Organising / Cataloguing A 20,000+ Collection

Around four years ago our household took in a large range of collectable and antique miscellanea (stamps, cigarette cards, coins, postcards, books, medals & badges, royal memorabilia, crockery, cameras, old print advertisements, etc). from a deceased elderly associate of my mother and her partner.

Out of historical interest earlier this year I started to sort through this collection in order to begin photographing and organising it into a personal digital catalogue / inventory of sorts, which has taken me over three months to get though up to this point. In the process I have uncovered a significant quantity of stamps in particular, kept in various presentations and storage conditions. Around fourteen albums, as well as many unhoused pages and sheets, assorted bags of postmark / cancellation envelope cuttings, and over three hundred first day covers and envelopes. Most appear to range from the early 1900s-2000s, primarily of British origin but also Commonwealth, American and various other countries. Put all together including duplicates I have counted roughly over 20,000 stamps in total.

I recently thought it prudent to upload / back up the photographs I have taken for this entire collection onto an online cloud storage account, which can be viewed through this link. For now I have primarily categorised each 'lot' by the medium / condition of their storage, more so than the content of the stamps themselves. I also attempted to create accompanying spreadsheet / database files to list any relevant information / identifying details from each item, though they are mostly unfinished and inconsistently realised so I haven't bothered to include them.

https://mega.nz/folder/Qr5hGJLK#Lib...9Et7nMMmoN_A

I have not yet looked too closely at or bothered to individually identify any of the stamps housed in the albums beyond a general indication of what each one contains ie British, American, mixed etc. Most of them don't seem to have been arranged in any particular set order or theme, which I find annoying. I might consider trying to restructure them more efficiently at a later point in future, though I have no idea how long it would take me. I do not have the time or the will to do so at the moment, since I am also currently engaged in the process of sorting / cataloguing several hundred coins from the same person's collection, amongst other remaining items.

I had considered the idea of selling this stamp collection gradually on a public market, though I'm not sure the likely minimum return investment would make it worth the bother. I did contact at least three professional dealing companies online a few weeks ago to inquire about possible valuations for the whole lot, but have had no further response back after initial correspondence and photos sent, so whatever. I don't have the philatelic knowledge to presume there is anything of substantial value here unless proven otherwise. I doubt it really matters. I'm mostly just posting this for the benefit of curiosity for myself and others here who might want something to browse through.

I have an interest in pursuing a career in archiving hopefully in the near future so I guess I might consider this project to be good personal practice in the meantime. I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions in helping to improve upon it.

I have to say, you were thorough with those photos! Too many times we have to beg for them. I took a look and I didn't see anything that really jumped out at me. I didn't look at all the photos though. Very nice collection of fairly modern used UK which is always fun to see. That collector had some fun sleuthing out their stamps for sure. Using stock books is a very economical idea. Not sure what advice I have, other than to maybe reach out to a local stamp club and see what they say. The kinds of stamps you have here (worldwide off paper) we had in one pound bags for sale at our last club meeting for $5 each.

Thanks. The total amount of photos for the rest of the (non stamp related) collection is up to a good 15gb so far. Has been a lot of work but its been rewarding enough in its own way.

To be honest I am less enamoured with the idea of selling this lot now than when I first started. I've honestly grown quite attached to them, which I guess happens when you spend so much time dealing with it near daily for consecutive months, and I hate the thought of this kind of stuff with such social history behind it just ending up being dumped at a tip somewhere, regardless of how little the inherent value. That's quite possibly what would have happened had we not been permitted to take it all in beforehand. The previous owner had left no will and had no known surviving relatives anyway, so it would've all likely been claimed and disposed of by the council in the clear out of the property after he passed. I guess I feel I can at least honour the memory of something he would have spent much of his own lifetime dedicated to by keeping and doing something constructive with it.

First off, absolutely an amazing job with all the photos. If you are seeking a career as an archivist, think you will do well. Excellent job.

I had a quick look at about a third of the albums, and nothing jumped out as rare or hard to find (i.e. valuable in the monetary sense.) Looks like a very large collection of very common stamps. Not to say there is not a golden nugget in there; but typically someone who collected and organized this large a quantity would have set anything valuable aside and not set it in a stock book along with numerous other common stamps.

I was going to say you had the start of a large collection, but you already have that!

As far as sales, Landoquakes is pretty spot on about value; in fact a nice gently used stock book can be more valuable than the stamps inside; if you decide to sell, you might do well on the books themselves included as part of a lot.

Again, really well done on all the photos/folders. You'd make a fine philatelist if you ever decide to keep the stamps and call them your collection.

Thank you for sharing your experience and results of inventorying this stamp collection.
I agree that most of it is generally unsorted within most of the albums that I looked at.
Sometimes these types of collections are labelled as an "accumulation",
since they are not organized in the more traditional way in printed albums with one rectangle for each known stamp.
Although Albums 5 and 10 (QE II) are such traditional albums,
and Album 4 was generally organized this way -
clearly with stamps bought from the post office and labelled with the dates of purchase.

I did find a few somewhat higher value US stamps in Album 14.
They are mostly from the 1893 Columbian Exposition set.
Page 2: 5c, 15c (also 1c, 2c) This page also has better than average older stamps in rows 2 and 3.
Page 11: 5c, 5c, 8c (and 2c)
Page 62: 5c (and 2c)
The 15c Columbian should probably sell for around $9 on ebay if it doesn't have faults like tears, stains, missing perfs, thins on the back, etc.
I suppose that is not "substantial" in terms of the effort you've spent in getting photos,
but I wanted you to know these are well above average and not common like almost all of the other stamps.

You can look up "catalog values" on stampworld.com.
I've found that stamps tend to actually sell on ebay for around 15% of these catalog values.
So for the 15c Columbian, it has catalog value $65.68 (in the "#" column for a used stamp),
and 15% of that is about $9.

I also collect coins, and a good online site for identifying and looking up values is numista.com , in case that helps.

Hello, and welcome. Could I go off on a sidetrack and ask what you found amongst the cigarette cards?

DhriekViola,

What a wonderful presentation of such eclectic material.

Enjoy having fun with stamps! That is the name of this game. Wonderful you are carrying on your father's collection. You are the next steward of a family treasure you can pass on to future generations. Its value as a family heirloom wil always surpass it monetary value.

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.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

Thanks for all the further resources and suggestions. I've noticed quite a few of the album pages are rather blurry or too grainy for the contents to be very legible, so I might have to redo those at some point.




About a dozen complete album booklets all from the 1930s-50s I think. 6 Wills', 4 Player's, 2 Typhoo Tea Did you Know (not a cigarette company but I've included them in the same collectable category). Plastic folders of three other sets, and two mostly incomplete assortments

I don't think there's anything particularly rare or sought after. In most of the albums the cards have been glued onto the page slots which unfortunately probably makes them pretty useless in individual value.

Pictures here

https://mega.nz/folder/Z7JRQJrJ#jM0...Ztl38qjNGvVg