The Most Beautiful Old Album I Have Ever Seen On Ebay!

The listing will be ended tomorrow, and the final price is going to be a 1000 dollars or even more, in my opinion.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1863-Stamp-...120805152013

And the seller's Photobucket album with all photos of the stamps:

http://s1103.photobucket.com/albums...d/?start=all

Enjoy!!

P.S. I am not selling this, I just stayed without breath when seen this, and wanted to share the impressions here on the Forum! :)

it is a nice collection and it looks like there is a lot of interest. It will be interesting to see the final price...well beyond my budget, I am sure :)

I would be surprised if it tops $500. And I would not offer more than $50 it witout being able to study the stamps inside.

It's a neat collection, but so many stamps look as if they are eaten by a bug or dissolving from chemical reaction that I would have to pass on this lot. Too bad it wasn't stored in a better location because there is thousands in cat value if they were sound.

The penny black is worth $50.00

If it were a 3-margin red ink cancelled sound stamp, yes, it would be worth that, and perhaps significantly more depending on which plate it came from.

The overall quality of the paper looks deteriorated and yellowed. The cancel may be red, or it may be a toned black ink cancel. There may be creases or thins (it looks like there is a crease in the UL corner).

For those who have questioned why there are so many closely trimmed old time embossed envelope cut squares (both US and Worldwide) this album provides the perfect explanation.

Back in the day, only tight spaces were provided in albums for cut squares, requiring that a specimen be trimmed right up to the edge of the design to fit into the album spaces provided. Of course, in the present day, that sort of trimming is frowned upon, but back in the early days of stamp collecting, it was apparently considered acceptable.

Sadly, any material cut like this has resulted in most of their philatelic "value" ruined by today's collecting standards.

Seems like someone was pretty handy with the scissors, and as mentioned, seriously hurts this collection.

Too Bad, but some solid spacefiller material!

Have a good one,

Skilo54

Wt1, yes, I totally agree.

Pilipo, I respect your opinion, imo it's absolute rubbish, I would not want it anywhere my good stuff.

Looking at the stamps hurts to see so many fine stamps in such a bad condition. Still an interesting album. but not for me.
As someones sad the bug has got the better of them..

Quite a shame as there are some pieces in there I'd love to have but there are many that are severely damaged and a good number are showing signs of foxing.
I'd be hard pressed to part with anything more than $200.00 for it.

There sure is a lot of interest with 10 bidders and 26 bids. It is a shame the condition of some of the stamps. I think it's an interesting package overall, sort of a philatelic time capsule. See how it was done in 1863...and make sure you don't do the same.

US $1,009.00 the final price, I was excellent in an estimation :) Smauggie, you need to be surprised x2 :))

Btw. album itself is very interesting, because the very first album in the world was printed in 1862., and this is only one year later...

Filipo, the person that won has a feedback score of 500 from 999. Just for interest sake I've copied all the stamps wondering when/if some may reappear REPAIRED, offered as 'original condition'.

I fully agree with Finches. Regardless of being a 1863 album. Someone who's paying more than 1,000$, for an old album filled mainly of rubish, is either insane or has other hidden intentions.
Seing the person's qualifications, I'm more inclined for the later view...

Now hold on a second!

How is everyone so sure that the buyer has nefarious intentions? Why couldn't it simply be someone who collects vintage stamp albums? How do you know there's not some unusual/rare variety in there that someone spotted?

Also, as long as we're buying into spurious assertions of intent, apparently there are at least two crooks out there, as it takes two bidders to get the bidding that high.

Imputing motive on people you don't know, or in fields you are not a specialist in, is careless and dangerous. I've read entirely too many casual "He's crazy!/He's a crook!" claims on this board from people who think that the ONLY determining factor of anything's value is the Scott catalog and aspects THEY comprehend. Newsflash: there are a myriad of collecting fields where the Scott value is utterly MEANINGLESS as to an item's value. Just because you are ignorant of an item's value doesn't make the item de facto worthless.

Heck, this could be as simple as someone who makes 6 or 7 figures a year, for whom $1K is pocket change, who saw it and thought "It will look pretty as a conversation piece on my 19th-century coffee table."

You don't know people's motives. Assuming a purchase is made for fraudulent/criminal intent isn't cool in the least.