Best Way To Sell Covers - Groups, Individually?

I bought a copy of Scott's US Specialized Catalogue and it finally arrived today. I'm embarrassed to say that, after collecting stamps for many years in my youth, the term 'cover' somehow never registered with me beyond being used in relation to FDCs. Can anyone offer pointers on the preferred way to get older covers into the hands of someone who could enjoy them? I've already posted a couple of forum questions about FDCs - and inventorying commemoratives and definitives - but never considered the covers separately until the last couple of days.

First, here's the background: A friend told his next door neighbor that I collected stamps. After her husband and his brother passed away, she inherited the brother-in-law's stamps and had zero interest in them. Long story short, I took pity on her and bought the stamps from her a couple of months ago.

Here's the odd part - the b-i-l had taken construction paper and put a Scott number at the bottom with a label maker. Then he mounted (not hinged) whatever he had for that number on the sheet - single, plate block, FDC, etc. I've never seen anything like this - some pages have a single stamp, some have one of everything. There are 15+ three ring binders like that.

My plan is to use some of his older stamps to fill holes in my personal collection. But I've never collected stamps on envelopes - and don't plan to start - so I'd like to get these into the hands of someone who could enjoy them, resell them for a profit, etc. Would a potential buyer be more likely to be interested in them individually? Or grouped by Scott numbers? Or maybe grouped by destination or place of postmark?

From what I saw when I quickly looked through his 'albums,' I don't think there's anything rare or high dollar there but every cover I saw was pre-WWII back to the turn of the century, so I'm sure someone would be interested.

Thanks in advance for any advice or pointers to places to expand my knowledge.

A lot depends on the type of material, really. If they're common US first day covers, they will move very slowly individually, while as a big lot they might sell in one go at a fair price. On the other hand, commercial covers might sell best if listed individually or in small lots of related items, as it's easier for specialists to find them and identify the goodies.

And don't write your material off so quickly: even some common modern stamps are quite scarce on commercial covers. Single-use high denomination Prexies (the 1938 Presidential definitive set) are very popular, and often will sell for good money individually. If you find a $5 Hamilton (Scott 1053) on commercial cover, it's a legit rarity, even though the stamp used off cover is only worth a few dollars. Many other US stamps, even very recent ones, are difficult to find on cover.

(Quick edit: it'll have to be an in-period commercial use to have a premium. Don't go using your mint 1053s to manufacture rarities )

Thanks for the feedback. I ordered a bunch of poly sleeves to help me organize the FDCs and they're scheduled to arrive in tmrw's mail. I guess I should create a separate batch of 'stamps on covers' to give me a better idea of what I actually have.

I sell covers on ebay and my strategy is usually to compare other covers listed and what they sold for in order to price them. I usually start them off on a 7 day auction and if they don't sell, I'll list them next on 30 day buy it now and then finally I'll mark them down if they have sold after all that.

I try not to group covers as they will sell for less than individually. It just depends on what you have and how much you want for them