What To Keep From A Very Large Collection?

First, let me give you some background: I posted on this site several years ago about a very large collection I inherited. It is over 100 binders overflowing with stamps from around the world, in addition to FDCs, gold replicas, postcards, letters, etc. I am still working on transporting the remainder of the collection to my house, but I have most of it with me now. I started out by trying to catalog the whole collection. Even though the stamps are organized according to catalog numbers (for the most part anyway), after a few months I was overwhelmed with the task and stopped.

I want to keep some of the collection, so I thought about choosing a selection from each country to have a nice broad collection. I started to go through the binders again, trying to thin the collection, but I am having a difficult time even with that task. I started with one of the binders with countries starting with the letter A. Well, it took me about a week and I only managed to "thin" 5 countries. And even with that, I have not actually reduced the quantity enough to make a difference on my bookshelves.

Some things I have considered are described below, with issues that I've faced described in parenthesis.
-Keep all stamps from before 1940 for all countries and be really selective about anything modern (this still seems to be thousands of stamps).
-If available, keep mint stamps, not used and not CTO (I am worried that for some stamps, the mint ones are not actually better than the used ones so this may not be the right approach).
-Keep stamps with unique cancellation marks (again, since I am not an expert, to me this basically means that there is a full cancel mark on the stamp)
-keep only stamps in good condition (of course, I don't know what to do with the ones that are 150+ years old, since those are probably not in great condition).
-Keep all stamps from places that no longer issues stamps, historical places, etc. (again...that is sooooo many stamps).

The longer I worked with the first binder, the more stamps I kept, and basically ended up just flipping through the pages and not taking anything out.

Do y'all have any recommendations for how to approach this task? What are the "must keep" type items? How do I determine which of the 100+ copies of a specific stamp do I keep? Which of the 20+ plate blocks of the same issue do I keep?

Thanks in advance for advice, thoughts, and consideration!

PS. I am trying to make sure I don't get rid of something that might be of slightly higher value, though I don't think there are stamps here that will fund my kids' college tuition...

Look in your area for both a local stamp show or club. Attend and get a feeling of what is going on. Join a national organization. When your are comfortable ask a member or pro for a bit of advice or aid in evaluating your collection.

First, could you please post some pictures?

First question: is the collection already put in a certain order, like countries, years, etc? Or you have to classify all by yourself?

Second question: from which period are most of your plate blocks? And are they usually mint or used?

Little note: 150+ years old stamps can be in good condition, and used stamps can sometimes be more interesting than mint, because some cancellations can be uncommon and full of history.

And, again,. pictures would enormously help!!

Edit: I didn't see m and m's reply when I wrote this. You can show us some stamps and we could help you, as well as you could go to a stamp show or club.

CS

For ones you have multiples of, you want one (or more) that have no damage (creases, tears, thins, stains, missing corners or perforation teeth), then go for eye appeal (good centering, if used a favorable cancel - either in a corner where it doesn't hide the design, or one with a readable town and or year, or something else that makes the cancel interesting).

Retain only those items YOU have a significant interest in. Release the rest back to the marketplace for others to enjoy, regardless of value.
Keeping portions in which you have no true interest does nothing for you, nor the hobby for others.
Contacting several experienced collectors will make the sorting/selling process much smoother.

Yes and yes.

Forget posting pictures. It will just waste your time. If you knew what to take pictures of you would not be asking the questions you are asking.

I personally like your thoughts on various ways of looking at your collection. Most of us have come to the point where we can't keep everything and have to make a choice. I used to collect world wide, but found that I was only filling in spaces, and that wasn't too satisfying. Eventually, I just donated most and kept a few countries where I knew what I wanted. I also kept some sentimental covers, though.

It's all up to you. If we knew your general location, we might be able to recommend some trusted people to help you out.

About five years ago I also inherited a good size accumulation of material from family members, though not as much as what it sounds like you have. I faced the same questions that you're raising but in hindsight I realize it was impossible to make those determinations until I had a better understanding of what I had.

That process - slow and mistake laden but also a lot of fun - has evolved as I've learned more about what it is I'm interested in collecting.

So my advice is don't be in a rush to eliminate or off load stuff. Take the time to develop your own taste and interests in the hobby and that will help inform your culling strategy. For example, I'm mainly concentrating on Canada, GB and Germany. But I still have all this worldwide stuff hanging around because I get intrigued when I read and see the posts from folks on here collecting worldwide and I think "maybe someday". And then I go back to trying to understand the paper types of Canadian Large Queens.

Maybe, you should first consider why you want to keep part of the collection. Parts of your post suggest the collection is more of a chore than a hobby to you.

Do you consider it a hobby, or is it a memento? What is keeping you from selling the entire collection? What are you interested in? Are you planning to add missing stamps you would be interested in?

Thank you all for your replies! This is extremely helpful!
Some of the questions you posed are making me take a step back and evaluate first my motives and figure out if I have been wasting my time for the past few years... I need to honestly answer the questions: Why am I doing this? What is the future of this collection? Am I going to continue the hobby? Is this just a sentimental thing? What am I actually interested in here? And then I can go back to the "how to do this" question.
Thank you!!

PS. I live in Mississippi, not very close to any local stamp organization (that I know of). Yes, the collection is organized by country and then by Scott catalog numbers. But there are some inconsistencies here and there regarding organization. There are separate binders for special stamps like air mail, revenue, specific topics, plate blocks (mint), sheets, etc. Some countries have multiple binders (US, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Russia have the most, I think). And then there are the binders of covers, replicas, specialty sets that were sold as "collector's items" but really are not. I also have boxes of stamps that haven't been organized, and boxes of small notebooks of stamps, and lots of small green metal boxes of stamps I have not even looked through yet. I have now managed to transport about 75% of the collection to my house from its original location and hope to have the rest with me by the end of the summer.

The future is whatever you want it to be. If you are looking at it from an investment standpoint then I think most all here will tell you not to.

As more of the older collectors pass, more material that hasn't seen the market in decades is becoming available. You can do it for enjoyment as long as you wish.

I like it as my rainy day activity or Winter projects.

The things to remember are 98% of stamps have little to no value. Condition IS everything, and Older does not mean higher value.

Good luck.