US Mint Postage Question

As I was putting used stamps into my new albums, I came across a lot of Mint
US stamps from the 1950s onward.

My question is this: would I be better off using them as postage, or should
I try to sell them (either in APS circuit books or eBay-type auctions)?

TIA
Ame

Ame wrote:
As I was putting used stamps into my new albums, I came across a lot of Mint
US stamps from the 1950s onward.

My question is this: would I be better off using them as postage, or should
I try to sell them (either in APS circuit books or eBay-type auctions)?

TIA
Ame

It depends.

There is a hassle factor when using them up as postage, the amount of
which depends upon the particular denominations. I find small
denomination stamps (3-4-5 cents) useful in combination with stamps from
just a few years ago. But my 15 and 25 cent stamps are much less
useful. Particularly because I try to use current commemoratives on all
my philatelic mail, so the old stamps end up being used to send in bill
payments. Also, if there are really a *lot* of them, how long would it
take to use them all up?

There is also a hassle factor and cost to selling them. If it is a
large enough lot of stamps, I would suggest selling them as a single
lot on Ebay or local club auction to minimize that.

But, of course, look them up in the Scott catalog to make sure that you
don't have one of those few really good stamps.

= Eric