I have box of old stamps that my grandfather collected (He died in 1958). There's literally 1000's of stamps, most of them are cancelled and bought in stamp collector packages like "200 French Stamps" that were sold in the 1950's for something like 50 cents.
SOme of them have been organized in packets like, for example, 50 uncancelled stamps from the Vatican or 30 uncancelled stamps from Norway.
Any idea where to start to find out their value?
eBay? Do a search for the stamp in question and click on Show Only... "completed listings" on the right side of your screen to see what they have sold for in the past. You need a eBay account to do this....I think...
Unless there happen to be some specific stamps of value, those collections are virtually worthless.
If you wanted to go through them individually and spend lots of time you could get your hands on some Scott catalogs and look them up.
Or better yet, look for a philatelic club in NH and ask a member or two to look it over.
BTW - did you know that a stamp collector is a philatelist? That's not a dirty word, but sure sounds like it.
> Unless there happen to be some specific stamps of value, those collections are virtually worthless.
> .
I guess I should have ignored my parents and collected baseball cards instead.
Unless they are one of a kind items, limited editions, or several hundred years old, they are probably not worth very much.
As with any other collectors items (i.e., sportscards, Pokemon,...etc), the value is less for the things that were printed most.
I can remember back in the late 60's putting Nolan Ryan rookie cards in the spokes of my bicycle. They weren't worth the paper they were printed on back then, but now are bringing in several hundred dollars in just average condition.
But if you have a T206 Honus Wagner baseball card from 1909, you have several million dollars.
Go buy yourself a stamp collectors book, it will list any stamps that are worth some money.
Take them to a local "stamp show" or take a few of them anyway.
You'll most certainly find someone who is willing to come and view what you have.
Most of the time, stamp collectors need a few to complete their collection.
The Vatican stamps sure sound interesting ...
I have a rather large collection myself.
If you want to dump them, shoot me a price and some pics.
Collectors are traders so if you have any collection at all, barter away.
My most valuable is in US stamps but I bet I have well over 4 or 5 times that in foreign stamps.
Of my 7 kids, I adopted my youngest daughter from Guatemala. When she was about 5 years old, I started her stamp collection for Guatemala with her participation. Every stamp in her album was placed in it by her. It took about 10 years, but she now has a 100% complete collection for her birth country. I figured it was a good way to impress on her what the heritage is of her origin, and to give her a sense of pride. the album is probably worth about $250.
She is now a naturalized U.S. Citizen, don't know if she still dabbles in philately.
