Shipping Away For Appraisel

I have inherited my great grandmothers stamp collection, which consist of 10-24 gallon totes of stamp albums that are filled. I was just preparing to have these shipped for an appraisal to Ken .Apfelbaum when I decided to look at reviews. Now I'm not quite sure what I should do. If this is a good idea any suggestions I would appreciate. Thank you..

Before you spend any money shipping off hundreds(?) of pounds, and then wonder whether you're being lowballed, take a few pictures of things you think look interesting or valuable. We'll happily, for free, give you our opinions on the best course of action.

Agree with Classic Paper- look for the older material (beginning of each country) and select pages with a decent number of stamps. This will help us all get a better idea of both individual stamps, and the manner in which your grandmother collected.

Personally, I would be a "No" if asked to vote on dealing with Apfelbaum's, so give us a chance to help you! Perhaps start with about 10 well-populated pages of old stamps.

Pause first and don't ship anything to anyone.

95% of the value in most collections is in 5% of the volume. What would serve you better is to have someone from a local club take a look at it and help identify the wheat from the chaff and give you some idea of what you have, etc. They can also direct you to buyers who would no require packing/shipping costs. The quantity you describe will be difficult to give much meaningful advice over the internet. It really takes a hands-on approach to evaluate quantity, quality, etc.

All good comments. I want to add to get an opinion / value from at least 2 "trusted" sources. If you find about the same opinion, then that is probably what you are going to be offered by several others. If not, then get a third opinion. Just my thoughts. Good luck.

I'm trying to get pictures uploaded please bare with me

John Becker gives you the same advise I would give you. Try and see if you have a local stamp club. Help in this area, besides google or yellow pages would be www.stamps.org . On this website you may find the info on local stamp clubs and phone numbers of the person to contact.
From your description you have to much naterial to start taking pictures, besides if you are not a collector you won't know where to start!


Peter

Also remember that unless she 'paid' a lot for these, don't expect them to be worth a fortune. Common stamps that came through the mail or where purchased at the PO counter make up the majority of old collections and are not that valuable typically.

My first question would be what area of the Country are you located in? That will help to make some suggestions as to who might be helpful. The pictures you show, while limited in scope are textbook Kelleher/Rasdale lots.

HOWEVER, you need to look at the first pages of the United States and other countries such as Great Britain etc. to get a better sense of how serious the collection is. Be warned that it is almost impossible to review a holding of this size through scans on this forum.

As others have said, take photos of the first pages in the US National album where stamps are mounted. The same for the blue International albums for some key countries such as Great Britain, Germany, France, etc. The USA flag stamp sheet and the Germany pages you have scanned are all common items with little monetary value.

Her profile says Delta, CO. It looks a lot like the hoarded / seconds section of many collection. As others have implied, there are probably some early US, Great Britain, France in their somewhere that are in better condition with some stamps of value. However, from what I'm seeing so far, I'd agree with Rasdale right now.

Wow that is a lot of stamps .

I agree with Classic Paper show us more of what is there. Do you have any pre 1900 United States stamps? Please show them.