Blocks Of 4 - Scott Catalog Valuations

I have a NH block of 4 of #484. I see Scott lists valuations for blocks of 4 but I believe this would be for hinged ($42.50) since NH singles are $20. I assume, at a minimum, s NH block would be 4x20 but that wouldn't include any premium (which a hinged version has). It's funny because they do include both hinged and NH for pairs but not blocks. This is for most Wash/Franklins I see. Any insights?

It is an error and the cv should be approximately twice the pair value. If you look at the catalog numbers before and after 484 the values are correct for a block of four.

The block of four is a hinged value, not an error. Only the centerline block has an NH value. An NH block of four would usually be about two pairs plus 10%, unless it was a stamp where blocks are very scarce, such as #11 or #11A where even used blocks catalog $1000 while a pair is only $62.50.

This is why folks buy at blocks of four prices, break them up and sell the singles. Block of four collectors today are just a memory except for the occasional unicorn.

Which is a shame, I have seen some great used block collections over the years.

The entire thing IS an error when you have a NH price for a single and a NH price for blocks of six and nine but no premium for a block of four. Maybe it makes sense to you but to the rest of us it defies logic.

It's not a question of "making sense", it's a question of "normal catalog listings". Adding that one line to hundreds of numbers adds a bunch of pages to an already huge catalog.

Related, but a bit off the subject . . . Plate blocks must have selvage which stabilizes them so they don't come apart but plain old blocks of four don't. So when I've collected the latter, the plain blocks often came apart by themselves -- a reason I stopped collecting them. If you deal with that phenomenon long enough, as dealers must, you start to think you might as well just separate them into singles and be done with it. A few collections of blocks I've purchased had the blocks barely staying together and if you so much as picked one up, it would tear apart right before your eyes. My short-lived blocks of four collecting days are long over.

My experience as well. The older the block the more tenuous the connections.

The worst offenders for US seem to be 1950's or earlier.

When I collected Russia, it was a real problem. The 1956 Pavilions stamps can be found in sheets of thirty with five sets of six different designs se-tenant. These are beautiful items and I really wanted both sheets. I found them "post office fresh" in a Raritan auction. There were ten sets of each sheet with the as-issued glassine interleaving still in place. They made it to my house but as soon as I ever so gently removed them from the packaging, they flexed a tiny bit, and the perforations started to separate.

I am done with blocks/multiples when there is any premium involved.

This is often a problem with just plain old "se-tenant" stamps, as well. Album makers often provide spaces for these attached which makes sense, I suppose, since they were issued that way. But if they lack selvage or some kind of border to hold them together, or if the selvage is perforated, there's a decent chance they won't survive staying together for long.

Israel tabs are another example of selvage (the "tab") coming apart from the stamps. Since these are often collected with tabs, that's kind of important. Early Israel tabs from all the way back then seem to want to self-separate now after decades of blissful togetherness. Perfs do not necessarily hold together forever.

I've even bought FDC's to get a block of four to fill an album space that required a block of four where I could not find such a block. I figured I could at least soak off the used block carefully and mount that -- only to discover the so-called "block" was actually two pairs or four singles carefully mated on the cover. So apparently other people have trouble keeping such multiples together, too.

The silly things stamp collectors care about! Smile.

The US item that always comes to mind when it comes to perforations is the White Plains sheet. These trade hands many times over the course of their life since they are both very popular and are relatively pricey. Placing a sheet in a split back mount is an anxiety inducing task.

Yes, the average non-collector would think us a bit wiggy to obsess over perforations. Maybe they are right.

Essentially 98% of the hobby is wigging over minutia. Tiny perf differences, tiny design differences, tiny shade differences, tiny paper differences. To us they are all very big differences, but to the rest of the world......