I hate postage stamps.

[Vinca]

Since I've retired from antiquing, I've been consigning stuff locally to get rid of the stored treasures. Over the years I've bought postage stamps at yard sales whenever I see them, figuring someday I'd try to get interested in them and try to sell them. That never happened and I still have zero interest. I managed to sort through the postal office commemorative sets pretty easily and price them, but now I've moved on to old, loose stamps. If one catches my eye, I try to look it up and see if it might have some value. Of course, it all depends on things like grading as well as rarity, so I'm finding one that sold for $500 while another sells for $5. It's driving me nuts. Now I've just run across stamps that have something called a "z grid" that sell in the millions so now I'm afraid to sell the loose ones. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them.

[Think. Again.]

1. I have about 6 boxes of multi-generation family stamp collecting...

...that I'm dreading diving into.

[Vinca]

2. Good luck. I started buying them because someone told me the Inverted Jenny stamp

had been sold out of the local post office way back when. Needless to say, no sign of it among the pile. LOL.

[Marthe48]

3. My Mom gave me her stamp album

She stopped adding stamps to it in 1938 or so. Most of the stamps were canceled. She got them from her Dad who had an antique shop. Then about 10 years ago, we bought a box of papers for few dollars and there were 20 or 30 envelopes with canceled stamps on them. During Covid, i tried to figure out what I had. Haha, passed some of those dark hours! I still have no idea what kind of value of any of my small collection of old stamps.

I found a web site called Stampworld.com: https://www.stampworld.com/en/

It might help you, or not.

[Vinca]

4. Thanks for that site. I did manage to identify one stamp a few years back and sold it

for a couple of hundred dollars and I also sold stamp lots when I had my booth. I think I'm going to sell the commemorative stamps as a lot on consignment and then plod through the remaining loose stamps. Next up the baseball cards. LOL. I hate them, too.

[Marthe48]

5. My husband started collecting baseball cards in 1990s

I spent some time sorting those and checking prices. Supposedly, I'm rich lolol

I think the 1991 Upper Deck cards have the most errors and error cards can be worth more. Rookie cards are worth more.

I used Google and typed in the brand name and card number. If the cards are worth a $1 or less, I'll sell a few together for cheap. If they are worth morth than $1, I'll either sell them individually or put them in a sleeve and put them away.

My husband bought an album of rookie cards in plastic sleeves. Lots of good ones in there. I don't mind the baseball cards too much. My husband watched a lot of sports and the cards bring back memories

Be sure to switch over to something you like to work on, so that you have some fun

[Vinca]

6. Do you need to send something you think might be good out to be graded? That seems to be really

important to baseball card collectors. I pretty much keep the stuff I like - art, art glass, pottery. The downside of being an antique dealer is you amass large piles of god-knows-what for future sales and then you make the mistake of retiring. LOL.

[Marthe48]

7. I'll let the kids deal with the good stuff

Condition is important for every item. The exception is great age or rarity. The lady who taught me abouting collecting said some people who were filling a collection would buy a damaged item as a shelf piece, and replace it if they found a better example. Mu husband and I collected for over 40 years. As I understood more, I preferred things made before 1920. He bought anything that might be a bargain, and the last 14 years, anything that he might sell on eBay. If we sold something on eBay, by golly, he'd pick up any more of those if he saw them! Our daughters packed our house when he was sick and moved everything back to this house. One of them wondered why we had so many brass apple shaped bells. And laughed hysterically. I knew lol

Anyway, doing the research fills the time, not only during Covid. If I find anything that might have value, I put a note with it. If I solve a mystery, like age or maker or use, I make a note and put it with the item. It doesn't solve all the problems of downsizing, but I hope my family does their best to get the best price they can for things. I haven't tried to have the baseball cards rated. The ones I'm selling are loose or common, so I don't think I'm cheating myself

I read a few books by George Grozt. He said the most successful antique dealers don't love antiques. I wonder if there really are people out there who see the antiques only as a commodity to be bought and sold? How could they? How could anyone!