Inverted Jenny 2013 Error?

Thanks for all the updates to this topic.

The rate at which the uninverted Jennies are being found is not encouraging. With a print run of 2.2 million sheets, only four sheets have surfaced. I think it's safe to say another handful of stealth finds exist in the hands of those savvy enough to secrete their discovery. We can only speculate on that number, but it's darned sure not 96.

That leads me to ponder two questions:

1, will USPS pull the issue off the market even if some or most of the uninverted Jennies have not phoned home?

And 2, how did USPS manage to distribute the uninverted issue? If I had to guess, I'd say they printed the non-inverts first, and somehow managed to insert them into the regular production runs. But how though? Did a non-invert get inserted every 22,000 sheets? That doesn't work if you consider all of the post-production work (e.g. the overwrap).

Apologies if this has been covered previously.

And so the mystery continues...

I don't think anyone from the USPS has made it known just how they put these "random" right-side-up Jenny Reprints into the distribution, only that they were evenly spread between those released to post offices and those purchased from SFS.

I also agree there's probably a few "finds" out there that have remained secret.

As these stamps eventually get pulled from the market, one has to wonder where the values of the right-side-up Jenny inverts will go, especially since offers of up to $25,000 are already on the table for "finders". If only a dozen or two are actually "found" before the stamps go off sale, is it a safe assumption to presume the values will skyrocket well beyond that number as there are fewer (than the 100 printed) that are known to exist?

It's all speculation at this point, I suppose.

Are you saying that some of the sheets will be destroyed? I'm wondering how many have sold so far.
Tom

It's possible. Depending on how long the USPS keeps the Inverted Jenny Souvenir Sheets on sale. Typically after a year or so, they get withdrawn from sale and the remainders get destroyed. Again, there's really no way of telling how many of the right-side-up Jennys get into collectors hands before that happens, since there's no "requirement" that anyone tell the USPS they got one. So all we have to go by is media reports on those who announced their "find" and the others ... well, some may be intentionally keeping them a secret until these very things happen at which point secondary market conditions will dictate value. If we know 100 exist presently (no way of telling how many were sold, though) and we're already seeing offers of $25,000 for them, if the remainders get destroyed and perhaps 50 of the right-side-up Jennys are found, does that mean the secondary market value will increase to $50,000 (or more)? Only time and collector demand will tell.

I have to say I would probably keep my discovery quiet. Not only would I pass on the $25K, I'd probably not want to be bothered with inquiries. There are uncertain tax implications as well. This is probably going through the mind of anyone quietly holding an uninverted sheet right now.

While this is certainly not the outcome the USPS wanted when they planned this, it could very easily have been predicted.

If these are destroyed before all are accounted for, the price of unopened Jennys could sell for more than face value. I imagine some sellers
are holding them with that expectation.

I might regret it, but I would sell the unverts and buy other stamps I've always wanted for my collection.

I am worried that someone inside the post office could weigh the packages and find the ones that are heavier. I am not saying anyone in the postal service is dishonest but it does happen with baseball card boxes and packages.

I read somewhere that they add something to the package like a card or something telling the buyer to contact the post office and let them know about the discovery.

There is no difference in weight fir the unverts. The instructions are printed on the card insert, the same insert that is in all envelopes.

Thank you for the info. I quit buying cards because Wal-Mart quit carrying the boxes and I didn;t trust the dealers at the card shows to not be weighing them. For all I know they could have fixed the problems with that by now.

Don't know if this is the right place for this or not, but-----------In the current Linn's, the first "un-inverted" Jenny just sold for 25k dollars. Wow.

I did hear about that. Apparently someone took Ideal Stamp Company up on their advertised offer which had appeared in Linn's for a few weeks now. It is interesting, however, that the Ideal Stamp Company website now shows that they have a standing offer for other "Unverts" but at a reduced buy price of "only" $15,000:

http://idealny.com/

Maybe now that the Ideal Stamp Company has one, their interest in acquiring other "unverts" has lessened. In any case, it only goes to prove the extreme volatility of prices for these stamps before all of the available "unverts" have been found and a true secondary market value has been established.

All in all, I think the seller got a great deal in receiving $25,000 for his "unvert". Just think of what you can buy (or how many other rare stamps you could buy) for that sum of money!

Sounds like the sort of thing Bill Gross might have done to insure that his US collection remains complete. Personally I think that it was a great overpayment; I really don't see that many collectors out there who would be willing to pay that kind of money for an artificially created item like this.

That's the key phrase that has so many collectors in an uproar about this issue. If they were legitimate errors, the sky's the limit on value; but a creation at the whim of the PMG or the USPS Marketing people is the problem.

It opens a dangerous precedent that (in my opinion) will turn more people off than on to the hobby of stamp collecting as there's no stopping this sort of thing from occurring with future new issues.

Does anyone wonder what would have happened had this issue been at the "Forever" rate? Would "lottery players" forego every other issue the USPS came out with to try their luck in buying only the Jenny Reprint in the hopes of finding an "unvert"? I suppose people would tire of it after awhile, but it seems to me the USPS could have sold so many more stamps if that were the situation.

Due to its extremely limited quantity (at most 100 panes in this case), it is unlikely that a stable secondary market price range could ever be established even if all the unverts are uncovered. When these panes come up for auction (as they inevitably will), their prices would entirely be governed by the whims of a relatively small number of collectors. Whims by definition are highly unstable.

wt1, I completely agree that they would have sold a lot more of these at the forever rate.