Is This Stamp Album Worth Keeping?

Hello,

I have a stamp album which I am trying to figure out what to do with. It isn't very big and only has 6 pages that I would call full.

If you could lend me your experienced eyes and go over these stamps to let me know if these are worth keeping to add to the stamps I have in storage (all of the stamps in storage need to be mounted). I guess I am not collecting in the traditional sense since I don't have my stamps all in one place. I was told that the stamps I have in storage were not anything to write home about, but I kept them and intend to mount them. I recognize some of the same stamps in this album here - so I am prepared to hear that there is nothing special about these stamps.

My son's grandmother left him her stamp collection - her collection is neatly arranged in binders. I guess there is no hard, fast rule about the way a collection should look. Even though the other stamps aren't mounted yet I do have them separated by country. This album seems to be focused on British stamps. Please let me know what you think, thank you, Julie

I have the 6 pages below:

Hi Julie, are you talking about a stockbook? And why would you not want to keep it?


Peter

Julie - the stamps are worth practically nothing. I wouldn't get 99p on ebay for these, and the stock-book will make the postage relatively high. Best combined with something else.

Julie. The stamps you have shown in the pictures are all very low value, very common. The stockbook they are kept in is probably worth much more. Depending on what you have in storage, though, may be lacking some of these mostly Great Britain stamps, so worth checking to see.

At first glance these stamps are very basic and have no monetary value, unless you have an error of watermark or paper. It is highly unlikely you have one of those errors.

At first, I didn't realize what a stockbook is. Now I get it though, I think. This is where a stamp collector keeps their spare stock that isn't mounted - is that correct? Or maybe for some collectors, this is where they keep their collection?

And you can either mount all your stamps if you are a worldwide collector or you can mount only the type of stamps that you collect, for instance, I saw a collection here on the forum that was all stamps with monkeys on them. I thought it was a beautifully done collection, it was just so nice. Anyway, thank you, each of you for your opinion.

I will just keep the stockbook, I have to figure out a fair price for the stockbook and the stamps, and I will pay the owner for the stamps and the stockbook so they are mine now. Thank you all so much, Julie

Not everyone mounts his or her stamps. So, the latter, certainly, is the case. But many collectors indeed use them for temporary storage. The type of collection you show may have been accumulated from letters. Many people who do that use stock books. A number of years ago, I knew a Russian girl who had inherited her father's collection. When she travelled to Berlin, we arranged to meet. She brought her collection. Her father had beautifully arranged his collection in a stockbook,




Collecting is about what you want. What you describe is called a thematical (or in the USA topical) collection.
People may collect many varieties of a single stamp. There are almost 200 different plates of a certain British "Penny Red." Others may collect everything related to their hometown, or just a single stamp with many different cancellations.
There is no wrong or right way to collect.

Very true, though I'd add "so long as you don't damage that which you collect."

And IMO, if after three months of collecting you can't succinctly describe what you have (the concept, anyway), then you're not collecting, you're either still accumulating on your way to collecting, or you're hoarding.

Since this collection was left for your son - what does he want? If he's new to stamps, the Machin stamps can be a nice introduction and practice to learn about perforation, watermarks, phosphorus marking, and shades.

The stamps are ones you would need in a collection, most are lightly or reasonably cancelled. If you don't want them, pass them on to someone who does want them. If you are buying them off your son then the stockbook is the value. If I had these stamps I would give them away to someone for the goodwill, except for one or two I would keep for my collection that are so common no body stocks or sells the, which makes them practically more scarce than a penny black.

I did not say this was my son's collection, it belongs to a friend of mine that I sell antiques and vintage items for. My friend does not want the collection, I do as it will fill in some blank spots in my collection that is in storage for the time being.

Hi Julie, Did you get my email about the Boonville cover?

Hi Julie,
If thee 1/2p has a left phosphor band it is worth £20ish, hard to determine from your scan.