Introduction And Plan

Hi,
Playing less tennis and needing longer recovery time so I've renewed my stamp and coin activity. Here's what I'd like comments on:
I have two albums
One 1938 International Junior Postage Stamp Album (from Scott Publications)
and
One 1976 United States Liberty Stamp Album (from H.E. Harris)

I have many hundreds of stamps sorted into windowed envelopes. These stamps are in large part in the 90 to 110 year old range. I've found several from 1870 - 1899.

I had fun sorting, starting first with US stamps and then with all of my international stamps.
My Plan
Starting with Afghanistan, I'll set out all stamps and see what is 1938 and older. If so, I'll put in it's place or realize I already have that stamp. If it doesn't have a designated box for that specific stamp but is older than 1938, I'll find a place to add the stamp.

Question 1 When I find I have duplicates, I guess I'll just return them to the envelope and move on. If I have duplicates that appear to be valuable, I'll store some other way and return to these soon. Open an auction site. Does this sound like a good start?

Ultimately I want to get the albums appraised in a trustworthy manner. This has me stumped. I guess I've lost some of my faith in humanity but I can't see letting a stranger have my albums for a few days and getting an appraisal from them. I would be asking an acknowledged expert to tell me what they think of my collection, while also telling them I don't know what is especially valuable. How would I know if a stamp goes missing?
Question 2 Is this simply a leap of faith folks in my situation HAVE to take or is it generally understood that appraisals are done in the presence of the owner?

The likelihood is that, if the 1938 album was a juvenile collection, it won't require "appraisal" - remember that most stamps are common and of low financial value. Show a few older pages here if you want an opinion.

Check that the 1938 album is sound before using it - no toning, foxing etc. Old stamp albums have no intrinsic value.

Best to buy a stock-book to keep duplicates - much easier to prepare them for future ebay sale.

The Scott International Junior album is commonly known as "Big Blue" and is widely discussed on this forum. After 1940, they dropped the "Junior" from the name. But normally not considered a juvenile album these days (maybe it was in 1938, I guess kids were a lot more advanced back in those days)

How many stamps are in the album? I would say if there are fewer than 5,000 they are probably common and not worth more than a couple hundred dollars. But if it is well filled it could have substantial value.

If you are planning to continue the collection--I believe the 1938 edition is bound (instead of loose leaf) which would be a deal breaker for me. You can't move the pages around or put interleaving. You may want to consider getting a newer edition. Even the ones from the 1940's are loose leaf and pretty easy to work with, not much different from the ones they still make today except the paper the pages are printed on. You should be able to pick one up easily on ebay for $50 for so.

This is an excellent blog about Big Blue, which includes info which would be useful for appraisal (such as list of most valuable stamps, and country by country breakdown of value), https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/

As GeoffHa mentioned, many stamps have little value. From reading the threads about the 'Big Blue' that would be like our 'Junior Postage,' it provides spaces for the cheaper stamps.

Whereas the more expensive stamps tend to be classic stamps, it does not follow that classic stamps are valuable. Most are not. Also, a 1938 album is almost 100 years old. Often, that is indicative of someone having stopped collecting. Many young people start collecting stamps but stop when life catches up with them. If not a childhood collection that was put aside, there remains a chance it has not been looked after for a long time.

I agree with GeoffHa you should be careful the album does not contaminate the stamps. Quality is key. A valuable stamp in bad condition will be worth little if it is not extremely rare.

There are active members here who can tell you from a clear scan of (early) US, UK, France, Germany, and Canada stamps whether there would be reason to have the stamps appraised.

There are enough dealers and auction houses that can be trusted not to steal stamps from you when you leave them in their care.

Many share the Al's lack of confidence in leaving material for any appraisal, or sending stamps off for auction. I have handled a number of 6 figure collections for IRS appraisals, and also advised on which auction houses to use for sale. I have had the total trust of people I have been known to, and I have had families that have hired a security person to video me during the entire process.
My main comment would be that a client has a right to do what is comfortable for them, and I have a right to charge for what I consider my expertise and inconvenience. The point most cumbersome has been for people to send material for auction with all these fears. But I point out they can not have it both ways. If they want the best return, buyers must be able to view what they are buying. I would usually have one of the auction firm's staff travel to the seller's home or office if needed and warranted, and let them present their case for theit firm handling the material. Both appraiser and seller have to be flexible, and sometimes sellers have to pay extra for their insecurities.

Another question is why do you want the appraisal? If there's no urgency about that, over time you can learn enough here to make a pretty good assessment of what you have and then decide whether or not it is worth the time and effort of a good appraisal.

As others have suggested, you can post a page or two of the older material and see what kind of feedback you get.

Also, there's a ton of really good content in the different threads you can search in this forum. I know that doesn't make me an expert about anything, but it has helped me understand the relative values of what I have in my collection and what I've inherited.

Hi Al, I collect the 1947 edition, and I'm trying to complete it. Over30,000so far, but the last 5000 are the most difficult. I have bought literally dozens of the "Junior" abridged editions and have a bunch still in boxes somewhere. They aren't worth much…

You might count the number of stamps you have in the album, and then look on ebay to see what a Junior is going for with your similar numbers. That might not be what it would be appraised for, but that will tell you what it's worth. Those 2 numbers can be very different. If you have a normal volume, between 2-5000, it's worth a couple hundred bucks at the most, and unless it is 75-80% complete, not sure it's worth appraising.

Good luck! Enjoy your collecting! Ray

YouCanCallMeAl

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

These replies are GREAT! Love them. (I'm now trying to figure out how to have the forum trigger an email to me thread has activity.
UPDATE - Found it!