Hoarder's Stamp Collection Worth a Fortune

Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter, for U.K's Telegraph reports, "Sir Humphrey Cripps was one of life’s hoarders. When he died in 2000, his sons found an old shoebox in the back of his wardrobe containing thousands of train tickets – one for every rail journey he had ever made."

They also found his stamp collection which is expected to fetch £20 million when it goes under the auction hammer next week.

According to Gordon, "Sir Humphrey’s family have now decided to put all 80 of his stamp albums up for auction, in a sale that is expected to fetch £20 million, making it the most valuable stamp collection to go under the hammer. The sheer number of rare stamps inherited by Sir Humphrey’s family has forced the auctioneers, Spink’s of London, to spread the collection over nine separate auctions over the course of 18 months to avoid flooding the market."

Gordon says Sir Humphrey, the former chairman of Velcro ( the nylon fastenings maker) became interested in the hobby and started his collection after his son inherited a stamp album from an uncle in the 1950s.

Olivier Stocker, the chairman of Spink’s, is quoted as saying the collection was “one of the biggest ‘wow’ moments he has ever experienced.

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