Identifying stamps-Resources

For beginners there are lots of the little handbooks like rod222 posted for sale on eBay. Search for ‘stamp finder’. I have had one for decades that I still use for quick searches.

I would also recommend these

1. To identify country
iswsc.org/iswsc_identifier.html

2 To identify by catalog, use Colnect
colnect.com/en/stamps/countries

Printed general catalogs rarely have enough images to help a beginner.

I remember your described situation well. When I returned to collecting after a long hiatus, I had previously only collected US/UN and only had a dated general US catalogue. I had inherited many boxes of WW, some in albums, most  in envelopes, (some labeled , most not).

The online resources helped, but I needed some idea where to look, so the search was often frustrating. My plan was to sort out the "foreign" stamps, liquidate them all, and focus on US, so i wasn't all that excited about the cost of buying a set of WW catalogues.

One online forum administrator  was simply rude after my second post.... I was asking too many novice questions....

I found TSF and folks here were much kinder and patient, however in a short time, one too many "what country is this" post resulted in a response as to wether I even owned a catalogue... I borrowed some from the local library, but that proved impractical, so I found an older digitized catalogue on e-bay (which I found out later was likely an illegally made version...)

Long story shortened- as I had very very few WW stamps newer than 2000, I discovered that older catalogues could be purchased for 'cheap',  often the shipping was more than the catalogue.

now I have almost a full bookcase of catalogues and references, and  a few I've now spent what initially would have been an inconceivable amount. In retrospect, it was money well spent.

Buying stamps is admittedly much more fun, but catalogues/references have tremendous value.

At the very least get the Stamp Identifier app for Colnect.

It appears these large totes were full of various collections that someone had hoarded from different people. Some were crammed into envelopes with the old hinges still on them so Ive spent hours so far just seperating and removing the hinges from them very carefully. Tedious process

Quote:

how do remove the stamps from these plastic sleeves? I understand they were stuck to postcards and things originally describing them.
I have lots of them. DO I just use a razorblade to cut one end open and slide them out?


These are old fashioned stamp mounts from Stamp Albums.
They are a pain to process.
Some come to pieces readily,  others, cut and remove, but be careful !
The plastic can be difficult to cut accurately.
I employ a scalpel.

A catalog is a much better resource for identifying stamps, but unless you are dealing with current issues, an older used catalog can be purchased for a lot less and will allow you to identify them stamps. The valuation will not be current, but most catalog values are quite a lot higher than true market value. So look on ebay under Stamps - Publications and see what you can find at a reasonable price.

I stopped buying the Scott Catalog when they took British Colonies out of one single catalog and put them in six. I still use my 1993 version to identify them. It works fine since I don't collect newer stamps. However, since I am a part time dealer, I also started purchasing the Stanley Gibbons Catalogues so I could stay current with things.

For any of you who collect the stamps of British Colonies we have daily articles and posts regarding only this topic in the Facebook Group - British Colonies Stamp Collectors Group.

Currently there are over 5,300 members who range from novices to experts. We offer a positive environment as well as some useful information. Please feel free to join if you have a Facebook profile.
I created a stamp only profile for this purpose, which is a good way to keep your hobby and other information separated.