December 28, 2023 · 1:32 pm

September – December 2022 Ebay Report

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all! Due to me thinking that an email I received asking me to confirm my email address for this website (after no less than 12 years of having the same details) was spam, you may have noticed that my website was offline for several weeks. Thankfully after about a dozen emails back and forth I finally managed to get it back online. You’ll notice that I’m still a year behind on my eBay reports and that it is a slightly short one, but for the next one I’ll catch up with the whole of 2023 in one post.

Firstly we have a mint block of 1/2d blue-green Army Officials. What’s nice about it is the fact that it has the splayed “Y” variety on the third stamp in the second row. It found one bidder at £80.

Controls on the Army Official 1/2d vermilion are popular but not particularly scarce. It is much harder to find items such as the one above with the complete bottom three rows of the sheets. It’s of particular interest to the specialist as with the date cuts in the marginal “Jubilee” line one can identify the printing and the link it to any associated varieties (the first stamp has a short arm to Y for instance). It sold for £306.50.

And to finish, here is an envelope front to Trinidad, which was underpaid and charged 5d postage due on arrival in Port of Spain. It sold for £17.90. I have seen one complete cover with a Jubilee and Trinidad postage due combination and regret not buying it straight away!

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August 12, 2023 · 10:33 am

June – August 2022 Ebay Report

Only a year behind now…

The above cover is an item I would liked to have added to my collection. Usages of the I.R. Official ½d blue-greens are very scarce and this example is particularly attractive with a pair sent from Newcastle upon Tyne. At £100.01 it was cheap.

Nothing too special about this cover but it’s nice usage of registered envelope. Sent from Vryburg, which is pretty common, with a vertical pair of the 2d paying the 4d rate to Port Elizabeth in the Cape Colony. It sold for £80.85

I have a fondness for printed envelopes. And although this is hardly the most interesting looking example, I was intrigued as to what the British Empire League was. Wikipedia kindly obliged me with the necessary information: It was a society founded with the aim of securing permanent unity for the British Empire. It helped to mobilise troops during the Second Boer War and the First World War, and it even called for the introduction of an imperial penny post, which of course came to pass on Christmas Day, 1898. I bought it for $11.02.

And I finish with an item that I swiftly picked up at the buy-it-now price of £25. It’s a horizontal bisect of a 2½d on a small piece which is very unusual. But bizarrely it has a New Zealand Kuripuni cds!

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August 5, 2023 · 1:32 pm

April – May 2022 Ebay Report

This attractive cover was sent from the “Sons of Philatelia for Great Britain” to the American Philatelic Association in Wisconsin. After a google I’ve only just discovered that “Philatelia” was created by philatelists as the goddess of philately and is the allegorical figure used by the American Philatelic Society seal to this day. The Sons of Philatelia America were founded to encourage philately among young people and presumably the Sons of Philately for Great Britain, which was set up at the same time, had the same goal. Just to add to the interest, there’s a cinderella/publicity stamp advertising the 1900 stamp exhibition in Paris. It sold for £22.

Above are a pair of philatelic “Tamsen” covers sent in 1932 with issues released 30 plus years earlier. The example on the left from Lobatsi sold for £155, and the one on the right from Mahalapye sold for £215.

Also philatelic in nature is this cover sent during the 1934 Royal Tour of South Africa by Prince George (who became King Edward VIII two years later). It has KGV issues from the time but also an 1897-1902 ½d vermilion, all cancelled by the special tour cancellation. Interestingly it is address to A. Lichtenstein, which could well be the famous philatelist Alfred Lichtenstein. It sold for £27.

And we end on an attractive parcel label with three different Government Parcel Jubilee issues, which sold for £98.

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July 26, 2023 · 4:32 pm

February – March 2022 Ebay Report

My apologies for not doing any reports or website updates for more than a year now. Being a full time philatelist and editor of the GB Overprint Society journal has taken up my the spare time and energy that I have had to devote to stamps this past couple of years. Hopefully I’ll get back to some sort of normality with the blog and I’m planning on doing a few months at a time in my future posts to try and catch up.

And to recommence, I start with this unusual franking to Denmark. According to the annotation in the lower left corner, the 6d is paying the extra registration fee for compensation up to £25 and the 2½d the normal UPU rate. It sold for £13.10 which is rather cheap!

I always like to find multiple usages of the same value on a cover, or in this case, a parcel tag. Although slightly heavily cancelled it’s a rare usage of a block of eight of the 6d and if I remember rightly I underbid it to £82.

An area I haven’t explored too closely are the cancellations on the Niger Coast Protectorate issues. The first one on the left is a very scarce Bakana oval ds, and the third one, a Warri rubber parcel cancel is also not common. The group sold for £36.15.

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May 28, 2022 · 4:38 pm

January 2022 Ebay Report

Apologies for bringing up my January report now that summer is nearly here. Better late than never (I think I’ve said that many times in my Ebay reports…).

What a shame that this piece was removed from its original cover! According to Alexios Popadopoulus, there is only one cover and one front sent insured from British Levant, and only three commercial covers with the 12pi on 2s6d. It sold for £59.

Strictly this item isn’t of interest to a Queen Victoria “Jubilee” collector but I’m sure many Jubilee enthusiasts will have something from the Uniform Penny Postage Jubilee in their collection. I hadn’t seen this before; it’s an advert by the stamp dealer W. R. Wolff for the price of various items cancelled at the Jubilee Exhibition in South Kensington. It sold for £103.50

Also strictly not really of “Jubilee” interest, but I thought it was worth highlighting an unusual usage of an Inland Revenue 1d fiscal along with a 2½d Jubilee on an 1890 1d Penny Post Jubilee envelope to pay the UPU single rate and registration fee to Germany. It sold for £69.

I have seen “missing colours” before, but this is the first time I have seen the purple bleached from a 10d. An interesting curiosity; it sold for £14.45.

Finally we have a very rare cancellation of “TATI / BECHUANALAND” from the Bechuanaland Proctectorate on a ½d vermilion. It sold for a very cheap price on the US eBay (ebay.com) for only $118.50 to a dealer, who then offered it for sale for £450 (and has since sold it).

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February 5, 2022 · 8:12 am

December 2021 Ebay Report

Happy new year everyone! Just about managed to get this out in January…

At first glance this looks like a rather mundane 2 1/2d franking from Edinburgh to Austria on a registered envelope. But look slightly to the left of the stamp and you will see the “EDINB INTERNL / EXHIBITION” circular datestamp. The Edinburgh Jubilee Exhibition was an International Exhibition of Electrical Engineering, General Inventions and Industries, including the Jubilee Postal Conversazione which included displays brought together by the General Post Office. According to John Davies’ book “A Jubilee Reminiscence”, this is now only the fourth recorded example of this datestamp from the exhibition post office. A very good buy at £253.

I would have like to have added this advertising cover to my collection if I had spotted it. The postman had a few valiant attempts to deliver this “Church Monthly” cover. There are several datestamps and the postman seems to have recorded his attempts by putting the word “Not” in front of the datestamps of West Felton, Bucknell and Oswestry before figuring that the destination couldn’t be in Shropshire and crossing it out and writing “Try Colwich Staffordshire”! It sold for £46.

Grenada sounds a rarer destination than it actually is. There seems to be quite a correspondence that exists sent to The Honorable G. W. Williamson in Grenville with similar mixed Jubilee and stamped-to-order frankings. I highlight this one because I like the four of the same Jubilee value added to make the quintuple rate. It sold for £37.

It’s very rare that I have any British East Africa to highlight on my eBay reports. It so rarely comes up as an eBay auction item that to be honest I don’t look. But I came across this example of the 4a on 5d cancelled by a neat Lamu cds one offered by a Dutch seller, which sold for US$188.26 (equivalent to about £139).

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January 5, 2022 · 8:44 pm

November 2021 Ebay Report

Accidentally missed out my November report…

This could well be the bargain of the month or possibly the biggest mistake of the month. This Board of Education 1s green & carmine came with a 1932 RPS certificate. But given the quality of some of the forgeries of this overprint (forgeries that may well have occurred even before 1932), it’s not a stamp I would risk spending £1’000 on from eBay with such an old certificate. But if it is right, it’s probably worth double what the person paid.

Although not brilliant strikes, these Manchester Station Late Box hooded circular datestamps are rare. This cover sold for £41.20, but I think a dealer would be easily asking £100 plus.

In terms of quantity, the ½d vermilion features on the largest proportion of covers in my collection. Because it was so ubiquitous there is such a large range and variety of usages which I enjoy finding. This example is an incoming postcard from India that has been redirected with a ½d three weeks later to elsewhere in the UK. It realised a strong price of £85.50.

This British Bechuanaland Protectorate ½d vermilion has an unusual dry print of the “Protectorate” overprint resulting in “rate” being omitted. Although it has a horrible crease, it sold for $40.07 on eBay.com.

Unfortunately I missed this one. Most of the time the uprated stationery cards are philatelic usages sent to the UK or Germany. However this example, with a 1½d on 1d card uprated with a ½d vermilion to pay the 2d rate to the UK, was sent from Palla which is one of the more scarce cancellations (this being only the fourth example I’ve found). Not only that but the message on the reverse makes reference to the “Jameson Raid”, which was a botched raid against the South African Republic carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil Rhodes. It only sold for £101.10.

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January 2, 2022 · 5:50 pm

September/October 2021 Ebay Report

I hope everyone has had a lovely holidays and those that braved travelling to see their families managed to do so without too much difficulty and inconvenience. I stayed in Geneva to avoid the uncertainties and was hoping to make some progress on the website but unfortunately got very little of what I wanted to get done, so this will be the total sum of my (overdue) work on the website before I go back to work on tomorrow. My girlfriend insists that it’s good to take a break from stamps occasionally, but I’m not so sure about that…

First up is a rare Cricket Ground cancellation from Nottingham. Unfortunately the green colour is slightly faded, but it’s a nice clear strike and at £145.50 it was a bargain when often they sell for more than £1’000.

This registered envelope with two 4½d Jubilees is paying a very scarce rate: 9d, with the envelope sent at the double rate and a late fee of 4d (as indicated by the handstamp). A cheap item for only £19.01. There’s a similar franking on on eBay at the minute for £75 “buy-it-now” which I still think is a very good price as this is only the sixth 4½d+4½d franking I’ve seen (plus only seven 9d single frankings).

This commemorative medal for the Jubilee of the Uniform Penny Postage is quite scarce. As you can see from the original paper packet, the medal was produced by Spink & Son, and it depicts Queen Victoria and the Uniform Penny Postage 1d stationery envelope on one side, and Sir Rowland Hill and the Mulready envelope on the other. Examples of the medal were made in white metal, bronze, silvered bronze, aluminium (as this example is according to the vendor) and solid silver. It sold for £198.50.

And finally we have this envelope sent registered from Charlestown (Fife, Scotland) to Norway at the triple rate plus 2d registration; although I’m not sure it actually got there. The reverse shows the despatch and Edinburgh transit beneath an “Officially Sealed in the Returned letter Office” label applied in London, with the front showing two strikes of London registered datestamps dated within a couple of days of sending. Perhaps the clue is on the front at the left, with the manuscript “Coin 3 Krones / Notes 10 ditto”. It could be that it was returned to the sender at London because they hadn’t made use of the more secure Post Office registered envelopes to send their money? If anyone knows any better then please feel free to use the comments section below. An interesting item at £29.01.

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August 27, 2021 · 5:00 pm

July/August Ebay Report

This month is a bit focused on only the 6d and Bechuanaland postal history, but there are some lovely things that I would have liked to have added to my collection.

First up is this stunning used block of 36 of the 6d purple on rose. Bidding started at £1500 but no one took up the offer. I messaged the vendor afterwards to see if it is was available for a bit less but unfortunately by the time he saw my message he had already sold it. The new owner now has it on eBay “Buy-it-now” for £2’750…

Sticking with the 6d, this mint never hinged lower marginal block of four sold for £110. For those interested in the marginal settings on the 6d, note the cut in the Jubilee line below the lower left stamp which looks like it is from plate 6a.

Next up are three Bechuanaland covers, funnily enough, which were from a collection we sold at David Feldman called the “Koi” collection. I recognise the beautiful and painstakingly hand-drawn pages. I’ve spent quite a bit of time during my summer holiday going through my Bechuanaland files on my computer. Partly because it was long overdue, but also as my other role as editor of The Overprinter for the GB Overprint Society, where there has been some interesting debate about the postal rates from British Bechuanaland to the UK and abroad. I’m hoping to update that section of the site this week before the end of my holiday.

This is an attractive philatelic franking from “PALACHWE / KHAMAS TOWN”, bearing Bechuanaland Protectorate 1888 1/2d and 4d on 1/2d, was sent in 1891 to Port Elizabeth in the Cape Colony which at this time should have been at the 2d rate. Still a particularly nice example and scarce usage of the 4d on 1/2d. It sold for £121.15.

This 1899 cover from Francestown in the Protectorate is paying double to 2d rate to a chemists in the Cape Colony called Lennon Limited. I did a quick search and came up with a page on the Rhodesian Study Circle website so I presume it’s a decent sized correspondence across Southern Africa. This cover sold for £131.50.

Finally this 1894 cover is an example of British Bechuanaland stamps used in the Protectorate, sent from a general dealer from Khamas Town to the famous merchant Isaacs in Mafeking. The two British Bechuanaland 2d’s are paying the 4d rate from the Protectorate to another Southern African territory. It’s also an extremely fine example of the “676” BONC (barred oval numeral cancel) which are so often poorly struck. It sold for £105.50 and I regret not bidding more!

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August 20, 2021 · 5:00 pm

May/June 2021 Ebay Report

Prices for Jubilee material seems to have been getting stronger in recent months, which has been noticeable not just on eBay but also in recent auction sales such as the ones at Grosvenor and Corinphila (with the “Besançon” collection which I’ll have to get round to writing about) in the first six months of this year.

One item that highlights the increase in demand is this rare single franking of the 1s green and carmine on a registered envelope, which is paying 9d in registration fee as annotated at the lower left and double the UPU rate to Germany. It is one of only 10 single franking covers out of the 93 that I have recorded with the 1s green and carmine. It sold for an impressive £805, which looking back on it is worth it but I don’t think it would have sold for so much a couple of years ago.

Another scarce item which very rarely pops up on eBay with a 99p start was this 4d head plate die proof, cut-down to stamp size, which sold for £225.12

This registered postcard was an item I wanted to add to my collection but not as much as somebody else unfortunately. Registered postcards are unusual and it is a nice example of using a single 2d to uprate a stationery item. It sold for £45.77.

The postal stationery envelopes with the advertising ring around the die are very popular. This one is for W & T Avery of Birmingham and it sold for £112, which even with its minor imperfections I think is cheap because I think it should be £200-300.

And finally this “British Bechuanaland Government Gazette” wrapper, although it has a bit of rough life, it is a correct usage of the ½d. I can’t say that it’s not philatelic because it is addressed to Isaacs who was a merchant and a prolific creator (or at least recipient) of covers, and whom Bechuanaland collectors have a lot to be thankful to. It sold for £64.11.

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