The World Of Wildlife Stamp Sheet Collection

Recently acquired from my grandfather a box of 57 full sheets of animals from around the world. Not sure how many should be in the set. It comes with a letter of authenticity from Calhoun's Collectors Society. Looking for background on this box. How many should there be? How much is it worth? How old is it? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to SCF, Grover2019!

The Calhoun's Collectors Society is based in Minnesota. They produced most of their coin/stamp products in the 1970s and 1980s.

Just about any philatelic product that comes with a "letter of authenticity" or "limited numbered set" from a "... Collectors/Commemorative Society" is in reality a mass-produced item targeting the general public or the casual collector. If you like them, great -- collect them. But in terms of value, essentially wholesale/bulk. They will not come anywhere close to the original selling price. If you inherited them, I would suggest you keep them as a memento -- that value will far exceed the financial value.

I'm sure if you look for them on ebay, you will find some of the listed at pretty exorbitant prices. You will also see that they don't sell at those prices.

If you look on ebay, there is one lot of 85+ sheets for $500. I looked at the stamps and it looks like they are mostly CTO or low value mint stamps (i.e., catalog value <$1). These are the types of stamps/sheets that are used as fillers in stamp mixes & bulk stamp lots.

So the value will be for someone who really likes Calhoun's Collectors Society products. The actual stamps aren't worth that much.

Subscription products like these usually have little or no value, but depending on the specific issues involved, there might be some value to a topical collector; there are a few wildlife sets from the 1970s/1980s that have a premium today.

The 1983 Burundi wildlife sets, for example, can be flipped on ebay for a little money. These actually aren't even all that scarce, they're just hyped, maybe by some Afinsa-type scheme. They have a ridiculously high CV, though: around $1000 per set. Actually scarce stamps from Burundi usually sell for under $10, so figure the odds; there just aren't that many Burundi collectors out there. You can get a lot more for that 1983 issue on ebay than most Burundi stamps, though, so somebody out there is paying for them.

Are your sheets unused or cancelled? That would be the first thing to know. Pictures of what you've got would tell me a lot more!