Global Stamp Collection/Paper Stock Certificates

 You should take your stamp collection to a proffesional philatelist (stamp collector/appraiser). as for the stock certificates, that depends greatly on whether or not any of them are still valid, if any of the companies listed on the certificates are still in business (Often times even companies that aren't in business under the name on your stock certificate, have been bought out by or merged with other companies, and their names change. If this happens, a stock certificate may be worth something as a security) I would definitely recommend having a scripophilist (someone who collects stock certificates and other documents) take a look at them to determine if any of them are valuable!

You may find some help here:  http://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/bst/index.aspx?id=3030

I am not endorsing this site, and have never done business with them, but they seem to have some good resources for stock cert. research.