Anyone Know?

[Hound dog]

husband has a stamp collection that goes back several generations. It's rather huge.

I know dittly about stamps. I do know from both husband and his mother that there are many many very valuable stamps in that collection. She estimated it at well over 20k, and mother in law said herself that is a conservative estimate that was done many years ago for insurance.

I repeat, I know squat about stamps. I do know husband sold several and made some decent cash with them. They were ones he had many duplicates of.

No one in the family has an interest in stamps or stamp collecting. I have no interest in storing them to wait and see if one of the grands would. This was something husband started with his grandparents and mom as a small child.......mother in law started with her grandparents and mom the same way. Hence, the generations thing.

I repeat I don't want to store the darn things. I've been after husband for literally years to sell the collection as he was no longer collecting and hadn't for more than 30 yrs.

But I also want to get their worth out of them, in other words, I don't want someone getting them for a steal and getting ripped off.

I have no clue who I'd go to or talk to or anything. Ebay is little help. husband's collection is vast (no kidding). I have no patience to go through each stamp or each sheet of stamps to figure out their individual value to get an idea of the true value of the collection. That would require me to learn about stamps, and if I wanted to do that I'd just keep the darn things. I don't mind taking a small loss to get rid of them to someone who would really appreciate them, but not ripped off.

And I found some ball cards too that he purchased years ago for Travis.......then took back because Travis wasn't caring for them........those are easy, they go back to Travis. lol He either takes care of them or not. And he could find their value easy enough, we have a seasoned card dealer as a neighbor who is now retired who could tell him.

I also have a lot of old coins from all over the darn world too...........and from the US. Those I'll hold on to for now, they don't take up much room. And actually are much easier to find out their value than these darn stamps.

I even have this heavy duty microscope thingie in which to view the stamps properly.........no clue what to do with that thing, it's huge.

 

[keista]

Call your insurance agency and ask them who you should go to to get them appraised (you might have to pay for an appraisal) The appraiser (preferably two independent ones to verify scope of value) could give you more information on where/how to sell them.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Independent appraisal avoids the problem of a dealer low-balling to get his hands on the collection... I'm not aware of any other way to do this.

 

[susiestar]

I don't know much, but will inherit some from my dad. Not a real collection, more a bunch of loose stamps and a separate bunch of loose coins from my grandparents on dad's side.

Anyway, I did some searching.

This is a guide to give you some idea how to go about it: http://www.stampdomain.com/selling.htm

Here is an article called "Help, I Inherited a Stamp Collection!": Help! I Inherited A Stamp Collection!

This is from the Amer Philatelic Society: Postage Stamp Collector, Stamp Collecting Price Guide, Stamp Collection Value - AmericanPhilatelic.com

I included the last though I know you are not donating them. Just thought it had some good info.

I hope you can sell them and get a nest egg to put aside, or to do something fun with.

Of course you know to not EVER hint to katie that they exist. I am sure she would try to steal them from you. I wouldn't put it past M or her to try to hurt you for them.

 

[DammitJanet]

I was going to suggest taking them to several stamp shops for ideas for what they are worth. You can look in phone books and find them and just not tell them you are looking to see but keep them for the kids but wanted to know what they are worth. They might low ball but if two or more give you close to the same figure from differing towns, I would be apt to think that would be close.

 

[HaoZi]

To find a good independent appraiser, you can try calling museums, historical societies, or find a group in your area that collects and ask who they recommend.

 

[Fran]

I think calling the insurance company that insures them is a good place to start.

 

[Steely]

UGH - this is so hard. This happened with my Dad's stuff as well - and we could not find anyone interested in anything with this economy. Well, let me take that back - they were interested - and we sold it - but for about 1/10th of what it is worth. We went to many antique dealers, as well as tried EBay and CraigsList. Some of it was artwork, and I went online and tried to contact buyers of that specific artist. No luck. I think my Mom still has the pieces because they are appraised at a lot - but no one wants to buy right now.

Wishing you luck!!!!

 

[HaoZi]

Get a fair appraisal, then there's always the option of finding a museum that will accept them as a donation and give you a receipt for a tax write-off, but only if it'll help you on your taxes.