Bob- I don't know if the stamp market is so distressed (it probably is) or that the catalog is simply way off. We have the same issues in the baseball card hobby with printed prices that do not reflect the market.
If a stamp lists say for $800 but it can be bought on ebay for $125-150, perhaps that is the real value and the catalog is wacky. Could you imagine if Scott's decided to print next year's book to better reflect the true value of stamps, and proceeded to lop off 80% of the previous year's prices? It would likely cause the stamp market to collapse.
Regarding plate blocks- all the ones from the 1940's up are worth a little more than face value, with the exception of some high value ones (a plate block of the $5 Hamilton would have some real punch). If he has some between 1900-30, there's a chance some are valuable.
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