Hello Everyone, New Here, California

Hi!

So happy to find this great board. I used to collect stamps as a kid, and my uncle was a huge stamp collector who spent serious cash on the best stamps he could find. I inherited his entire collection (7 decades of collecting, it's beyond belief) 20+ years ago and I am going through it now. His level of collecting and mine were obvious. He had the money to buy the best and rarest stamps he could find. There are literally 10,000's of stamps. first day covers, sheets, rolls, heck, I don't even know the terms.

I am hoping to learn more about all these stamps and find ways to sell them, Complete set of 4 collect block albums filled, old albums with stamps worth hundreds a piece. War ration books, opium dispensing licenses, it's amazing and so much fun to go through! Boxes filled to the top and the bulk of them are mint in perfect condition, he spared no expense in preserving them all. They look like they just came from the post office.

He was a huge US collector but he does have really old foreign as well. It's overwhelming to me. I stared to put some of them up on ebay to see how they sell, where would you all suggest I take these too? It's such a huge collection, I would be selling the stamps for years. What does one do with something of this value and magnitude without someone coming in and taking advantage of me? I am in Temecula, CA BTW.

Anyway, very excited to be here and learn and read and share. My name is Barbara :)

Howdy everyone!

Welcome Barbara,

This is an outstanding place to ask any question(s) you may have about everything stamp-related. There are some really smart & knowledgeable people here who love to help. Also, once you reach 50 posts you can buy and sell here (something I'm still working towards).

Scott

Welcome!
Don

Thanks to both of you!

Barbara,

I would love to see just a small sample of some 19th century US stamps.

Put up a pic/scan of just a small sample of some you may think are valuable and I'm sure we can give you direction on how to sell or get help in California

Look forward to some pics

RG

Welcome !

Thank you both. I will take some photos of the earlier ones. I just started to post some of the mint blocks on ebay. ***Deleted*** Maybe you can tell me if I am doing it right over there? I used to be a seller on ebay for rare tropical fish and had a 100% seller rating and 100's of sales but I closed my fish business 5 years ago. ebay says I cannot have my seller account back after 3 years of not using it :(

Don't know a thing about selling stamps. I collected as a kid, but these are a collection from a doctor who spent thousands. There are even the receipts with some sets of what he paid, outrageous amounts! Not Scott values either, he was pretty darned smart and had the cash. I was stunned when he willed his entire collection to me, plus his coin collection. To say I am overwhelmed is an understatement. ***Deleted***
I'll take some pictures and see if I can upload them. In fact, let me try one of my photos I used on ebay since I have it and see if I they are the right format and size.

Thanks! You all ROCK!





***Please refrain from any solicitations until you have 50 posts***

Yeah, it worked. OK, off to take some photos now. It's dark here so not sure what my cell will do, but I will show you some of the pages :)

you know you need 50 posts to do some transactions on this forum

I'm not trying to do any transactions on this forum, I am so sorry. I am here to find out about all these stamps I have inherited. Some I plan to keep for myself, but I am sitting here looking at boxes and boxes and can see from here 14 full albums. I need help knowing what I have. It's fun going through all of these, brings back great memories of my days of stamp collecting and stamp clubs, my uncle, it's a weird mix of sad and fun at the same time. I miss him dearly, but he nearly hit 90 and was still going out on deep sea fishing weekends :)

People were offering help, that is the only reason I asked about ebay. I don't know how stamp collectors want to see stamps displayed, if I am doing it right, no clue. I know live fish, I am a retired veterinary technician, grin :) I will delete that if needed, I am not trying to sell you all stamps. This collection is monstrous, beyond anything I can do.

I would love advice on the best way to handle it without being taken advantage of by unscrupulous people who see gems in the coal, so to speak. I know it's worth a great deal of money, and I need it (recently almost died, major medical bills to pay even after insurance), hence the decision to (I suspect) have an auction house sell it? I really do not have a clue what I am doing and I want to do proud by my uncle. They were his pride and joy.

I welcome all the ideas anyone has on the best way to handle this. I am not well and it is just overwhelming. ebay is just an experiment to see if stamps are even selling these days, no way I will be putting these up on ebay. Just threw a few up to test the waters and figure ebay out again. I am also selling a million other types of antiques as coming up on 10 of my family members have passed away in the last 10 years and willed them all to me. It's a sad and huge museum of the belongings of my beloved relatives. I find it painful to be around so much of it, it's a girl thing I guess. I'm still grieving, recently lost my only brother. I apologize if I have broken any of the rules.

These images I just took fast from the first album I picked up. Some 19th century stamps. He kept everything in protective sleeves, hence the glare and my bad cell phone photos.

If
you seem to have beautiful US stamps. A scan would be of preference instead of a Iphone pic - just sharing since you are excited ! Enjoy and welcome to this Forum !

I do have a scanner. Is it wise to remove them from the sleeves after all these decades? I have left everything as is. I've never tried the scanner for stamps, and there are so many!
Interesting idea. These quick photos were for the person who asked about the 1800's issues, of which my uncle seems to have tons of. I know they are poor, I only have an old iPhone and a lap top at present.

I really appreciate the feedback. Thank you :)

Once in your life, you are going to have to use a tweezer and take the stamps out of the "mounts" so put them on the scanner, use the limit of 200k per image (for this upload) and enjoy the results - crop your stamps and resize them to around 200k, 1 by 1 please - have fun ! scan the most important ones (to you)- Rene

It looks like you have some very nice stamps! I am new to this forum too, I have been here a little over a week now so really can't offer any advice - but I can welcome you and let you know that I had a couple of collections that I have acquired from different sources that I didn't know what to do with. I am also in California, northern California - I called some of the dealers on the list from the American Philatelic Society:

https://stamps.org/Dealers

I called a dealer in Sacramento and one in Santa Rosa. The one dealer (from Sacramento) was willing to travel to where I live to look at the stamps - but I never followed through. Thought this idea might be helpful to you.

Good luck with your stamps - and I think it is great that you will be keeping some for yourself.

Thanks Jchrisler, I talked with Siegel's in New York today and they are intrested. He had me send them a bunch of photos and info on my Uncle. Fingers crossed! I don't know what the best auction house for stamps is, but they seem to have a good reputation. I think a lot of these will sell to International collectors as there are old stamps from all over the world dating back to the 1800's.

They weren't too interested in the 4 full plate block albums, although as an almost complete collection of 4 albums, they may. They also are not too interested in stamps unless they are 1800's.

What do I do with thousands of brand new, still in the glassine packets of stamps he bought from the post office of every single stamp they ever put out. It's crazy!

Then there are the thousands of stamps in envelopes that are unsorted, all old as dirt :)

And the coin collection-another story. I'll post some photos of the sheer volume of goodies I have here, it's crazy-to me anyway :)