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Hi, My name is Kathy. And I friend told me about this forum. I just inherited my Mother in Law hobby of stamping. I am not a stamper or a card maker. She made the most beautiful cards. I am just overwhelmed with how many stamp (over 2000), embellishments, punches and everything else you can name she had. I think she started about 2005 with stampin up. They are neatly organized and not used or hardly used. I am just overwhelmed by all the stuff she had. It filled 4 normal closet and on walked in closet. I even found colored sand.
I was wondering if someone could give me direction on the best way of selling these stamps. There is no way I can keep this whole collection. Right now they are in my house and will stay there until I know what to do with them.
Hi Kathy and welcome from New Zealand! Wow - what a treasure trove you have inherited. My advice is not to do ANYTHING with the collection just yet. Wait until you feel less overwhelmed because you may be tempted to try some of the stamps yourself, just have a play. It is hard when someone close to you has been very good at something as you feel you will never match up but you never know. Give yourself a chance and permission to play. You may discover a whole new hobby.
Stephanie
__________________ To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. Joseph Chilton Pearce my gallery
First of all, I think you have to decide what your goal is. Do you want to get rid of it quickly so that you don't have to worry about it? Or are you viewing it as a "valuable collection" and looking to find out if some of the sets you have might be worth something?
The SU sets, if organized well, will probably have a plastic box that should be labelled by name. You could take the time to google the set names to find out if any sell at a premium, but with 2000 stamps, that could take a long time! Or, you could at least use these titles to make a list and start posting, either here or in your local buy/sell ads. Remember that if you post here, you'll likely have to deal with shipping costs and hassle. But, you also have a very large customer base. ;)
If most of it is Stampin' Up, I would suggest that you also look for a demonstrator near you who could at least give you some information on how old the stuff is, what might be valuable, etc. He/she might also be able to ask their existing customer base if there were things they were looking for or interested in. You can go to the stampin up website to find someone near you. Check out the demo websites and find someone who is pretty active in the business.
You did not go into detail as to why you inherited them but I would l first like to extend hugs and prayers to you and your family.
One of the original stamp companies was called PSX Exchange or just PSX. They have been out of business for some time and their stamps are very collectable and can get a pretty good chunk of change when sold, expecially the large botanicals among others, so I too recommend a bit of research.
I would then go thru and set aside any stamps that you know at first glance are not your style and would never use. You can then sell them or donate them. Donation possibilities off the top of my head are; senior centers, community centers, schools, churches or maybe even preschools for simpler kid themed ones. Same goes for other supplies that you know you will never use such as perhaps the sand. Worse case you change your mind & buy those supplies again later. For now though it may ease the guilt and stress you are feeling that you "have to do something with it all".
There is a lot of information here at SCS and on the internet, about stamps, inks, other various supplies and how they can be used if you decide to give rubber stamping, scrapbooking and/or paper crafting a try. They all lend themselves to different artistic and creative outlets such as various painting methods. They can as a result be a wonderful outlet for emotion and stress for those who love the be artistic without being a full on "I have to know how to draw" artist.
There are some very talented stampers here should you have more questions as you go thru all the supplies you have inherited or should you decide to give stamping a try yourself.
Hi Kathy, As with any overwhelming task, take it in small chunks. Start with a pile of 5 stamp sets. Do your research.
There are lots of ways to sell or donate them. There is a buy sell forum on Splitcoast, ebay, Etsy, garage sales, etc. I wish you luck and maybe you might want to give stamping a try. We all started somewhere so don't be intimidated if your Mother in law made beautiful cards, she started somewhere, too.
Once I get my 3 post I will post pictures. She does have psx. I remembering buying the last flower stamp to complete her set. She collected house mouse, penny black and I just found a box of stamps from the uk. I am thinking about keep some of them but I can't keep them all. It fills up a room. She keep them every organized. I can go to her computer and pull up the excel spreed sheet and able to find the stamp set. She just owes it all. The stamp pad that goes with the ribbon that goes with the paper and all the accessory that goes with it. She also it alot of iris folding and the 3-d paper layering. I have lots of that cut out.
Thank you so much for the advice. I know it will take time and it will take lots of research. I just didn't know where to begin. I think she belonged to this forum or came to the website because it was in her bookmark.
What name did she use here. She might have friends here that might be willing to help you out.
Post her name here. Give it a shot, you never know.
__________________ The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable. Practice safe eating always use condiments
I don't know a single person on this forum who would not be thrilled to go through this collection. Oh my.
Definitely do not sell older SU sets without researching their value. There are many rare older sets that are always in demand and would sell at a premium. I echo Heather/JadeOnline's post #3 for her advice on that.
My best places to sell stamps have been in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum here on SCS, and at local stamping/scrapbooking stores that have customer used supply sales. Some small stores will also take stamps on consignment.
You are so fortunate that she kept them all that well organized! Best wishes to you.
Maybe you can find a local Stampin' Up demonstrator who would come over and help you with all those sets in figuring out the names, years, looking at the Excel chart you mentioned, etc. I'm sure you could pay her with some stamps, and she'd probably get a kick of seeing all the older designs. If your MIL had an upline or team member that you have contact info for, they may be a good starting point.
Thanks your for all the great advice! I have contact her stampin up person but have not heard back. I live is Mississippi so come on down! LOL. I used to live in Michigan where there where tons of stamping/scrapbook stores. But we just got your Micheal's store about a year ago. And there is not other craft stores around here. I don't know where she got all the crafting supplies from the last 2 years. We moved her here from AZ.
New Year's Eve I go to investigate lot of the boxes. And there is way to much to keep. I don't think half the stuff I would use or how to use it. I am going to start with one back a week. And see how it goes. I know it going to take alot of research.
Thanks again for all the posting. Now I know where to start. I will start listing stuff on here soon. But if there is something you have been looking for and it was around 2006 to present message me. I will look to see if I have it.
One more way to find out what the sets & stamps are worth is Ebay. Do an "Advanced Search" of completed items. It will show you what the sets actually sold for, not just what someone listed them for. HOWEVER, it may only show 2014 information....bummer, if so.
You have a valuable treasure in that room. All the best!
overwhelmed with Stamps - new here
