Asheville Bourse Purchases And A Question On An R88

Some of my purchases from the Asheville bourse this weekend! I also was able to pick up a bunch of M&Ms too. Now my question: this R88 is much fainter color than other $5 first issues in my collection. Would it be faded or is there a whole range of shades on these? It has beautiful embossed cancels too. Thanks y'all...

PS - response time for this site is has been glacial for the last few days. Is anyone else having trouble? I'm not having problems with other sites...

The cancel on that first stamp is that of Orray Taft & Co., of Providence, RI. Some historical information on the firm is found on pages 490 and 491 at this link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=oA...20RI&f=false

Those are some lovely stamps!

Hey SP! Nice stamps.
Yes, I have also seen some spotty performance with this site in last few days. If it isn't the site, and considering we both live within a few miles of each other, it could be a router issue. I am not seeing any issues with other sites. This one is loading slow, or partially loading and then hanging. I close browser and wait a minute or two, them it loads normally.
Don

Thanks Don - that's exactly the behavior I've experienced. We need to get together soon - I've got some new traders. Got any time for lunch this week?


Thanks WT1 - I'll check out the link tonight!

If that is an 1868 cancel, than it seems to be faded. If it is an 1863 cancel, than it might be much closer to the issued shade at that time.
Which m&m's did you find?

It looks to me like an 1866 cancel. Below is a better view. And luckily for me (cause I've been on a bit of a buying binge lately), the two dealers I purchased M&Ms from had a pretty new smattering of lower value items to fill some holes in my collection. I ended up with about a dozen M&Ms. Here's a few of the more interesting ones.

Earl Apfelbaum has his Buy It Now sale going on at Stamp Auction Network and I just picked up these. Many of them I have, only a few I need. The lot was only about 15% of catalog so even if some of these are rough around the edges, it's still a good deal.

If you need a lot of them than 15% is fine. These are all among the more common of the m&m's that one usually sees in large lots. After a while you will start to notice some m&m's that never seem to show up, or never show up in nice condition, even though they have low or relatively low catalog values. There are some popular $300 catalog stamps that are far more common than some $10-$15 stamps that are not so popular among the m&m's.

Of most interest to me was the RS65 Dr. Crooks Wine of Tar. One I need and really makes the lot for me. I agree, the RS147-149 are very common (but very popular) as are the John F. Henrys.

I have a few of those you show too like the Ayers round stamp and Schenck's at the very bottom. Great looking lot you have there!

A word to the wise regarding buying from Apfelbaum: be VERY cautious when buying their material. Their material is rife with fakes and unlisted faults. You're probably ok buying bulk lots of m&ms, but when it comes to singles, be very careful, especially on 1st-3rd issue revenue material.

If you return too many lots due to THEIR error, they will simply blacklist you. One of the most unethical entities in the philatelic marketplace today.

My Belgium Scott #39 -forgery- is a perfect example of what the Rev is commenting about. I previously posted it for all to see...

Thanks for the heads up Revenuecollector. In addition to the M&Ms (only a part of the lot I bought), I purchased 2 other lots of revenues from Apfelbaum at the same time. I'll check it carefully and let you know how it goes...

Well so far it's been a fun friday afternoon! My lots from Apfelbaum came in and the lot with the M&Ms is better condition than what I could tell from their scans. The Crooks ended up being an R65e, experimental silk, in quite fine shape, and the Schenks 6c ended up being a RS213c on pink paper. I haven't really gotten deep into the other 2 lots but these two jumped out: an RB8b with a minor tear lower right, and what looks like an R150 proof thats been perfed, I think. Maybe the experts here can weigh in. It's on a very soft fibrous paper, feels almost like blotter paper, about 2x as thick as normal. The rev lot that these came out of is fairly large, it's going to take a while to go thru

Yes, the $20 certainly appears to be a proof. However the proprietary is very nice, and not a common stamp. Small faults on stamps of this size are normal, especially given their usages. I would like to see a scan of the back of the Crooks and the Shenck's if it is possible.