1st day issue stamps

Find someone who knows something about them . If they are US and have special first issue datestamps of a specific stamp (or a specific date for a historic event) they have several classes of collectors, and often stamp collectors are NOT the target client, but someone who collects memoribilia of historic events.

I do antique picking but I stay away from stamps cause its so specialized to a group of collectors and appraisers.

philatelic forensics forfends spitting on the wrong side of commemorative issues

My mom was a stamp/coin dealer for many years. I know a enough about FDC's to be dangerous. They might fetch you 15 cents a piece. Maybe. That is about it.
Stamp collecting is a dying hobby. Kids are not interested. I learned a lot about history and geography from collecting.
If you have shoe boxes full of them, consider contacting the American Philatelic Society. They have a program with veterans' groups where FDC's, are used to help jog people's memories about things.

A First Day Cover is an envelope postmarked with the day the stamps went on sale and also usually with a special cachet (on left hand side of the envelope) commemorating the event. Sometimes it comes with a descriptive insert.

As a general rule of thumb the selling price at the post office is the face value of the stamps + $1.00. For example, if the enveloppe has two stamps of $0.57 cent the acquisition cost would be: 0.57 + 0.57 + 1.00 = $2.14

It is different when the first day cover is issued privately. They carry much more value as they are created in limited editions.

When you come to sell your Post Office Official First Day Covers, you can expect to get from dealers approximately 10 to 20% of their value. Why?

Because a dealer will not sell it for $2.14 . Probably more like a $1.00 a piece, so he/she cannot buy it at more than say 10 to 20% of its value, to cover the time it will stay in inventory, move it around to stamp shows, or scan it to upload to a website, and allow the making of a decent profit in order to stay in business.

Stamp collecting is a hobby of pleasure and fascination. In general, the intent is not to collect for profit, but more for knowledge, education, stress relief, creating frienships amongst like-minded people and to have fun.

To collect stamps as an investment, the stamps issued in limited quantities prior to 1940 are better items.

Hope this helps.

On Jan 1 2000, the city of Eastport Maine had its Post Office open (It was a SUnday and a holiday) They were stamping first day issues for the New Millenium from the most Easterly City in the US, hebce the very first covers between midnight and 1AM on Jan 1 became instant hits with the Washington County stamp collectors. We got about 5 of the envelopes for 2 bucks each. I stuffed one of the envelopes with a post card and sent it to a friend in Louisiana. I should have mailed the others too, We still have em.
Imagine the first edition stamp and cancellation for the new millenium at the first post office to be allowed to do this.