Just Got An Album Full Of Pre 1860 S Covers.

These were all thrown in with a wholesale stamp lot I bought. Now, I retail in modern American, I know absolutely nothing about covers, cancels, or really anything prior to say 1910 or so. Just not my area of expertise. And now I'm staring at hundreds of covers with these guys.

How do I begin making sense of what to try and sell on ebay, how to price it, and what to give to my artist friend to make collage art?

Please do not destroy those just for the sake of art. I am not a cover expert, but you have a couple of interesting ones. Please leave the covers intact!


Peter

Nice score. Agree with Peter.

Any idea what resource or whom I can consult on this? Obviously I don't want to destroy anything valuable or historically curious, but from what I see on ebay, these aren't worth more than $5-10 each...

Several thoughts:

1. You are asking about covers, yet show us only snippets of each. To provide any feedback we need to see entire covers.

2. The covers will always be worth more than the basic soaked stamp. Even those that you show are much better than art material and should not be removed from the covers

3. Valuing covers is often an art depending on many factors beyond the stamps such as the town, the cancel type, the addressee, overall attractiveness. It takes lots of study and experience.

4. Pricing: This depends on your selling philosophy whether you only feel comfortable using ebay (or another platform) as a net-price tool or as an auction tool. Nobody can know everything, thus I have never had a problem offering lots on ebay with good noun-rich descriptions and quality illustrations in an auction format. The marketplace will find its own level in an auction format started at a modest point. Easy? I would not offer something in the buy-it-now format that I did not know something about. If you feel you have to have full knowledge of each item to establish a B-I-N price, then you will find yourself investing in a huge time investment. What is the value of your time?

5. Want higher prices per lot, then offer them in groups of 3-4 covers with similar date or geography features.

Axmxz, folks get rid of more stuff too cheap because they are in a hurry. Do not rely on Ebay, but start reading some on this forum about older covers.
The stamp on the last cover you show is most likely worth more then five to ten dollars - you have to know about these


Peter

If you just want to blow them out, sort into to piles, perforated and inperforated imperforated. Then group in tens, show all fronts and any backs with markings, list and stand back.

Otherwise it will take sometime to learn the better items, which even if "better" may only bring a few dollars or more depending on interest (an example the margin single). You seem to have no interest beyond money, so just blow them out and let someone else have fun with them.

If you need to give your friend stamps for art, use your own stamps as they are fungible with hundreds or thousands of others, these cover are each unique.

AxmaZ,

Cover value and salability is more the city, state, and date of the postmark than the stamp. And many common stamps, like yours, are for more marketable and valueable on cover. Full images are a must both front and back if it also contains markings.

If you put them up for auction (on eBAY or another site) with an opening bid of what you have in them you might be surprised what you wind up with. Good luck.

Hmm... I did take pictures of all the covers, of course. Would I be imposing if I dumped them here and asked if anything looked particularly interesting? Or would folks be curious to see?

Covers are just such a different kettle of fish from stamps. A stamp I know how to value! But a cover?.. I know jack squat about cancels and postmarks and what's valuable and what's not... I know those cork-carved fancy cancels are coveted, but I didn't see anything that eye-catching.

Folks like me would be very eager to see what you have.

Experts in the field will be able to provide much more guidance and information for you.

Perhaps post a few at a time?

These are some of them. There are also many older ones, but they have no stamps; they are marked "paid 5" or "paid 10" or some other amount. (The oldest one, I believe dates to 1814.)

I will photograph the backs too, but I haven't removed them from the album yet.

My 2 favorites are the yellowish one in the first group with the Ballston & NY cancels and the Boston one with the PAID cancel in the 3rd group. You are going to have purists who tell you you should never destroy a cover, but some of them I would put in my dollar box and pray they sell.

The older one w/o stamps are called stampless covers (what a shock) and potentially better than the ones you have already shown.

eyeonwall, hence why I'd rather give the dollar box ones to the artist friend - she makes lovely stuff, and she would get much more bang out of those covers than a measly buck, pardon the pun

I find the ones sent from Arkansas to Kentucky interesting. Any content with any of these?
Please don't sacrifice any of the 1850s covers to the art muse.