Kelleher Stamp Auction-Collections December 2022 Now Listed

I am saying that the auction house could not be bothered to check out the material too closely, knowing that there are buyers out there who don't worry about such things anyway. So rather then risk losing a potentially profitable lot the way it was, they sold it knowing that it could not be returned under the large lot rules.

I no longer buy large lots. When I did though I eventually had a policy of not bidding unless I could:

1) Clearly see all of the material in photos (smaller lots of course)

or

2) View the lots in person

I would break my rules only if a large lot went for a price where I had limited exposure to risk and/or thought that it was worth the entertainment value.

The policy came into being after I was burned a couple of times. One was buying a large multi-album collection wherein most of the stamps were heavily hinged onto the pages and could not be removed without damaging the stamps. The lot was described in detail with Scott number highlights etc. but the hinging was not mentioned. Imagine that.

The other was a large lot of hundreds of old stamp dealer "sealed" envelopes that were most definitely unsealed upon receipt, and it was obvious that the good stuff had been removed because wherever a penciled Scott number would have had a good stamp it was gone. All the cheap or damaged stuff remained.

I have viewed hundreds of US large lots, and I agree. Unless you can view the lot yourself, you should not bid unless the amount is small enough to be unimportant.

Everyone got burned more than once if they have purchased large or bulk lots over the years ,it come with the territory when playing with those large lots . Sorry they are not all winners ,you learn to read between the lines of what the describer is saying ,it is also true that quality of the lots differ between auction houses .

Yes, I've had enough turkeys to be wary. But I've also found some gems when tunnelling through the dross. And the sort is part of the fun.

I certainly agree. And even high quality auction houses occasionally make mistakes; sometimes they can make whoppers.

Kelleher has a new Club Auction up. Included are a lot of Match & Medicine stamps. Lot 974 is one of them. Alas, all though this stamp does come in both horizontal pairs and blocks of four which were issued imperf between, none of them come in vertical pairs. This was a (probably damaged) block of four which has been reperforated in the wrong direction. Certainly unique.

Rev - I saw that lot in the Kelleher sale and was going to comment on it, but you beat me to it. Sadly, it is not unique - I have seen at least 3 vertical pairs offered on SAN auctions not counting the examples on eBay (or maybe this is the third time around for the same fake).

I have not seen it before, but it's hard to believe that there would be three of them. It's a pretty ignorant mistake.

I have seen this one or its twin before at a local show some time back. the dealer who had it was unaware of its status. at least the one that I saw was not being offered as an error.......i informed him of its status but don't know what became of it later. I do know that he would not have offered it to others once informed of its true nature.

I posted about one of the fakes back in 2016 when it was in a HR Harmer sale http://goscf.com/t/50895
It is a different example of the fake - but with a PSE Cert!

I know Richard Friedberg has a similar fake he keeps as a reference copy

Is that supposed to be a surprise????

I didn't remember that thread even though I posted on it.

What is up with Kelleher Auctions ----They can't tell me if I won a few lots .........I bid on a few lots at the Sunday night auction ......today is Tuesday and no posting of Did I win a lot ? Nothing from SANS about winning or my bids , No e-mail from Kelleher , No prices realized .

Please tell me how fast computers can be for auction bidding and for basic information .

This stinks ,I remember stories at our stamp club back in the 1960's ,about stamp auction firms readjusting bidding ,with friends of the firm seeing the winning bids and able to adjust their own high bids .

SANs must be reading this board ,they just switched Kelleher from "not listed prices for Kelleher's Auction " to "Listed prices realized " on their website . But still NO prices . Fun and games .