I just found a use for my old stamp collection.
topstuf
Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
Yesterday I dug out my old album, and since they aren't worth much I made a frame display to hang over my desk. Lotsa memories in those things.
Useta love packets, mixtures, and stamp shops.
STAMP SHOPS? Yep there used to be some.
If you only knew what I had to do to convince my old man that I didn't REALLY want that Spanish Goya ...nude!
Stamp shop in Carmel. Weekend trip with the folks. Had to tell him I wanted some absolute CRUD first. Then....as an afterthought.... oh gee, maybe a few from Spain, too. 
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Comments
It's unfortunate that from a financial/investment standpoint that the stamp hobby has taken such a hit. Regardless of that, they still are works of artistic art,at least in the pre 70's realm IMO. They can always be enjoyed/appreciated from that viewpoint, and for the most part very cheaply acquired.
It is sad to see what has happened to the stamp collecting hobby. Unless you have material that APS exhibitors need for their gold medal exhibits it seems that stamps have virtually no resale value. The catalog values have become a bad joke. As an example, last February I decided to get back into stamps on a very limited basis. I bought a few lots of Ireland at a local auction and ended up with quite a few duplicates of the early commemorative issues. About six months later I took the duplicates to a local show and offered them to the dealers there. I was down to offering them for about 7 1/2 % of catalog (and these were nice looking, fault free stamps) and did not get so much as a counteroffer. The dealers said they just had too many of them in stock and didn't want them at any price. If you want to buy the dealers want half catalog but if you want to sell ... no interest. Needless to say, my sojourn back into the stamp collecting arena was very brief. I'm simply not willing to buy anything with margins like that.
It depends what you're collecting. I have little knowledge of specific foreign stamps, however...
High grade, scarce US brings strong money. On top of that, high grade Zeppelins, Columbians and Trans-Miss issues are very liquid with a pretty darn tight spread retail/wholesale.
Foreign stuff... China is red hot, Australia is strong, GB, etc.
US Postal history, the truly scarce stuff, brings very strong money and this includes uncommon single frankings of the Presidential issue, you should see what some of it is bringing.
Trying to get top dollar for common stuff is like trying to get top dollar for common US Mint sets.
At a coin show, I came across old (OK like 40 years old) sheets of stamps on sale for 10% under face. I bought a few sheets. I use them for postage!
At the local coin show I can get unused glued stamps for 60% face. The stamps are usually 1c to $3 face value. I also use them for postage.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
You can buy postage lots on ebay for 2/3 to 3/4 face value. No need to pay 90%.
But try to fit them on an envelope.
Good to use for bills.
Especially if you wrap them over the top.
I have some binders of foreign coins with plastic sheets full of 2x2's, in alphabetized order by country. These came from an earlier attempt to collect a "1-per-phase-per-country" collection.
I also had a bunch of relatively worthless cancelled world stamps from my days collecting them as a kid.
As they were starting to fall out of the folders/albums, and I had no plans to continue with the hobby, I came across the idea of taking a few nice examples from each country & placing them with the 2x2's from each country in y coin binders.
Added a nice perspective & history to the coin collection, and freed me from the burden & regret of maintaining or tossing as worthless the remainders.
Besides using some "overstamped" examples from Russia and pre-Nazi Germany for my kids' school presentations/projects, the entire stamp collection otherwise sat gathering dust for decades.
Now if I could only make up my mind about what to do with the First-Day Covers I'd collected in my youth. Few with cachets, and almost all hand-addressed to me - - both collecting "no-no's", I understand.........
I recently came across a stamp collection that I bought. A LOT of fun going through all that stuff and it really brought back memories from when I was a kid. So far, I added $505. 42 in face value for postage. Lets just say that is more than I paid......... And there is another 14 mint sheet files to go! There is about another easy $1,500 in face value. I can't wait to see the actual total. And that is just US Face not including thousands of US and United Nations First Day covers and a boatload of other stuff. I am waiting to go though the four worldwide albums later after I sell most of the other stuff. Good Luck collecting!
Robert
email bcmiller7@comcast.net
I have two picture frames of stamps on my fireplace mantle-Pan Am definitives and commems and a set of the 1938 Presidential series. They look great! I just hope my mantle-or for that matter, my house-never catches fire.
I've seen a few articles where artists make collages from old stamps and looks really nice. I use a few of my cheap foreign duplicates to decorate cigar boxes to put stamps in. Sad that the hobby has gone to that extreme but afraid it has
This type of lot is not that uncommon. A local stamp dealer (just about the only one left with a real store) has a back room that is stacked several feet deep with such "collections" he hasn't even gone through yet. I'm sure he pays very little for what he buys. The sellers are usually heirs who just want to get rid of the collection for quick cash and he always pays cash.
I like it.
That's cool ... stamps were my first love and I'll never let them go ... then along came coins.