Jerry,
I just finished looking at your website concerning your father’s stamp collection/accumulation. I am impressed with the amount of effort that you put into this project.
Superior Stamps and Collectibles of Beverly Hills would be happy to auction the entire holding for you. Basically, we charge a commission of 15%. If the hammer price is 1,000 you would receive $850.
In going through your web site, we find that the liklihood of this collection containing scarce or rare individual items is very small. In fact, we hope that you had a lot of pleasure in the time you spent cataloging and organizing the materrila, because the entire collection could probably have been evaluated by a professional in a couple of hours rather than the months of labor that you appear to have invested.
Much of the value is in the mint full sheets that you indicate that your mother had purchased, the plate blocks would also have value, athough it is likely that they would bring LESS than face value for the most part at auction. The used singles MAY contain better items, but the liklihood is very small. The 2c Washington that you believe to be the Type Ia with the Schermack perforations is almost certainly not, you are more likely to win the lottery than to find one of those, but we would be happy tocheck them out.
It is impossible to tell what you have in the Hungary area without seeing the material, but most Hungary other than a few varieties, mostly of the early issues, are very common. The demand for that area is quite small. Unfortunately, stamp collecting is an aging hobby, the average age of a stamp collector today is well over 60. Most collectors are looking to purchase the better stamps that they could not afford when they were younger, or to upgrade to better quality. There are relatively few beginners which is where much of your material would have sold 50 years ago.
If you would like to discuss the possible consignment of your stamps to our auction, please e-mail me or call (310)203-8766. You may also explore our web site http://www.regencystamps.com/ <http://www.regencystamps.com/> and view our upcoming auction for an idea of how collections such as yours are offered.
Good Luck.
Alan Lipkin
Sr. Vice President,
Superior Stamps and Collectibles