FDC

Quick question. Is a Mint First Day Cover issued by the P.O. worth less or more than a First Day Cover that goes through the regular mail addressed to the recipient? I hope I was clear enough. What about the FDC that have the raised Burgundy cloth with the stamp embossed in Gold?

There is no such thing as a "mint" First Day Cover, as a FDC by definition bears a "First Day of Issue" cancellation rendering the stamp(s) used. What I think you are referring to is an "unaddressed" First Day Cover versus one that is addressed to a recipient.

An unaddressed FDC is always worth more (worth is a relative term, though). On older covers, addressed FDC's were the norm, and therefore are quite acceptable, although unaddressed covers would carry a better value as they are typically harder to find.

Fast forward to the present day and unaddressed covers are the preferred way to collect FDC's. Even if you service them yourself, you can place a removable return address label on the covers and the item is returned by the US Postal Service in a cellophane wrapper to avoid any undesirable postal markings that would otherwise take away from the desirability of the item.

Virtually all covers issued after 1950 must bear a cachet (printed artwork) on the left side of the cover in order to be desirable for most collectors. There are many makers of such cachets, including the ones you have noted that would have raised burgundy cloth and/or stamps embossed in gold. The latter was quite common on the marketplace about 20 years ago but were sold at unrealistically high prices and most who subscribed to the collections were disappointed to learn that the value of the covers held little value. The "gold" embossing is not really gold, but merely a thin gold plating or overlay that is virtually worthless in terms of its gold value, so it was only a promotional gimmick to market attractive looking first day covers.

Typically in today's market (with a few exceptions) most US First Day Covers carry a catalog value of $1 or so, with resale values on the secondary market typically 10% to 30% of that figure, so individually the covers are really not worth all that much at resale.

Thanks wt1 for clearing the matter up for me. I thought what you said was true but I wanted someone else to confirm my thoughts. Thanks for your prompt reply. Chuck