What To Do With Clean Skins?

I have been sorting kiloware for a couple of days now and it looks to be the best lot I have ever sorted.

So far 1,250 stamps out of 10,000 have been found to have no cancel on them.

I see them for sale at auction but.......

What do you think about selling clean skins? Stamps with no cancel and no gum.

KGV

Why not - Sell them in batches - Would think the "fly speckers" would be potential buyers

Hi huckles888. Thank you for your reply.

Are the "fly speckers" active with recent decimal.

If not I was not very clear. Sorry about that!

I am sorting very recent Australian decimal and the clean skins could be used for mailing.

KGV

hey KGV would think because of the proliferation of "minor" errors etc on modern issues due to multiple print runs that the "fly speckers" would into them

WOW! I had no idea!

I know I am isolated collector but that is a large bit of info I had no idea about.

Thank You! KGV

Isn't that a bit illegal? Reusing stamps that already passed thru the mails.

Art

That's true in the U.S. Once the stamp has performed its postal duty, it is illegal to reuse it, regardless of the presence or absence of any cancel.

Robert

I heard of the term glue stick stamps, there was another large thread on this subject. Maybe it was londonbus who started it. Hey if there is no cancel who knows if it was used or not? A better question should the PO make sure their system properly cancels stamps.

Use them after all if they are sold as Mint no gum then how would the person who buys them ever know if they went through the PO system.

I think the over whelming opinion was to use them. One or two though held towards the letter of the law.

Had a look on ebay with the search description Mint no gum.

And found a number of listing descriptions like this one. "$60 face value Mint No.Gum.various 100 X 60c" = $35 buy it now. All about the same price.

Seems to be the way it is sold. Nothing about mailing.

Even noticed Mint no gum in letter rate sets.

Selling stamps as Mint no gum does not sound illegal to me. What the buyer does with them is their business not mine.

Interesting! KGV

Just simplifying things a bit.

A 60c stamp mint no gum is about 30c in value on ebay.

A 60c gum commemorative stamp with a reasonable cancel is worth $1 on ebay.

A 60c commemorative self adhesive stamp with reasonable cancel is worth 40c on ebay.

A 60c definitive stamp gum, self adhesive sheetlet and coil with a reasonable cancel(if you can sell them) worth about 25c on ebay.

The definitive stamps as mint no gum are a big winner. All the rest it is up to the local PO for a excellent cancel. But not if they are single issue commemorative letter rate stamps as they are like definitives and have very little resale value.

I know what I am doing with these mint with no gum stamps now.

Thanks for the help. KGV

I need some help because it looks like everyone knows something I don't. Henceforth, making sleep tonight difficult. I think I get the "Clean Skin" thing, but what is a "Fly Specker"?


-IBFS

Fly specking is looking at stamps for very minor plate or printing differences that will never be listed in the catalog but are fun to find. Perhaps a broken letter, or a minor plate scratch, or a small inking fault, etc.

Before I got into stamps full on, clean skins meant something very different to me.

It goes back about nearly 40 year now. Got a start on an oil rig in Australia's Simpson Desert. Work was very hard to get, tough times. But it was a very good paying job.

A 45ish years old man trained me with the ways of an oil rig and he gave me the knowledge that turned out some years later to saves the lives of about 15 people including my own.

He was from the hard country. A horse breaker and very well known head drover. He drank a lot and was on the wrong side of the law most of his life. It been a long time since I have remembered anything about Bill but I still owe him a great deal.

Bill would talk about the clean skins with excitement and a glint in his eye. Captain Midnight they would call him. On the full moon he would take his horse and go find as many calves that were not branded as he could in the cattle country he lived in. Thus the term cleans skins. Cattle that were not branded soon had his brand mark on them.

I was looking for cattle country back then and he found a property for me and with great excitement he told me it was the best cattle country he have ever seen. I replied how can I afford pasture land that is the best you have ever seen. He smiles at me and said the country would need a lot of hand feeding but that is not why it is the best cattle property I have ever seen. It has 7 different properties on its boundary. Can you imagine how many clean skin we could get on the full moon. I know exactly where the cattle overnight in that country. We will get very rich very quickly if you by this property.

Memories........ To old Bill! And His Clean Skins!

MNG stamps mean a nice looking stamp that is less expensive to add to my collection. That is all they mean to me. Wish I could run across more of them.


-IBFS

Mint no gum sells very quickly on ebay at half face value.

My main album is mostly used until around 1920 where they turn into mint where around 50% have hinge marks. Yes, I have purchase mint no gum stamps knowing they have been used and that's how they were bought. Yes, I have mint no gum stamps in my collection. Never do I sell mint no gum stamps. I do send them to a hording collector friend of mine and I don't think he sells them either. I find it most annoying when someone sells a used stamp as mint no gum. Call it clean skins if you want but it's still a used stamp and should be sold and labeled as such, it is definitely not a mint stamp. Un-Cancelled would be a better and more accurate term.

I would never pass judgment on any activity or person that skirts the law. That's up to that person to do. However, I will say this, if someone knowingly does a little thing that's illegal, at what point does that person stop? Everyone has their own set of morals and ethics and no one is perfect. Everyone's bar is set a little lower or a little higher than another.

Art