I Found An Old Stamp Book Album In My Roof

Hi everyone,

I need a hand with how to identify if a stamp in general is in good condition or not. I have no idea what Im looking for. About 6 years ago I moved into my house with my partner and kids and was gutting out the loft as it needed some YLC. Few bags of clothes, old gaming consoles, VHS tapes etc etc just old gear that needs dumping. But I found a red book, opened it up its got LOADS of stamps inside. Obviously whoever it belonged to now has long gone. No name in the book either. The stamps are pretty neatly put together, some of them are loose, sliding inbetween the pages. There are some really cool looking ones from WW1 and WW2. American, english, south african, chinese, some have the swazsticker on it too. My best guess is that there is atleast 5 stamps from most countries. So if anyone can tell me what Im looking for when it comes to value or a stamp being in good condition please let me know.

Thank you!

Post images of what you think has value

Please, post pictures, (preferably scans) of what you have if you want people to tell you what you have.

Believe it or not, 'stamp books with lots of stamps' are not that uncommon. Several of such albums were produced.

I expect you mean 'swastikas.' Unless the stamps are British or from the Channel Islands with those swastikas, they may be regular German stamps. Countries most interesting to identify (from scans): Great Britain, France, Germany and USA.

The average, old childhood collection tends to be filled with penny stamps, unless the child was lucky enough to be given something better. You may find the games consoles have more value.

A photograph/scan of the first Great Britain page will tell us a lot!

.....or the first Australian Page.

If the album was in a roof, I predict water damage and perhaps shingle imprint.

In general, a good condition stamp will be one which looks much like it did when it was sold, and then it's a sliding scale from there depending on any faults which are apparent. Common faults include creases, grubbiness or discoloration, missing corners or edges which have been trimmed off, 'thins' where the paper is part-damaged, missing teeth around the perforations and so on.

If it's been used, then it will have a (usually) black cancellation on it. Same considerations apply to the stamp itself (except there will be no gum on the back), but the condition of a used stamp will also take into account the quality and appearance of the cancellation. If it's a big ugly splodge which disfigures the appearance, it's poor. If it's nice, neat and not too overpowering it will be preferred by collectors.

As the others have noted, old abandoned collections are common and usually of no real worth except sentimental. If you can post pictures it will give us an idea.

Would be interesting to see some photos of it! :)