Large Collection, Need Help - Can Send Pics

Here are Dbrite111 images








Don

Solid album(s), typical old-time collection. Not for me, but there are plenty of people out there who would use worldwide albums these as a starting point for their own collections. This is far from where my imagination took me when I read about the "tens of thousands" of stamps in book after book, at least so far.

Oh, I only grabbed a few books. There are dozens of these, also boxes of loose stamps, it goes on.

If you put a value on the stamps you have in the above scans your looking at a retail price of 2 cents to 5 cents each . There isn't anything shown better , now on the wholesale value your looking at $200.00 to $300.00 for 5 mounted albums of the same material .

The Object of Stamp Collecting:

Ask stamp collectors their reason for collecting and many will answer that it is for recreation. Recreation may be considered a necessity and it takes several forms. However, compensating mental recreation is more difficult to find than that of a physical character. Collecting is a form of recreation as well as a diversion and provides a service of no little value.

Perhaps the chief value of collecting is that it sparks so keen an interest in the objects collected, that research and study concerning them, which otherwise would have been uninteresting, becomes an attractive recreation. The study is made much more thorough and comprehensive. A prompt reward for the expended effort is a greatly increased appreciation of the collected objects. Knowledge gained through an absorbing interest in the things to which it relates, is fixed far more firmly in the mind than if acquired with no such incentive. The impulse toward the acquisition of knowledge, thus given, will not easily exhaust itself as it will be constantly regenerated by the discovery of new material.

The majority of stamp collectors likely commence their albums with the single thought of finding amusement, and view collecting merely as a pastime but with no more substantial value than to employ agreeably a few idle hours. The acquisition accidentally or otherwise, of one or more stamps or covers, which are at the time unknown and strange to them may therefore arouse their curiosity, engenders a desire to possess other specimens with similar attributes - and thus they become collectors.

At this stage they have no very clear idea of what they hope to accomplish; it is only when they have progressed sufficiently that they begin to realize the magnitude and unlimited resources of the philatelic field that they perceive the splendid and varying opportunities that stamp and postal history collecting presents. It is then that they can define more clearly to themselves the objects and purposes for which they henceforth collect.

Naturally these will differ greatly and will vary according to the inclination of the individual, depending upon which features of philately appeal to him most forcibly. Some will find the speculative possibilities the greatest attraction and will collect only for the purpose of financial gain; these, however, should be considered investors or dealers, rather than collectors. Some will choose to make philatelic souvenirs such as first day covers, these should be considered arts and crafts hobbyists rather than stamp collectors or philatelists.

anon. ... incomplete, shortened and modified for publication later and in a longer version. This is a draft just setting down some basics.

Agree with Richard , Continue the collection and enjoy it as a hobby and a pasttime .

No side effects? Have 'highly' and 'addictive' been dropped from our language?

Thanks Richard and everyone. Being there are dozens and dozens of stamp books likely with little value on their own, I guess the best strategy is to move the collection in its entirety or large pieces. Do you recommend selling individual books, or the collection all together? If so, any recommendations on whether that be online or a local shop?

DBRITE111 -----The first thing is take it to a person who knows the stamps ,you may need to pay them for their time but it will be money well spend .There could be a page or two that has better values ,it needs to be inspected .

Debrite111, the best way for you to find what you need is to contact a local stamp club. To find a local stamp club, go to www.stamps.org .




Peter

Huntington Stamp & Coin

This is the type of material that I would normally box up and send to Michael E. Aldrich auctions but both he and I are on the West Coast. Midwest area Rasdale Auctions. Maybe someone can recommend East Coast auction house. Mostly I use Kelleher but not familiar how well this type of material sells there.

I've seen a lot of these kinds of lots at Dutch Country (Delaware), seem to do pretty well.

Dutch Country. Good suggestion.

debrite111:

If you really want some more detailed assistance from the people here on the Forum, you need to give us even more information to work with.

You said you have "dozens and dozens" of stamp books. We need to know if they are all formal stamp albums, or some albums, and some simply ordinary 3-ring notebooks with pages of stamps. We also need to know if they all have different contents, or if there are multiple copies of the same type of albums. That is, is this a single collection, or is it a group of albums that were purchased individually, and some stamps perhaps moved to a primary "collection" album.

Start with the following.

(1) Go through each album and group the albums based on their contents as follows:

(a) Books that have only United States Stamps
(b) Books that have only stamps of a single country
(c) Books that have stamps from many countries, with pages for the countries in alphabetical order.

Make a note of how many albums are in each category. Note the name on the albums that indicate the manufacturer or the brand name. Post the information in a format such as:

US Albums - 5 different. If they have a commercial title (i.e. Scott Specialized, Minkus, Minuteman, Liberty etc., mention that.)

Country#1 - how many albums - album brand name, etc.
Country #2 - how many albums, etc.
etc., etc.

World wide - how many albums, and any names, e.g. Scott International, Master Global, etc. Do each contain all countries A to Z, or are they divided into groups like A-E, F-K, L-S, and T-Z.

(2) Now start with the albums with only US stamps. Find the one with the most stamps on pages that begins in 1847 and continues through 1900. Take a yellow post-it note, write "US#1" on it and stick on the front cover so you know which album you were looking at.

(a) Take a photograph of the front cover of the album
(b) Take photographs of the 5-6 pages with the earliest dates which have several stamps. If there are stamps on the 1893 page with the Columbian issue stamps, photograph those.

(3) If there is a second US only album, repeat the previous step, but identify it as "US#2". Take more photographs.

(3) Post these photographs, with all from album "US#1" in one post and identify the photographs as such. Then a second post for album "US#2"

Now we have information that might better allow the readers of the forum to evaluate what level of United States collection you have.

Continue the process for each album. Start a sheet of paper or a spiral notebook, and make a list of each album and what its contents are.

You probably don't want to repeat the photographing and posting steps for all of them, but if there are some single country albums with a lot of stamps from the 19th century, you might select one or two of those, take some photographs of those early stamps and post them.

If what you have does not seem to fit into the above groupings, figure out what you have and post us a similar list based on the way you see the albums.

Yes, we know it is a lot of effort. But it should help you get the information you need to determine your next step.

Good luck.