Have You Had Any Major Finds?

Hi,
Read in the paper this morning of a California couple who stumbled on several partially buried cans of gold coins - worth millions. That got me to thinking, has anyone on the Forum ever come across a notable stamp find?

I once found a pair of U.S. #24 that was miss identified on ebay that was in fact #23. does that count?

Art

The most recent find that was made public was the Australian 20/ postage due stamp used . It was found by a stamp auction firm while going a worldwide collection being put up for auction .The stamp went for around $15,000.00.I found a few stamps that cataloged for a few hundred dollars apiece in the various collections I purchase but never a real shocker ,my best was a LONG ISLAND stamp in a pile of Turkish stamps stuck together in a lot from Greg Manning Auctions .

Hi again,
I should have asked, what was your best or most notable find. Finding million dollar stamps is the thing dreams are made of, and not reality (for most all of us anyway).

I confess I have yet to have a notable find, although I have bought albums that were significantly better in shape and contents than I thought when I bid on them.

I discovered an unlisted Tanzania postage due stamp. I brought it to the attention of the Scott editors. Now it's listed. Notable discovery for me. Does that count?

Robert

It sure does to me!

My first best find was a cover with rare solo prexie usage in a dealer's $1 cover box. I later sold it on ebay for $400+ I've had a few other lucky finds, but this one always makes me smile.

From a catalog value point of view, probably my best was about 25 years ago. I was digging through a "quarter" box, or was it a "dime" box? No matter, in that box I found a number of early German States. I didn't think much of them at the time, but about 10 years later, a dealer friend who is quite well versed in German asked how much I paid for them. When I told them I got them out of a dime box, he laughed and said I was probably sitting on a good $5K or so in retail value. That was pretty exciting.

The "cool" one was a bit of postal history. It involved a Boy Scout troop that got lost during severe storms while camping near Memphis in the 1950s. A search party was formed, Boy Scouts are found and the story ends happily. The Scout Troop printed some thank you postcards to send to members of the search party, and franked the post cards with the 1950 Boy Scout stamp. I picked up a little package that contained six of these postcards and a couple of newspaper clippings about the search. Just kind of neat.

You folks have made some great finds!! I do look, but I have to admit I probably don't look that closely. I am not into flyspecking as I don't have the patience. I probably have tossed away millions!

A few years ago I took a chance on a box of stamp stuff I found on an online auction site. There were a few general pictures of the box and contents, and a vague item description, but nothing to indicate the quality or lack thereof within. I paid fifty bucks for the won lot and another fifty for shipping. It took me a few hours to go through the box and it was useless, poor condition junk for the most part. As I neared the bottom of the box I found a medium sized manila envelope that was marked "valuable stamps". I thought "Yeah, right". Inside the envelope were about fifty key early US stamps in great to perfect condition. A complete 1869 used set, the complete set of Columbians, a nice #1, and others. After finding the good stuff I went back through everything I had already checked out...and it was still just as junky. Go figure.

My best find isn't stamp related. I picked up a bicycle at an auction for $25.00. It's from the mid 80's. Lugged steel frame (Tange Prstige), a mix of Campagnolo Record and Shimano Sante' components. Original Mavic tubular wheels. All in good shape.
That alone made it a great find, but, it gets better. The frame had no brand marking or serial number. What it did have was a persons name stamped on the underside of the bottom bracket.

It turns out this bike was built by a gentleman named Dale DuRoss. Dale started out building for Ben Serotta in the early 80's. In those years they would have been building the 7-Eleven team bikes! If Lance Armstrong is all you know of American cycling then maybe take a few minutes and check out the 80's 7-Eleven cycling team. A great American sports story.

In 1987 Dale Duross and Rob Stowe (another Serotta builder) moved to western NY and started Phase 3 cycling. They built bikes under the Phase 3 name and later Stowe.
So this bike was built by a skilled and experienced builder for himself!! A hand built bike built for the builder himself...
Unfortunately he had passed away in 2010. I bought the bike in 2012 at the auction of his mother's estate who had just recently passed. She must have hung on to the bike after her son had died.

In the mid 80's a bike of that quality would have listed for $1800 - $2000. I could never get that for this bike now. Dale was not a famous builder that had his name in decals on the side of bikes. He got out of the business too soon. But to get a new, hand build, steel bike with the best components would cost probably $4000 - $5000.

The joy of this bike is how it rides! and having people ask me about it so I can share a little bit of Rochester cycling history. PRICELESS. BTW I went to the auction because it listed stamps.....

I once got a few German covers given to me and they turned out to be quite a find! A forum member and myself struck up a deal (a stamp swap actually) and the rest is history. we both won!

I paid $300 at auction for a 24c 1861 on a patriotic cover to England. The stamp has XF centering but is sadly badly creased from a cover fold.

Still, it's actually a Blackish Violet ;)

I have been rather fortunate in finding two beer stamps (although I do not own either at this point). I found the original example of REA199 back in the mid 70's long before they were Scott listed. Much more recently I found the double impression on REA45c in an auction where it was not noticed somehow.

I've never gotten much in the way of a bargain. I've found stamps in kiloware purchases that might be worth a few dollars but that's it.
Tom

no mention of Watermark's recent Canadian find? He's a member here

https://goscf.com/t/36270