Best stamp value book for 1860s-1900s?

[redbull]

My mother is finally letting me look into her great great grandfather's stamp collection, that was started by him in the late 1860s (up until my mothers father died-1998 the stamp collecting continued)
What would be the most accurate book to buy to get a rough idea on values for the earlier stamps? I'm mainly wondering about the ones from the 1800s to roughly 1910s.

 

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[Mackaydon]

No need to buy anything. First step is to ID the stamp.
I suggest you start with US stamps.
On this site you can ID your stamps with some degree of accuracy:
U.S. Stamps For Sale at Mystic Stamp Company
Then, using the Scott's Catalog number, you may wish to refer to another site like this one for an example of current asking prices:
Online Catalog
If you can post a pic of the earliest US stamps, I may be able to help you.
Don.......

 

[tokenhead]

My mother is finally letting me look into her great great grandfather's stamp collection, that was started by him in the late 1860s (up until my mothers father died-1998 the stamp collecting continued)
What would be the most accurate book to buy to get a rough idea on values for the earlier stamps? I'm mainly wondering about the ones from the 1800s to roughly 1910s.

Scott's Stamp Catalog,Every local library has one&other's like the specialized,world,etc.those stamps will be in Scotts standard catalog of u.s.stamp's...Ask your library

 

[Slingshot]

Look for a Scott's Classic Catalogue which covers everything from the first stamp issued in 1840 on through 1940, worldwide, including the US. These are pricey new, $150 - $200, but an older copy will do you fine to identify the stamp, then if it has good value you can get an estimate of current value on the net. The older catalogues from say around the year 1998 - 2000+ a few years, will just be a few $'s. I saw a new 1999 Classic Catalogue on eBay for under $10 this weekend, and used one's are usually even less. If you are only dealing with US stamps, an older copy of the US Specialized will do the same job. I use old catalogues myself and use a 1999 edition of the Classic Catalogue that I bought for $3, and it has all the postage stamps of the world in one book for the first 100 years. For the older stamps these are quite a bargain.