I Inherited My Uncle's Huge Collection Of Stamps, Thought You Might Enjoy Seeing Some Of It

Hi!

I've met a few of you in the introduce yourself forum. My name is Barbara, was an avid stamp collector as a kid. My Uncle was a well known surgeon/doctor in Los Angeles who had the cash to buy and collect anything he could find. And my goodness, did he ever.
He willed the entire collection to me. Boxes and boxes. Mint, rare, plate blocks, FDC, rolls, postcards, things I don't even know what they are, lol!

Talking to Siegel auctions right now about taking the collection, it's to much for me, I am keeping some of my favorites to remind me of my awesome uncle.

I am not selling these here, just thought you would enjoy seeing an inheritance and what you might find. I was floored when I learned he had left it all to me. He used to call me, "Phil", short for philatelist :) Love you Jimmy!

Enjoy. Love to talk about them if anyone is a blabber!














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Hi, Barbara and welcome to the forum. What are the favorites you will keep?

Wow! Your uncle had some great ones. I'm really loving that zeplin. You definitely inherited some killer stamps.

-Jake

Hi Dudley,

There are so many I would LOVE to keep, and I am sure you have an idea of which ones :) This is just a quick sample, there are 10,000"s of stamps here. It's hard to even part with them, I have had them for 20+ years myself. I nearly died twice in the last 4 years and have gone through 20+ operations. Medical bills beyond my insurance have prompted this decision. Still recovering from a surgery 2 months ago that the surgeon said I should not be alive from the disease I had called Peri-appendicitis (not peritonitis), it's very rare. I had gangrene in my abdomen from another surgery 4 year prior. Crazy and you never see your life going this way, hence the selling.

If Siegel's wants to auction off the collection, I will have to be content with the ones they do not want. If they decide to take the collection. They were the first stamp auction house I contacted. Do you all recommend them for high end collections or if you were doing what I am trying to do, who is the most reputable? I am in fear I will be ripped off, being female, ill, and not knowledgeable in the sheer volume and value of this collection. I know it's sad, but so many folks are out there to con you, as you all know.

Anyway, delighted to find you all. I am having a lot of fun going down memory lane with stamps, I even found my old stamp collection and laughed when I compared it to Jimmy's. The child with no money vs the surgeon with money to spare. Wow, he must have had fun being able to collect the best he could find. A stamp collectors dream, right?

Thanks everyone, I so appreciate the feedback, advice, and comments on the stamps. I'm having fun!

Here's something I think will go up in value, since they are going after opiates and plan on getting rid of them except for some people! Just something fun, stamp collectors collect these too, although these are my Uncle's real licenses :) I kind of want to keep them, they would be cool framed with his medical license and some of his old medicine bottles and nicknacks. I inherited his doctors bag too,I gave that to his nephew, who also has his Dad's medical bag. In the early 1900's he made more house calls then office visits! Patients even came to his house. Sounds like easier times, doesn't it?

Barbara

Hi Cook Islands,

I love that Zeppelin Stamp! He kept such good care of these stamps (as did I), that they look like they just came from the post office. It's hard to believe they are so old and still look so amazing.

That's one I would love to keep, I suspect if an auction house takes this collection, they will want it complete and not split up. On the plus side, he has thousands of 'extras' of almost everything that I guess were his seconds. Maybe as I go through them all I will find similar ones for me to keep :)

The "Opiate Tax Stamps" anso known as STS or Special Tax Stamps are a nice way to remember your Uncle. That are not worth much, about $5 a piece. I would keep them and maybe frame than with a picture. It would make a nice rememberance of his carding and generosity towards you.

When I saw the title of this thread I figured I'd be looking at cheap stamps hinged on tablet paper. I wasn't expecting to see stamps in a still-nice hingeless album or a Zepp. Nice!

While I appreciate the collection and the opiate tax paids I am not sure about a Siegel quality collection. There is much I have not seen though.

If Siegel accepts the consignment then you have something even more to look forward to as they are a top of the line auction house.

Thanks all. These are just a few pages of hundreds. I had a long talk today on the phone with 2 different Siegel appraisers, they had me look at different things and asked me a lot of questions.

Because of the sheer volume of my uncle's collection, they asked me to send them some photos of various things. I sent them about 30 photos total.

No idea if they will be interested or not. Most of his stamps are mint, except for the older ones. They know the albums are nearly full, and the International albums are way above my experience. Stamps from every Country going back to the 1800's, full to the brim. Bags of extras. They are not interested in newer stamps unless they are of course a rarity, they want the pre 1900 stuff primarily (as do I, LOL!). Looking for rare Grills, cancellations, you know, all the rare things I don't know a thing about or have the time to try and research.

He said to send some sample pics, and then he would take it from there, ask for more photos, have me scan certain ones, I will do what he wants for sure. Or try another place if they are not interested. This is 100% new to me, no clue what I am doing. It's fun though and I am learning a lot, which is great! Thank you all so much.

Yes, I agree on the opiate licenses. I love them, and have a number of things to go with them. Will probably frame them with some other documents in remembrance of Jimmy :)

I will take some photos of some the 1800's foreign stamps tomorrow, any particular countries that people are interested in? I don't know the hot countries people are collecting, any particular countries highly collectible right now? I can take photos of those for you all to see. I am assuming the fun stamps to see are the oldest, but maybe that is not correct?

I take requests for photos, just know I am working with an old iPhone 4, I know, time to upgrade :) It takes me a long time as I have to send it to my lap top then transfer it to my computer. Somehow, I think there must be an easier way but I am such a tech idiot that it escapes me, sigh...... :

Very nice!

Lets see early Great Britain and France please :)

China

You might want to contact HR Harmer which is another top level auction house. They are located in Tustin and you could probably visit them in person.

Thank you so much for sharing .. that really does look like a massive collection .. reminds me that I need to start cutting back (even though I keep buying!). Best of luck to you and best wishes. And, I concur with the last poster in that you could also try HR Harmer.

Great stamps, great personal story and hope you get the results you wish out of this exercise with Auction Houses. I would have a good one to recommend but it is in Eastern Canada, where I live.

Good luck and keep the pics going ! Let us see other Countries - Thanks
Rene

Thank you so much KRelyea for the Tustin auction house, that looks perfect for me. I really appreciate it, they are close enough that I could take it to them to maybe they come here. What happens if Siegel's says yes and I already offered it to the other auction house? I'm old school British raised, was taught to be fair and stand by your word, do right by others, manners, the works. Should I wait for Siegel or is it considered fine in the stamp world to contact more than one and take your best choice?

I will take photos today of a few of the 1800's foreign stamps. So far you would like to see China, France, Britain. Any other highly collectible foreign countries you would like to see? I do not know what countries are the most collectible, what's hot right now and I will see what I have to show you all

I have barely begun to go through all of this. Still looking and finding albums. There are thousands of unsorted old foreign stamps he has in dozens of small boxes, packages,