August 27, 2013 · 9:27 pm

August 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month
1 1/2d Reply Paid EssayThe star item of the month was this imperforate block of four essay for the Reply Paid stamp. A single of this essay is currently on eBay at a “Buy It Now” price of £295. So the vendor may well be disappointed that this item only fetched £320.50. More so as he stated in the description that he bought it as an investment for £500…

 

2d Colour TrialThe second most valuable item of the month was this 2d colour trial in purple and blue. A few short perfs at the top and a corner crease saw this fetch one bid at the opening price of £99.99. Quality is everything. Normal retail is £600-700 for top quality.

 

 

33.90Destination of the month was this mourning cover to Cyprus, sent to a Captain in the Connaught Rangers (an Irish regiment in the British Army). The reverse with some minor backflap faults and a Politiko bs, it sold for £33.90, and is the first Jubilee cover I have recorded going to Cyprus.

81.65This slightly creased cover with an uncommon franking to a common destination sold for an impressive £81.65. What got people so excited? The Dublin & Belfast Railway Post Office cds.

10.64And finally a little novelty item to finish on; a silver ingot of the 1s green & carmine. The Royal Mail produced a series of these about 5 years ago which retailed at £25 each. Again not a very sound investment as it sold for only £10.64 (which has knocked off £15 from the value of my collection. Doh!). But not as bad a loss as the poor seller of the Reply Paid essay block…

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August 18, 2013 · 8:09 pm

Spoilt For Choice At Spink

Bechuanaland 1889 4d on 0.5d vermilion with rpence omittedSpink’s Collector Series auction in London on 9th to 11th of July 2013 had a plethora of items of interest for the Jubilee collector. Lot 239 was a Bechuanaland Protectorate 1889 4d on ½d vermilion with “rpence” omitted. Catalogued at £6’000, the upper estimate was at full catalogue (when commission is taken into account) at £4’000-5’000. Not surprisingly it sold for less, but £3’200 hammer (or 64% of catalogue incl. commission) is still a good price. There were many other items of interest from Bechuanaland including a nice selection of covers not too often seen.

Niger Coast cover with Old Calabar rubber cancelThe sale also featured the “Dunrovin” collection of Niger Coast. There were many of the provisional overprints, but the highlight for me was lot 1085; a cover with a ½d vermilion, 1d lilac pair and 2 ½d purple on blue all tied by Old Calabar rubber cancels, which according to the description is the only known example of this cancel on cover. It sold for £1’400 (plus commission).

And the items of interest concluded with a several lots of Zululand Specimen and Cancelled overprints, with the Cancelled overprint set (lot 2017) selling for £1’200 (plus commission)

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August 4, 2013 · 8:56 pm

July 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month
75.62We kick of this month with a block of four 1s green, but with a rather washed colour. it isn’t much of a looker. However the Kirkwall cds (which is the capital of the Orkney Islands in Scotland) was the main interest, as the faded colour did not prevent several bids pushing it to a final price of £75.62.
112.29+p

 

The next item was a cover sent to Australia from Glasgow with two 3d purple on yellow paying the 6d rate. However the cover was redirected to New Zealand and further franked with a Victoria 2d. With some foxing roughly opened at top, this scarce mixed franking still fetched £112.29 plus postage.

37.78This attractive cover has the TPO cancel of the Edinburgh & Newcastle S. T. Day Mail, with the 1/2d vermilion paying a late fee. It sold for £37.78.

 

 

78.00This envelope was sent using the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway company to Tunbridge Wells. Franked with the company’s 2d stamp and pair of 1/2d vermilions both tied by a blue crayon cross, the 1/2ds were tied on arrival. The prices these covers fetch is highly dependent on which Railway company stamp it was franked with, and this one sold for £78.00.

245.00This innocuous looking cover was the undoubted star of the month if not the year so far. Bearing an 1887 2 172d purple on blue, it was sent by the future King George V on a Royal Household envelope with a superb seal from Balmoral addressed to the Duchess of York in a hotel in Germany, cancelled by the “Caledonian T.P.O. Night Up” cds. The cover bears the initial “G.” of Prince George and is addressed in his hand. I think this went cheap at £245 and regret not bidding on it.

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July 8, 2013 · 9:44 pm

June 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month
33.60Merry Christmas everyone! At least that was the message that this scarce Xmas cancel was spreading. Very collectible on cover, these cancels only came in during the King Edward reign, and this is the first example I have seen on a Jubilee, albeit that it’s a piece. It sold for £33.60.

100.99 This attractive cover to Mauritius blew away my expectations and fetched an impressive £100.99. A scarce but certainly not rare destination, it is one of the nicest frankings to Mauritius I have seen, and perfect for the destination mail collector.

89.99Another cover which sold for more than I would have paid for it was this one from Jersey to Argentina. As I’ve said before on this blog, the Channel Islands are very collectible, and it shows in the price: £89.99!

51.14This parcel tag is an item I would have liked to have in my collection. Rarely have I seen a colourful parcel label with an advert. And of course the franking makes this extra special, with a combination of 1/2d, 1 1/2d, 2 1/2d and 4 1/2d!! Although they all have perfins, they match up with the company on the parcel label which I think makes it more interesting. It sold for £51.14.

18.16And finally I have another scarce cancel to show you. This is the Baltasound mail bag seal which which has given it a negative impression. As far as I know, no covers exist, so it is likely that stamps like this were created by favour, or by some unscrupulous little wotsit!! Still, they’re very attractive. This one sold for £18.16

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May 30, 2013 · 10:31 am

May 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

51.00 May was a quiet month for the Jubilees on eBay so I only have four items for you…sorry. First up is this attractive British Levant commercial cover sent from Beirut. The 40pa on 2 1/2d is tied by a crisp hooded circle ds on Beirut which is much less common than the cds of Constantinople and Smyrna. What made it that extra bit special, was that the reverse had transit marks of both the British Post Offices at Smyrna and Constantinople! So it sold for an impressive £51.00.

104.00Inverted watermarks on the Jubilee issue don’t pop up often on eBay (except for the 1/2d values). This used example of the 5d purple and blue is catalogued at £1’000 in the latest SG Queen Victoria catalogue. Although described as very fine, a small wrinkle at the lower left obviously put people off and it sold for £104. That’s 10% of the catalogue price…

43.00To compare, the 1/2d vermilion is catalogued at £50 used, and sold for £42.00 this month. That is 84% of catalogue. As the Americans say, go figure…

 

 

 

303.55 mmI’ve chosen this Board of Education official overprint on the 5d purple and blue as another reminder to readers about the danger of forged overprints. Catalogued at £4’500, the fact that the seller was happy to let this mounted mint example go for only £303.55 should be a clear indication. ALWAYS buy these stamps with a certificate. Dealers know this. So if you’re offered one without a certificate of authenticity from a respected expertising committee such as the BPA or RPS, just walk away.

31.70And finally there were several control strips of three just like this one which appeared this month. Prices showing that there is still a strong demand for these items even for the more common O, P and Q controls. This one is slightly more unusual in that it is doubly perforated in the margin. It sold for £31.70 despite some tone spots.

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May 1, 2013 · 1:55 pm

April 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

Leyton Cricket Ground cdsWe kick off this month with something of a rarity, that I’m not too ashamed to say, that I missed it completely… Starting at 29p and 32 bids later, the final price was £1’800!!! Thanks to the very rare “LEYTON CRICKET GROUND” cds, which was the HQ of Essex County Cricket Club from 1886-1933. So keep an eye out in those bargain bins!

 

31.20Coming down a peg or two in terms of price, but certainly not in terms of beauty, this superbly cancelled 5d purple and blue die I. For those that struggle with the difference between die I and die II, a cds like this with the year date 1887 clearly visible guarantees it as a die I, as the die II didn’t come out until 1888. Not only is this a very crisp cds, but it also has a Travelling Post Office (TPO) cds of the Edinburgh and Carstairs Sorting Tender. Why I was the only bidder for £31.20 is beyond me!

75.50This stamp is one of the very few and certainly best example of an offset that I have seen on the 1/2d green. This is caused when a sheet of stamps is placed on top of another sheet that still has wet ink, leaving a mirrored impression on the gum. It sold for a very reasonable £75.50.

 

 

93.00This item is not an imperforate example of the 3d purple on yellow, but in fact printer’s waste. It’s the same with the 1/2d green on buff, this 3d purple on green paper was struck just as a test to check the quality of the printing. It sold for £93.

47.88And finally my best purchase in quite a while. Not only are Army Official overprints on cover scarce (except for on the 1d lilac), this 1/2d is paying the postcard rate, which you can imagine for official correspondence was used rarely. The usage of the 1/2d for the open-letter rate is marginally less rare. A bargain at £47.88.

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March 26, 2013 · 9:45 pm

March 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month
48.20We kick of this month with this attractive 1900 1/2d green franking with a scarce “Posted out of course” handstamp. This handstamp indicated that this registered envelope was probably placed straight into a postbox instead of being handed over at the Post Office as was required for all registered letters. It sold for £48.20.

82.51Another attractive 1900 1/2d franking was this advertising cover for Tiptree Fruit Farm. Advertising covers are very collectable, and the more ornate they are, the more desirable they are. This one fetched an impressive £82.51.

128.00This impressive multiple of 16 of the 1s green sold for only £128.00. The “73” cancellation is a telegraph cancellation, meaning that this block would have been attached to a telegraph form and hence not postally used, which always reduces the price. However the block has very good colour which is difficult with this stamp as contact with water will make the green fade.

 

68.80This parcel post label is a scarce single usage of the 9d purple and blue. In unusually fine and attractive condition for a parcel label, it was no surprise to see this sell for £68.80.

63.95And finally this attractive multiple Jubilee franking sold for £63.95. Although a little bit grubby, the stamps pay a scarce high franking  of 1s 5 1/2d to Greece.

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March 10, 2013 · 2:13 pm

Good Week for Jubilees at Auction

The last week has seen a variety of attractive and interesting Jubilee items up for sale at a variety of auction houses. Here are my three favourites.

1887 Jubilee 2 1/2d on cover to Falkland IslandsThe first item to bring to your attention is a rather unattractive cover. However, this cover belonged to one of the most famous (or perhaps most infamous is more accurate) collectors of his generation. Grosvenor sold the Falkland Islands collection of John E. Dupont on March 7th. Lot 2020 was a rare item of incoming mail to the islands, and was estimated at £200-250. My bid was blown out of the water as it went on the fetch £1’150 (plus 20.4% commission and 5% VAT!).

Warwick & Warwick Zululand coverHowever that wasn’t even the highest price realised for a Jubilee item last week. Warwick and Warwick discovered a correspondence of no fewer than eight Zululand covers! Including two with never before seen cancellations (unfortunately not on the overprinted Jubilee issue). Of the three with Jubilee frankings, lot 284 was the most attractive and it sold for £1’200 (plus commission).

Magpie Auctions lot 356 Prince of Wales Hospital FundThe next lot caught my eye on the front cover of Magpie Auctions catalogue when I wandered past there stand at Stampex. Lot 356 of their March 6th postal bid sale featured an 1897 Prince of Wales Hospital Fund 1s label along with a 1887 1/2d vermilion tied by a duplex to a printed cover of the Charity. These vignettes are scarce, and more so tied to the cover, and even more so being this attractive and fresh. It sold for £170.

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February 28, 2013 · 11:50 pm

February 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

66.00This attractive philatelic cover sold for £66. What drove it to this price was the use of fiscal stamps, although more likely than not they aren’t paying for the postage for the envelope to Germany. Still, they are uncommon on cover and quite collectable.

71.09Another attractive cover was this one to Mexico. Franked with four 4d green & brown and a 1/2d vermilion, the stamps are paying four times the single rate as well as a 1/2d late fee. Multiple usages of the 4d are pretty scarce. It sold for £71.09.

59.55

22.45

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These 9d and 5d Zululand overprints sold for £59.55 and £22.45 respectively. Nicely cancelled examples aren’t scarce by any means, but covers are very rare (very few bearing Jubilee overprints have come to the open market in the last 10 years).

32.00This cover from Gaberones in British Bechuanaland fetched a measly £32.00. Most probably due to the toning on the envelope, and the fact that the 6d is probably the easiest to find on cover as it was the rate to England.

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January 31, 2013 · 10:48 pm

Christoph Gaertner Sells a Few Nice Jubilee items

Royal Navy Exhibition card uprated with 1/2d JubileeChristoph Gaertner’s usual phonebook-sized auction catalogue for their 21st-24th January 2013 sale managed to feature a few interesting Jubilee items among the 25’000+ (!!!) lots on offer. As is understandable, some are well overpriced, some are nicely priced, and it’s rare to find anything estimated low.

However my pick of their auction was lot 7804, pictured above. It is a souvenir card from the Royal Naval Exhibition on the 15th August 1891. Not only is it very attractive, but it is hard to find these cards uprated for postage abroad. I’m slightly regretting not being the winning bidder at €93 plus 20% commission.

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As destination mail for the Jubilee issue goes, St. Pierre and Miquelon has to be up there with the rarest (it had a population of roughly 6’000 at the time…and it still does now!), and is so far the only one I have recorded. Although lot 7806 has some soiling and the indistinct arrival cds, I can’t help but feel that at only €60 it shouldn’t have gone unsold.

1/2d Jubilee Destination Mail to AlgeriaAnd just as a comparison, lot 7803 was a postcard sent to Algeria fetched €65 plus 20% commission. Although still pretty  scarce as a destination (with it being a French colony, as St. Pierre et Miquelon, there was very little commercial mail coming from the UK), I have seen a few. Algeria’s population was roughly 4’000’000. Obviously it is helped by the its freshness and crisp arrival.

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