Very Old Back Of Book - Large Lot, Opinions

Hi Everyone,
I am curious about this lot of stamps.
I was wondering if any of these stamps are some what valuable or rare.

I know that's a hard question to ask, so maybe just get an opinion, is there any particular stamps that stand out and why?

I haven't won these yet and still debating.
Thank you,
SueStamps

Hi SueStamps. This is a nice selection of mostly revenue with a few other items. I would be interested in it, if the price wasn't too high. I will have to defer to revenue "experts" to determine if there are any precious items. The top row, item 4 appears to be a Hussey local stamp, nbr 87L75.

Looks like a nice medicine stamp on the bottom row too. Some interesting stuff.

Hi ncbuckeye and all,
I am so over my head with this lot of stamps!

Someone made a comment that there might be a couple private die issues. What does that mean?

Is the Hussey local stamp a private die?
What does the nbr 87L75 stand for?

I almost feel that I should let this go to a stamp collector who knows more, and would (I hate to say this) appreciate these more than I would. But then I would like these, to be able to have them in my possesion, so I can view, so I can learn more about them.

Thank you so much for your help.
SueStamps

The 87L75 is the Scott Catalog # listed under "Local Stamps". There are differences between a local stamp and private die proprietory stamp. A local stamp was issued by a company who provided local postal and parcel delivery. The local stamp was in payment for that service. A private die propriety stamp was a revenue stamp placed on the sale of a commodity during the civil and Spanish American Wars. This site has some info on it - http://www.rdhinstl.com/mm/mmb1.htm
Hope this helps!

SueStamps,

It's a nice lot for beginner of Back of the Book or for someone who is interested in general BoB stuff. A great way to play around and really figure out what a lot of that stuff is (assuming you have access to a U.S. Scott Specialized Catalog which will contain almost all of those items - without a Specialized, you'll be fairly lost).

As for value, well... not much. It is a handy assortment of stuff but it is all fairly common leftovers. Not to say it's all useless by any means, but I would put a value of around 5-10 cents per item on average. So, maybe 4-6 bucks and that oughta keep you busy for a while sorting through it all and finding out the wonders of BoB items (Personally, I love the stuff!) If it's much more than that, I'd decline. (I'd even assemble something similar if needed instead of have you overspend on it.)

Hope that helps,

Kurt

Great site ncbuckeye

A lot of information in there for the specialist.

Chimo

Bujutsu

A nice selection of stamps, but as other have stated, catalog values are not too high on any of it. Most are at minimum catalog value; a few up to perhaps $1 in catalog value; and two or three perhaps as high as $4 in catalog value. However, without closer checking there is no way to know if any damage may diminish those values, and of course, catalog values are no where close to purchase prices on the secondary market.

I think I counted 63 stamps in that lot. Even if you figure a catalog value of perhaps $40 for the entire lot and on the secondary market get them for 25% of catalog value you'd be at $10 at the most. Alternatively, if you were to (generously) apply a value of $0.15 apiece for each item, you'd still be below $10 for the entire lot.

Nothing screams out as being overly valuable. The R6b (2c Bank Check part perforate) in the second row looks to have too tight margins to be legit; my guess is someone trimmed it.

Other than that, the pictures are too small to be able to check cancels and varieties.

Thank you all so much for your responses.
Luckily for me, the auction is for "credits" not money.
I'll go ahead and bid, if I win, I'll probably have more questions after I receive them, lolol....

Oh my, I so need to purchase that Specialized catalog.
Going to do that right now!
Thank you all!
SueStamps