Fabulous #9 1851 1c Type IV Plated Lot

Esther - There is a good Glossary in upper left of the forum. It is a quick and easy way to lookup terms that might be unfamiliar to you.
Don

Esther G-P, the method by which plates were prepared for the printing of classic US stamps in the 19th century (flat steel plates with line-engraved recessed images, 200 images to a plate in panes of 100 each with 10 rows of 10 stamps in each pane, which were inked before the stamp paper was applied under pressure to transfer the design to the paper to create the final stamp product) meant that each engraved image on the plate had unique features vis-s-vis all the other images. These features could be unintentional imperfections, such as debris adhering to the plate or imprecision in creating the image, or deliberate enhancements made to the image at some point prior to printing. In any event, "plating" refers to the practice of identifying those characteristics that identified each image, or "position," on the printing plate and then assigning actual stamps exhibiting these characteristics to these positions. The positions on each pane of 100 were numbered 1 to 100. Thus for example, for Scott #9, the 27th position, or the seventh image in the third row, of the right pane of Plate 1 Late would be designated 27R1L. This practice is primarily an intellectual exercise, but it has given rise to insight into how these stamps were actually produced. As rgstamp said, it is very much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

Thankyou for the explanation--and also for pointing out the glossary.

I wonder how those that are able, rate the overall experience of bidding and buying in McCusker auctions. Comments please.

Sinclair,

I have no experience with this auction house (makes me nervous). In addition over the weekend I reviewed the lot extensively. I personally feel it was picked thru with subsequent lots representing the sound stamps in VF condition being sold individually. Most of multiples have manuscript cancels, some are damaged. Although I think 3000$ would not be bad price for lot, I think I will be dissatisfied with condition so will not be bidding. I don't think I will find any great treasures there and prefer sound stamps

I don't really know anything about McCusker, except that they've been around for quite some time. Of course, as we all know, that doesn't necessarily guarantee greatness, but it is a data-point. I don't recall ever hearing anything negative about them. They have appeared to me to be pretty big over the years in the First Day Cover market.

I suspect that as high-end auction houses chase higher and higher end consignments, more and more middle-of-the-road things such as this wind up in venues (like this) that we (classic US collectors) aren't as used to buying from. I think that's a good thing, actually.

I want to say that I bought something from them a couple years ago, but I'm not sure. I'll check my receipts tonight if I get a chance, and see. Once I remember which item it was then I can comment on how it went.

Disclosure: I have bid and bought items in their auctions. I can't remember if it was in more than one auction though. I bought a substantial amount in one particular sale a few years ago.

I asked the question because when I am bidding at auction I don't want to bid against the house or against consignors. I have no problem bidding against real bidders. Much is made of shill bidding and crooked sellers on ebay but the truth is there are very few safe places to buy if you don't know the games that are played. After I kept seeing the same stuff show up sale after sale, I was able to surmise that a great number of their items weren't actually selling even though they made it appear that a bid had been placed. I seem to recall the APS banning or at least taking a negative position on the practice some twenty years or so ago.

In another disagreeable episode of buying involving different auction houses, I, along with a bidding partner was outbid on a large lot at auction. The darn stuff eventually started turning up in sales of one other particular auction house. I eventually learned that an employee of that auction house was the buyer of the lot. I think there is a good chance that a buyer would be at a significant disadvantage when bidding on those lots. I am not at liberty to discuss how or why but I ended up with some of the junk from that large lot... like pouring salt in a wound!

Winston, I've not purchased through a live stamp auction, but I've owned a store and a mall in the antiques business and dealt with antique auctions, as buyer and seller, for many years and everything you've alluded to does happen in that arena. The "house" has a set of bidding numbers they use for the appearance of an item being sold when it doesn't bring what they (if they own it) or the consignor wants/needs on an item. Other auction houses, mostly from out-of-state, bid and buy at antique auctions--there pockets are usually pretty deep, making it hard to get the better items etc.

I now remember what I bought from McCusker. It was a single cover, a few years ago. A nice usage, from a correspondence I was interested in, so I had a bit more vested interest in it than I would have expected most others to have. When I got the item, I was disappointed in the overall condition of the back of the folded letter (almost non-existant - contents cut out), which was not what I was expecting. I went ahead and kept it, since I had a high interest in many aspects of the front of the cover.

In all fairness to the seller, I didn't go back and re-read the description to see if this was properly noted in the description, to see if I just missed it or what. So it may very well just be my fault entirely for not doing my usual diligence at reading lot descriptions very very carefully (I almost always do that !).

I cannot find any of McCusker's past auctions online, at SAN or their website either, as I wanted to go look. This was one of their periodic auctions, like the upcoming one, not one of their ongoing weekly sales. Anyone know where their old sales are archived?

Looks like it went for $2800+tip.
I did not bid.

Who else noticed the golden easter egg?
It jumped off of the page at me when I first viewed the lot.
Poor condition probably keeps it from being worth much, however.

hint: its in the middle of a strip of 3, and if it were sound it would be a pretty nice item, but it looks badly damaged. Actually quite good bait for a group lot like this.

I thought the strip labeled 98-100 might well be Plate 2 (no apparent center line) and thus include position 99R2.

dudley - bingo. 98-99-100R2 - no question that's it. The 99R2 is hideous, however. Not sure what's wrong with it, but no question of what it is.

100R2 wouldn't have a centerline nor would 100R1L to clarify.
The horizontal spacing and vertical alignment match the positions, as do plating marks on 99R2.

"100R2 wouldn't have a centerline nor would 100R1L to clarify."

Doh! What was I thinking?? At my age one has trouble telling one's right from one's left.