Inherited A Collection; Don't Know What To Do

My father passed away and I ended up with his stamp collection. He was a part time hobbyist, so I recognize that his collection is likely modest. I tried to do some research and came up with some Scott prices, but really don't know where to go from here. If the collection has some value, I'd like to sell it and give my mother the funds. If the collection doesn't have enough value to sell, I'd like to donate them or gift them to a person on entity that can enjoy them.

I'd appreciate any advice anyone has to offer. Note that this is binder number 1 of 4 or 5.

Hard to tell from the pictures but I did see some very interesting early Canal Zone. If I was you I would contact the Tampa Stamp Club and see if someone there can look at your collection and give you some idea or advice.
Contact Mr James Kauchick, *** Private information removed by Staff. Please do not post your address/email/phone number etc. ***

Peter

Interesting little collection. Did your father spend time in Panama? US Army perhaps, or maybe working for the Canal Commission?

** Private information removed by Staff. Please do not post your address/email/phone number etc

I did not. Merely trying to help by giving the Email address of a stamp club in Florida

Peter

Hi Peter,
Understood, the forum has a set of pre-configured message categories buttons that the Mods use. Please excuse that the message wording was slightly off.

It is against the rules to post any email address as seen here

https://www.stampcommunity.org/rules.asp#rulesid20

Some folks do not understand the rule, incorrectly thinking that posting a commercial email address is acceptable. But keeping all email addresses off the forum helps decease the number of automated/programmable spiders and bots from infesting and crawling the community.
Don

Hi Don, I understand and that is why I wrote "at" in the address rather than use the icon.


Peter

Danah, I am actually a member of said Tampa stamp club (Tampa collectors club;) and collect Canal Zone and the Philippines, and have most of the stamps you posted. There is some value there (nothing in the "several hundreds" or thousands,) but you do have some stamps that should sell in the $20-100 range, and quite a few in the $2-8 range. I only collect single stamps, so someone else may be able to give you a range of what you might expect on the covers (the stamps on letters, just in case you don't know that terminology.)

You'll need 50 posts in this forum to contact anyone directly, but will be glad to give you the info of the stamp club, hopefully within the criteria allowed on this forum. I'll be glad to meet you there at one of the regularly scheduled meetings; and sure there will be a few experts in other areas that may give you an idea of what else you may have.

That said, do you have any interest in continuing on the collection? You have a nice base of stamps to start a canal zone album or collection.

~Andy

Thank you everyone for your input. I apologize for the late reply but work has been crazy lately. I'll likely reach out to the Tampa Stamp Club to see if anyone there can help. In terms of continuing the collection, I most likely will not. With 2 teenagers and my own set of hobbies, time is at a premium. However, I do appreciate the love and care that goes into creating a collection such as this, which is why I'd like to see it get to people who will appreciate it, regardless of value.

One additional unsolicited PSA: My father ultimately passed away from Alzheimer's disease, which is why the collection is not as organized as it should be. If you know anyone who collects anything and they get diagnosed with any form of disease with dementia, I strongly encourage you to talk with them, while they have capacity, about when to pass on their collection. I wish I had encouraged my Dad to sell/gift/?? the collection earlier in his disease process when it would have been in better shape.

Well let me know if you plan on attending one of the meetings, offer stands to help you out if possible.

Andy and other Tampa Stamp club folks:

I'm really sorry for the very delayed response, but I'm still interested in contacting the club to see if someone can help get this collection in the hands of folks who will use and appreciate it, as modest as it might be. Since I can't message anyone, if someone could message me the info, I'd appreciate it.

Danah, I sent an email to you; if you didn't get it, let me know and I'll figure out some way to connect.

Danah I too am a member of the Tampa club. There is at least one other forum member in the club as well. Standing by to help if I can, but you are in great hands with Andy.