Hello From Wyoming!

Hello Everyone.

I am very new to the stamp world. My dad recently gave me his stamp collection and I am at a loss on how to organize it. I have several boxes with unsorted stamps (a few thousand) from all across the world. Most of the stamps are in glassine envelopes and unmarked. How do I even begin to sort them since I don't have much knowledge on old stamps.

Any advice is appreciated.

The good news is that there are multiple internet sites that can help. I did mine by sorting by country and then getting the year and Scott number to begin the process. There are good sites for getting to that point such as Stampworld, TheSwedishTiger, Mystic Stamp, StampSmarter, etc. There are also sites for Revenues, Precancels, etc. If you really get stuck you can always enter whatever information you have on the stamp and do a google search that will many times get you to at least a year or country.

The next step would be for evaluating, plating, etc. that will require significant familiarity and knowledge of stamps.

Good luck as I've been there and done that.

Welcome Myri. For ID purposes, you can generally find Scott catalogs in your local library or on various web sites if you'd ever want to buy one or more. Don't be afraid of a used copy that might be 4 years or even older; not much has really changed in terms of identification purposes; and generally speaking the suggested values have not changed a whole lot. A used copy(s) should not be too expensive. You'll also find that once you start digging in, finding out what you have will be easier the more you learn and recognize the various nuances from various countries/locales. Other catalogs you may find more information on perforation and shade varieties but for a basic "what do I have" I think you'll find that Scott catalogs will do just fine.

myri,

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences. Russ

Welcome.

Did your father have an album as well as the many glassines? If you think you would like to pursue as a hobby, you are likely to want an album with which to help identify and organize what you have. Many nice clean ones are available second hand on ebay at pretty reasonable prices, some of which even have from 100 to 10,000 stamps in them which can help a bit too.

If you are thinking of an album, I would suggest using the Forum search feature ("search" button right below the login) to look for worldwide album and you'll latch onto a couple threads in the Forum that discuss the pros and cons of several.

That would be my first suggestion.

Thanks for the information. I definitely have been scouring the internet over the last few days.

re:jleb1979

My dad has 8-10 unfinished books as well as thousands of stamps that he never got around to adding into the books. The books range from the US Presidents to different countries. From what I can see so far, there are some duplicates, sheets of stamps, a completed Franklin Mint - the world's first postage stamps (proofs) - 24 k gold on silver - 73 pcs, and several first day covers.He also has Several books of golden replica stamps, some foreign currency with origin notes and postcards from 1907/08. He stopped collecting in the late 80's and hasn't touched it since. I do want to finish what he started, but the boxes of foreign stamps have me stumped. But I think I will start with the US and work my way out to other countries. Its a big task and if I had only known what a project it would be I would have started this years ago. But it should be fun none the less learning about this hobby.

Myri, I know a portion of Wyoming is not exactly the most densely populated area but if you can find a stamp club nearby you might get some free help there. Just a thought.

Hope your searching leads to you wanting to keep or improve the collection, or maybe at least sparks an interest in a particular area.

Welcome. I'm a little confused. From what I gather your father is still alive but stopped collecting in the 1980's? If this is so I would think the first person you would talk to would be your father. After all, he accumulated all of these items so at one time he must have had some sort of goal or philosophy that he can pass down to you to get you started. If I am mistaken and he is no longer alive then the next question is as already asked, are you interested in getting involved in this hobby or not. If so, you have already been given some good recommendations. A used catalog and album is a good start. You might also send us some pictures of the collection/accumulation.