I Realize That Quality Sells, But Yikes!

Browsing through some of the results from yesterday's Siegel sessions... it looks like premiums for classic-era graded material are still alive and well, although some of the premiums paid seem insane to me. Especially some that may meet the *technical* merits for the grades in question, but don't have the greatest eye appeal. In other words, there were other examples that sold for much less that had greater aesthetics, in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, some of the stamps in question are stunning, but others don't pass muster, IMO. For example, Lot 3625 is graded 100J... but has a blunted corner at lower right. Some of the examples have what I would call short perfs, but I guess those aren't penalized as much as I would think.

Auction table of contents:

http://stampauctionnetwork.com/Y/Y1061.cfm

Examples (SCV = Scott Catalog Value; prices do not include additional 15% buyer premium):

Lot 3366. Scott 10A. SCV: $160.00. Sold for $3,500.00
Lot 3369. Scott 11. SCV: $21.00. Sold for $750.00
Lot 3376. Scott 11A. SCV: $275.00. Sold for $2,200.00
Lot 3380. Scott 11A. SCV: $15.00. Sold for $225.00
Lot 3422. Scott 24. SCV: $55.00. Sold for $3,750.00
Lot 3448. Scott 35. SCV: $65.00. Sold for $500.00
Lot 3486. Scott 72. SCV: $600.00. Sold for $12,500.00
Lot 3488. Scott 78. SCV: $350.00. Sold for $1,800.00
Lot 3500. Scott 93. SCV: 60.00. Sold for $3,250.00
Lot 3501. Scott 94. SCV: 350.00. Sold for $2,400.00
Lot 3512. Scott 98. SCV: 325.00. Sold for $18,000.00
Lot 3515. Scott 99. SCV: $1,600.00. Sold for $11,500.00
Lot 3528. Scott 112. SCV: $150.00. Sold for $1,000.00
Lot 3575. Scott 135. SCV: $80.00. Sold for $410.00
Lot 3576. Scott 136. SCV: 32.50. Sold for $225.00
Lot 3599. Scott 158. SCV: $1.00. Sold for $100.00
Lot 3603. Scott 159. SCV: $22.50. Sold for $300.00
Lot 3607. Scott 160. SCV: $90.00. Sold for $1,000.00
Lot 3617. Scott 182. SCV: $6.00. Sold for $900.00
Lot 3623. Scott 188. SCV: $33.00. Sold for $850.00
Lot 3625. Scott 189. SCV: $27.50. Sold for $4,500.00
Lot 3636. Scott 209. SCV: $6.50. Sold for $2,800.00
Lot 3647. Scott 219D. SCV: $5.50. Sold for $110.00
Lot 3648. Scott 220c. SCV: $32.50. Sold for $1,200.00
Lot 3651. Scott 223. SCV: $4.75. Sold for $375.00
Lot 3652. Scott 224. SCV: $200.00. Sold for $7,500.00
Lot 3662. Scott 230. SCV: $0.40. Sold for $400.00
Lot 3665. Scott 232. SCV: $37.50. Sold for $650.00
Lot 3680. Scott 234. SCV: $165.00. Sold for $2,300.00
Lot 3686. Scott 235. SCV: $25.00. Sold for $4,500.00
Lot 3698. Scott 237. SCV: $9.00. Sold for $180.00

That is the BIGGEST banknote imagineable. I was at the computer when it sold....shock.

It this case it may be better to be the seller than the buyer, especially if it's some kind of a fad.

There was a day when people who went gah-gah over condition were called "condition cranks." I remember them from back in the 70s, but they were well established by then. They were the ones who were paying many multiples of catalog for used material in ultra-high grade. At the time I recall being told that much of it was market speculation in investment grade material. Now I understand that stamps certified at these levels are intrinsically rare and fine, and so have a market that fluxes in different ways than the norm for more common stamps. The Natalee Grace collection, where lot 3625 spent some time, was built almost entirely of such material, which is the kind of feat that impresses even the super rich, who really are the marketplace for these rarities in the first place. If it's a fad, its been going on for a long time. But it has become more systematic since the beginning of condition grading from the late eighties, or really 1990 on.

Not the sort of thing that those who like "bargain hunter" victories would enjoy. Yet, for those who equate rarity and price, the more they pay, the more exclusive the item and so the bigger the bragging rights. Few of us ever see these people or their collections, but they are out there in larger numbers than you might think. And as the economy improves, things get more astounding. The big boys are out for big game.

There's a looong thread on the Australian stamp forum about this grading thing. It's a little tedious but a bit of a slanging match developed between a PSE grader & some others as to what 100% actually means. One side opined that it should be the whole stamp that should be judged, perfs, centering, cancel (if used),etc. PSE grader's opinion was that it was more complex than that & that a stamp with a blunt corner perf could still be 100%. The discussion had gone full circle several times so I gave up on them.

These sale prices seems ridiculous!

Why is Lot 3625. Scott 189. SCV: $27.50. Sold for $4,500.00 so surprising?

I think that Lot 3662. Scott 230. SCV: $0.40. Sold for $400.00 is more remarkable. The sale price is 1000x the SCV. [edited: Corrected ratio - thanks Kevin]

If Lot 3625 were sold at the same ratio then the selling price would be $27,500.

- stamporator -

Wow that really is something! I can honestly say that I have never in my life seen such beautiful material in person at least! Those buyers must have more disposable income than any number of us together! Also, I think that there are some good points of view & interest in this post.

stamporator....your math figures are incorrect...
$400 selling price vs 40c catalog = 1000x

Lot # 3625 has a PSE cert 100J....Only Banknote to grade such. Stamp is very impressive.
Lot # 3662 has a PSE cert of 98....impressive, but not what the Banknote can show,

This is all egos with money at work here. My perfectly centered collection is better than your perfectly centered collection, because my certificates say so.

That, as well as a phenomenon that occurs primarily in numismatics:

Registry Sets and the competition in building the "highest graded set on record". There are awards given out annually for the best registry set in different categoriesand there are bragging rights associated with this. So, spending $20,000 to get those extra "registry points" to put your set above your competitor is what is being bought. It's a formalized numeric system that gets people involved in competition, as well as lining the pockets of the expertizing company and dealers.

http://www.psestamp.com/set_registry/

The collector who had the finest U.S. used collection in the PSE Set Registry, arguably the finest used collection ever formed, sold the entire collection a year ago. He was one of the major players in the grading phenomenon.

revcollector - Not just in numismatics. The registry set phenomenon has been gong strong, and still is, in sports cards for quite some time. It has actually priced alot of collectors out of the hobby. I'm probably gong to be one of the ones to get out of that hobby. I simply can't afford to finish my sports card sets in the condition I am use to paying for. I have been starting to liquidate them, which is actually a good thing because it gives me some spendable cash to use on stamps.

As far as the JUMBO margin phenomenon goes, couldn't they be considered freaks or oddities, or even faulty? If you think about it, those jumbo margins are not what the printers had in mind, were they? I mean, they must have had a specific margin size and stamp spacing in mind when they printed them. Jumbo margins on one stamp mean margins too small on the next stamp. And tight margins are looked at as inferior, so why wouldn't jumbo margins be as well? I would think the best examples would be the ones with margins as close to the specified size as possible. Just a thought.

Jumbos are not the result of the kind of problem you seem to have in mind. Several years ago, M. Jack Reinhard demonstrated that the Bank Note Companies intentionally set the perforators to give extra margin to the stamps on the outside edges of a plate of 200. As a result, four positions on a plate, which he labeled as positions "A" "E" "K" and "O", had extra margin width and height, resulting in an overall larger paper area. On a well registered sheet, these positions would show the extra width in such a way that the stamps in those spots would appear to be considerably off center but with margins all around.

In this pic, look at the group of 6 stamps (five 2c and one 5c) from the four corner positions. The center stamp in the top row shows a normal 2c, properly centered, so you can see that the four 'corner" stamps in this group are all outsized stamps, aka jumbos. The center stamp in the bottom row is the oddball. This was the result of a slight two direction misregistration of the sheet and the perfs.




The two 3c stamps at the top show the same kind of thing, in that they both have the same size piece of paper as defined by the perf setting, but one is off more than the other. Which would you prefer for your collection?

The two 5c stamps on the right show the aesthetically pleasing happy accident when the corner misregistration happens to land "just right." Super jumbo.