

http://www.brookmanstamps.com/pricelists.htm

Another source for older material by grade. This is close to Scott's.

http://psestamp.com/prices/

It really is worth getting the Scott Specialized Catalogue for US stamps. The current year is very expensive, but I have found I can get lightly used catalogues from earlier years (like 2015) for a much lower price. This is worth having.
I started with a good deal on a catalogue for 2012 that showed me so much information beyond simply the prices. This convinced me to get a more recent copy.
One of the most important features of this catalogue is a section where prices are shown with varying conditions of each stamp. For instance, lots of ebay auctions show "Catalogue Value" but most of the time this value is for non-faulty stamps in VF condition. If the stamp is a F-VF or a VG, the price can be drastically reduced, but this is often not shown on ebay auctions. The Specialized Scott catalogue does have a section (marked in yellow) where retail prices of stamps are shown not only for VF, but F-VF, F, and VG condition (also XF and superb, but I rarely see those stamps). It is illuminating to see the drastic price changes with condition and then see if you actually got a good deal or not in that auction!

This is a PERFECT question for the Philatelic Book, Reference, Supply, and Software forum.

In fact, you used half those words in your thread title.

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A used set of Scott catalogues, a few years old, will set you back $100 or so. This is actually more than the majority of stamp collections are worth. So maybe before you spend so much time looking up your stamps, you should determine whether your collection is worth substantially more than that.

Did you build the collection yourself, or did you inherit it from somebody else? The best indication of whether your collection is worth good money is if the original collector put a lot of money into it.

There are a few exceptions to that rule: for example, if the collection has a lot of older People's Republic of China stamps (these were inexpensive 20+ years ago, but have gone up in value considerably, as stamp collecting in China has taken off.)

If you have a less valuable stamp collection (couple hundred dollars or less), a dealer is unlikely to make more than a minimal offer, and an auction house won't take it. If that's the case, your best bet is probably to sell on ebay with lots and lots of pictures (ideally, showing all of the stamps). There are a lot of collectors on ebay, and they do look at all the pictures, so you are unlikely to get a result far below market value.