@reallynicestamps wrote:
He told me generally what the PO does with unsold stamps is they are cancelled then sold to dealers.
That right there tells me, having dealt with stamp dealing for over 50 years, that your postal worker has no idea what he is talking about.
For one thing, there is almost no market for used/cancelled modern stamps.
For another, dealers buy very small amounts of modern stamps because they are easy for customers to buy themselves.
But he is right about the 'tagging' on the stamps. Dealers sell UV lamps, both longwave and shortwave, for the use of collectors. The tagging can mean very different values on otherwise identical stamps. They can also be used on counterfeit money. We used to sell a few every year to the RCMP for that purpose.
However it is not difficult to buy UV inks to add to the stamps.
And he is right about the Postal Inspectors.
Hey, well what do I know... I'm just the messenger LOL.
I don't use Stamps albeit when I was a kidlette I collected them, mainly US commemoratives. Loved looking at the detail of the mono colored ones, just amazing detail! My father collected too, he did global but focused more on British Colonial's and such. I remember him being part of an approval service and I'd be so excited when the latest batch would come! We'd all the Scott Catalog's and such back in the day.
Interesting side note which is like "Dang!"
My ex lady politician at one point early in her days of that was given a political appointment at a horse racing track as the regulator. The Steward of the track was a gentleman named O'dea and he was a Veterinarian as well. Now his family go back a long long long ways, he was actually the Vet to the Queen's horses and also an Olympic Vet, in fact, wrote a book about that as well as some local history books.
They were VERY close friends he and my ex and he's a place called "Rothcommon Farm" as I recall. Now I'd never been to the place but once upon time thoroughbreds and more. He'd taught my ex so well she could basically tell you which horse likely to win any race simply by looking at a brief history and watching the horse before a race. Astonished me, but like 85% of the time she pick the winner, couldn't gamble nor could I rules of the road so to speak.
All that aside years and years later when he'd become ill he called upon her to help organize his legacy of a lifetime of veterinary work, documents and more. Like I said, I'd never been to the place but she told me of things he'd had like a Victorian oaken table seat 12 people, w/ matching chairs given him by the Queen of England, expensive paintings etc. With me LOL?
So she tells me in his bookcase he's all these stamp albums spanning back literally generation after generation after generation passed along in the family right back to European colonialism. I was like OH MY GOSH! So she asked look at them and told me lions share never been cancelled, she took photo's of a few album pages. The albums themselves well, they don't make that anymore, just basically pages with squares upon them, no pictures of actual stamps. I was like WOW! Of course for the most part except for loose one's stuck between pages they were all glued to the pages, clearly existences of the albums long before the concept of stamp hinges or shadow box ones. She took a photo of the bureau where they were and I dont know, maybe 30 albums? I was floored!
He was in a very bad way and most her time was spent going through boxes and boxes and boxes in his onsite old veterinary office and the barn. She setting aside things of relevance, sorting them, the mans quite notable life's legacy to be donated to museums.
I'd told her if he'd like I'd happily take the stamp collection and make sure it's properly preserved, I'd certainly not sell it per se for personal profit but instead make sure it preserved and go to someplace where it could be appreciated by the public. Long story short he passed and when she went back all the stamp albums were gone short of one whomever the thieves were (she suspected the maid, perhaps groundskeeper, someone?) neglected one, its all French Colonial. I have it here someplace.
His lawyer a real piece of work alleged friend apparently had him sign off on ownership of things vs public auction or anything of the sort. Oh my ex got into with him! OH MY GOSH! I mean there were individual paintings she told me that were gifts from notable leaders Morocco etc that were worth thousands atop thousands... She told me the table alone which was handed down through British Royalty and ultimately gifted to him at the Queens Vet was worth at least $20,000/$30,000 if not more. They were prize possessions of a lifetime.
In the barn he'd cases and cases and cases of the books he'd written all brand new, he paid have them published. She went to the farm and they literally dumpstered the man's life. All the work she'd done over weeks and weeks and weeks of time they tossed, all those books, tossed. Oh she raged but nothing she could do, was all in his "Friend" the lawyers hands. How sad is that? How very very very sad is that...
No kiddin... Not a my listing mind you but here, https://www.ebay.com/itm/195598953331
