Washington 2c Recently Acquired

I recently bought in an auction these 2 stamps for $5. I think the guy was hoping to get more, but no one other than me bid on the item.

I was hoping to see if I wasted my money, or are they somewhat important?

This one with the tab is MNH


This one was hinged,

I recommend that you avoid this seller.

Don

Wow! I think this is the stamp I have.
The guy I got it from must have bought it from there?

Personally I got it from a philatelic auction group in Lebanon:



Plus turns out I got both for $4.

51Studebaker
I am often tempted by NYStamps' offerings on eBay. Can you elaborate on why this company should be avoided? Thanks.

In my opinion they list a large amount of stamps with
- condition issues which are not described
- mis-identified stamps
- 'repaired' thinned stamps which are not described
- altered (reperfs, trimmed, etc.) stamps which are not described
- fake or forged stamps which are listed as the real stamp

They capture a LOT of inexperienced collectors who buy on eBay by 'sorting by lowest first' who only find out they have stamps that are NOT the value they thought them to be. Given just how many sales they make, I think this results in significant harm to the hobby.
Don

Here is the other stamp (which appears to have a undescribed thin(s) under the hinge.

Don

mazdoc: The stamp is indeed a 528B. However, it is so badly off-center that it would sell at a small fraction of catalog value so your $5 is roughly about what can be expected.

As for NYStamps, you often can get bargains if you know what you are buying. I bought a few things (booklet and booklet panes related) from him over the years, but I bid only when I was sure it is what it pretends to be. NYStamp is a NY guy (with a Scott Specialised I assume) who buys up collections wholesale and breaks them donw for single ebay lots (not fiddling with the stamps very likely).

In this case the original poster did not buy from NY Stamps but rather another person who did...

With the plate number attached, it is a 'no brainer' that it is a 528B (simply lookup the plate number here https://stampsmarter.org/features/P...ockHome.html click on the 'Search by Plate Number tab). Aside from being badly centered, I think there are other issues with the stamp (like the stain).

I agree that someone with years of experience (perhaps decades if you are buying challenging stamps like the US W/F coils or Greek Hermes heads) can pick out which listings might be 'keepers'. For me, I try to not support this type of seller and would rather build a solid relationship with sellers who I feel are honest and are not doing harm to the hobby. NY Stamps is not 'a guy' but rather a large company with many people doing the listing of the stamps, I doubt most are collectors. Given the huge amount of material that goes through their company, it is little wonder that they do not spend time on their listings; the emphasis is to move thousands of listings per day. Quantity not quality (on any level).

The stamps shown, both with several issues, were worth a dollar or two, best used as space fillers until better examples come along.
Don

Thank you so much.
I don't collect much from the US, but I thought for a low price it would be nice to have something this old.

Thanks all for your insightful comments.

Ji (nystamps) has a herd of low wage people working for him and I doubt there is anyone else who knows anything about stamps (and we can debate how much he really knows).