Featured 1st Day of Issue From the '40's to the '60's?

Hi,
My husband's father had a friend who was into doing 1st day of Issue Envelopes and postcards and we really don't know much more about it than that!!! Before the neighbor died, he gave my husband about 140 envelopes and cards, but, as I said, we don't know anything about them.....have attached 4 photos.....hope they're clear enough to see what's on them, so maybe someone can give us an idea as to what we've got! THANKS in advance for ANY AND ALL HELP!!!!!!!

I can do smaller pics if need be......just thought I'd get a general bunch out there......obviously it's not all........most of the others have stamps, but are pretty plain......and I'm sorry........they did not look that blurry while editing!

 

WOW! All nice and you can look them up by subject and date.
~
I have all my Dad's FDCs but I haven't had them out in a long time.
Lots of stamp binders too,
Some of those stamps are the ones 'I' bought for him either in Gimbel's or Macy's in NYC when I was little.
Stamp collecting was so hot then that they were actually displayed on the main floor as you entered.

 

Is there a website, or is it just the 'biblical' method......seek and ye shall find????

 

Never mind, and thanks King, did some Googling!!!!

 

There must be but I don't know so yes, that would be the method I would use until I land on the good one...
Haven't I seen a stamp site in our upper banner???

 

Do the addresses on the envelopes hurt value??

And I also tend to automatically ignore advertising in banners......it's nice to be able to just tune some things out so, no, I haven't seen any, but will now probably look!

 

Probably.
Cancelled stamps as well.
~
I'm pretty sure all my Dad's are pristine.

 

I don't know much about it, but sometimes designers can can make a difference as well.as well. For instance, some collectors look for a Grimsland signature in the illustration.

 

These count as modern FDCs and are not in much demand because the supply is quite large. The earlier ones will tend to do better, of course, but usually only very unusual ones do well, such as covers for early air mail routes in the teens and twenties, early rocket mail experiments, etc. The good thing is that they are not late 20th C. which are often pretty but really unwanted.
The stamps forum will have more relevant advice.

http://www.stampexchange.com/

 

The pictures on the envelopes are called Cachets. Which cachet you have can make a difference in value. Also subject matter counts.
Google "first day covers with cachet" . that should narrow things down for you.

 

ON First day covers. you want the First day Cancellation. I don't think the address hurts them a lot. That's how they were obtained . You would write to the PO where the FDC ceremony was taking place and request one.
Also if I remember correctly. Blocks of 4 stamps are more desireable then singles.

 

Here is a site with some interesting starter information


http://www.afdcs.org/fdccourse.html

 

'Plate blocks' would be best. They are the group of 4 stamps that has the sheet number.
Those are what my Dad bought the most of I think.
I have many of my own.

 

Hi KoT,
DO NOT remind me of plate blocks!!! I had an old friend who wanted to get rid of her husbands stamp collection. He had plate blocks of 4 for many many years. I told her that I would sell them for her. She was so happy and gave me a huge box of the stamps. I almost had a stroke since every plate block had a stamp missing!!! I asked her what happened to them. She said she told her friend that I was going to sell them for her and the friend asked if she could have one stamp of each set to give to her grandkids. Neither woman knew anything about stamps. These were from the 1920s and early 30s.
greg

 

OMG!!!
I guess since they didn't know they were blockheads they wouldn't know what a block of anything was.

 

THANK YOU EACH AND ALL for the terrific tips and ideas......at least now I can start to see if there even might be ANYTHING there!!!! HA!!!!! They're Husb's!!!! Should make HIM go through them...........like I don't have enough to do

 

Hello Aquitaine,

Those are some nice First Day Covers.
Some have travelled some havent.
The person who collected themobviously had several themes in mind and I think you should sort them with that crirteria in mind.
From what I see some themes were:
- aircraft
- famous americans
- royalty

The collection covers period from 50s .
There are many people who collect FDCs and they usually have big problem with storage space.
I collect stamps and not fdcs and I still have around 250 FDCS that I bought because I liked stamps and especially cancells.

 

We got rid of a lot of stamps after my dad died. The market died first.(sigh) Stuff from the 80s is pretty well worth face value, so one guess what we've been doing with those plate blocks....(sigh^2) I did just get myself a fancy cancellation SASE, but it's from McMurdo Sound. Antarctica. Sent them a hand made card and got the SASE mailed back; I wanted to say I'd mailed something to all seven continents.

 

Nice!

 

My dad also collected stamps his whole life. One day I finally asked him why he decided to collect stamps as opposed to anything else and he told me the President (at that time in his life) collected stamps so he was inspired to do the same thing.