Inherited Stamp Collection-How Best To Ascertain Value?

Hi, I was given a very old stamp book by an elderly relative many years ago and had forgotten about it until I recently came across it. The book is from 1897 and contains maybe 100-200 stamps from various countries from the 1860s to the 1890s. I've uploaded images of both the book and some of the pages below. Question: How do I go about getting this collection evaluated? I am in the Atlanta area if that matters in the least. I've found stampworld.com and have looked at that but there are many variables (paper type, etc.) that I know nothing about and have no way of identifying. I also don't want to get taken advantage of (not sure if that's common in the stamp collecting community). Thank You in advance.

I'm afraid that this looks like a basic, schoolchild's collection, with common stamps. You might get a few dollars on ebay, if lucky. Sorry!

I think that the 1897 album itself has more interesting value intact as a relic from the past, rather than the stamps it contains. The stamps all look common, and some that may be better look damaged. Also I see some hinge remnants where some stamps have been removed, so if there was anything valuable, perhaps someone has already gone through the collection and pulled out anything worthwhile.

Since you are located near a big city, you may be able to find a stamp club to visit and get a more thorough evaluation. The APS (American Philatelic Society) has a list of local clubs by zip code (not sure how up to date it is):
https://stamps.org/club-search

It looks like the Southeastern Stamp Expo is coming up at the end of the month in Peachtree Corners, http://www.sefsc.org
I'm sure there are some dealers there who would enjoy seeing the old album but don't expect to get any offers for big bucks.

If this came from a close relative, it might be something you want to keep as memento once you know its value.

That page of British stamps catalogues at under £ 40 if the stamps are in very fine condition. Had all the stamps been there, you would be talking thousands. The five stamps that are left on that page are the cheapest. That, usually, indicates there is very limited value in the stamps.

On a good day, on ebay, you might get one or two pounds for those British stamps, if you can find anyone who is interested in them.

thanks all. The link to the various clubs here in Atlanta was very helpful.

General question from another newbie here. Are the values listed in the stamp world website in the right ballpark? I highly doubt I have anything really valuable. So for stamp values less than $50, is it an acceptable reference for values? I ask that because I see a huge variation in sold-prices on ebay and offer-prices on other similar commerce sites. Scott, Stanley Gibbons, and other reputable catalogs are difficult for me unless I make a lot of trips to the Library. So just for low value quick/rough references, is the stamp world website pretty decent?

Bonus question - why do some threads refer to it as the "site that will not be named"? :D

And the prize for breaking the rules? Not good.
Don

And what is the rule that is broken? Thou shalt not discuss other websites with stamps?

Mount-this,

Under Posting Rules section it states


Even without reading the rules, it seems like common sense to me that a person should not think, 'gee, I'll just work-around' the banned website'. This is especially true given that a BIG RED warning pops up if the person tried to post the link.

As far as your comment


There are a tiny handful of websites that are disallowed. As far as I know, every single one of them broken the forum rules multiple times before they finally got banned. In the majority of cases, they would intentionally spam the forum, get locked out, and then reenter under different names only to spam again.

The code that catches the few disallowed site saves a lot of time. And given that the Mods here already donate significant amounts of their personal time for the community; I would hope that having a bit of consideration would be the appropriate response. But I guess that is a bit too much to ask for some folks.
Don

I don't know what formula that site uses to calculate values, I've never paid attention to them. A good rule of thumb for stamps is to take the listed Scott/SG/Michel/etc catalog value, and then cut it by 50-90% to arrive at "street" value. This works much of the time, but breaks down with rarities. Obviously condition matters a great deal, and you've already noted the inconsistent (occasionally capricious) swings in sold prices on ebay; philately has the same issues as other hobbies in this regard.

51studebaker, that explanation makes more sense. I reviewed the Rules link above, and it was not immediately clear what the offense was. All the same, I didn't get the sense that the OP was trying a silly work around nor trying to post a link to the Voldemort site. His/her question struck me as a legitimate topic of discussion. Can I trust the CVs as represented on Voldemort? I've wondered the same thing, but as I stick to published catalogs (mostly Scott), I don't know the answer to that question.