September 25, 2011 · 9:39 pm

September 2011 Ebay Report

This 1s green and carmine with inverted watermark catalogues at £850, and was sold for £375. In fine condition, something of this calibre rarely comes up on eBay.

 

 
This cover fetched a good price at £97.45. As a franking it is not much to write home about, but because it is going to Orange Free State in Africa, it is much more sought after, possibly moreso by collectors of Orange Free State postal history as an example of incoming mail. This example shows the 4d rate to Africa plus 2d registration fee.
Printed advertising covers are collectable in their own right. This attractive one is advertising Malloch Fishing Tackle in Perth, and was sold for £79.94.

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September 11, 2011 · 9:12 pm

Upcoming Grosvenor sale includes Niger Coast

On September 28th, Grosvenor are having a British Empire sale including some Niger Coast and Boer War items. Of note is lot 1399, an envelope from Niger Coast franked with three 1s green overprinted stamps. The cover was last sold at the John Sacher collection of West Africa only as recently as November 2009 and realised £1’200+20%. The estimate is £2’000-2’500… Also in this section there are a selection of mint and used provisional overprints on the Jubilee issue.

The other item of note is lot 1644, a cover sent during the Boer War, showing violet straight line ”CENSORED G.B. BEAK”, incl. the original letter with the message: ”We were supposed to be creating a diversion whilst Hunter and Clements attacked the Burghers from the north. The diversion part of the scheme appears to have been entirely successful, but as yet we have got no news from Hunter”. The cover (address faded) bears a 1/2d vermilion pair unaccepted firstly at Ficksburg where framed ”TE BETALEN” was applied before entering the military post with F.P.O. cancellations. Unusual.

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August 30, 2011 · 10:51 am

August 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This newspaper wrapper to La Spezia in Italy sold for £39.49…which surprsied me a little bit. It was something I would have bid on, but it was actually over £30 within a couple of days of being listed. Obviously I’ve slightly underestimated the scarcity of uprated newspaper wrappers with anything other than a 1/2d or 1d.

Control letters are very collectable and rare ones, like this Inland Revenue 1/2d green with control R, fetch good prices. In unmounted mint condition, this block realised £71.82.

3d on Registered envelope paying 4d in registraion

 

 

This registered envelope from Ryde to Southampton was of interest to collectors of the different rates, and fetched £29.56, much more than a normal single franking with a 3d purple on yellow. As can be seen at the lower left of the envelope, there is “FEE PAID” with a manuscript “4” inserted, indicating that the sender had paid for extra compensation incase of loss.

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July 26, 2011 · 11:02 pm

July 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This cover was sent from London to Barberton (South Africa) during the Boer war, and although the condition is slightly poor (as is often the case with Boer War material), the violet “MAIL SERVICE SUSPENDED” handstamp excited collectors enough to see this reach £83.87.

This wonderful parcel post piece was sent from Matlock Bath to Ilkley, before being returned to the sender. The piece not only bears both the parcel post labels of Matlock Bath and Ilkley, but also the frankings for both sendings! A very interesting item from an increasing popular philatelic subject, it sold for £135.45.

 

 

 

This unusual cover was posted onboard RMS Orizaba, and was put into the mail at Colombo, Ceylon, resulting in the 2 1/2d purple on blue being tied by a Colombo duplex, with “PAQUEBOT” hs alongside. It sold for £73.55.

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July 23, 2011 · 4:23 pm

Corbitts Sell Sensational Franking on Telegram

Corbitts, situated in Newcastle, sold this sensational telegram for £1’150 plus commission. Sent from Leighlinbridge (Ireland) to Transvaal, it bears no fewer than 56 x 6d, 24 x 9 and 13 x 1s green & carmine, completely covering the reverse side of the form! Although it has some faults, it wasn’t surprising to see this smash the estimate of £650-850. The only dissapointing thing about it was that I wasn’t the winning bidder!

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June 29, 2011 · 9:44 pm

June 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This attractive cover was sent at the printed matter rate with a 1/2d vermilion. However, in order to qualify for this rate, the contents weren’t allowed to contain writing or be sealed. This example was obviously found to contain writing and had “OF THE NATURE / OF A LETTER / 131” handstamp applied with a tax “1” (to pay the extra 1/2d for the letter rate plus a 1/2d fine). It sold for £41.00

This unusual cover has the opposite halves of a 1/2d vermilion and a 1/2d green put together to make up a single 1/2d stamp. What is more unusual though is that it appears to have been accepted to pay the printed matter rate! Every other bisect or cut-and-paste stamp I have seen has been taxed as not paying the rate. I slightly regret letting this one go for only £42.75.

Multiples of the Niger Coast issues are very scarce, and certainly sought after. This block of six 1/2d vermilions sold for £48.60 despite having trimmed perfs at the left hand side.

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June 8, 2011 · 9:43 pm

“Wellington” collection goes by mostly unnoticed

One of the largest collections of Great Britain ever to be sold in one auction went by largely unnoticed in the city of Basel in Switzerland on June 7th and 8th. Although the repercussions of this auction are still being felt throughout the GB philatelic world for all the wrong reasons. Hosted by Galerie Dreyfus, several significant items (and unfortunately several significantly dodgy items) in British philately went up for sale as only 10 or so people filled the room to bid on an estimated €4’000’000 worth of material. This of course made me very optimistic about snapping up some bargains when the few Jubilee issue items came up for sale.

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May 31, 2011 · 10:00 am

May 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This 1s green as a single franking on cover is quite scarce. However, what makes it more interesting is that it is on a privately printed registered envelope from Stanley Gibbons, along with two of their red wax seals. If I’d had noticed this at the time I would have been more interested, but it fetched a good price at £72.96.

This large piece is unusual not only because it was sent from South Africa during the Boer War, but because it also has the customs declaration form alongside which is the first time I’d seen this before. It bears a 3d and 6d Jubilee tied by a “FIELDPOST OFFICE / BRITISH FORCES S. AFRICA” cds. Strong competition saw this fetch £178.45.

The past couple of months has seen one vendor put up a wonderful collection of cancellations and covers from Niger Coast and the British Levant. This unassuming pair are cancelled by the rubber parcel cancellation of Brass (in violet on the 2d and red on the 2 1/2d). Not only are they scarce cancels, but they’re also very attractive, and fetched £87.00.

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May 27, 2011 · 10:55 pm

Grosvenor have rare inverted overprint

Grosvenor had a smaller offering of the Jubilee issue than normal, but they did have two items of note. The first was a 1s green and carmine with inverted “GOVT / PARCELS” overprint, still tied to a small piece of parcel label. Only 12 are known to exist. This example was actually a re-offer from a previous sale, but had its estimate reduced to £3800-4000. However, it still went unsold. Also of interest was a dramatically mis-perfed 2 1/2d purple on blue which fetched £260 plus 20% commission against an estimate of £150-200.

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April 30, 2011 · 10:00 am

April 2011 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This British Levant 4 pi on 10d on cover is rare. This is only one of a few examples that I have seen. The condition is quite poor; it is creased and has a tear affecting one of the 40pa on 2 1/2d, but it is still not a bad looking cover for only £37.00. Expect to pay at least 10 times that for an example on cover in good condition (if you can find one).

This Niger Coast 1s green block of four actually came from the same vendor as the cover above. It is from the 1st setting (no marginal lines) and is cancelled by Old Calabar cds. The colour isn’t as fresh as it could be, but blocks of four of these issues just don’t come around. Sold for £178.50

This cute postcard was sent to France with a 1/2d green, but was declared underpaid by 5c (equivalent to 1/2d) on arrival and taxed with a 10c French postage due (which includes a 5c fine). I was very happy to only pay £4.10.

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