Category Archives: Ebay Reports

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 2013 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

165.95We start of this month with Bechuanaland Protectorate. This attractive example has the larger and scarcer “Protectorate” overprint (19mm wide). In used condition, it is catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at £425. It fetched a good price at £165.95.

 

 

82.62Next is this registered British Levant cover. It features a pair of 5d Jubilees cancelled by the “REGISTERED / SMYRNA” oval ds, which is much scarce than the standard cds. Even though it is slightly toned and has a portion of the address crossed out, it sold for £82.62.

91.59This 1s green single franking is one of the more scarce (only the 1s green and carmine and 9d purple and blue are more so). This one is paying four times the UPU rate of 2 1/2d to France plus a 2d registration fee. It sold well for £91.59.

28.51This attractive cover quite appealed to me, but not enough to pay more than the £28.51 that it realised. As you can see, it commemorates the anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Victoria and the Coronation of King George VI, and bears stamps from Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI. A very attractive souvenir.

216.08As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, ALWAYS BUY OFFICIALS WITH A BPA OR RPS CERTIFICATE!! I have my doubts about this one, but someone still paid £216.08…

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December 2012 Ebay Report

Top 4 Items of the Month
First off, I hope you all had a merry Christmas and have something exciting planned for New Year!
1125.95I’ll begin this months report with a rare registered cover franked with 1883 2s6d, 1887 1s and 1887 1/2d. There are around only 20 known covers with the 2s6d, however it was still a surprise to see BygonesofBridlington sell this for £1125.95.

2105.95Which makes this one at £2’105.95 look like a good buy. The book “Scarce Victorian Covers” by Brauer lists known rare QV surface printed covers recorded by him. He only records 10 frankings with the 10s (this one not being recorded).

583.84BygonesofBridlington was also the vendor of this 1887 2 1/2d with inverted watermark. It shows how popular this vendor is with eBay bidders, because it fetched £583.84, compared to a catalogue value of £1’250 which is just under half catalogue.74.72

We finish off this month with another item from BygonesofBridlington. This cover was described as going to New Zealand, when it is infact sent to Rarotonga, which is an island of the Cook Islands. Making this a rare item of destination mail. Unfortunately there was also a New Zealand arrival bs, otherwise I would have pushed this far beyond it’s £74.72 realisation.

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November 2012 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month


50.89
This month could have easily seen a “Top 20” thanks to the amount of interesting and rare 1887 Jubilee items on offer on Ebay. I’ll start you off with my surprise of the month. Following on from last month, this time a single 4d green & brown  “socked on the nose” with a crisp Continental Night Mail cds sold for a very impressive £50.89. Clearly showing the desirability of these TPO cancels.

188.82Destination of the month was definitely this cover going to Vietnam. The stamps both have the often-seen “HUTH” perfin, but not only is the 10d reasonably scarce on cover, it is also uprated with a 2d paying a late fee. This is only the second Jubilee cover I have recorded going to Vietnam, and sold for £188.82.

82.60This stamp is my variety of the month. Cleverly not even described by the vendor, this 4 1/2d carmine and green has the “dot between 4 and 1/2” variety in the lower right corner value. Catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at £ , this unmounted mint corner marginal sold for an impressive £82.60.

~143.82This cover is my used abroad item of the month. Although completely philatelic, I have seen very few covers sent from Ascension. If the colour wasn’t washed from this 1s green, it would have certainly sold for more than £143.82.

Zululand 1/2d vermilion with control letterAnd finally, I end on my bargain of the month (and my biggest regret of the year). This block of 72 Zululand overprint on the 1/2d vermilion, although in slightly poor condition, is very rare with the control letter. Unfortunately I was on holiday when the sale closed, otherwise I would have definitely bid between £300 and £400. It sold for a miserable £88.00.

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October 2012 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

Ebay was jam packed full of great and interesting Jubilee material this month. Starting off with not just one, but two(!!!) covers with 1s green & carmine frankings. The first was a the latest known usage of the 1s green and carmine, and sold for a fantastic £638.29, far surpassing what I had bid! This KEVII postal stationery envelope was sent in 1907 and uprated with the 1s as well as a QV 2d green and carmine.

The other 1s green and carmine franking was a QV postal stationery envelope uprated with the 1s and two 2 1/2d purple on blue, with 2d paying a late fee. This one fetched a more understandable £430.95.

This cover is the first that I have seen sell on ebay. The cover bears a strip of four 1881 1d lialc and a 1887 2 1/2d all tied by the “CONTINENTAL NIGHT MAIL” duplex with “CS / 2” (denoting that it was posted at Cannon St. Post Office). The “Continental Night Mail” cancel was used a TPO or Travelling Post Office on the railway line from London to Dover, for mail that was destined overseas. An extra fee was required for this service. This fine example of this scarce TPO cover fetched £102.08.

The final realisation of this 1d letter card was a slight shock. Sold for £68.15, I can’t quite see how two people would want this so badly. With the 1881 1d lilac and 1/2d vermilion paying a late fee, both are cancelled by the Threadneedle St. late fee duplex, which in itself is pretty common. However Romania as a destination is slightly more unusual.

And finally this very attractive cover features three different 1/2d issues! If it had featured 1/2d vermilion I would have certainly pushed it above the £190.95 realised. Although this cover isn’t one isn’t of massive interest to a Jubilee collector, it still bears a 3d purple on yellow and Riga (now modern day Latvia) as a destination is not very common.

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September 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

We kick of this month with this spectacular franking on a large part envelope (reduced at bottom). It features two sets of the Jubilee (at least all that were available in 1890) all tied by the Uniform Penny Postage Jubilee cancels from the South Kensington museum, with a piece of the postal stationery affixed at the bottom. Exhibitions as a thematic is a very collectable area of philately, hence why this item fetched no less than £400.09!

From the same vendor was this attractive set of three of the British East Africa values. Each with a Knope certificate, they didn’t stay on eBay long at a buy-it-now price of £750.

As destination mail goes for the Jubilee issue, Chile is far from being the most common in South America. The added interest in this cover also comes from the fact that it is addressed to the “Submarine Cable Office”. Attractively franked with a 5d and 2 1/2d Jubilees tied by Croydon cds, this cover only fetched one bidder at £65.

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August 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Week
This month sees another Jubilee item slip through my fingers. Although only a large parcel piece, it has added interest in the fact that it was sent from the Houses of Parliament, and is printed “PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS / On Her Britannic Majesty’s Service”. Sent to Belgium, it is franked by nine 1881 1d lilacs, a 1887 1/2d and a 2 1/2d tied by London hooded cds. Hosted on ebay.com, it sold for £21.75.

Another lot hosted on ebay.com was this pair of American advertising covers from the Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta. I’ve had some success recently in buying advertising covers cheaply of ebay, however not these two. Obviously buoyed by the American interest, the two sold for £68.12.

Advertising-ring covers such as this one are keenly collected. Even though this one inscribed “PUBLISHERS OF THE PERMANENT STAMP ALBUM / BRIGHTON” is one of the most common, and there’s obviously some soiling at the top, it still fetched a respectable £75.59.

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Dangerous Forgeries of Official Issues

As a special report, I would like to highlight two forgeries recently sold on eBay for three-figure sums. One is very crude and was sold by a general vendor with no expertise, and the other was a slightly crude forged overprint and was sold by a very experienced eBay stamp dealer who should know better.

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July 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

Not necessarily one of the top 3 Jubilee items this month, but certainly bargain of the month. The 4 1/2d on parcel piece is pretty scarce, especially in such fine condition. In fact this stamp was issued primarily to pay this parcel post rate. It sold for only £15.90, and is worth £30-£40 of anybody’s money.

Controls of the 1/2d vermilion are still very popular. Even though the Q control is probably the most common, this unmounted mint block of six shows a dramatic break to the frame line which makes it a much more collectable item, and it sold for £43.56. I am currently in the process of recording the different settings of each control letter.

And finally this large multiple of the Army Official 1/2d green with control number is quite scarce, and was a snip at only £42.74. Controls on the official issues are particularly scarce, although are more common on the Army Official than the others.

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June 2012 Ebay Report

Top 3 Items of the Month

This attractive, if slightly ragged, cover has two interesting points. Firstly, it is an advertising cover sent from Alfred Smith, the well-known stamp dealer, and prolific maker of advertising envelopes! This one has a 6d and 1d stamped-to-order dies which is much less common on advertising covers. And secondly, it’s going to Turks Island! Due to its condition, it sold for only £87.08. A fine one should fetch double.

This 1s green single franking is scarce, since at this time most countries were part of the UPU, and hence the standard letter rate of 2 1/2d applied. However, New Zealand was one of the few for which letters were still charged 6d, so this double rate cover is a nice example of this scarcer rate. If it were a little bit fresher, it would have sold for more than the £50.29 it realised.

This block of six 1/2d vermilion Army Officials looks pretty standard at first glance. However a closer look reveals that the fourth stamp has a broken L variety in OFFICIAL and the fifth stamp has a broken Y in ARMY. Unfortunately some creasing put me off pushing past £28.70.

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