Has Anyone Here Bought Whole Collections?

[Phil]

So the other day me and the wife were at a place that handles estate sales. And as I usually do I inquired if the owner ever came across stamp collections.
Now, every other time I've ever asked the answer has always been no. But this particular time the owner responded "Are you a collector?"

 When I told her I was, she proceeded to tell me that she gets asked quite frequently about a collection that someone has to sell and she had no idea about stamps or their value. Not surprising since Philately really isn't that popular in this area. I gave her my name and number and she said she would send any would-be sellers my way.

 At first I was thinking "All Right!!!". But now that I've thought about it a bit, I really have no clue as to how I could even begin to value what a given collection would be worth.
Chances are, 99% of any "collection" would be hardly more than the results of a kids brief hobby but I was wondering if anyone here had experience with purchasing whole collections? 
Are there any hard and fast rules of thumb to remember when appraising a collection? Especially one with thousands of common stamps that aren't of any great worth? (kinda like my own personal collection?)

[coastwatcher]

Phil , I’ve never bought a collection from an estate, only picked over ones from auctions. However, I ran across this video awhile back that is on the Conversations With Philatelists YouTube channel and is entitled How to Assess and Break Down a Stamp Collection. It is presented by Michael Cortese of NobleSpirit and Charles Epting of H.R. Harmer, two guys definitely familiar with assessing collections. With the explosion of stamp related content on YouTube since COVID-19 began, there may be others on this subject as well. I hope this helps. 

[Cephus]

If I remember right, that video has them flipping through 50 boxes of albums as fast as they can and agreeing which of them get it to dispose of. There isn't much useful information in it, they're looking for very specific expensive stamps and anything that doesn't qualify, it gets dumped on eBay.

[sforgca]

I bought them MANY years ago. by going to general auctions and knowing personally a few brick & mortar stamp dealers. A lot of people who lived in the 1900-50 period collected stamps and those collections have gone to market or estate sales.
Today in any auction/sale by a dealer or auction house you can bet on the good ones being stripped out. 1 rare one might be worth more than the rest and the seller would not get its value mixed in with the others.
A good relationship in person with a dealer who appreciates that the Scott catalog is NOT necessarily what the stamps are really worth.  is very helpful
Or you might try the "Paper Moon" movie scam approach - maybe not

[Phil]

Cephus , no, I don't this is what you're thinking of. This is 2 guys going through an album of classic US. There is some good advice but it is a very broad overview of some pretty high-end stamps. It seems directed more at people with expensive collections that are looking to sell. IF I come across something like what they're previewing it would be WAAAY more than I could afford. And I would let them know that.

I honestly don't expect to see anything of this category. If someone has these stamps I doubt they'd be calling a Flea Market to sell them.
What I'm probably going to see is the guy who got his grandfather's or uncle's old Scott International album that's been sitting on a shelf for 60 years with some nice material but little of high catalog value.
How do I determine what would be a fair price to offer? (Fairer than what I've seen at some stamp shoes at least!)
How do I tell them it's not worth anything?

sforgca, I had a similar conversation a while back with another Estate Sale Dealer. She admitted that usually if there's anything that's of value in an estate the family almost always scarfs it up and it never makes it to sale.

[Cephus]

Maybe not, I didn't watch the video, I just remember watching one a while back where they were going through 50 boxes of albums, really not showing anyone what they were doing (there were plenty of complaints in the comments) and just shuffling albums between the two of them.

[angore]

Purchasing a collection for resell is different than purchasing a collection for your own collection. They want the best stuff and unload the rest.

[Phil]

Jan 18, 2022 6:37:53 GMT -5 angore said:

Purchasing a collection for resell is different than purchasing a collection for your own collection. They want the best stuff and unload the rest.

Very true. 
And, I guess it would be for my own collecting wants. So that to that the easy answer is "How much is it worth to me?".
But knowing me I will over pay in that regard. 

But there's always that little notion tucked away that I can make a buck or two. I actually have a little thing worked out with a couple flea markets selling a few things but that has been a bit disappointing to say the least.  

[coastwatcher]

Phil, We all pretty well know what collections are worth that are put together by casual collectors. I would make a reasonable offer, but I wouldn’t go overboard. Later, if you run across a valuable gem in the collection, such as a US Scott #613, you can always give the estate some more money.