Facts for Stamp Sellers And How to Donate to a Worthy Cause
Social
Media is a great place to interact with collectors. It’s now the #1 format for
stamp traders who can download an image of a stamp and chat with other
collectors quickly and relatively safely. Facebook especially has a vast number
of stamp collecting groups often defined by agenda like new, buying, selling, air
mail. South Africa, etc. I enjoy consulting for a few of them and often have to
assist with the flood of questions from non-collectors who spend a paragraph mentioning
how they love and adore their grandfather for collecting stamps. And then in
the next breath offer a lifetime worth of grandpa’s stamps faster than a cattle
auction at the county fair.
That’s
right. There are no diamonds in the rough. That’s the talk of people of fortune
hunters. This is stamps not the national lottery. People being too supportive
are just being polite, completely ignorant, or just to buy collections to break
up and sell as packs for resale to new collectors. Again not big money.
2.
Unless the person who passed this collection spent thousands on specialized
stamps and left the invoices and those stamps in a safe deposit box at the bank
— you’re not in the 1% category of valuable stamps.
This
is a rule many folks have a hard time accepting. Stamps easily fool the
outsider. They don’t realize it’s a beautiful, education hobby –but an
inexpensive one too. The great majority of collectors couldn’t afford at any
decade in the past one hundred and thirty years the rarest stamps. And the
incidents of someone finding a rare stamp is the stuff of urban legends. You
have a better chance finding a rare coin than a rare stamp.
3.
Appraisals cost $150 and nearly everyone in social media stamp groups warns
folks to stay away from that practice — they do it anyway and wind up losing
money. Stamps are beautiful and interesting but usually a very poor investment.
As
a general rule, stay away from appraisals. If someone suggests or directs you to
a certain appraiser ignore it. Most stamp collections are basic set ups and do
not contain anything – combined -- to even realize your appraisal fee back in a
sale. Appraisers are a legitimate side of stamp collecting but they are not in
the business to warn you about the value of your collection for free. They will
appraise it knowing its worth far less than the fee you pay up front.
4. Old stamps are not rare. Stamps are not coins. An old coin in good condition still has real value. Not stamps. You will see stamps from the 1890’s and each is worth 1 nickel. This is because stamps are mostly common printed in the millions or tens of millions.
Rare stamps are exactly that --- rare. You can spend fifty or more years in stamp collecting and never come across a rare stamp. You see them at stamp shows, museums and now on the Internet. But in person, well that is exceedingly rare.
5. Stop hesitating. Donate. Donate the stamps to a worthy cause. I am listing for this article the one place I am fond of because they help veterans. And I am a veteran and a stamp collector and a regular donor to this incredible organization.
Stamps for the Wounded is an excellent place to send your stamps you have inherited, found, bought in a thrift shop, etc.
https://www.stampsforthewounded.org/
Stamps for the Wounded
P.O. Box 297
Dunn Loring VA 22027-0297
You can mail them to the address above. If you want
to save postal costs you can spend the time to carefully remove the stamps and
mail. Or perhaps just tear out the pages with stamps on them to mail that. Each
allows less weight and cheaper shipping charges. Most old stamp albums are in
poor condition and not worth shipping. But the choice is yours.
Stamps for the Wounded can make exceptions to
this mailing rule is they have two local delivery drop off locations – one in
Vienna, Virginia and the other in Bethesda, MD. You would need to email them
and set up drops by special arrangement, in advance.
And finally, I mentioned before most collections
are worth $200 or less and once a dealer or a buyer (provided you didn’t get an
appraisal) reviews it you will likely get an offer from $25 to $100. SFTW is a
501(c)(3) non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible.
Donating also has the advantage of getting a tax deduction for the full value ($200)
versus $25 plus shipping and handling.
Donate your stamps*:
You honor your family
You help our nation’s heroes
You get a nice tax deduction.
{*To our international friends, we love you, but you are not getting a tax deduction if you donate. But it’s still a worthy cause. Thanks much.}
Private Charities (not tax deductible, but do great work)
Lakeland Holocaust Stamp Project
c/o Laura Spurway
15506 N Washington St.
Rathdrum, ID 83858
This wonderful school teacher is collecting 11,000,0000 (that's right 11 million) stamps to honor the 11 million victims of the holocaust.
Produced by Kids Need Stamps 2
https://kidsneedstamps2.blogspot.com
2 Comments
thank you for sharing this with me today. i will be helping out.
ReplyDeletei will help too i got many german stamps to share. kind of you to help kids.
ReplyDelete