1480 - 1483 Error - Color Omitted? Is This 1483c?

You were sorting through scrap postage sheets the other daaaay...

Looking pretty good, but too bad you got fingerprints all over them.


Peter

oh noes, not fingerprints

AxmxZ can put all the fingerprints on the normal example he wants.

The sheet looks to be #1483c, the offset black omitted. It took a bit to register in my brain since the engraved plate # is there. Wow! Nice find, good eye!

Now I recall all kinds of shifts for this issue, too, aside from missing colors:
https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...-expertizers

hy-brasil: It took me a few seconds too, since my eyes could register that something was wrong, but it was a whole pristine sheet with no color shift... and then when I compared it to the normal block, it still took me a few seconds to realize what it means.

I guess it's time to send it in to be certified.

You could potentially? have the only intact sheet. Scott 2020 census has 32 blocks of 4 in census. I don't recall seeing a sheet intact.

I think a plate block went for $500 in last months Kelleher sale. Great find!

rismoney: I've searched various auction sites, and while there are a few records of blocks or plate blocks (34250 & 34272) selling for between 300 and 500, there are no records of a 34225, which is my sheet. And there are no sheets, or even larger blocks than the set of 4. So I'm wondering how they're even going to assign a value to it...

Yes, time for a certificate and I recommend the APS's APEX for color missing issues. The expertisers will go over the entire sheet with a magnifying glass to look for any specks of the "missing color" ink. True missing color errors must have all the color missing.

Good Luck!

Parcelpostguy: I'm already sending a Farwell group pair to the Philatelic Foundation - just got the money order today in fact, and then tonight - boom. This sheet. Is APEX more trustworthy?

The APEX is the best for color missing issues. Folks will contact the BEP if needed on items. Yours is a known item so careful stamp by review will be made of the pane. If it is good, as rismoney says, you may have then the currently only know pane. That could bring some good money in a major auction house unless there is a waiting in your collection.

As to value, the market will assign the value at time of auction. Unless there is a specialist out there chasing all known plate numbers, the plate number, your's or the other's actual number will have little impact beyond being a plate block.

Remember if your sheet is good, the market changes. If there were two known plate number blocks, there are now three a jump of 50% more. Similarly, the block count goes from 32 to 41 (42 if "blocks" include blocks with a plate number in the census referenced by rismoney).

Parcelpostguy: sounds like a plan. I guess I'll send this one into APEX and the Farwell group to PF

Here's my guesstimate (purely opinion). Personally I hope this doesn't get torn apart. I'll say that right off the bat, but to price it, you need to understand the sum of the parts.


If you sold the sheet at auction, I would imagine it going like this- where they try to make an estimate based on the contents of sheet. The unfortunate piece of the way this stamp was printed, is you don't end up with all blocks of 4.

Scott lists the block at 950? You have 10 of them, plus the extra. Call it $8-10k Scott pricing for the sheet - this is fantasy price and helps marketing, entice buyers of the lot, along with a hopeful stated fact as the only intact sheet auctioneer has offered. Great.

So, in this case there are lots of blocks of 4 available out in the market to satisfy collectors as previous owners chopped these sheets up. Scott $950 pricing is really for the PB and maybe $800 for zip. The rest ~$300-400 + left blocks of 2, far less. There's no demand for those. They end up in weekly sales type auctions without a buyer.

The problem I have been seeing lately in the auction market is a bit of bifurcation between more expensive and mid priced stamps exactly in this price range. A Siegel auction may not get competitive bidding of error buyers of a mid 20th century sheet, unless it's in the right sale. A lot of there material is classic US, with a few moderns sprinkled in. The moderns don't always excel. A Kelleher/Cherrystone sale might get the buyers of the sheet, but may not bid that high.

I expect $2500-$3500 suggested opening bid, with demand being somewhat weak, unless you can get it into a good error focused auction. In the wrong auction a dealer will pick it up on opening bid without competition.

If you put it on ebay at $5-10k it will sit forever like the other jabroni dealers, noone will ever buy it. I never see those sheets sold on watchcount.

rismoney: That sounds reasonable. I am inclining to just sending it in, eating the certification cost, and framing it to hang on my office wall for now. Who knows, maybe the market will pick up in a few years...

Don't frame/hang it. Long term exposure to light will ruin it.

rismoney: I would do it with conservation framing, like for a museum piece.

AxmxZ,
This needs to be shouted:
DO NOT FRAME IT!!!
You will slowly destroy it.