My late Father used to collect 1st Day Edition stamps and built up quite a collection over the years. Does anyone know anyone reputable who might be able to give my Mother an idea of if they have any real value.
I had a very large collection which was of little interest to me.
I took them to a dealer in Covent Garden who very deliberately offered me less than the cost of the albums they were in. Several hundred covers, albums cost £10 a go, 4 albums, offered £35.
Literally a calculated insult.
I gave them to an art student via Freecycle.
Your experience may differ but I think the market for stamps that aren’t super-rare is as dead as CDs.
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Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling that they wouldn’t have much value today.
We went down the dealer route too. When Narelle’s Mum died she inherited all her First Day covers, rare/old stamps, plus a bunch of WW1 & 2 postcards (inclusive of stamps).
To be fair to the dealer, who lived locally, he said that he wouldn’t offer anything for the collection because we would only feel insulted given the derisory amount that it was worth to him. He picked out a few bits but then stated that they would be of a reasonable value but that to remove them would have reduced the overall value significantly.
His honesty was refreshing. He then put us in touch with a local auction house which specialised in such tat. We got a valuation which, to me, sounded optimistic. Taking into account, fees and shit, nothing happened and we still have them.
We still can’t decide what to do.
Good luck.
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They are pretty worthless.
If the stamps are unused the best way to realise their value is to use them.
The post office make a fortune out of stamps. They cost fractions of a penny and if no one uses them and uses the service the profit percentage is incredible.
They will happily churn out new issues all the time.
This was some of the advice we were given. One of his suggestions was that we try to sell the used stuff (for whatever we can get) and to spend the rest.