How to sell rare stamps
How to Sell Your Stamp Collection Part I
how to sell your stamp collection part 1
hi I'm Jerry here at northland company
we get hundreds of calls and emails
every week from people wanting to sell
their stamp coin and paper money
collections now today I'm just going to
talk about stamps but everyone's got the
same three questions what is my
collection worth how do I go about
selling it and how do I know I'm not
going to get ripped off these are good
questions and having been in the
business of selling and buying stamps
for over 35 years here's my answers
question number one how much are my
stamps worth well if you're the person
who built the collection you're already
ahead of the game because you have some
idea of its value but if you're
unfamiliar with stamps say you're the
executor of an estate a widow an heir or
just a friend helping out an elderly
neighbor it's going to be more difficult
because you're going to have to
communicate just what you have to a
potential buyer before he can say
whether it has value or even if he's
interested in it so let's start by
trying to define what you have stamp
collectors are usually great
accumulators and organizers and stamp
collections come in all sorts of shapes
and sizes these are some of the types of
collections we typically run across at
the top of the list you might have what
we call a major collection it could look
something like this 50 to 300 albums
would not be uncommon this would be put
together by a collector over a lifetime
there would be hundreds of thousands of
stamps here he would have bought them
from dealers and auctioneers and he
would have been able to afford scarcer
stamps as well as common stamps he might
also have been an exhibitor in
international competitions and won
awards a collection like this will have
significant value next you might have
what we call a specialized collection
this is very similar to a major
collection except that the collector was
highly focused on what he was collecting
for example he may have collected just a
single country such as this Japan
collection
or he may have focused on advertising
covers and postal history such as those
shown here lastly he may have
concentrated on just a single stamp
books are written on just a single stamp
because of the specialized nature of
this type of collection
they usually have significant value now
we come to the type of collection that
the average collector might have such as
this one here there are tens of
thousands of stamps in this collection
and it probably took the collector on
lifetime to put it together he had a lot
of fun and there will be value here but
typically the scare sir stamps won't be
found primarily because he didn't have
the funds to invest in them next on the
list
children's collections we see a lot of
these usually they contain just common
stamps and often the child loses
interest in collecting after a while
collections like this have little
commercial value and we rarely buy them
back in the 1950s collecting complete
sheets of stamps was very popular every
time a stamp was issued a person would
go to the post office and buy a sheet
over time he collected a lot of sheets
they did this because they thought it
was a good investment well it really
wasn't such a good investment and today
they're probably worth less than the
person paid for them the good news
though is a lot of sheets were collected
and typically there's a lot of value
their promotional collections can take
many forms and are quite common this one
features golden replica first-day covers
the collector would buy these covers and
put them into an album such as this
they're very pretty but they have little
resale value stamp investment portfolios
were in vogue in the 1980s investors
bought these as hedges against inflation
generally speaking they did not work out
too well as an investment however the
quality of the stamps was quite high and
these still have significant value
lastly dealer stocks many collectors
aspire to become dealers perhaps when
they retire
some do some don't in the course of
their collecting career they accumulate
large amounts of stamps and covers we
once took a collection weighing 17 tons
because of the diversity of
accumulations like this they usually do
have significant value now you know what
type of collection you might have so
what is it worth it comes down to three
variables one what stamps are in the
collection are they common are they
scarce are they even genuine secondly
what's the condition of the stamps this
is especially important for scarce or
stamps and third what is the state of
the overall economy and the stamp market
in particular is it strong or is it weak
let's start with the last question first
the overall economy is very weak as we
all know but the stamp market has been
very resilient and it's good time to be
selling the stamp markets been trending
upward slowly for many years but it does
consist of many segments and they can
run hot or cold at any particular point
in time right now Asian countries are
very strong and traditionally strong
areas like Europe are weak even within
countries different segments can vary
classics might be strong air mails might
be weak ultimately the mix of stamps you
have in your collection will determine
its value and now let's turn to the
question of whether you have any scarce
or stamps keep in mind hundreds of
thousands of different stamps were
issued and billions if not trillions of
stamps were printed most of these are
very common still there are plenty of
scarce or stamps out there
here is the scarce Graf Zeppelin stamp
of the 1930s it's worth about $1,500 a
similar set issued just a few years
before is worth only ten next you see
two 50 cent stamps that look exactly the
same but they're not one has a different
perforation the stamps on the Left have
a value of $1,500 on the right just one
hundred dollars this last stamp could
actually be worth 20 cents or 150
thousand dollars
this design appears on 28 different
stamps all with different values
my suggestion is don't get too excited
if you have a stamp that looks like this
you probably don't have the rare one on
the other hand you might get lucky even
when a rare stamp is found you have to
beware of fakes and forgeries you can
probably see that these two finished
stamps are slightly different but it
takes an expert to tell the real one
it's the one on the left
all of these stamps are listed in the
Scott catalog which can be found in any
library you can check Scott values
yourself but bear in mind that these do
not reflect the prices that you can
actually sell your stamps for you can
also explore our website to see what
current prices are for thousands of
stamps worldwide lastly if you're
fortunate enough to have scarce a rare
stamps their quality and condition will
greatly affect their value centering is
a very important element in valuing
stamps these two 5 cent stamps are
exactly the same except that the one on
the left is perfectly centered it's
valued at $1,900 the one on the right
still looks pretty good but the retail
price on this is just $100 the gum on
the back of the stamp is also very
important the center stamp shows a hinge
mark when it was put into a stamp album
the one on the left has no hinge mark
and the one on the right has no gum at
all if the center stamp was worth $50
the one on the Left would be worth a
hundred and the one on the right only
$25 stamps are fragile they're made of
paper and they often have faults tears
thins creases all of which can greatly
affect value all three of these stamps
look pretty good the one on the left
actually is it has a nice cancel no
faults and it's worth about two hundred
and fifty dollars the center stamp looks
pretty good too but it has small fins
and a few short perks it's worth about
$45 the stamp at the right a major
disaster a cancel has been removed a
puncture hole has been repaired there's
been a repaired tear at the bottom it's
been regaled and
reaper on the sides and a fake grill has
been added its value zero so now you
should have a good idea of what type of
collection you have and you know some of
the variables that go into assessing
their value next step contact a
potential buyer in part two of this
series which follows I will explain the
advantages and disadvantages of using an
auctioneer or a dealer to sell your
collection I'll also provide some tips
to avoid getting ripped off if you have
any questions call me I'm Jerry
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