Gunna Have Some Fun With This One!

Thanks, both of you, very interesting.

I enjoyed looking at the stamps, but know very little about this area of collecting. Can anyone tell me when stamps with hand cancels became undesirable? I have gotten a number of Belize on paper that were hand cancelled around 1990 and planned on giving them to kids.

There is no single answer for that question. Many factors make a difference such as issuing country, postal or revenue, year of use, rarity, whether the cancel is contemporary with the issue date, and in general "supply and demand" (which truly is the single factor for ANY stamp).

I know that really doesn't answer your question directly but it's collecting experience that gives you an idea if a hand-canceled stamp holds value.

Kurt

Following up... after downgrading appropriately for condition, the total ended up being a touch over $7,000 Scott.

The sleepers are some of the 20th century documentaries and proprietaries, of which many are better perfs/watermarks, cataloging $15-50 a pop.