Stamp Collection Find, any experts around?

Ballerskrip · 10-30-2012, 08:35 PM

Good evening all. Long story short I came across a fairly substantial stamp collection. Not sure of the ERA of most of them, but there are a ton of 4 cent stamps, along with old school air mail stamps, etc etc etc. They are each in wax envelopes, and in excellent condition from what I can see. It also appears they are all un-used stamps.

I also noted that there was an invoice for almost $500 in the lot, and that was well over 20 years ago.

So with that being said. Are there any experts around that can help me? I do appreciate it.

Here are a few TERRIBLE scans of about 5% of the collection.

sthoemke · 11-01-2012, 08:30 PM

Doesn't look like anything too scarce. You can always use them for postage.

coltsnsox07 · 11-01-2012, 08:49 PM

Yeah a bunch of common plate blocks really. Some US air mail stamps can be valuable, like any 'Graf Zeppelin' of of course, the bi-plane 2 color versions(hey if you have one with an upside-down airplane(inverted jenny) on it I'll give you a million or so for it!)

Ballerskrip · 11-01-2012, 09:02 PM

What is the inverted Jenny?

Yeah, those are about 5% of the collection, no clue if they are all totally worthless or not

eldavojohn · 11-30-2012, 07:57 AM

No, I'm not an expert. But I did used to collect stamps as a kid and recently I went back and looked at my sorry collection. I found one site that helped me establish that my collection was indeed worthy of giving away and that was the Swedish Tiger. For example, I see a 1948 3c Mississippi block of four on that first image upper right. Click on 1948 on Swedish Tiger and see that they're worth under a dollar in mint condition. Considering they printed 122 million of those stamps, I'd say that's an optimistic price.

Sadly, the Wisconsin block to the left of that is in the same boat price wise and had 64 million printed. The American Turners stamp to the left of that is, again, worth maybe two quarters.

Sorry man, I don't want to give you false hope but there could be something worth $5 maybe $10 in there? And then if you had a block of them ... well, that'd be pretty cool but also you could make more money working at McDonalds for the time it takes you to look all these up :-)

Beautiful looking stamps though! I like how you have a wide range of colors -- maybe if you figured out a safe way to mount them cheaply you could make a collage of them to put on a wall somewhere?

Hey, you're showing us 80 stamps and you say that's five percent of the collection? So that's 1600 stamps at, let's say conservatively it averages a quarter a stamp, that's four hundred bucks!

Nicnac · 11-30-2012, 10:14 AM

As with many genres of collectibles, the valuable items may not stand out to the unknowing eye. You can research this two ways, glance through price guides and see if any high value stamps in there look familiar. Or, look for every stamp on feebay and see the sold for prices.

katzky · 11-30-2012, 12:24 PM

You are better off using it as postage.

aces · 11-30-2012, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katzky

You are better off using it as postage.

A stamp dealer would say the same thing. If you really wanted cash, he'd give you about 70-75 cents on the dollar.

Eskimokissers · 12-02-2012, 12:26 PM

Yes, stamps really lost favor over the years. Putting the time in, just in case, is worth it. I use Craigslist with pretty good success. Maybe you'll do well too.

10-30-2012, 08:35 PM	#1 (permalink)
Ballerskrip Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Chicago Posts: 1,334 boilboil1980	Stamp Collection Find, any experts around? Good evening all. Long story short I came across a fairly substantial stamp collection. Not sure of the ERA of most of them, but there are a ton of 4 cent stamps, along with old school air mail stamps, etc etc etc. They are each in wax envelopes, and in excellent condition from what I can see. It also appears they are all un-used stamps. I also noted that there was an invoice for almost $500 in the lot, and that was well over 20 years ago. So with that being said. Are there any experts around that can help me? I do appreciate it. Here are a few TERRIBLE scans of about 5% of the collection.

11-30-2012, 07:57 AM	#5 (permalink)
eldavojohn Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 537 el-davo	No, I'm not an expert. But I did used to collect stamps as a kid and recently I went back and looked at my sorry collection. I found one site that helped me establish that my collection was indeed worthy of giving away and that was the Swedish Tiger. For example, I see a 1948 3c Mississippi block of four on that first image upper right. Click on 1948 on Swedish Tiger and see that they're worth under a dollar in mint condition. Considering they printed 122 million of those stamps, I'd say that's an optimistic price. Sadly, the Wisconsin block to the left of that is in the same boat price wise and had 64 million printed. The American Turners stamp to the left of that is, again, worth maybe two quarters. Sorry man, I don't want to give you false hope but there could be something worth $5 maybe $10 in there? And then if you had a block of them ... well, that'd be pretty cool but also you could make more money working at McDonalds for the time it takes you to look all these up :-) Beautiful looking stamps though! I like how you have a wide range of colors -- maybe if you figured out a safe way to mount them cheaply you could make a collage of them to put on a wall somewhere? Hey, you're showing us 80 stamps and you say that's five percent of the collection? So that's 1600 stamps at, let's say conservatively it averages a quarter a stamp, that's four hundred bucks! Last edited by eldavojohn; 11-30-2012 at 08:00 AM.

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11-01-2012, 08:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
sthoemke Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Santa Rosa, CA Posts: 738 sthoemke sthoemke	Doesn't look like anything too scarce. You can always use them for postage.

11-01-2012, 08:49 PM	#3 (permalink)
coltsnsox07 Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,624	Yeah a bunch of common plate blocks really. Some US air mail stamps can be valuable, like any 'Graf Zeppelin' of of course, the bi-plane 2 color versions(hey if you have one with an upside-down airplane(inverted jenny) on it I'll give you a million or so for it!)

11-01-2012, 09:02 PM	#4 (permalink)
Ballerskrip Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Chicago Posts: 1,334 boilboil1980	What is the inverted Jenny? Yeah, those are about 5% of the collection, no clue if they are all totally worthless or not

11-30-2012, 10:14 AM	#6 (permalink)
Nicnac Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 5,816	As with many genres of collectibles, the valuable items may not stand out to the unknowing eye. You can research this two ways, glance through price guides and see if any high value stamps in there look familiar. Or, look for every stamp on feebay and see the sold for prices.

11-30-2012, 12:24 PM	#7 (permalink)
katzky Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 159 katzky	You are better off using it as postage.

12-02-2012, 12:26 PM	#9 (permalink)
Eskimokissers Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Hawaii Posts: 73 Eskiomkissers	Yes, stamps really lost favor over the years. Putting the time in, just in case, is worth it. I use Craigslist with pretty good success. Maybe you'll do well too.