Spotting Philatelic Covers...

Also it fails under your own named criterion:"over-careful placement of the stamps and/or cancellation"

no philatelist of any sort would overlap the stamps like that, and they are all skewed ...

I am convinced it wasn't philatelic!

:)

This cover is in the Australian Air Mail Catalogue (AAMC) as AAMC470.

Although the flight left Brisbane on 10 December, this one is postmarked Sydney 7 December, which fits. The AAMC notes "Special souvenir envelopes were issued by Qantas". Someone bought the envelope specifically for the flight, so all else aside, this is philatelic, and collectable.

My AAMC is the 7th Edition, 2002, and values this cover at $25

Perf14, I should have added a footnote to my criterion 'over-careful placement ...': Not all philatelic covers are prepared by collectors. Plenty are created by well-meaning non-collectors for collectors. Such covers are still philatelic.

As to whether this cover (and similar covers) is collectible, well, that's a whole new argument.

Well, it's always good to get good news with the bad, I will bow to superior knowledge and accept that it is philatelic - the bad news

I paid much less than $25 for it - the good news

Thank you both,

:)

Here is another:

[url=http://www.thegomc.com/PicHosting/share-8FE7_4DBFCEDE.html"][/url]

What are your thoughts on it?

:)

Looks completely commercial to me - no look of contrivance

That's commercial and a stunner. Rod Perry would charge a fortune for it

Thanks, it's a hard thing to get right, but I really like collecting covers.
Fortunately they are not a craze yet(but I have noticed that prices seem to mounting everyday
and bargains like the previous one are getting harder to come by)

I think the next one is also not philatelic, and I think the Professor on the address was a famous American sport figure, I wonder if someone can confirm or deny?

[url=http://www.thegomc.com/PicHosting/share-1D71_4D495076.html"][/url]

:)

Here is another, the address leads me to think that it is commercial, but it seems to be over-franked for 1985. Any comments?

[url=http://www.thegomc.com/PicHosting/share-E4B1_4D495076.html"][/url]

nice purple cds though,

:)

Security Post was for the manual transmission of sensitive or valuable items. I don't know if the rate is correct, but I'll assume it is, and it's commercial. Another nice one!

Both look quite commercial to me. I don't recall seeing a Security Post cover (but I don't collect Australia - I just enjoy reading Rod Perry's columns).

I have a few other covers but they are not as interesting.
I might bump this thread up when/if I find more.
I hope you guys will do the same...thanks heaps for your help.

:)

Great stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it: hope you'll post some more soon!