O/T does anyone know anything about stamp collecting?
lilmule
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So long story short my grandmother is 92 years old and she’s been basically collecting stamps since she was a kid. Right now, I’m saying right now I’m putting her collection in a binder as I speak. If someone can help out with it, that has some knowledge. I am a baseball card collector so no very little about the stamp parade.
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It depends a lot on what she collected (US, World, Canada, etc.) and the condition she collected them in (Mint NH, Used, Mint hinged) and the values of the stamps (few of the lower face values are collectible, even over the last 90+ years, or have much value. Many can be bought by the sheet for less than face value).
Also depends a lot of how she collected them. If used, are they on covers? If mint are they in glassine envelopes? If stuck together, you are probably out of luck.
If her collection is Mint US never hinged stamps, that include the higher value definitives ($1, $2, $5) then it might be worth your while. If she has some of the scarce commemorative (Pan PAC high values), higher value Air Mail Stamps, ect, then it might be worth while to buy an album and put them in. Do NOT use hinges.
All in all, most stamp collections now, even those that house Mint NH stamps from the last 60 to 80 years, you will find, that the albums and the mounts cost more than the collection is worth. If it is a world wide used collection, a whole lot of that stuff was collected during the last 40 or 50 years in kiloware (a few bucks for many pounds of stamps).
If you want to do it to celebrate your grandmother and to give her something she can enjoy, go for it. If you are doing it for the money, well, good luck,
I appreciated the detailed response. Right now I'm working on her newest box which is from the 60's 70's and 80's. There are seems like about a 1000 stamps in this one, then I will be working on the other boxes from earlier years a little later.
I recently bought this book for her collection "Lighthouse Hardcover Stamp Album Stockbook With 32 Black Pages, Black, LS4/16" and its filling up pretty fast and of course stamp tweezers. I haven't been using any type of hinges or the tape as being a card collector I am trying to use the same sense as I would be if I was handling valuable cards.
They type of stamp she collected was pretty much everything from what I am seeing, from all around the world, air stamps, a lot of Netherlands stamps well all over haha. I have been removing them from the paper as she always tore the paper around the stamp and put them in a shoebox.
Little later when I'm working on them again, I will share some pictures and the progress that I'm making and of course if I'm doing something wrong be sure to let me know haha. Thanks for the response and hope you and anyone else will enjoy the thread that I'll start even though not to much card collecting.
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Stamp collecting is a great hobby, no doubt about it. They are little works of art. Definitely a cool collectible.
but....
Instead of collecting and placing stamps in glassine envelopes during the 40's, 50's, 60's, etc, everybody should have been doing that with baseball cards. Then they could have retired off the value of their collection like many prolific stamp collectors from that time thought was possible
Just a quick guideline if you want to know a fast relative value on a stamp and you don't feel like sorting thru countless thousands of them and get a splitting headache handling worthless items. The higher denominations from that era mentioned can be worth some good money. For example a $5 stamp, etc.
Of course it's your grandmother here and so no need to mention anything about the possibility if not probability that her collection isn't worth very much money. Just enjoy sharing the hobby with her and ask her about the topic on some of the stamps for some interesting conversation, even if you already know it.
I'm looking forward to seeing some pics later. I've always found stamps to be fascinating collectibles.
If ya find one with an airplane printed upside down, it ain't worth nothing. Send it to me and i'll take care of it properly.
Nice try Steve, but I'm not falling for that one.
Had to bust out my childhood stamp binder for this thread !
Anybody have the same binder ?
Ok here is what I’ve done so far. Now this isn’t a scratch to what I have left for her collection, but it’s a start. These are the newest ones that are now in the binder.
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I have a feeling that your grandmother is a fan of Dwight Eisenhower.
Well she just took stamps off of everything lol so I would say everyone else was a fan as well haha.
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I don't know anything about stamps, but I enjoyed looking a those. Thank you for sharing your grandmother's passion here with us.
Oh trust me, there’s going to be a lot more pictures lol. This will take me awhile, funny thing is, is she won’t let me see the older ones until I’m caught up then she’ll give me those last. I’m really curious what she has haha
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A nice $5.00 Columbian would be nice...…..
I love stamp collecting.
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Your grandmother has a lot of awesome stamps, I love that Frederick Douglas stamp. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her collection!
I just have to get off my ass and do more, there is so many lol. Hopefully tonight I’ll post more pictures.
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Stamp collecting has taken quite the hit as far as interest goes. They are works of art and have much descriptive historical significance. Become familiar with the error type stamps. Good money in those. Also any Zeppelin stamps. They are one of the key issues. Also look into getting a Scott's Pricing Catalog and Linns Stamp Weekly issue. In Linns you can get an idea on some pricing by looking at dealers ads. But your best bet is the Scott's Catalog for complete pricing information. Condition is also a factor in pricing. Good luck.
Have you checked out the stamp forum here? They can probably offer some solid advice to you.
https://forums.collectors.com/categories/stamps-forum
Jim
My grandmother was the relief postmaster for a small rural town, and had been saving stamps for years. She started me on "collecting" stamps long before I ever knew what a baseball card was. Some were unused, but the vast majority of my collection was comprised of cancelled stamps that she'd cut off of the envelopes from mail that she received. Most were from the 1950s to about 1980. They number in the thousands. I probably haven't looked at them in 35 years or so.
I just pulled one album out and thought I'd share a few sports related issues.
She was big on first day issues or event postmarks, too. Such as...
Sure do! And a few other misc. books. Mostly from my grandma after she passed away in the mid 1980’s.
Nic
Guides Authored - Graded Card Scanning Guide PDF | History of the PSA Label PDF
Once I got into sports collecting, she made an effort to get sports related stamps for me. I have 3 of these, and all are smudged similarly.
Here are a few more from grandma.
These were picked up by me early last year in an estate sale. The World Series issue and the 3,000 hit issue in the above post, the Brett photo is what I would say is similar in texture to a Topps cloth sticker.
Those are great.
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