1-St Day Covers, 1934 & 1938

3Dadeo

100% on the Canadian covers! Congratulations.

1) Velvet/Flocked cachets



Canadian first day cover collectors are very fond of these. As you point out, auction prices (EEBay) are high.

2) 7 cent Jet Plane



The 7 cent definitive Jet plane stamp was issued to replace the 7 cent goose stamp. 7 cents was the air mail letter rate to the U.S.. The new 7 cent stamp got very little commercial usage because the U.S. air mail letter rated was soon increased to 8 cents. This is one of the scarcest usages of an Elizabethan era stamp. I found the one shown after 20 years of looking!(First Day Covers of the 7 cent jet stamp are common though)

3) UPU delegate mail



This first day cover was mailed by a Dutch delegate at the 1957 Ottawa Conference (UPU delegate stationery). This cover has the Ottawa first day cancellation not as scarce as the UPU machine cancellation used exclusively for Conference participants but a nice cover. Delegate mail is discussed here:

http://postalhistorycorner.blogspot...ongress.html

GB cover



This one is a very scarce war-time first day cover.


Glad you liked the challenge.

Back to the topic. We have heard several excellent opinions about selling 1930s Canadian first day covers. My views are probably the least important since I just purchase stamps.

The $99 auction price for the $1.00 FDC illustrates the importance of obtaining real valuations.

Throughout this entire thread, I missed that you were talking about the Chateau issue - all I saw were the first two images. My apologies!

Bas S Warwick:



Definitely imprecise, I agree. ebay prices are all over the place. For example, take a look at completed auctions of Uni 262 $1 Destroyer. What prices did the following MNH stamps fetch?





The first closed at $16.87 and the second fetched $34.95. That's a huge spread, and signifies the market is not operating efficiently, despite the standard valuations established by trusted 3rd parties (Unitrade, Scott, etc.). Markets that have no standard valuations, like covers, are probably even more volatile. This makes the '99c starts' strategy a particularly bad idea (for sellers) because it assumes the market will consistently establish a fair price, which doesn't seem to be the case.

100% - nice (but now I have to admit I cheated on the 7c airmail and did some research first....sorry teacher

I will definitely be on the lookout for a single usage 7c jet though - hopefully won't take me 20 years.

Topic: I agree with those who point out the volatility of ebay auctions. Sometimes it's the day, the time, who happens to be bidding, etc. Not an accurate market, and risky for 99c auctions.
I buy and sell stamps on ebay. Most of the time I will used fixed price and am guided by completed listings that have sold.
If I have an item I am not sure of, I try research first and if that yields no info, I take a guess on a starting price and list at auction. Usually I start at 9.99, or 19.99 based on my best guess and see what happens. It may sell for 9.99 (and I later find one that sells for $100), but at least I have learned something and made $10.

Starting lots at 99c is a real gamble. I found one lot of Austria on Wednesday, cataloging over $130., and bid $1. On Thursday, an hour before the auction ended, I raised my own bid to $10.50 and was still the only bidder. Finally, in the closing seconds, somebody sniped me for $11 which was of course a real STEAL. I didn't really want them, just buying for resale, so it's not a tragedy, but the poor Seller - really an inferior result, all from trying to save a quarter on the original cost of listing. And if the sniper hadn't seen them, the Seller would have had ONE DOLLAR to show for all his efforts.

doug, at least you were able to up the price for the seller a bit.
I have done the same quite a few times; no bids until the last few seconds when one other person snipes the item.

Eg. I bid max $25 on something and it is still at $1 until the last second when one other bidder jumps in and takes it at $25.50.
Sure, I would have loved the item at $1, but at least I got the seller something better by providing some competition.
Still, what if I hadn't? $1 is all they would get.

Guys - exactly my experience. A number of items I started at 99c went very close to that. One sold at 99c, that I know should have achieved $30-$50, and there are others where I have had similar end results. Very disappointing.

Too much of a gamble to take for someone like me. I don't have a following as some of the sellers do so I can't afford to have a $50 item slip through the cracks and garnish 2 bids for $8. Certain items are guaranteed to attract an audience, but since covers can be such a specialized area, 80% of collectors probably might not pick up the 1 or 2 nuances that might make a cover special if it's not from 1860.

Here is a case and point, although it's not from Canada it's just and example. Lord Denning ? I recently found out what the value for this cover is from an expert in this particular area, but would the average cover collector know ?

Hello

I am on my way out (good riddance as one of your family members said so eloquently) but checking to see if there is any unfinished business.

The cover appears to be International Red Cross correspondence from Warsaw. It appears to have a Warsaw emergency 26 cancellation and a manuscript date, November 27, 1944 in pencil.

You can contact J.T. Carrigan for further information and perhaps you might be able to sell him your find.

http://www.jaypex.com/Poland/IRC.htm

I know absolutely nothing about Polish polish history, but a 15 minute internet search revealed the above.

What is it worth? Darned if I know. I don't collect Warsaw postal history.

Your selling style probably reflects your personality. Do what you feel comfortable doing. If you are successful then good for you.

Please no more comments. No more mention of my pseudonym. The family has spoken . It is happy to be rid of me.

Hopefully you're not going away for long. Jay is who valued the cover for me as it's his area of expertise and I was not sure if it also was in your Wheel house. Actually my selling style is strictly shooting from the hip when it comes to covers outside of the US. All I try and do is find a similar cover, what it sold for and use that as a basis for price.

Can anyone tell me if there is something special about this cover

1960 W.Caldwell, New Jersey to Auckland, New Zealand. German 25c stamp on rear

That's what we need to see, the back of the cover--

Doug - nothing really that special on the back IMO

Probably some collector having fun. The DDR stamp has no bearing on the cover from what I can see. It wasn't cancelled and has zero markings, perhaps put on the cover after the fact.

Agreed - there is no reason for this stamp to be on this cover and it adds no value.

One possible reason for it's presence might be that this envelope was used to store DDR stamps and the collector placed one on the back to help identify the contents. I've seen it many times in collections I have purchased.

Brian