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

I count 31 pieces that are absolutely worthless due to a significant piece of the Stamp torn or missing. That being said, it does not include short or blunt Perfs or anything other than chunks missing. Now, the Columbus Chilean piece alone could be worth $300 alone if it's a genuine Santiago print, and a few of the German states look to be in reasonable condition and toss in a couple of the Canadian pieces (St Johns Newfoundland) if they pan out to be the right type, then it might be a decent buy. Personally since I'm not that well versed on the Foreign (Non-US) pieces I wouldn't touch it without for sure knowing the types and catalog numbers. You never know though, the bidder who rolled the dice on this one might end up with some great pieces, or end up going oops.... been there, done that.

Revenuecollector, in the 1980's a local Stamp Dealer was sending 'similar condition' (potentially valuable) stamps back to associates in Germany for major repairs, including re-joining large missing sections from a second copy, ending up with a exorbitantly priced stamp for sale easily fooling the average street person.

Technology has progressed 30 years since, so has the 'craft of repair'. One observation, NONE of the bidders had a good Feedback rating.

Collectors experience plays a huge part in interpreting data ($1000+ winning bid) on stamps in need of repair

Which means exactly nothing. I sell to, and am outbid by, low-feedback buyers all the time. Are they all crooks?




And in this case I believe you are jumping, nay LEAPING, to conclusions based entirely upon speculation and conjecture rather than any facts. I've been buying and selling on ebay for 13 years now, and have seen some incredible cases of "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Heck, I've seen it in major auction houses; it's not strictly the purview of ebay.

I repeat, you are focusing ENTIRELY on the fact that many of the stamps are damaged, yet for all you know the high bidders may have been focusing on either the album itself or a particular item that you or I are completely oblivious to. You and others are projecting based on your disbelief of the winning result.

I've paid hundreds of dollars for stamps that catalog 50 cents. To the novice and/or the general collector, that appears to be complete idiocy and there must be something wrong... but to others in the same field I'm in, I got a heck of a deal. It all depends on your perspective. The people that bid on this may be looking at it from a COMPLETELY different angle than you are. You have no way of knowing what their motivation is. Period.

Well we dont know for sure.
It could be either way, lets just hope that no one will be fooled if thats the aim.
And that hopefully the buyer has good intentions and enjoys his stamps. Interesting topic.
I personally think that there has been many good points made. And still the album it self was a gem.

I had a big smile on my face when I saw filipo started this thread and that was because this auction was already on my ebay "watch" list. I said that would be the moment to sit back, relax and read the comments of our knowledgeable members. Surprisingly (or not) all I've seen here was a bunch of poor comments. People talked about the poor condition of some stamps, how they won't pay more than 20 bucks for this, how useless is the penny black (I'd buy about 20-30 useless black pennies - same condition as the one in the album - at $50 a piece as someone mentioned and double my money within a week). People also talked about monster bugs eating up the album and stamps and how worthless is the material trimmed right up to the edge. But people failed to see the obvious...this is the worlds first english stamp album and you won't see many Lallier albums for sale! The album itself is a beauty and it is an important part of the philatelic history! These albums usually sell for much more regardless of the stamps inside and their quality.

Yes, I'm the winner of the auction and I'm really pleased with my purchase and the amount I've paid for it. I'm not insane and I don't have any hidden intentions as someone suggested...in fact I'm not a dealer, just a collector like most of us here on this forum. I just wanted to have this piece of history on my desk and believe me or not I don't care that much about the value of the stamps inside...it's just the album I was interested in. Moneywise I'm pretty sure that everyone will spot 5-6 stamps in there that together worth about the price I've paid making this a decent purchase...the rest comes as a bonus.

Next step is to get in touch with a good restorer and try to repair and clean up the cover. Not sure if the pages can be cleaned up from stains and other stuff without damaging the stamps but if thats possible I might try to clean up the very bad spots here and there. To keep it short, I just want to restore this album to its former beauty and then try to fill up the empty spaces if budget allows. I won't remove any stamps from it and I won't try to repair (or resell) any. I just think it is our moral duty (big words? naah...)to preserve what our fellow collectors started a century and a half ago.

Now chill out everyone, Lallier's album is in good hands!
Here is a nice video you guys should see
http://videostampsworld.magnify.net...mail+request

Revenuecollector, yes I sincerely hope that IS the case. The very few that do rejuvenate then inflate the price are bad news, time will tell either way.

What a fitting end to this discussion, congrats Marius on the purchase. I think you have all the best reasons for buying this and can't think of a better home for such an early album.

Amazing thread, made my day.

Gee, someone bought it for the album itself? I am shocked... SHOCKED I tell you...


P.S. Told ya.

Marius, most interesting if I say so myself. Please keep us updated on the restoration project as I'm sure many of us would love to see it when it's completed....Don't forget to take some before & After pictures as well as the progress pictures :)

Also, when you ID some of the pieces (Particularly the Chilean piece) please post some scans.

Congratulations on the Win !

Congratulations. That looks like a fun project.

Dealers will think you are nuts when you tell them you are looking for a cut-to-shape one shilling, to upgrade the cutout shape from your current one.

Congratulations on your win Marius. As I said, a wonderful philatelic time capsule, I'm sure it's in good hands now.

And to think, someone on SCF winning an ebay item that we are all talking about. What are the odds?

Pretty good apparently.

Congrats Marius! It IS a beautiful album, stamps or no stamps. It is great to see it being bought purely for the pleasure of the hobby and that it will not be destroyed for its contents.

I'm glad that he album is in the good hands of a SCF fellow philatelist. After having read the reasons behind his bet and the love with which he spokes about his new treasure, I beg Marius to please forgive my words coming just from my ignorance in the subject and to congratulate him for winning the album.
I also hope that he'll keep us updated on the restoration and finding he might came across.

Just looking at some of these stamps again on the Photobucket website, I remembered something I thought when I first looked at them over the weekend. These are simply the stamps of the day. Sure the world was a much 'bigger' place then, and these came from exotic places, but what we think of now as classic stamps (despite their condition) were the norm back in 1863.
Also I notice on one of the Canadian pages (39 of 51 on photobucket) they've listed the blue Jacques Cartier of 1855 and 1859 as Christopher Columbus. Someone should call the publisher and have them correct that error.

Congratulations, Marius! I am also collecting antique books, and I really enjoy in such a kind of the bibliophile-philatelic combinations :)

It is funny to see how an early possessor of the album (from the Brooklyn) didn't agree with the "Southern Confederate States" title of the chapter, so he/she added "socalled" earlier and "defunct" probably after the War ended.




You can try...