Stamp collection

[Big Cliff]

I have a friend who has a stamp collection with stamp books daiting back to 1898 (no idea how old the oldest stamp is) This has been handed down through her family and she would like to get it apraised and might consider selling it.

 

She was asking me how or where she should go to get it done fairly and not have to worry about a few stamps not being returned or her being taken advantage of. I have never had to deal with something like this so I figured I would see if anyone on here could offer any advice.

[mercman]

CPPAG

Canadian Personal Property Appraisers Group.

http://www.cppag.com/default.asp

 

I know a little about everything, but not much about anything in particular.

[Big Cliff]

LOL, join the club! I think her biggest concern is that some of these stamps are potentially worth over $1000.00 each and she is conserned that if they were to "go missing" during an apprasil she would have little or no way to prove the actual condition or even existance of them.

 

I took a coin collection in to a place to see what it was worth, the guy offered me just about face value for it, told me there was nothing in it that was really worth anything. I ended up talking to someone else about it and found out that several of the pieces in the collection were each actually worth a lot more money than the total face value of the collection. The first guy had tried to rip me off big time.

 

Same thing happened to me selling some old gold jewlery. Guy checked it all out doing an "acid test" kept telling me pieces were 10 or 12 k when they were stamped 18 or 24k then offered me about $750.00 for the lot. I ended up going to a couple of other places and got nearly three times the original offer.

 

Man you have to be so careful these days!

Edited February 13, 2012 by Big Cliff

[Nipfisher]

LOL, join the club! I think her biggest concern is that some of these stamps are potentially worth over $1000.00 each and she is conserned that if they were to "go missing" during an apprasil she would have little or no way to prove the actual condition or even existance of them.

 

 

Pictures and doccumentation!

[Big Cliff]

Pictures and doccumentation!

 

It is that doccumentation that is the big issue, the difference between VF and G is hard to prove unless it is rated by someone that is a recognized appraiser and the difference in value can be huge.

[bigugli]

There are a couple of stamp exhibitions held in Toronto every year. The foremost dealers and retailers will be found there. Stay away from Vance Auctions.

As for the collection values. This is the bad news. Catalogue value only has meaning to insurers.

There is no growth in the philately market in over 20 years. I collected stamps for nearly 40 years, and only recently gave it up. Even if you get a fair appraisal, the market is small an shrinking, and 10% is all that one will offer for the collection. The other route is to break up the collection, and go for the dollar value of the prime specimens. That takes time. patience, knowledge.

[bigbuck]

EBay and the internet. She should do some homework before seeing someone. Its a lot of work but could prevent her from being ripped off. Everyone wants to hit a home run off of every customer these days. Its too bad.

[Big Cliff]

Thanks for the replies, most appreciated! I think that I am going to have to sit down with her and spend some time trying to evaluate exactly what she does have and then see where we can get the best value for her. She is a little too much like me and tends to trust everyone to be honest and fair. She is a nice lady and I'd hate to see her get ripped off.

[grt1]

I went through the same thing with my brother's collection. I ended up going stamp by stamp through his US stamps and the values added up to over $400 but he has another 3 books of Canadian and world stamps and I'm not even going to attempt to do those. I've tried to contact the stamp collectors in the winnipeg area but i've been told the stamp collecting fad is long gone and virtually no one can appraise a collection let alone find anyone who would want to buy it.