Well, for my part, I like the excitement. It's bringing new collectors in, which is what we need because otherwise our hobby will die. Anyhow, I think reversing the historical error is funny. And, aside from this, it's a great way to play a practical joke on and make some nice philatelic covers for our fellow philatelists abroad, who might not be as aware of our newest issues as we are.
For instance, I just used five new Jennies to pay postage in sending a lot of Austalian Colony stamps to Australia. Made sure the ties were nice on the wrapper and the clerk tied the edge of the leftmost with a nice, clear, "do not bend." You're not going to find many of those in the future (or maybe you will now that I mention it.) But consider the third listing from the top here:
http://stampauctionnetwork.com/sr/sr56105.cfmIndividually, those are all nice stamps, but not impossible to find, even in unused condition; though obviously rare as MNH, you can find very lightly hinged and previously hinged examples of all three with fine and worse centering for pennies on the dollar and plenty of used examples, naturally, for next-to-nothing. Plus, Washington-Franklins are such a study unto themselves that most lot dealers don't waste time looking for them, so you can occasionally pick up even MNH of 498 and 499 cheap with bigger, unsearched lots on
ebay.
But you won't find many regular original Jennies so nicely tied in purple with the other two, with such a clear date stamp. So that's why this piece is worth a few hundred bucks at auction. Similarly, I'll wager there won't be too many clean, clear wrappers with five of the newer Jennies to survive the next hundred years. My reasons: 1.) Most parcels sent Down Under today aren't actually paid with postage stamps. 2.) Most new Jennies have no call going to a town called Surfer's Paradise 3.) I just so happened to get my choice of cancel inks today so chose a colored ink (red) 4.) Because the clerks weren't very busy at my very tiny local post office, I got to choose my tying, including the "Do Not Bend" 5.)The town I sent from definitely doesn't send much to Surfer's Paradise, Australia 6.) Most new Jennies will be collected as unused and remain on their sheet. 7.) My wrapper clearly shows a rough approximation of today's postal rate to the destination as I only had to use 5 of 6 Jennies to make it and overpaid by about 30 cents. 8.) Within a generation, most people won't know what a postage stamp is. (The remaining Jenny I kept on the sheet with its provenance, including receipt and customs slip, which won't be very common either. If my friend sends the wrapper back, I've got a nice little set there, but even if not, it's one more thing for tomorrow's expert to try tracking down, will give the recipient half a heart attack before she actually looks at it, and will likely give her a nice little collectible representing our country's philately and philatelic history.)
All these things, when we are talking about stamps yesterday, today and tomorrow, can eventually make a relatively common piece of material valuable to certain collectors. That's how stamps work. You don't necessarily need to unwrap one of the 1/100 "reverted" Jenny '13s to have something rare; in fact, if I hadn't just broadcast what I'd done and the USPS had decided to print more reverts, there's a good chance my cover could have eventually been more valuable than the reverts. Indeed, one of my prize stamps is a Great Britain Sc. #3 with a very clear, crisp, black No. 9 Maltese Cross Cancel. I have dozens of G.B. Sc. #3s lying around. Book value for them says $9.00, but you can get them for 9 cents. What you won't find many of is the certain numbered Maltese Crosses. I had to lurk like a fiend to find mine in an ignored corner of
ebay and bid at the very last minute, and I still paid about 10% of its $1,500 book value.
But you have to be willing to truly get into the hobby and remember that if everyone can (and probably will) get one, you shouldn't invest in it. As in anything else, scarcity drives value. The less of it there is, the more it's worth. So if you really get into and have fun with it, we could all collectively turn those unused New Jennies into used New Jennies, keep a very few unused ones for ourselves and actually inflate the value for either used or unused, whatever there ends up the least of.
Anyhow, I'm sharing all this because I like seeing new collectors come in. My wife and I are the only collectors I know under age 50 (I'm 30 -- her age can remain undisclosed), and it would be nice to think we aren't two of the last thousand or so people in the U.S. who will ever look at a postage stamp and find it beautiful. And I'd like to share all the many fascinating facets of philately with these new folks, maybe pique their interest and explain why Scott, S.G. and the rest of the catalog companies publish volume upon volume every year: There are so many different ways a stamp can come down to you and so many ways it can depart from you once you leave this mortal coil.
And all this is to say that this truly is an awesome hobby and I hope more people will get involved. If the USPS does a little marketing stunt now and then to help that along, why not? At least a couple people will stick with it beyond this issue and realize stamp collecting is an amazing pursuit that only becomes more fascinating the more you know.
Posted 05/07/2014 01:51 am
