Technical article

Stamps: A Thin Market and a Long Wait

A rushed sale usually brings much less than the collection could.

By Neil Solomon · 3 min read

Imagine a family opening a father's stamp album after the funeral. The pages are neat, the stamps are hinged, and every one has a small pencilled number. The question is a fair one: is it worth anything?

What the sources say

A national stamp federation in New Zealand gives the plainest advice among the sources. Dealers normally buy for a percentage of catalog price. Auction commission can be as high as 25%. The federation advises taking at least two offers on an inherited collection. Do not remove stamps from their covers before a valuation. Many old stamps were printed in large numbers, so a collection may be worth little, and lower-value material suits a sale through a stamp club or a donation.

The catalog is the starting point, not the price. An Australian dealer writes that stamps sell below, at or above catalog value. A tier U summary says dealers are likely to offer at least a third below normal retail price.

How low can it go

Two writers give figures, and both are tier U. A US stamp dealer writes about a collection of used US cut squares, where one dealer valued it at about 10% of catalog and another would not look at it. Books on stamps drew no dealer interest at all. A second philatelic writer, with 50 years in the trade, says most stamps can be bought for 20% or less of catalog value.

Rare stamps are a different story. Stanley Gibbons has said rare stamps averaged about 10% a year over 50 years, but that figure was backtested and uses its own retail prices. No independent long-term index exists. The market is small and hard to measure. One estimate puts it at GBP 5 billion, and a 2007 statement put rare stamps at about US$1 billion a year within a US$10 billion market.

Time and urgency

The same US dealer says his first question is how urgently the estate must be sold. A rushed sale usually brings much less than the collection could. Selling to a dealer is quick. Selling by auction takes months, and the buyer's premium comes off what bidders offer.

Estates and tax

For a US federal estate, any item or collection worth more than US$3,000 needs a sworn appraisal by an expert, and the return asks about stamp collections by name. The federal exclusion is US$15 million per person in 2026. For an heir, the value at death is usually the starting figure for a later sale. In Canada, stamps are listed personal property for tax.

You might say: "If most albums are worth little, why look?" Because a valuable stamp does not look different from a common one on the page. The federation lists stamp clubs among the places that can advise, and asking for a look does not commit anyone to sell.

You could leave the stamps on their covers, write down what is there, and ask two dealers or a club for a first look.

One account in a collectors' forum tells of an aunt and a grandmother who sold an uncle's stamps fast, for close to face value, without asking him. Is there something in your family that was sold before anyone asked? Share it here. Someone may be glad to ask first.

Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: October 2026.