Post by daveg28 on Aug 29, 2024 13:23:56 GMT
Last week, I was asked by a friend of mine if I'd be willing to look at a collection that a friend of his recently inherited. The fellow was looking for insight as to whether there was anything valuable. Of course, I was happy to oblige. Then my friend told me that his buddy was 70 years old, and the collection belong to his 98 year old mother who recently passed, and they had just cleaned out her house. This peaked my interest big time. A collection owned by a 98 year old must be full of goodies, right?
So I went with my friend to his friend's house. Most of the collection was spread out on the dining room table. Binder after binder, all U.S. material. There was another decent size box on the floor. I had dreams of Zeppelins, full sets of Columbians...you get the idea. I started looking through the binders. And I found...first day covers, no older than 1940. Commemorative pages. Souvenir covers. Plate blocks, starting with Prexies, and going into the 1990's. And lots of more recent mini-sheets purchased from the USPS website, and still in the packaging. The Prexies were the oldest things I found. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I was SURE there'd be some pre-1900 goodies in there somewhere. I think the most interesting thing I found was the plate blocks of the $1, $2, and $5 Prexie stamps (I'm pretty sure all of the set was represented in plate blocks). I told the fellow that those were probably the most interesting thing he had there. The airmail plate blocks were nice, too. But I had to tell him that he basically had a LOT of postage on his hands. Nothing extremely valuable. I recommended to him that he sit on it all until the local stamp club has their show in February, take it all there, and find a dealer who might buy it all from him. He thanked me for my time, and I went on home.
I thought that was the end of the story. Two days ago, my friend texted me, and told me that his friend wants to know if I was interest in taking the collection off his hands. I told him, thanks, but I wasn't really interested in buying any of it. My friend, says, you don't understand, he wants to GIVE it all to you. He doesn't want to haul it around anymore. Well now! I told him I'd be glad to take it off his hands. I'll keep some of it, and try to sell the rest, and I'll give the old fella part of whatever I might make from it. I'll keep those Prexie plate blocks, because I love that series. Might keep the airmail blocks, too. I'm sure I can find some other items I want to keep for my collection. Maybe I'll conduct a giveaway out of some of it. We'll see.
So, once again, I'll have a collection in my possession to unbox and sort through. Maybe I missed something the first time going through it. Who knows? Once I have it in my man cave and start digging into it, I'll post some pics and you all can follow along and see what I find. My wife is thrilled that I'm bringing it all home, too. "How much is there", she said? I explained to her how much, and she just went, "More stamps. Oh boy." lol Stay tuned!
So I went with my friend to his friend's house. Most of the collection was spread out on the dining room table. Binder after binder, all U.S. material. There was another decent size box on the floor. I had dreams of Zeppelins, full sets of Columbians...you get the idea. I started looking through the binders. And I found...first day covers, no older than 1940. Commemorative pages. Souvenir covers. Plate blocks, starting with Prexies, and going into the 1990's. And lots of more recent mini-sheets purchased from the USPS website, and still in the packaging. The Prexies were the oldest things I found. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I was SURE there'd be some pre-1900 goodies in there somewhere. I think the most interesting thing I found was the plate blocks of the $1, $2, and $5 Prexie stamps (I'm pretty sure all of the set was represented in plate blocks). I told the fellow that those were probably the most interesting thing he had there. The airmail plate blocks were nice, too. But I had to tell him that he basically had a LOT of postage on his hands. Nothing extremely valuable. I recommended to him that he sit on it all until the local stamp club has their show in February, take it all there, and find a dealer who might buy it all from him. He thanked me for my time, and I went on home.
I thought that was the end of the story. Two days ago, my friend texted me, and told me that his friend wants to know if I was interest in taking the collection off his hands. I told him, thanks, but I wasn't really interested in buying any of it. My friend, says, you don't understand, he wants to GIVE it all to you. He doesn't want to haul it around anymore. Well now! I told him I'd be glad to take it off his hands. I'll keep some of it, and try to sell the rest, and I'll give the old fella part of whatever I might make from it. I'll keep those Prexie plate blocks, because I love that series. Might keep the airmail blocks, too. I'm sure I can find some other items I want to keep for my collection. Maybe I'll conduct a giveaway out of some of it. We'll see.
So, once again, I'll have a collection in my possession to unbox and sort through. Maybe I missed something the first time going through it. Who knows? Once I have it in my man cave and start digging into it, I'll post some pics and you all can follow along and see what I find. My wife is thrilled that I'm bringing it all home, too. "How much is there", she said? I explained to her how much, and she just went, "More stamps. Oh boy." lol Stay tuned!
