Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Hi, My name is Diane & I am from Seattle, Washington, USA.
My father started collecting stamps, without too much knowledge of philately, in the 1970s. He died in 2006 but no one has tried to sell his collections until now, following the death of my mother in 2015.
To say the least, this is a daunting task. It's not that his collection is so huge; it's that we just don't know what to do or who to talk to about them.
He collected a lot of sheets of collectibles, the pre-packaged promotionals the post office put out (still sealed), first day issues, and thousands of postmarked stamps he soaked off envelopes.
Additionally, he collected duck stamps & wildlife stamps. I am so ignorant of stamps that I don't even know if those stamps belong in a US stamp collection, or if that's an entirely different genre.
My older sister & I have been doing tons of research, and we sorted out all his stamps into a box. Now we are going to work on assembling them within spreadsheets.
I would love to meet other stamp collectors in the Seattle area. Also, please feel free to correct me & my impressions while I get my sea legs. My dad spent 40 years sitting on the couch every night, sorting stamps, writing to stamp houses, trying to trade stamps, perusing catalogs and I don't know how he found the time or was able to soak up the knowledge.
So, here I am. Thanks for letting me join this group. I'll probably be slow to contribute, but I do look forward to learning.
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Hi Diane, and welcome home.
Dan C.
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Welcome, Diane! There's lots of friendly people who would be more than willing to share their knowledge with you.
Unfortunately, I am on the other end of the U.S. from you -- down near Mickey Mouse.
BOB
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Hi and welcome to SoR.
As for the stamps, you might have to upload some pictures so we can help you out. I don't know too much about US stamps, but can help out a bit with the Australian ones should you have any. I am sure there are enough people here to help value any country you might have.
Cheers,
David.
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Welcome Welcome Welcome, Diane!
If you'd like to find members near Seattle, you can do a search for members who live near you. Go to the home page and click on the members pull down menu. On that page you can search by cities or states or interests and so forth. I'm sure there must be a few members near you.
Delighted to have you join us!
Theresa
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08:24:09pm
Welcome, Diane.
You will find many members here who will try to answer questions. You are right about this being a daunting task.
In addition to Theresa's excellent direction to find local SoR members, I'd suggest seeking the local stamp club.
It has been years since I visited Seattle so the areas are strange to me now, but the links that follow list about a dozen local clubs;
http://www.stampparaphernalia.com/washington_stamp_clubs.htm
Also I found this link to the Northwest Federation of Stamp Clubs
I'd arrange to visit the closest one or two to see if I were comfortable with them and they were willing to answer questions. Most will be very welcoming. I found one club in a suburb there that was great, but that was in the '60s and I don't recall the name or exact location.
Good luck and feel free to ask question here.
Charlie
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Welcome, Diane!
You can also search for nationally-affiliated local stamps clubs at:
http://stamps.org/Local-Clubs
And those Migratory Bird (duck) stamps are totally collectible! Extra points if they are signed by the artist(s) 
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Greetings Diane,
You found a good place to sort things out. Be careful though, you may get the collecting bug yourself.
Cheers,
Eric
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"Additionally, he collected duck stamps & wildlife stamps"
Diane,
Duck Stamps (or just 'ducks') are part of stamp collecting, but I'd say most of us don't collect them, and those that do are passionate about them. If they're only US, then there are federal and state ducks
for the Wildlife, that might refer to fishing stamps (like the ducks) or to the now-defunct National Wildlife Federation, that issued labels for many years, ending about 3 decades ago. IF NWF labels, they aren't really stamps, but are considered more as part of the Cinderella category, which is one of my interests (and not shared by a huge number of others).
A picture or two will go a long way towards helping us see what you got.
David
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As for selling the collection:
I suggest you do it here on Stamporama. I sent my whole collection to one dealer and all he offered was what it cost me to ship it. I have already sold about what they offered, and I have boxes of stamps left to go. It is very time consuming, but it has brought back my interest it stamp collecting. It is very time consuming to identify you stamps, but you will learn much from it. I love the discussion board as they are very helpful. Look over the Approvals and the Auctions. This is a great place to start.
Karen
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02:48:13pm
Hi, I just joined a Yahoo philately group & was advised to join up here, as well. I have that classic dilemma of inheriting a stamp collection, so nothing new here. I'd like to share a cup of coffee with people in Seattle who are able to help me sell my father's entire collection. I don't think he has anything exceptional there. I have to put them into a spreadsheet or convey the information some other way. I will do that within the next month. I am going to copy & paste my introductory email here:
Hi, My name is Diane & I am from Seattle, Washington, USA.
My father started collecting stamps, without too much knowledge of philately, in the 1970s. He died in 2006 but no one has tried to sell his collections until now, following the death of my mother in 2015.
To say the least, this is a daunting task. It's not that his collection is so huge; it's that we just don't know what to do or who to talk to about them.
He collected a lot of sheets of collectibles, the pre-packaged promotionals the post office put out (still sealed), first day issues, and thousands of postmarked stamps he soaked off envelopes.
Additionally, he collected duck stamps & wildlife stamps. I am so ignorant of stamps that I don't even know if those stamps belong in a US stamp collection, or if that's an entirely different genre.
My older sister & I have been doing tons of research, and we sorted out all his stamps into a box. Now we are going to work on assembling them within spreadsheets.
I would love to meet other stamp collectors in the Seattle area. Also, please feel free to correct me & my impressions while I get my sea legs. My dad spent 40 years sitting on the couch every night, sorting stamps, writing to stamp houses, trying to trade stamps, perusing catalogs and I don't know how he found the time or was able to soak up the knowledge.
So, here I am. Thanks for letting me join this group. I'll probably be slow to contribute, but I do look forward to learning.
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re: Introducing myself
Hi Diane, and welcome home.
Dan C.
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re: Introducing myself
Welcome, Diane! There's lots of friendly people who would be more than willing to share their knowledge with you.
Unfortunately, I am on the other end of the U.S. from you -- down near Mickey Mouse.
BOB
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this post
re: Introducing myself
Hi and welcome to SoR.
As for the stamps, you might have to upload some pictures so we can help you out. I don't know too much about US stamps, but can help out a bit with the Australian ones should you have any. I am sure there are enough people here to help value any country you might have.
Cheers,
David.
Login to Like
this post
re: Introducing myself
Welcome Welcome Welcome, Diane!
If you'd like to find members near Seattle, you can do a search for members who live near you. Go to the home page and click on the members pull down menu. On that page you can search by cities or states or interests and so forth. I'm sure there must be a few members near you.
Delighted to have you join us!
Theresa
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
29 May 2016
08:24:09pm
re: Introducing myself
Welcome, Diane.
You will find many members here who will try to answer questions. You are right about this being a daunting task.
In addition to Theresa's excellent direction to find local SoR members, I'd suggest seeking the local stamp club.
It has been years since I visited Seattle so the areas are strange to me now, but the links that follow list about a dozen local clubs;
http://www.stampparaphernalia.com/washington_stamp_clubs.htm
Also I found this link to the Northwest Federation of Stamp Clubs
I'd arrange to visit the closest one or two to see if I were comfortable with them and they were willing to answer questions. Most will be very welcoming. I found one club in a suburb there that was great, but that was in the '60s and I don't recall the name or exact location.
Good luck and feel free to ask question here.
Charlie
Login to Like
this post
re: Introducing myself
Welcome, Diane!
You can also search for nationally-affiliated local stamps clubs at:
http://stamps.org/Local-Clubs
And those Migratory Bird (duck) stamps are totally collectible! Extra points if they are signed by the artist(s)
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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this post
re: Introducing myself
Greetings Diane,
You found a good place to sort things out. Be careful though, you may get the collecting bug yourself.
Cheers,
Eric
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this post
Auctions
re: Introducing myself
"Additionally, he collected duck stamps & wildlife stamps"
Diane,
Duck Stamps (or just 'ducks') are part of stamp collecting, but I'd say most of us don't collect them, and those that do are passionate about them. If they're only US, then there are federal and state ducks
for the Wildlife, that might refer to fishing stamps (like the ducks) or to the now-defunct National Wildlife Federation, that issued labels for many years, ending about 3 decades ago. IF NWF labels, they aren't really stamps, but are considered more as part of the Cinderella category, which is one of my interests (and not shared by a huge number of others).
A picture or two will go a long way towards helping us see what you got.
David
Login to Like
this post
re: Introducing myself
As for selling the collection:
I suggest you do it here on Stamporama. I sent my whole collection to one dealer and all he offered was what it cost me to ship it. I have already sold about what they offered, and I have boxes of stamps left to go. It is very time consuming, but it has brought back my interest it stamp collecting. It is very time consuming to identify you stamps, but you will learn much from it. I love the discussion board as they are very helpful. Look over the Approvals and the Auctions. This is a great place to start.
Karen
Login to Like
this post