Free Valuations at Shropshire's Annual Stamp and Postcard Fair

Anyone with an old album in the loft has an open invitation to Shrewsbury next month. The Shropshire Philatelic Society holds its annual Stamp and Postcard Fair on Saturday 3 October 2026 at Halls Auction Centre, Bowmen Way, Battlefield, Shrewsbury, SY4 3DR.

The doors open at 10am and the fair runs until 4pm, with twelve dealers in attendance and free valuations available throughout the day from Halls valuation specialist Andy Neal.

The society has built the event into one of the larger fixtures of its kind in the region. Last year's fair was among its most successful, drawing established collectors of stamps, postal history and postcards from across the Midlands and further afield, along with a steady number of visitors who had never collected anything and simply wanted to see what the hobby involves.

The albums nobody has opened for thirty years

The society is making a particular point this year of encouraging people to bring in collections they have inherited rather than assembled. Society president Nick Webb put the case plainly.

"We know there are plenty of attics and cupboards out there containing stamp collections which may include valuable items," he said. "Often, these albums are handed down from generation to generation, but it's easy to forget about them over time.

"Not only could finding them out and bringing them to the Fair prove useful for their owners, but it also means we may uncover rare or unusual stamps which have unknowingly been hidden away for many years, or even decades."

That is a fair description of how a good deal of material reaches the market. Collections formed in the 1930s, 1950s or 1960s tend to pass to a son or daughter who has no particular interest in stamps, get put somewhere safe, and stay there. The owner often has no idea whether the albums are worth twenty pounds or several thousand, and no obvious way of finding out without asking someone who handles the material regularly.

A free valuation at a fair is a sensible first step in that situation. It will not produce a written inventory, and nobody should expect a specialist to lot up six albums over a cup of tea, but it will establish whether there is anything of consequence present and what the sensible next move is. Andy Neal, who has run stamp valuation days at Halls for several years, has consistently given the same advice to people in this position: if you have inherited a collection you know nothing about, get professional advice before you do anything else with it.

Two pieces of that advice are worth repeating, because both concern damage that cannot be undone. The first is to leave stamps on their envelopes. Soaking a stamp off a cover to tidy it into an album can destroy the postal history that gave the item most of its value, and a common stamp on an uncommon cover is worth considerably more than the same stamp on its own. The second concerns storage. Damp lofts, hot airing cupboards and self-adhesive photograph albums all do lasting harm, and condition is the single factor that most consistently separates a collection that sells well from one that does not.

Twelve dealers and a wide field

For visitors who already collect, the attraction is the dealer floor. Previous fairs have offered material from across the world alongside thematic stock covering subjects such as trains, wildlife, royalty and space, plus postcards and postal stationery for those whose interests run alongside stamps rather than through them.

The thematic side is also how the society pitches the hobby to newcomers. As Nick Webb put it, "The day is also the ideal opportunity for those considering stamp collecting as a hobby to come along and find out more. The great thing about stamps is that you can build a collection based around almost any theme you can think of, so people already interested in anything from art to astronomy, or science to sports, can build albums based on their existing passions."

It is a reasonable argument. Thematic collecting removes the need to chase a complete country run at considerable expense and lets someone assemble something coherent from inexpensive material, which is a more forgiving introduction than trying to fill the gaps in a Great Britain album from the outset.

A society approaching its eightieth year

The Shropshire Philatelic Society was founded in 1947 and will mark its eightieth anniversary next year. It meets twice a month at Bayston Hill Memorial Hall, on the second and fourth Wednesday from September through to May, usually at 7.30pm, with afternoon meetings in the depths of winter. The programme mixes external speakers, an annual competition and displays of members' own material, which takes in postcards and postal stationery as well as stamps.

Societies of this kind remain one of the more reliable ways into philately. Access to members who have specialised in a particular country or period for decades is difficult to replicate from books or online listings alone, and most local societies welcome visitors without any expectation that they join.

Further information about the fair or the society is available on the Shropshire Philatelic Society's Facebook page, or from Nick Webb on 07780 996241.

Considering what to do with a collection?

Events like the Shrewsbury fair are useful for establishing whether a collection holds anything of interest. Deciding what to do next is a separate question, and the answer depends on what the material turns out to be. A collection with genuine rarities, strong postal history or good early Great Britain and Commonwealth generally does best when it is catalogued properly and offered to a specialist buying audience. A more modest general accumulation may be better sold outright.

At Tony Lester Auctions we have been finding homes for collections since 1980, and we offer free stamp valuation and stamp appraisal advice to collectors, families and executors anywhere in the UK, with no obligation and no charge. When we value a collection we will usually give two figures, an auction estimate for sale through one of our stamp auctions and an offer to purchase the collection outright, so that you can weigh up both routes before deciding. We can travel to view suitable collections, and a valuation can usually be arranged within days.

We hold three online auctions a year through Easy Live Auction, each of roughly 700 to 900 lots with estimates from £10 upwards, covering all areas of the world with a consistently strong Great Britain section. Our previous realisations show what comparable material has achieved, our general auction information sets out how consignment and settlement work, and online bidding is open to buyers anywhere. If you are weighing up whether to sell a stamp collection, our frequently asked questions cover most of what people want to know before they sell stamps for the first time.

Buyers can browse the stamps for sale at auction in our current catalogue. As long established stamp dealers and stamp buyers and members of the Philatelic Traders Society, we are happy to advise in confidence, whatever the size of the collection. More stories from the world of collecting appear on our philately news pages, or you can contact us on 01926 634809 to arrange a valuation.