Color guides

Color guides can be useful but limited tools.

The major ones are the Stanley Gibbons and Michel color guides. These are only useful with their respective catalogs. Further, some stamps are under traditional color names that don't follow the color guides. Some color names are quite arbitrary. Used stamps may be affected by age and environment so determining shades can be unreliable. Things like the cheap Wonder color guide are useless as there is no context for it. People will also quote you Munsell color numbers that have no meaning unless you know the numbers that exist for all colors.

It takes a lot of experience and good memory if not a reference collection to correctly identify colors and shades. It is important not to immediately think you have a rare color or shade in hand, especially if you don't have several other examples of the same issue for comparison. Rare stamps are indeed rare; it is very unlikely you have hit the jackpot with so many collectors looking for them over many years. Further, condition has a lot to do with huge reported prices in the news. If truly in doubt, you can spend the nearly $100 or more to have an expert group evaluate your stamp. 



See

 * Colors and shades

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