On May 16, 1:25*pm, "Charles Mueller" wrote:
Hello. I have inherited a stamp collection and have some novice questions..
Dont know if this would be considered the proper forum for such. Would
appreciate an email from someone willing to "mentor" me a bit. Thanks. Chuck
Mueller,

Hello Charles,

I gather from your email address that you are in the U.S.? An opening
piece of generic advice concerns the Scott Catalogue, which you may
have encountered if you enquired at your library. The minimum price
attached to a stamp is 15 cents. A very, very common error is to sum
all of these $0.15 values to determine a collective value for the low-
value stamps in the collection. Sadly, "15 cents" for these stamps
should be read "0 cents". Many would say "treat all values under $1
as zero" as well. And of the value of the remainder, expect to get,
maybe, 10% if you sell to a dealer, if you have regularly-encountered
stamps. Unless a collector has been extremely fastidious, fairly
wealthy, and collecting more than (say) 50 years ago, a stamp
collection sold is essentially sold as "scrap" and is likely to be
worth less than what was put into it. I would also agree that passing
the collection on intact, if at all possible, might be better: the
collection might be worth more as a memory of the deceased than as a
financial instrument.

I, for one, look forward to your questions. :^) As Rodney said, they
make us feel smart.

--
Joshua H. McGee
Sierra Madre, Los Angeles, California, USA
Member: APS, ATA, ISWSC, MBPC
Trade?: http://www.mcgees.org/stamp-offers/