Any stamp experts out there?

Mr. Digger

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Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on possible value of this stamp collection of 1940's era First Day Issue and First Day Covers. Dates range from 1944 to 1949 and stamps are mostly 1c to 6c stamps. Have not counted them all but there are probably somewhere between 150 and 200 of them. If these were yours and you were going to post them on eBay or CL what would you be asking? Sorry for the sideways pics.
 

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Your going to have to price each one individually. The reason being is there could be just ONE in that bunch that is worth a lot. I would not let some dealer price them for me. I've bought many high value stamps in the past and the markup is tremendous. Hence you will at best get 50% of their real value. But you need to know what that is from your own pricing. Google first day covers and you will find sources and listings.
 
Don’t know about stamps but I have a story. I was going thru a partially burnt out house . Had to estimate the cost of tearing it down. While in the attic, l tripped over a box. Bent down to look and it was full of letters. Where I happened to put my fingers, was dated 1837. Stamps didn’t come out till 1847 so I had some of the first ever. Like you, I took one to a stamp show, trying to get an idea what I had. A man chased me around the room offering 1700$ for just the one I bought with me.
What did I learn? Sell them while they’re hot. I held onto them thinking the value can only go up, right? Well, like baseball cards and comic books, the collectors are dying off and so is the demand .
Sell within a year is my advice
 
....the collectors are dying off and so is the demand .
Sell within a year is my advice

Wom 27 is exactly right here. The stamp collecting hobby is a long way from its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, and interest in the hobby has waned considerably in the last 20 years. The American Philatelic Society currently brags that they have 28,000 members, but neglect to say that they were double that size two decades ago. The average age of collectors is between 65-70.

I have a modest stamp collection that I pieced together between the late 1970s to 1990s, including a sizeable number of “First Day of Issue” covers. I’ve got dozens of different varieties of Palomar Observatory covers from 1948 that I collected. Anyway, they are all currently worth a pitiful fraction of what I paid to acquire each one. A quick look on eBay shows that most don’t sell, and the few that do generally bring in about a buck or two. Unfortunately, most stamp collections are nearly worthless unless you have a few rarities.

I buy quite a few items on eBay that come from sellers who are coin dealers and/or collectors, and I can tell many of them used to be stamp collectors - because the packages or envelopes containing my items would arrive plastered with old stamps used to pay the postage. Over the last 10 years or so, it’s gotten more and more common. There’s nothing sadder than to see stamps from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s cobbled together to make up the needed postage for the packages, clearly raided from a once cherished collection, because they’re no longer worth any more than their face value.
 
Wom 27 is exactly right here. The stamp collecting hobby is a long way from its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, and interest in the hobby has waned considerably in the last 20 years. The American Philatelic Society currently brags that they have 28,000 members, but neglect to say that they were double that size two decades ago. The average age of collectors is between 65-70.

I have a modest stamp collection that I pieced together between the late 1970s to 1990s, including a sizeable number of “First Day of Issue” covers. I’ve got dozens of different varieties of Palomar Observatory covers from 1948 that I collected. Anyway, they are all currently worth a pitiful fraction of what I paid to acquire each one. A quick look on eBay shows that most don’t sell, and the few that do generally bring in about a buck or two. Unfortunately, most stamp collections are nearly worthless unless you have a few rarities.

I buy quite a few items on eBay that come from sellers who are coin dealers and/or collectors, and I can tell many of them used to be stamp collectors - because the packages or envelopes containing my items would arrive plastered with old stamps used to pay the postage. Over the last 10 years or so, it’s gotten more and more common. There’s nothing sadder than to see stamps from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s cobbled together to make up the needed postage for the packages, clearly raided from a once cherished collection, because they’re no longer worth any more than their face value.
I got a permission last year by mail. The guy used some stamps from the ‘30’s to mail it ! My first thought was, what is the value of an old stamp with a current cancellation!!!
 
I got a permission last year by mail. The guy used some stamps from the ‘30’s to mail it ! My first thought was, what is the value of an old stamp with a current cancellation!!!

:lol: Yep...similar thoughts here! I couldn’t help but think how much I wished I had an uncanceled version of some of those oldies in my collection when I was a kid, and here they were 40 years later just slapped onto a package like any other stamp!
 
I've had stamps for many years and those old first day covers can for the most part be bought at a stamp show for around 25 cents each. I have a lot of them in mint condition and their sentimental value is much greater than their philatelic value. They're also a tough sell. Good luck when you go to sell them. Best bet would be to try to find a collector and sell them as one big lot.
 
When I have won auction lots from Frank Robinson, he often uses older stamps to send the lots. I don't collect stamps anymore, but I can't bring myself to throw out his envelopes. Nothing very valuable, as far as I know. Maybe you can get a pocket guide and do some estimates before heading to a dealer for pricing.

-- Tom
 
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