September 6, 2015 · 3:03 pm

July 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

Baltasound mailbag sealWell I hope you have been enjoying the summer as much as I have. Holidays and stamp exhibitions (and some work in between) have taken up a lot of my time and energy, so excuse this post for being over a month late.

I start with a 6d purple on rose with a cancel I have featured before on my blog; the Baltasound mail bag seal. As it was meant to stamp wax, the strike in ink on the stamp creates negative impression. As far as I know, no covers exist, so it is likely that stamps like this were created by favour. I’ve only ever seen it on the Jubilee issue, and even so, not on the values issued after 1887 such as the 4 1/2d, 10d, 1/d blue-green and 1s green & carmine. This example sold for £42.00.

72.18 julThis usage of the 1s green and carmine and 1/2d blue-green on a parcel address label sold for £72.18, despite the fact that it’s a bit grubby and not particularly nicely cancelled. A strong price in my opinion even in view of the scarcity of 1s usages.

British Bechuanaland postal stationery card VryburgVying for bargain of the month is this British Bechuanaland postal stationery card sent from Vryburg and uprated with a 1/2d vermilion. By no means scarce, it’s certainly more valuable than the £18.65 it sold for.

Office of Works with chamfered O varietyThis was another good buy. This Office of Works overprint on the 1/2d vermilion is showing the variety “chamfered O” on the O in OFFICIAL. Catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at £220 , it sold for only £10.51.

And finally we have one the only item I have bought off eBay in the last couple of months. Destination mail definitely seems to be a favourite of mine (as my tag cloud on the right hand side will prove). Sent to Grenada, I bought this stamped to order postal stationery envelope uprated with Jubilees for £18.65. Bargain!

Destination mail to Grenada

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July 19, 2015 · 9:22 pm

June 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

30.76Only nearly 3 weeks late so let’s get going! First off is a cover “going home” from the Boer war at the 1d rate with a COGH stamp, and then redirected to the Netherlands with the necessary 1 1/2d Jubilee added to make the 2 1/2d foreign rate. A dealer is likely to charge about double the £30.76 price it realised.

82.39This Army Telegraphs overprint on the 1/2d vermilion is scarce used and this item is especially nice as it is still on a piece of the telegram they were used for! Typically stamps were placed in the corner of telegraph forms, from which an enterprising individual could “liberate” with a swift and sneaky tear across the corner before the forms were destroyed. I do wonder if any complete forms exist… Sold for £82.39 by Stanley Gibbons no less.

30.85Next up is an uncommon usage of the 9d in addition to a 6d making an even more uncommon 1s3d rate plus the 2d registration die. Worth more than the £30.85 it fetched.

57.35This group of literature was my surprise of the month. I have the the two books by Nicholson and the auction catalogue for the Colonel Danson collection. None of which are scarce. So presumably everyone was trying to add the A. J. P . Baumann collection of British Africa to their library.

And finally an interesting item of destination mail. A cover sent to Jerusalem and then redirected to Beirut. Competition was strong and £60.94 was more than I wanted to pay because of the condition (although this is only the third cover I have seen going to Israel/Palestine).Destination Mail to Palestine 60.94

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June 14, 2015 · 4:06 pm

May 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

8.00 May wasn’t such an interesting month on eBay for the Jubilee collector I must say, but I’ve managed to scrape a few interesting items together. The first is a cute franking with both the 1887 1/2d and the 1900 1/2d. I’ve seen very few covers with this combination and it’s a nice addition to a collection to have both on cover. Cheap at only £8.

19.70I find myself more and more fascinated by covers from early stamp dealers. This cover is from the well known Alfred Smith of Bath. There are several different versions of this example depicting his shop, and modern day stamp dealers regularly retail these covers for much more than the £19.70 this one fetched.

18.70My only purchase this month was this underpaid cover to Australia. I was very happy to pay £18.70. With the “REFUSED, D.L.O.” (dead letter office) handstamp, I’m pretty sure an Australian postal history collector would be happy to pay at least double that.

25.69This item was an interesting curiosity. I should have bought it and I could have used it on all the letters I send…although I don’t actually send that many. It’s a very well made reproduction of the 1/2d design in handstamp form. I think I’ve seen a couple before, and it sold for £25.69.

9.06Finally, we have an example of a “Jury Summons”. These were required to be sent by registered post, and were sent by the locally to request citizens to turn up to Jury duty. Surprisingly this one has been refused by the recipient…

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June 1, 2015 · 11:37 am

Government Parcels inverted overprint “proving piece” up for auction

Government Parcels 1s Green and Carmine Inverted OverprintSpink will be offering part 5 of the “Lionheart” collection on June 17th, which contains the “proving piece” of the inverted overprint of the 1s green and carmine. Although several had been discovered and the variety was listed in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, opinions changed and in 1916 it was de-listed and all examples regarded as forgeries. That was until the discovery of this example in 1950, clearly tied to a Post Office parcel label, that the Royal Philatelic Society of London granted it a certificate and it was restored to the Stanley Gibbons catalogue. The full story can be read in this extract from the L. N. Williams Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps.

This example was last sold at Cherrystone in 2008 for $20’700. It is being offered in June with an estimate of £10’000-£12’000.

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May 22, 2015 · 8:12 pm

Europhilex London 2015 Report

EUROPHILEX_NEG blueAs an employee of David Feldman (the Swiss stamp auctioneers), I’m lucky enough to travel the world going to stamp exhibitions. The latest was last week in London at the Business Design Centre in Islington (the same venue as Stampex twice a year). With over 350 exhibits there was plenty to see, with many extremely important and valuable collections.  The standard was particularly high even for an International Exhibition with over 38 Large Gold medals awarded.

2015-05-16 13.56.56However one in particular stood out to me as a Jubilee collector. Although not obvious from the title; “Great Britain Edward VII Essays and Proofs” by Graham Horton had some fantastic items. There were no fewer than seven “Stamp Committee” hand-painted essays, eighteen 1s green & carmine colour trials, several die proofs and the type A and type B sets of Edward VII “paste-ups”. However the pièce de résistance of the collection (for me at least) was the postal notice for the introduction of the 1s green and carmine and the 1/2d blue-green. Until the day I saw it I wasn’t even aware of its existence! (Although I have heard that there are two notices that exist for the 1st January 1887 issues). So I will have to keep an eye out if I want to add this treasure to my collection.

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May 20, 2015 · 11:30 am

April 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

Zululand D 1-2d vermilion control blockOh dear I’m very late this time. I didn’t even have time to keep track of what was selling on eBay, so I’ve had to cheat and search the “Sold” listings. I was all ready to say that it was a quiet month and I hadn’t missed a sausage…until I took a look at what had sold under Zululand. I am constantly on the look out for the overprinted controls of the 1/2d vermilion, and have had ZERO luck in buying any of the Empire overprints. So I was annoyed to see that this D control block of six only sold for £61 (presuming it’s genuine of course).

Ireland Great Northern Railway Company 2d on cover from Dublin 313.88One item I did watch sell was this scarce and highly collectable Railway cover from Dublin. Ones from Ireland are particularly collectable, and even though it’s a little soiled and has a missing backflap this one sold for £313.88. Anyone interested in Railway Stamps should check out Grosvenor’s next sale on June 4th: The Rev. Roger de Lacy-Spencer Collection of Railway Stamps.

Niger Coast provisional SG.19This Niger Coast provisional is worth mentioning. It has the type 6 overprint in vermilion on the 2 1/2d and is catalogue £600 by Stanley Gibbons as mint (which this is). Quite amazingly it sold for just under £560. It’s very rare to see stamps sell for nearly full catalogue, so either this was two bidders who got into a crazy war or it’s a sign that there is a strong demand for the scarcer provisional overprints.

Bechuanaland cover from Gaberones StationThis attractive cover from Bechuanaland sold for £110.95. Franked with a Bechuanaland Protectorate 3d and 6d, I’m pretty sure it’s philatelic as I’m not sure about the rate of 9d (I should know really…). Nice enough though.

Penny Postage Jubilee insert cardThis is another item I would like to have added to my Jubilee collection. It’s an uncommon usage of the 1890 Penny Postage Jubilee insert for the envelope, with a 1/2d vermilion tied by the special cancellation. I would have paid more than the £26.95 it fetched.

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April 7, 2015 · 7:36 pm

March 2015 Ebay Report

85.20I hope that everyone who had the opportunity had a pleasant Easter holidays. We start this month off with a couple of items where I was unsuccessful bidder. First up is an 1890 Uniform Penny Postage Jubilee envelope sent to Canada, unusually uprated with a 4d and a 4 1/2d Jubilee paying three times the UPU rate plus registration fee. Apart from being an attractive franking, it has the added interested of a Canadian customs instructional label. It sold for £85.20.

69.50Next we have a rare usage of a “Manchester Philatelic Society War Fund” charity label which I believe was to raise funds for the Boer war. It’s actually the first example I have seen on cover and it’s extra nice that it has the 1/2d vermilion and the 1/2d blue-green. It has some little faults, but I should have bid it up past the £69.50 it realised. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in a dealer’s stock at £150+.

1887 3d purple on yellow offset varietyThis interesting variety sold for only 40.62. It shows an offset, caused by freshly printed sheets being stacked on top of each other and the wet ink being pressed into the reverse of the sheet above. This is not a common variety on the 3d but would have sold for much more if a complete impression of the stamp could be seen.

69.95

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Bechuanaland Protectorate 1/2d vermilion with double “Protectorate” overprint sold for a strong £69.95

46.94And we finish off with an item that I featured in my June 2012 eBay report; a 1s double rate single franking to New Zealand. Back then it sold for £50.29. This time it sold for £46.94.

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March 4, 2015 · 9:22 pm

February 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

160.55We start the month off with this attractive advertising cover from the stamp dealer William Brown of Salisbury. In my ever-expanding “Related Info” section, I have started an encyclopaedia-type listing of famous 20th century stamp dealers and personalities (by started, I mean I have done two…), so you can find out more about William Brown here. Even though it is “tainted” with two 1d lilacs, it is still a very attractive cover and deserving of the £160.55 paid for it. I picked up an even more attractive example (although of different design) from a dealer at Stampex for £140 which goes to show that dealers aren’t always overpriced!


44.51This attractively used Niger Coast 1/2d sold for £44.51 due to the dot between “R” and “S” of “RIVERS”. I’ve not seen this variety before, so I’ll be on the look out in the future to see if this proves to be a constant variety.

51.95

 

 

This cover has a very scarce single usage of the 9d sent to the USA. Unfortunately it was reduced at the left and top, but that didn’t stop it selling for £51.95. Probably paying 3 times the UPU rate with a late fee of 1 1/2d because I don’t think it’s philatelic.

43.10Blocks of the 1s green aren’t rare, but this example with a fresh colour is surely worth more than £43.10!!

21.17Finally we have a postcard sent from Jersey, with a 1/2d blue-green pair cancelled in transit by a French Granville cds, with a French “Boite Mobile” (or Mobile Box) hexagonal datestamp adjacent. Unfortunately the stamps are a little discoloured, but it still sold for £21.17.

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February 8, 2015 · 5:52 pm

January 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month
69.99So hopefully now that I have discovered this new web tool that removes the backgrounds rather easily from my images, you will all notice how professional my images look now! First up we have this unusual and attractive philatelic franking with a 4 1/2d red & green and a 10d purple & red in combination with German Empire Eagle issues all on a registered envelope to Germany and cancelled in England by a Cresham House London registered oval ds. It sold for £69.99.

42.98Next up is a genuine usage of the 10d which is one of the most scarce values on cover from the Jubilee issue. Sent on an official cover from the foreign office, it was sent to the British Consul General in Vienna. Although slightly toned, you would expect to pay a bit more than the £42.98 it fetched.

35.09This is a cover I missed out on for my own collection. This postcard was sent from the British Post Office in Constantinople via Alexandria and Singapore to Saigon in Cochinchine (modern day Vietnam). Although the condition isn’t great, it’s a rare destination and especially attractive with the transit markings. It sold for only £35.09.

350.89110.90And the final two items are the Office of Works overprint on the 10d. The first one, signed by known expert Koehler among others, sold for £350.89. The other is a blatant and ugly forgery that sold for £110.90. I don’t know what to say…

 

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February 8, 2015 · 4:40 pm

Four Years Old and Counting…

4 Years of My Blog iThis post is to celebrate 4 years of work on my website! With many years of work still to come! Many thanks go to those who have contacted me and contributed to the site during this time.

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