Down the Lane

I have a stamp collection which I built up when I was a child which I'd like to have valued and wonder if anyone on here has used any valuers, either by sending via post or located in the north west (I'm in Cheshire) that they can recommend?

I've had a look online and I'm unsure where to start - some advice says not to use auction houses for valuations, other seems to point towards independent professional stamp collectors.

I just want an honest appraisal with a view to selling....I suspect it's monetary worth is not great, but I live in hope that I may have a life-changing stamp in there

My dad was a great collector of..well loads of things really, when he died we found
loads of coins, cig cards, postcards, very old books & stamps. They were all going to
be sent to auction but I've rescued them, firstly I want them to end up going to
good homes, secondly if there's any treasure in there I want us to have the fun of
finding it not someone else.
There are an awful lot of stamps & sorting, valueing & selling them will be a big
project. I will be very interested to hear how you get on with yours Scrambled,
I started researching but have shelved it till I have more time, I found this
conversation, which may be a bit out of date but a good starting point
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sho ... 615&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would be interested as well. OH has a huge collection with loads of FDC.
He hasn't touched them for about 20 years and I would rather they found a good home.

Thanks for that, Kitla - I did try to get a Stanley Gibbons catalogue from the library, but they didn't have one. I had a go at checking with them online but there seemed to be an annual membership fee which has to be paid in order to get values for individual stamps.

I might just persevere and see if I can do a bit more research online first - if I find I'm not getting anywhere then I'll perhaps resort to going to a dealer (I've found one in Chester). My fear is that if I don't know exactly what I've got then I could easily have the wool pulled over my eyes.

Thanks for the link Fingers crossed we both find something really rare and valuable in our respective collections Ditto FDC for you too, Wendy

Silly as it sounds have you tried ebay just to browse to see if theres any on there the same as yours.

Ah, the hours I spent soaking stamps off their envelopes and mounting them in date order according to the Stanley Gibbons catalogue from the library.
Of course the 'value' they quote is what they would SELL you the stamp for, not what anyone would buy from you.
My father was a hospital chef and worked with a lot of Europeans at a time when domestic work was all they could get work permits for - he used to ask them to save stamps for me. And I was given several old collections. And there were ads in Childrens Newspaper - free stamps if you sent for their approvals. You could also get a big bag of 'unsorted' stamps quite cheaply.
My children weren't very interested, I think my mother gave most of my stamps to Oxfam, who do (or did) sell them.

When I went to college my mother kept my collection going, by buying all the new issues. She got the World Cup set, then the post office saved the World Cup winners overprints for her - everyone wanted them and there weren't enough to go round. Hmm I see that the set is 99p on ebay +pp

Oh dear.

I've had a look on ebay and made a start on checking the asking prices for some of my stamps - fair to say it's not looking good at all so far. I'll keep checking, though - I live in hope...

ebay is a bit hit and miss sometimes, when I was looking at values on old books
I found identical things going for £80 one day then 99p another. It may be a good
idea to visit a local stamp/collectors fair, see how they sell them, maybe pick up
some ideas & names of trusted local dealers.

Thanks, Kitla - I think I might ring the place I've found online, in Chester, to see what they can do for me too.

This thread has reminded me that my Dad had a stamp collection that I now have. I havent looked at it for yonks, but will now. Thanks.