my sons stamp collection

[tattooedmomma]

My son a has a ton of stamps. I bought 2 books full at a garage sale for 5.00 and my mom gave him all of hers. How do I know which ones are valuable??

 

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[AU24K]

Well.....
If it were me that got a bunch of stamps, I'd first go to the library and get the "Scott's" Catalogues and then go home and sort the stamps by US or foreign.
Then I'd look up the older looking ones first, especially the higher denomination ones.
You will need to understand perforations, watermarks and other variations in similar looking stamps.
This is all very time consuming and sometimes tedious and confusing but you will definitely learn about history as many stamps are issued for commemorative reasons.
I would say that the odds of having that $1,000,000 stamp waiting to be identified are slim at best, but you never know...

Best Wishes,
Scott


PS. You also should know about PNC's, Perfins, Precancels and CTO's. I'm sure that you can "Google" these terms to get a grasp on what else to look for. Best of Luck!

 

[Mackaydon]

If you live in an area that has a local stamp club, attend one of their meetings with your stamps and ask for assistance.
Don...

 

[AU24K]

If you live in an area that has a local stamp club, attend one of their meetings with your stamps and ask for assistance.
Don...

EXCELLENT advice!
(wish I'd a thunk of it! )

Best,
Scott

 

[Mackaydon]

Another thought:
Contact your local Boy Scouts troop. Find out who is the counselor for the Stamp Collecting merit badge. Meet that person, ask for his/her advise (to answer your Qs) and offer to the counselor your duplicates or worthless stamps so that he/she might pass them on to others who are working on that merit badge.
Don.......