Plate Block Values

I just noticed that plate # blocks of 4 for most stamps of the 1940's are valued at less than 4 singles (Scott 2011 Specialized). That makes no sense to me. Does anyone know the reason for this strategy of valuation? If singles were more in demand than P# blocks, it would seem the block of 4 with or without a P# would be worth at least the same as 4 singles.

I should have said late 1940's and later.

I would imagine that many of the stamps to which you refer have the minimum catalog value of 25 cents. In truth, a single modern stamp is usually worth far less, even less than face value ... hence the low value for a block of 4.

It is simply a supply and demand issue. There are more stamps than there are buyers. Thus, a block (or even a plate block) of four common stamps often doesn't come up to the "catalog value" of four single stamps.

The same analogy can be applied to used stamps -- just because the common ones may have a minimum "catalog value" of 25 cents each doesn't mean you can group 100 or 1000+ together and think you'd be able to get 25 cents for each one. It just doesn't work that way.

It is not a generalized phenomena. I just pulled my Scott Specialized 2013 off the shelf, and started looking, and it took a while to find one. So far, the few I've found share a common denominator: they are very common, and very low in denomination, as in 1 cent stamps:

#1278 is 0.25 for a single, $0.50 for a plate block
#1844 is 0.25 for a single, 0.75 for a plate block of six
#2168 is 0.25 for a single, 0.50 for a plate block

The same may hold for other low denomination stamps. But if the Great Americans series is any indication, once the denomination reaches 5 cents, the bottom line CV is $0.25 for a single and $1.00 for a plate block.

So, unless you can specify some contrary examples, I think the answer lies in the fact that you are looking at stamps with a very low denomination. The face value of a 1 cent plate block would be just 4 cents; the face value of a 5 cent plate block is 20 cents. Scott probably figures it is very hard to justify a $1.00 CV (normally the floor, except for the lower denominations) for a common stamp with a face value of 4 cents for the plate block.

Perhaps the real question here is why the 1 cent stamp as a single has a CV of $0.25. If Scott were to reduce the CV for these low denomination stamps to something more realistic, like 5 or 10 cents (which may still be too high), then they could apply a 4x multiplier to get a CV for a plate block that is probably realistic.

Basil

These cases that price the plate block at less than 4x the single price are for stamps that are very common and have low or minimum valuation as a single (for example 25c or 30c). The catalog value for most stamps are RETAIL prices you would expect to pay a stamp dealer.

For minimum value stamps, if you purchase individual stamps from a dealer, the dealer has taken time to sort and classify them, hence a time cost for the dealer. If one buys the stamps in bulk, unsorted, most of these types of stamps would cost between face value to less than 1c. If you buy individual stamps already sorted/classified from a dealer, they may be priced at 25c, 30c, etc. due the the dealer's time/effort.

So, for these minimum value stamps, if you purchase a retail plate block of these minimum value stamps, the dealer cost and extra face value and premium demand for the plate block will often not bump up the retail value to the 4x or more of the more scarce/desirable stamps.

For this same reason, if the RETAIL pricing were changed to, say, 5c or 10c, a collector would not easily find a dealer that will sort and offer the stamps individually for sale at these lower prices.

Thanks for all the responses. It was cleared up for me since I did not realize that Scott's value for singles is such that they don't go below a minimum (appears to be 20c). One fourth the value of the plate block is probably pretty close to the value Scott would have put on the single if they didn't have the 20c minimum policy.

I'm not sure I agree that this phenomenon is only true for very low denomination stamps. While I agree that the low denomination plays into it, I think it is more a supply/demand thing. Every commemorative plate block between 922 and 1022 has a listed value less than that of 4 singles (some much less) except for six stamps, and all 100 of the stamps in that group are 3c except a couple of 5c. There doesn't appear to be anything particularly special about 922 or 929, but while the listed values of these singles are very close to other 3c commemoratives from that period, their plate block values are 7 or 8 times the listed value of the single. There must be fewer of those plate blocks to be had.

I don't think the supply is any lower for 929 but rather demand is higher.

922 and 929 are topical stamps.
922 rail road
929 marines
Little better than the average stamp for the period.