French Stamp Inheritance

Hi,

I've inherited a collection of french stamps which I'm not interested in keeping but am not sure where to start in disposing of them. I don't think there's anything particularly valuable. There's a huge selection of first day covers from the 1950s onwards and many of the envelopes contain mint copies of the stamps on the cover, as can be seen in the second photo.




So is it worth buying a catalogue and cataloguing them individually to make sure there's nothing of specific value? Should I just batch them up by year and put them on ebay? Split the covers and stamps to get rid of them individually? See if I can find a dealer who might be interested in them (I live in France so I guess that could be an option) but does anyone know someone who might be interested in taking them on ?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Sell on ebay. Make biggish groups of the covers and show them all, but don't expect more than 10c per cover. Separate the mint stamps and sell in large groups. Where there are blocks, separate them, unless they're coin daté (date in the margin at the corner of the block). They'll go, but you won't get rich (as I know!). Bonne chance!

All depends on how much time you want to put into the sale. I had a look on Delcampe for you, the Helsinki 1953 swimmers are up for 5€00 (yours has a scratched out address, might or might not bother people), Degas 1€-2€. Have a look at Delcampe, you'll get an idea of prices and can then decide if you just get rid of them for a modicum, if you separate MNH from the FDC and sell them apart etc...

Many thanks for the replies.

By biggish groups of covers, do you mean 50 or so? I've seen UK FDCs before but those all seem to be a complete set of stamps on one cover. These seem to be one stamp per cover but presumably that's a standard way of doing FDCs in France.

For the mint stamps, if I separate them then group up the individual stamps in packs of 50 or 100 does that sound ok?

PS - I had no illusions that they'd make me rich, but it would be a shame to just throw them away

welcome.

An interesting gathering of covers and stamps you've inherited.
It would seem you want to minimize your time spent, but want to find a good home for these.

I would agree with the advice above to separate the first day covers from the stamps.

Make big groups of the first day covers for which I would suggest doing five year chunks so it's easy for potential buyers to understand the years they would get and so you can get these sold fairly quickly. Sell on ebay.

Stamps, I would also break into years, but those you might sell as single years on ebay. Be sure to show all the stamps and caution buyers that the year may be incomplete in case there are one or more individual issues missing.
If you have any coin dates (block of four stamps with a date in the selvage next to the stamps), sell those individually on ebay. There you would want to get an Yvert number to help focus buyers' attention on what you've got.

Bonne chance mon ami!

Yes it would!

Perhaps donating them to charity might be a better option?

Yes I will probably end up doing that with some of them - there's an album with various worldwide stamps and a box full of envelopes with non french stamps too which I expect I'll pass to charity. I wonder if there are any specific charities which like stamps.

I'm a bit confused about the coin daté. So for example, in this picture, does the postmark on the block of 4 on the right of the picture indicate a coin daté?



Here's an example of a full stamp sheet. It also has been postmarked but in addition there's a code in the bottom left hand corner - is that the coin daté?



Thanks to everyone for their help, merci à toutes et à tous.

Hello again. Have a look at Yvert et Tellier catalogue, you'll see that, apart from a couple of sets, there's not a lot of value in 50s, 60s, 70s and albums going from the 50s to the 2000s with MNH multiples, booklets, Croix Rouge, Blocs Feuillets, complete sheets et al can go for as little as 600€-700€...

It's a bit of a freefall and French collectors are very picky, even Classics have taken a hit.

An auction house, if they bother, will take 20% off you and another 20% off the buyer so that has to be factored in, might leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. I live in France too, Nîmes, if ever.

No - a coin daté is printed in the lower corner of the sheet by the printer - it has nothing to do with postmarks. Here's a random example from ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394960311610

The coin-daté has a printing date imprinted or stamped in a corner margin.
Here are examples taken from a dealer's site.




Your sheet has a sheet number. It is not a printing date (1886 is too early and 1986 too late).

The cancellation on the sheet is First Day of Issue Cancellation. Are you anywhere near Nîmes? I have catalogues and an automatic internet update on Yvert et Tellier (one of the French references) worldwide.

I remember what it's like to blindly go forward

Ah, I can hear thise cicadas now!

Thanks, I'll have to look into whether any of them have a coin daté.

No, I'm nowhere near Nîmes unfortunately. I'm in 79 near Niort.

GeoffHa, le chant des cigales fills the air with Pagnol... Suppleberry, Niort, oui, pas la porte à côté, tant pis. You can probably pick up a 2nd hand copy of Yvert quite easily or, on your doorstep:
Union Phiatélique Niortaise
Maison des Associations
12, rue Joseph Cugnot
79000 NIORT

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My daughter and I holidayed in Nimes a few years ago. A wonderful place, both of itself, and as a gateway to other wonders - Arles, Avignon, Montpellier, Pont du Gard … I should book the train now!