Collection

Jim Mitchell

My wife and I inherited a large collection of first day covers ranging from American Bicentennial collection to U.S. First day covers. All are albumed and in excellent condition. All contain cachets but are printed with the original buyers name and address on the envelopes. How and where could I get a genuine appraisal.

Michael Generali

First Day Covers from the year 1950 to date that are addressed generally sell for little. Collectors prefer, and the catalogues value, first day covers that are unaddressed. Covers the type that you have are generally found in dealers bulk boxes for 50 cents or less. Unaddressed first day covers generally sell for $1.00 or less.

Wayne Camolli

I disagree, not with Michael, but with the catalogues and collectors who prefer pristine covers. There is some sort of magic in looking at an FDC that has actually traveled through the postal service network from the first day city to Anytow, Anystate into the hands of the collector who may well have prepared it and sent if off with hope and faith. Even the addressograph addressed FDCs of the 30's and 40's still have the magic. Collectors' obsession with pristine perfection (even in stamps) takes a lot of the magic (and perhaps joy) out of collecting. Intrinsic value has been replaced by the dollar.

Ted Tyszka

I agree, Wayne. Collectors are fickle. They don't like CTO stamps that were mass cancelled and sold directly to the collector market. But they love blank FDCs that were mass cancelled and sold directly to the collector market.

Michael Almond

I agree with Ted and Wayne, some of my more interesting FDC research comes from covers that have hand written address to interesting people / places or cachets that have unique subjects. That is not to say there is any dollar value difference in the addressed or un-addressed cover, most common covers are sold for less than a dollar regardless, but the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There are as many different ways to collect as the imagination will allow and hopefully this will always be the true value to collecting!