Disposing Of Duplicates: Make Up Packets, Or Mount In Retired Albums Prior To Sale?

As I migrate my entire collection to Steiner pages, I'll have quite a pile of retired world wide albums and duplicate stamps to dispose of.

Would anyone here recommend mounting up duplicate stamps in my retired albums prior to selling them? Or would making up all-different packets of world wide stamps, leaving the albums empty, be the way to go?

The goal here is to maximize the value of the material to be sold. We'll assume that my time isn't worth anything.

I'm thinking there would be little collector appeal in a nice world wide album--especially my Minkus Comprehensive 2-volume set--containing only some glasine interleaves and hinge remnants.

I've often wondered the same thing. I suspect trying to sell the album + stamps on ebay might be the way to go, but I have no real experience so I'll be interested what others have to say.

Selling the stamps individually on Stamps2Go would be another option.

I think putting the stamps in an album is definitely the way to go if you have time. Stamps in glassines or packets command low prices but collections in albums get good prices.

I just bought a Big Blue filled with a friend's duplicates and I was very happy to pay him $1000. I wouldn't have looked at his duplicates in glassines.

I have seen many time, a page of Scott Int, sold for 2,3, 5 and 10 times the value of the stamps only because peoples see a full filled page.

Another avenue to consider is donating it to the APS Stamps Teach program. You can contact the APS, but that may provide the best return. The amount of time to count everything up and send it would have to be much less than if you tried to sell them.

That said, if you are looking for cash flow, I'd recommend filling the pages and selling them on ebay or Hipstamp as a country collection. You will likely find more willing buyers that way, and receive a better return by breaking it down by country rather than as an entire two volume album.

By the way, Ursa, welcome to the Stamp Community Forum!

Seems like a LOT of effort for little gain. Might try filling a scanner bed with stamps from one country and list one or several scanner beds-full as a single ebay lot.

Thanks for the insights, everyone. There's a lot of work to be done before it's time to make a decision regarding any surplus material. Still, it's never too early to gather good information and begin formulating a plan of action.

@ Stampman2002 and JPMG: I think you're onto something regarding selling off single country sections pulled from albums. I've done some poking around at sold listings on ebay and was a bit surprised to see single country sections sell for more than what many intact albums fetch--and these pages were quite often filled with common stamps, crudely mounted, many of which were damaged.

Yes, there is some "interesting" psychology going on here.

Along the same idea, I wonder how a completely filled Scott International page would compare to a partially filled Scott Specialty page, even though there might be more value on the Specialty page.

In general terms stamps mounted on album pages or blank pages will receive a higher price . A viewer would value stamps that show sets and complete sets higher than a shoe box of loose stamps or a box full of glassines .
The duplicates I sell thru public stamp auction firms are mounted in albums or stock pages ,these have a better return than bulk box lots .

If you are fortunate enough to live in a city that has a philatelic library; like the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library in Denver; you could donate everything to that library for a tax write-off (if you itemize on your return). Most of my duplicate stuff goes to the RMPL, which then gets sold by the library to support its operations.

What a great thread. Thank you, Ursa (and Welcome). It seems the order of greatest payout is: (1) Set; (2) Country; (3) Album; and (4) Packet.

Fortuitous and pertinent for me as I am in the process of purchasing multiple incomplete albums in an effort to get my used British collection off the ground. I am sure I will have lots of duplicates (and albums). Now I have some ideas of how to best present them for sale.

Jack Kelley

Keep in mind that extremely common "junk" is just that. You've all probably come across enough Canada George V to Elizabeth II regular issues at this point, along with most Canadian commemoratives. But have some of those with interesting cancels in a lot with more useful higher values and it would be worthwhile to some buyer. And so it would go for other country lots.

Thanks again for all the valuable insights...

I've never been able to itemize deductions on my (USA) income taxes; as such I don't stand to gain anything by donating material.

@ hy-brasil: I never considered checking the ultra-common material for interesting cancels--a special thank you is in order for pointing that out! And, yes, I likely have enough Machin stamps to wallpaper a small room.

People do love to buy albums.
You can make more money by splitting an album down, but it takes time and it must be a good enough album for people to want to buy the separate countries. A lot of albums simply arent that good.
You can find people pursuing all of these strategies on ebay. I use many of these strategies myself to dispose of surplus material, but it very much depends on the quality as to what I will do with it.
Generally speaking, the more you break things down the more money you can make, but the more time it will take. You may think your time is worth nothing, but I'm sure it isn't.

To sum up what has been said here ,it all depends on what you have and how much time you want to put into the effort .

If it is mostly packet grade material, sell it in bulk in a mixture box . If it mostly all different and sorted into sets .Then mount it on pages will return a higher price . If inventory got better sets {$5.00} then sell it as separate sets. Time is your biggest factor here .