At my stamp club, we have seen collections rubber glued, stapled and scotch taped to albums. Sometimes collections that would have been worth a few thousand dollars. A few key issues were occasionally still worth 1/50th-1/100th of a sound copy.
Storage is so important indeed. Good you point that out. I sometimes get the answer that 'I'd rather spend my money on stamps than storage'. But if you want to preserve stamps, then the right plastics and material in general is essential. The biggest expense I do on my hobby is storage and not the actual stamps. Thanks for the video Leven!
Actually the value of a collection depends on the dealer/collector you are selling it to. The 30% of face value really is valid for mid to large sized dealers who likely have an overabundance of stamps from the 1940's onward. However, since over the past 30 or so years this has been realized by many collectors or they soon do when going to a large dealer, you will get face value or slightly above face value with individual collectors or sales platforms such as ebay. From my own experience I have been able to sell common modern definitives a little above face value. How? Usually it is back-of-book stamps such as Non-Profits and Presorted or coil formats of common definitives (especially if that is the only format the USPS produced them such as the 1, 2 and 3 cent fruit coils of recent years). Panes and sheets of modern stamps are harder to sell unless it is from a plate that was short-lived or a sheet with uncommon features (two examples are the 50 stamp sheets issued in the 1980's through early 90's before USPS ceased that format, and the commemorative sheets without die-cuts after the USPS finishing selling an issue online). Also, I am seeing that topical stamp collecting is growing tremendously so say a series of stamps with tropical birds with complete denominations from a country may sell at a premium rather than a mixed bag of stamps covering a wide variety of topics and themes. So your statement of 30% of face value while valid is limited. However, it is best that you give the very low end figure of what you'll get. As many stamp collectors learn from experience, you end up with many duplicates for postage, trading, or selling at a discount when the time comes to liquidate some or all of your collection.
I'm not a big collector of First Day Covers but some of the ways I've seen FDCs stored makes me cringe. Stuffed in Bags, glued and taped to pages, in those picture albums you just showed. And those in the worst condition seem to be in the very presentation binders they were sold in.
@cristianefimov3611 I wouldn't trust it myself.those self adhesive books are often acidic and could well leach acid through the mounts and damage the stamps. Good question!
Hello. thank you for your kind reply I was also thinking the same. the presentation in this album looks good, but better i take them out because the stamps have good value and it should not get damaged .
At my stamp club, we have seen collections rubber glued, stapled and scotch taped to albums. Sometimes collections that would have been worth a few thousand dollars. A few key issues were occasionally still worth 1/50th-1/100th of a sound copy.
It's so sad to see that
Storage is so important indeed. Good you point that out. I sometimes get the answer that 'I'd rather spend my money on stamps than storage'. But if you want to preserve stamps, then the right plastics and material in general is essential. The biggest expense I do on my hobby is storage and not the actual stamps. Thanks for the video Leven!
I am a firm believer that should not purchase items you can not properly store. It is a tragedy to find collections ruined by storage issues
also photos can be damaged as well. i had one for photos and pulled them out and the album went to the recycle bin.
Actually the value of a collection depends on the dealer/collector you are selling it to. The 30% of face value really is valid for mid to large sized dealers who likely have an overabundance of stamps from the 1940's onward. However, since over the past 30 or so years this has been realized by many collectors or they soon do when going to a large dealer, you will get face value or slightly above face value with individual collectors or sales platforms such as ebay. From my own experience I have been able to sell common modern definitives a little above face value. How? Usually it is back-of-book stamps such as Non-Profits and Presorted or coil formats of common definitives (especially if that is the only format the USPS produced them such as the 1, 2 and 3 cent fruit coils of recent years). Panes and sheets of modern stamps are harder to sell unless it is from a plate that was short-lived or a sheet with uncommon features (two examples are the 50 stamp sheets issued in the 1980's through early 90's before USPS ceased that format, and the commemorative sheets without die-cuts after the USPS finishing selling an issue online). Also, I am seeing that topical stamp collecting is growing tremendously so say a series of stamps with tropical birds with complete denominations from a country may sell at a premium rather than a mixed bag of stamps covering a wide variety of topics and themes. So your statement of 30% of face value while valid is limited. However, it is best that you give the very low end figure of what you'll get. As many stamp collectors learn from experience, you end up with many duplicates for postage, trading, or selling at a discount when the time comes to liquidate some or all of your collection.
I'm not a big collector of First Day Covers but some of the ways I've seen FDCs stored makes me cringe. Stuffed in Bags, glued and taped to pages, in those picture albums you just showed. And those in the worst condition seem to be in the very presentation binders they were sold in.
I agree it hurts to see anything mishandled whether it is something I collect or not. Those presentation binders are always way too tight
Hi. thank you for the good info.
I wanted to ask something.
If i use mounting strips in self adhesive photo album will still destroy the stamps?
@cristianefimov3611 I wouldn't trust it myself.those self adhesive books are often acidic and could well leach acid through the mounts and damage the stamps. Good question!
Hello. thank you for your kind reply
I was also thinking the same. the presentation in this album looks good, but better i take them out because the stamps have good value and it should not get damaged .