Clean or not to clean???

michael j park

I have just acquired a Poland collection from SG 1 to early 1960's.Many of the more modern are unhinged mint but some have toning around the edges.(even in a hingeless album).Am I better to sell as is or clean them up & sell as no gum,obviously at much reduced prices.Thanks in advance.

Michael Generali

The toning is caused by the acid in the gum and paper. Merely soaking the gum off will not remove the damage to the paper caused by the acid. Personally, if I were looking to buy a collection, and saw that the stamps had toning, I would not buy it. If I were selling such a collection, I would remove all the damaged and toned stamps (also considered to be damage) from the album. If there were enough stamps remaining, then I would sell the album. If not, or if the pages were also toned from the acid in the stamps, I would remove the good stamps, and sell them individually. The rest I would throw away.

michael j park

I usually whiten the stamp by very careful bleaching but that is for my collection mainly,I collect nothing beyond 1936.I do this also for fairly expensive sets which would sell for $30-40 but a collector will pay $5-6 with no gum.I cater for the small collectors who do not have deep pockets & there are lots of them.I would only discard if it was really bad,bleach can do wondrous things especially if you forget & remember 2 or 3 hours later & end up with a nice perforated piece of white paper