Back in the 1960's most kids had a stamp, coin and rock collection, we even had shops that supplied them and the items that went with collecting them. Adults also collected them and had fairly good collections. What happened, is this now all worthless stuff from the past?
As with many collectibles the high-end stuff is still pricey but the standard stamp collection that everybody had is pretty much worthless nowadays. All the older guys in my family were stamp collectors. My grandfather always said that looking at the stamps in his collection (he had a big collection from all over the world) for him was like travelling in those countries. My other grandfather sold some stamps in the sixties, which were sought after back in the day, and nearly got a new car for the money. Today if you get 500 bucks for the same stamps you can be considered lucky. I have inherited all the family collections and it's a lot of stamps but although I hardly ever look at them I will never sell them. It's part of my family's heritage.
For some reason or another, I started collecting old U.S. coins from 1971 and older.... the oldest I have is a 1945 quarter..... A 1950 20 dollar bill and 1969 50 dollar bill.... I also have a few silver certificate 1 dollar bills....
Firearms have held their own and appreciated, "collector" coins not so much. The silver and gold in common date coins has done OK. I wouldn't mind those astronaut-autographed Apollo 1st day covers or maybe flown covers, that kind of thing.
My father in law’s stamps are in our basement, six large plastic bins filled to the brim. He collected for 50+ years so there could be some valuable stuff in there but how the heck do you find it with that kind of volume?
The way I'm looking at the stamps, a bought collection of 6 boxes and the collection my Aunt had, if they are worth a buck a piece plus the cost of the envelope to mail it, plus the new stamp, at $2.00 each there isn't a reason to put in the effort to sell them, since nobody will pay that for one.
free to the first guy to send me a dollar to cover the envelope & stamp to mail them to you. 12-21-21 they are on their way to CT.
They are very collectible and keep going up in value. Get them appraised by someone that specializes in firearms, you will be surprised. Ask for an insurance value and get them insured. If the appraiser offers to buy them get another appraiser. If you want to do it yourself. Get the latest edition of Blue Book of Gun Values by S.P. Fjestad. It’s expensive but worth every penny.
That is the sad truth, some parents or 30 somethings are clueless on how to use packing tape, but have no problem clogging the line getting Passports.
I have a a stamp collection as well as a coin collection my Grandfather passed down to me many years ago. Some first edition stamps and a coffee can of old silver nickels. Some foreign bills from his travels in WW2 as well.
Those silver nickels are pretty cool. Made during the war to conserve nickel. I don’t know the value but they are fairly rare. They had a larger than normal mint mark in the back so the govt. could easily pull them out of circulation when the war ended. I don’t know if they did or not because the silver content was only about 35%.
Like anything, value is in the eye of the collector. How many of us have a huge collection of car related stuff. To us it's all priceless, to the average person, not so much. If you have a collection appraised, do you have it appraised for insurance purposes, or for selling? Those will be significantly different evaluations. And don't be in a hurry to move something, because you need to find an interested buyer. Use a broker, plan on getting 1/2 or less, of an appraised value, as they are in the game to turn a profit. So for me, I collect stuff that interests me or reminds me of something. If I move something on, yes I'd like to think it will be profitable, but I don't go in thinking that I might make a killing on it.
I started saving wheat leaf pennies, Mercury dimes, and buffalo nickels when I was in high school. Back then (1970's) you still ran across them in change. Also had a few $2 bills, uncirculated. Sadly, the oldest boy we raised found them and stole almost all of them. I still look at my change, but it's been a long time since I found any old coins.
My dad found all my coin collections when I was in the navy an sold them all. I was not very happy to put it mildly
It's not dead for sure, just like baseball cards. Now are younger generations into it? No, definitely not. However, I've seen stranger things come full circle so who knows! Who ever thought stompers would be worth anything. I just sold an old stomper toy truck for $150! Crazy...
I suppose like anything else, there are some small subsets of the collecting world that are profitable, but the average guy isn't part of that spectrum, doing it for fun or a hobby. Might accidentally get lucky, but rarely. On stamps, I find them interesting, but just how many hobbies can a guy have, even if $$ wasn't a consideration? A good friend of my mom, both passed now, collected stamps from everywhere, w/a focus on non-cancelled stamps from the u.s. post office. After ~ 30+ yrs, he & his wife had the stamps appraised. Found out they were actually worth the amount printed on the stamp. So he decided to use them as normal postage, esp for christmas & birthday cards. The recipients got some really cool stamps, but not worth anything. My folks got each of us children a couple of sheets of some commemorative stamps, but they too are worth what the postage-mark on them is. Govt & USPO/USPS past commentaries/advertisements non-withstanding. . The only still-useable-uncancelled stamps I'm interested in are the older ones w/the proper cent-mark & dollar-sign on them. One of the dollar-sign stamp is called the Red Fox stamp. Afaik, these are out of production, or I'm looking in the wrong place. These won't be used for mailing purposes. Marcus...
I have a small treasure chest filled with foreign coins and a coffee can stuffed with foreign paper money. Most of this was left over money and change when we left a country while serving in the Navy. A few other coins were gifted to me over the years, the oldest is about two thousand years old (Roman) and probably worth about $30, as they have found thousands of these. Of considerable more value is an 8 reale silver coin from the 1500s, at $800-$1000. I don't consider myself a coin collector by any stretch of the imagination and most is worth less than face value due to inflation...
Correction; just looked up the current value of similar 8 reale coins in similar condition and they are fetching $1500-$2000...
In a way, it's too bad coins & other inanimate objects can't talk. The history lesson(s) would be fascinating. Marcus...
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