Pairs, Trios, Blocks, Et Cetera: Better To Leave Them Together?

As a relative beginner, I've been building my collection by acquiring cheap lots. Often, among these lots will be stamps that are still connected in pairs, trios, and so forth (I have a couple of used blocks of 12). Is there any inherent value to leaving these stamps connected? I feel like the answer is yes if the stamps are different, but is it worth keeping a block of 12 used common stamps? I don't really have a way of fitting them into my album as it currently stands.

I also have a lot of unused plate blocks. Some have been previously hinged. Again, do relatively modern plate blocks have any value any more? I might actually consider a separate plate block album at some point. The hinged ones, I might end up just using for postage.

(Note: Although I mention "value" I don't necessarily mean monetary value, more of the value that these items could potentially add to a well-rounded collection. It's not my intention to collect every possible permutation of every stamp ever.)

Se tennant blocks or strips are best left unbroken. As for recent used there may be cacncelation interest if its over a couple or more stamps to get a full strike. As for broken up smaller face value postage at a discount it will probably remain that way for many years to come. Collect for the enjoyment!

What period are we talking about here? 1860s or 1960s?

Used multiples should be kept together for a few reasons.

The first is to see more of a complete postmark.

The second is eye candy. Stockbooks are perfect for this sort of material. Large used blocks, even of relatively modern material, are collectable and not easy to find. They do round out a collection and are visually appealing.

The third, and this pertains to older material, is rarity.

Could you post some images so we can see what you have?

Newer stamps that come in se tennant pairs, blocks etc, I collect both as complete, unsevered items, but only in unused condition. Since most of these pairs and blocks contain individual stamps intended to be used for postage, I collect them as used singles as well.

Collect whatever pleases you, but beware of the costs. When my grandfather got me started 70 years ago, it was mostly hinged singles and First Day covers. I quickly lost interest in the FDCs (fortunately, as today most are virtually worthless). A bit later, I started collecting plate blocks (at 3 cents per stamp, they were within my allowance budget). When I retired, my wife said I needed a hobby, so I decided to return to philately (see - it's all HER fault).

By now, I had inherited grandpa's sizeable USA collection of singles, pairs, plate blocks, full mint sheets, FDCs; the whole nine yards! Up-dating and filling out my Scott National album of singles and pairs was a no-brainer, but what to do with my PBs.....decided to keep going with them. Of course that meant replacing my old Harris albums with new Scott albums, which of course must include the dust covers. And don't forget the cost of split-back mounts needed to house all my MNH stamps because, who wants hinged stamps? Can you see where this is going?

SHOULD HAVE ONLY DONE ONE OF THE TWO OPTIONS AND SOLD THE OTHER ALBUMS. Plate blocks get very expensive, especially when you go back to 1901. Even today, the 2024 Priority Mail PB of 4 (full pane) costs $39.40 at the P.O.; the Express Mail PB of 4 is $121.80. For the monies expended on PBs, I could have filled a LOT of empty frames in my singles collection and paid for the 127 certificates I have acquired in the process.

What the heck; it's only money. So yes - money CAN buy happiness. Now who to leave it all to when I croak?

Here are some examples. I see some have complete postmarks, so they will stay complete. I'll store them until I figure out what to do with them.

The three plate blocks on the right are unused but have been hinged, and are not particularly valuable.

Just a side note here about U.S. Plate Blocks . You can buy MNH Plate Blocks now at 1/3 of the face value wholesale . Why because buyers no longer can put enough of them on a piece of mail to meet the rate required . This goes for the millions of dollars of U.S. postage that is also in full sheets if you can not make the current rate . Why waste your time . The face postage of 3 cents to 15 cents stamps have drop from 1/2 of face for the buy rate . now it is closer to 1/3 face ,comes down for the new buyer as to why screw around with low postage stamps for mailing .

Three of those 35c stamps make up the current Canadian lettermail rate, so that's not bad. I haven't been specifically buying plate blocks, but I've been finding cheap lots and they often contain plate blocks and multiples.

Did someone say Used Blocks? Yes, I collect USA used blocks through to the modern era. Postally used modern singles are hard enough to find, used blocks are an even greater challenge. I cannot tell you what to collect, but there is someone out there who would prefer that you keep the blocks in one piece. There are exceptions if they are flimsy or otherwise unattractive, then they get broken up. Pairs and triplets of modern material I think are less frequently collected than blocks, but I would still keep them intact especially if they have interesting cancellations.

Here is my set of Prexies in used blocks.

Thanks for the photo PReynolds - the 7 cent block of 12 looks like a machine cancel that you can see much more of than if the block was broken up into single stamps. People collect that sort of thing!

Those prexxies blocks are just lovely ZebraMan

As for attractiveness, beauty is always in the eye of the beholder!

Personally, I would not think twice about breaking any of the assorted blocks in PReynold's photo if I needed a single from one of them to fill a space in my album. True, a collector somewhere might need one of the blocks, but the cost and effort to connect with them is high and you also have to consider that you have to acquire the single anyways which is also effort and cost. Unless they already are or potentially will become part of coherent collection (like ZebraMan's--which I would definitely NOT break just for one Prexie single) or a higher value stamp, I think they're more trouble than they're worth, for me, speaking as someone who primarily collects WW singles. One use I've found is putting them in the empty space on the stamp album page (if there is any) or on a blank album page. If I had a whole stack of them (like thousands) maybe I would put together a kiloware lot to offer to an interested collector. But for now they pretty much go directly to my unsorted duplicates pile.

Very cool, ZebraMan! It looks great when the postmark lands perfectly in the middle of the block. The green 2c block I posted above has an almost perfectly centred postmark, though it's too light to be legible.

Tsmatx, that was a concern I had: if there was a single stamp I needed but I only had a plate block. I've been putting the full plate blocks where the single stamps would normally go, which looks a little odd to me. It seems like unless the block shows a nice complete postmark, or it's a block of something classic and/or valuable, I'm OK to break them up. That's pretty much what I thought, but there was this nagging thought I had. "Those stamps have been connected for 60 years and you want to break them up NOW? How dare you?!"

An example of what I mean:

I know exactly what you mean