First Day Cover Collections

We received quite a few first day cover collections...they are in impressive shape and well put together. The first is a set of three binders:

I'm breaking up the posts so the collections will be easier to follow.

This one is a Civil War FDC Collection.

This one is a Japan/Nippon Collection, but rather than start a new topic elsewhere, I'll just add them here. Some are pretty old...The first couple have undecipherable dates (unless you read Japanese.)

I'm a fan of Nippon stamps in general, some of these are really quite neat!

Last, but certainly not least, is a world stamp collection on HUGE stock book cards decorated with native subjects from the stamps origin. The artwork is incredible!

Too much material to comprehend in just one post! It seems you have some nice, interesting covers mixed in with lots of very common material (looks like Postal Commemorative Society logo on the Artcraft covers in the first several scans) and then material from the notorious mail order seller "The Franklin Mint" where they sold their "Postmasters of America" first day covers through local media at a whopping $2.75 per cover in minimum shipments of two covers ($5.50) at approximately 10 shipments per year ($550.00)!

Some unsuspecting collectors fell for their advertisements and spent way too much for these things that were so over-produced during the 1970's that they are probably worth 10% or 20% of that value in today's market (if you can even get that).

In fact, a cover retailing for $2.75 EACH in 1976 is the equivalent (with inflation) of $10 to $11 in today's money in 2012. Not a very good investment, to say the least.

Here's a period ad that appeared in a 1976 newspaper encouraging collectors to subscribe to their service:

I like the Japanese first day covers!

Wt1 I have a couple of hundred covers that some poor devil paid the Postal Commemorative society 8.75 each with shipping I would sell any of them for 50 cents apiece !!

I liked the Japanese ones as well.

Thanks for posting.

That's actually a pretty nice collection but the prices you speak of seem waaaaaaaaaaay to high. I liked the older ones just before the Japanese stuff too.

Nice eye candy. How did you get around the SCF image size restrictions? Looks like your pictures are over 200K each. Mine get rejected if over 100k??????

Wt1:

That's actually several posts! I knew there was a lot of material to cover so I tried to break them up that way (different posts and little descriptions). Thanks for the information on the First Day Covers. It reiterated my findings about a month back, a invoice for each of the pages from a different lot. It baffles my that people paid that kind of money for what is essentially an envelope with a used stamp.

However, for the World Mint Sheets album, I think if I was collecting them I might pay that...the artwork and display is GORGEOUS! When we do get around to selling them, First Day covers are auctions, rather than store items for this reason... there is no way someone can justify inflation of price (or worth) by as much as 10 to $11 a page. That's ridiculous!

All in all, I hope the image posting was not a problem, and sorry if the images were hard to swallow all at once.

Battlestamps and I_love_stamps,

The Japanese ones are quite neat in my opinion...especially the really early ones. The stamps are neat and the cancels are really cool too!

Chasa,

I didn't realize they were over size restrictions! If they are, I'm sure someone will be along shortly and take them down or ask me to.

Thanks for the compliments on the albums everyone!

I always liked the fancy and specialized cancellations of Japan. Some nice ones here too.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Smashing Japanese collection - it's an area I've never strayed into mainly through ignorance if I'm honest but this collection looks like it will reward patient viewing. Thanks for sharing...