Seeking Advice On A Worldwide Classics Collection

That amount of 278K suggests what you posted does not start to give an impression of how large the collection is and there still must be a huge number of stamps. If so, you could be talking 50K - 100K. However, that might take some time to sell at auction if you want to avoid dumping so many stamps.




That is difficult to say. Take the seven 'Penny Black' stamps. The current catalogue price, assuming the cheapest plate and colour, would be £ 2,625. I cannot see those seven stamps making £ 265 at auction unless the second one is identified as having a higher than basic catalogue value.

Then, there is the pair of Penny Reds with the wavy-line perforation. If that is a genuine Treasury Roulette, you are talking £ 10,000 catalogued as singles and £ 2,000 may have been a very good buy. If you throw in the seven Penny Blacks, 10 - 20% becomes very reasonable.

If they are Treasury Roulettes, look for a certificate, or else get a certificate if you think they may be genuine.

Very interested in seeing some of the British Commonwealth items mentioned earlier in this thread.

If I may say something on the 2 French pages, just to put in the mix. Same comment as previous comments, the volume does not compensate vis quality which is rather average with too many 2/3 margins and, as far as I can tell, few interesting cancellations. A couple of individual stamps (N°2 green four margins, the 20C. pairs, 20C. étoile de points, 1Fr if 4 margins and depending on colour) could be worthwhile but you need time and a bit of luck. Bonne chance

For you to get max money, the auction houses must break up the large collection. I would not let them sell it as one big collection. If they sell it, the way your Dad built the collection, you will get max money considering time spent. Of course selling individual stamps, will get the most money, but then that would take forever. Break up the collection into reasonable lots of 1000-3000 dollars. Just my opinion. Others in the forum can also chime in.

whoops I deleted my own post.
In short, Rasdale, Daniel F Kelleher & Company, Dutch Country and perhaps Noble Spirit and not in any order.
They are US companies that target the audience for your collection. good luck!

"He would tell me that typically he'd win the items he wanted at 1 or 2 increments over the reserve/minimum bid, or else he'd let them go. And he always did a post analysis of his success. If I remember correctly I think he'd say he did poorly if he ended up spending 30%+ of catalog value, and well if it worked out in the 10-20% range. Does that sound right?"

This rule applies except for better/rare stamps from China, India, Latin America and sought after colonies which can go for more.

If you're in SoCal consider going to a stamp show for a more accurate estimate. There's 3 in the area that are monthly

The fact that he bought them at or near the opening bid should tell you the lots were not in high demand. Now that multiple purchases have been combined, there will e lower demand. 20% is extremely unlikely. No auction house will take the time to split the pages, but I suspect you would do better if you split the contents up so there is not so much duplication and only offered up part of it at a time. But how much work would that be for such a large accumulation?.

Well stated.

I will offer a different opinion. Yes, if you pulled the best single copy of every unique catalog number in the collection, you would attract a wider audience and get a greater percentage of CV for that portion, but then it would drag down the overall percentage/value of the remainder that has already been cherry picked. It may end up being a wash. (Just my opinion, I have no data to back this up. Maybe it is just a numbers game for the potential buyer(s) that would bid a flat 10% of CV for an accumulation like this, cherry picked or not, and the collection of better copies might net 20% of CV. More likely though, the remainder collection will just languish with few interested bidders and maybe even go unsold).

I think the individual country lots will get more attention with the better stamps left in. The target customer is a specialist looking for varieties, shades, or cancellations, etc., where the larger the quantities the better chance of finding something interesting. Or possibly a dealer (I know a couple of NY internet dealers that would go after collections like this).

If the cost was 278K, and averaged 10%-20% of catalogue value, you are talking about a catalogue value of roughly 1.5 - 3 million. Say, it is 2 million. Say you can split it up in 20 lots (20 lots with high value and some with less value). That are 20 lots with a catalogue value of near 100K. Say these make 10% of catalogue.

Who will bid 10K for a lot with strong duplication and very mixed quality? Even a specialist will find the odds of finding the variety missing from his collection are against him.

Wondering if Mystic would make an offer on this collection? They certainly have no qualms about selling stamps with faults and get a high percentage of cat from their huge clientele which may give them room to make an offer comparable to auction results. The same might be said for Michael Ball (A to Z stamps).

Certainly can't hurt talking to Mystic. I agree with your point that they have high prices for low quality stamps. No idea what their buy prices are. I suspect, based on their business model, that they would make a lowball offer, much lower than an auction realization on the open market. Even though these are relatively scarce stamps, I expect Mystic is already ankle deep on most of them anyway, based on the depth and completeness of their price lists.

I would not paint Michael Ball with the same brush as Mystic. In my experience, Michael sells quality stamps for reasonable prices. Although he may need to make a low offer, it would be for a different reason. He may not want to tie up a lot of money in these stamps if he thinks he would sit on them for a long time before they sell.

Maybe I am being too harsh on the condition. Many of the stamps here are quite collectible. Certainly there are some space fillers with pieces missing and probably thins, tears etc. but many of the stamps appear sound and typical average condition for the period.

I expect Michael to give an honest opinion. If you send him the scans posted here, he should be able to tell if he is interested in seeing more, or whether an auction is a better approach. Good suggestion, shermae.

I agree 100%. I mentioned Michael because he is a major buyer and often appears at shows in California.

It looks like he was a very serious collector . Have you looked extensively through his papers and files. Are you completely sure he left no instructions or guidance on how to dispose of this collection . Maybe even verbal instructions with a friend who was a fellow collector or at a club he was a member at . Advanced collectors usually leave guidance somewhere

Best of luck