Chapter 27
Worksheet for Stamp Collectors

If you are currently a stamp collector, please read this chapter.

You are a stamp collector, and you love collecting stamps. Stamp collecting is a great hobby, and I know you are having a lot of fun with it.

One day, whether you want to admit it, your stamp collection will be passed to another person or persons. In many cases, these people will be your children or grandchildren, but maybe not. Somebody is eventually going to inherit your stamp collection, though. And there is a real possibility that this person doesn’t have any idea what he or she is inheriting.

You can make their lives a whole lot simpler if you will answer the questions which are listed below. I hope you take the time to do this and act on what you learn from thinking about these questions.

1. Do you have a will?

2. If so, where is it?

3. What was the approximate date it was prepared?

4. What was the name of the lawyer who prepared it?

5. Who witnessed it?

6. Who is designated to inherit your collection? (Or, does it just go with the other assets in the estate?)

7. Does the answer to question 6 still reflect your desires?

8. In what way(s) would you like to see your collection handled? (e.g., retained as a collection, sold at auction, etc.)

9. What is the approximate value of your stamp collection?

10. How did you arrive at that value?

11. Is this a catalog value? Which catalog? What year?

12. Have you ever had the collection appraised? If so, by whom, when and with what result?

13. Is there a record of the appraisal? Where is it located?

14. Is the collection insured? If so, for how much? What insurance company? How was the amount of the insurance determined?

15. Are you a member of APS or ATA? If so, what is your membership number? Have you labeled your albums with the estate-advisory-service stickers?

16. Do you have any stamps in a safety deposit box? If so, please list the Scott numbers and condition. Or, is there a list of them somewhere? Where?

17. Please list each album set you own.

18. If you have a world-wide collection, what are your strongest countries?

19. Do you regularly buy very expensive single stamps from dealers or at auction? Is there a list of them somewhere? Where?

20. What are the most valuable stamps you own? Where are they?

21. Are the high-value stamps you have in an album flagged in some way to identify them as high value? If so, how?

22. Do you have a stamp dealer you buy most of your stamps from? If so, who? How familiar is he/she with your collection?

23. Do you have any special collections that might be missed: EFOs, proofs, essays, trials, specimens, that sort of thing?

24. If you inherited stamps from someone, who? What did you inherit? When did this person collect stamps? Did this collection become part of your collection?

25. How would you rate the stamps in your collection? All high quality? Mixed quality?

26. If you have a world-wide collection, is it in A-Z order, or is it in order by date range, then country?

27. Are your USA stamps in the world-wide albums, or are they in an album by themselves?

28. If you were selling the collection yourself, how would you do it?

29. Do you have one or more friends who know your collection and can serve as an advisor to those who will inherit it?

30. Do you have any suggestions you would like to make to your eventual heirs?

You may want to give a personal tour of your collection to potential heirs. Show them what’s what. Talk to them about the collection, and tell them how many years of pleasure it’s given you. They might even want to continue your collection!