Hello, Thank You, And Questions

Thanks for having me, and hello!

So I have about 20+ smaller loose leaf binders of mostly canceled stamps that are mainly in black covered stock sheets. I was given these from family some time ago. I don't have the same passion for stamps as they did, so I want to sell them to someone who will enjoy having them. *I understand that I will not get retail value for them*, but I do want something reasonable.

I gather while it would save me a huge amount of time to unload them onto a dealer and walk away, I'd really rather not do this because I feel like all that work that was done by my family was really for nothing then; they wanted us to have it to either enjoy or sell.

I do have some knowledge of jargon and what to look for as far as quality, and had helped a family member sell off her duplicate collection on ebay YEARS ago (because she was not tech savvy, but she told me the terms to use).

The collection is from all the major countries, many of which date back into the 1800s, and go up to about into the 1990s. Some countries are more complete than others. In all we have thousands of them (probably in the 4 figures+).

Is ebay *still* the best place to sell?

Which is the best online site to get general ideas of what the stamps are worth? I'd imagine the values you get on the sites are retail(?) If so, is there a general percentage of the retail price that is fair to ask when selling?

Thank you!! Any suggestions appreciated.

Hello. Perhaps you could take a few clear photos of the older material to give us an idea of what might be there. In general, if the material is the average collection of common stamps, worth pennies apiece, ebay will be as good a place as any to sell.

Ok I will try to get that for you

So here is an example of early Canada. It goes back a bit further, but this is a pretty good page.

Here is the earliest for Sweden

Here are 2 very early France
The other countries are in storage

Hello Fosters - I'll be interested to hear what the more experienced folks on here have to say but to truly figure out a good selling price on a platform like ebay is going to take some work looking at what is out there, how people have priced stuff and how it moves. And there are all kinds of approaches. Some people set prices really high and the stuff seems to just sit. Others have auctions with low starting thresholds which sometimes move, but those also can just sit. Some would sell what you have altogether as a lot, others would sell it page by page. Then you've got to think of the work you're going to have managing the sales.

I think since you've said that you aren't really interested in the stamps themselves you'd be best off finding a good dealer and unloading it that way. I get what your saying about respecting all the care your family took putting it together, but a knowledgeable dealer is going to know best what you've got.

Just from what you have shown here, it's likely you have a pretty wide variety of material. It would take a lot of work to put it up for sale properly on ebay - unless you sold it as a handful of lots with a whole bunch of good images.

I would consider going to a stamp show with some of the material and showing it around to dealers.

You can search for shows in your area via the APS website ... https://stamps.org/events/events-calendar.

I would show the material to an auction house or at a stamp show. There are several auction houses in New Jersey.

Thank you guys so much for the advice!

Hmmmm, I've got some thinking to do.

There is a pretty good amount that I've also got in manila-type stock sheets that are still on paper, or off paper and just didn't make it to the black sheets for whatever reason (probably dup's). I thought maybe I could just group some of them together and sell those without much fussing… but maybe as far as the well-presented stamps maybe it *would* be a good idea to take them to a show or a good dealer.

I never thought about a show!

Just to be clear, I do not see a lot of value in what you have shown so far. The early French issues that might be worth in the 10's of dollars are in pretty bad shape.

True about value. Maybe a stamp club for advice would be more appropriate.

I would suggest taking a few (maybe 5) of the countries on the black stock sheets and listing them by country on ebay using the auction format and starting each lot at 99c. You wouldn't be risking a lot and you'd get a feel for the market value. It would be a lot easier and cheaper than traveling to a show.

Best advice yet from KR as an experienced seller/ebayer.

Thank you again!!

Really appreciate the advice and suggestions!!