Treasures Found In Mail Auction Lots?

I'm just getting back in the hobby after a 15 year lay-off. Back in the day I bought a lot of "mystery" lots or large box or carton lots from mail auctions and have found some real winners. My best find was a stampless letter signed by Robert Morris (signer of the US constitution and dec. of independence). I also found a glassine full of mint US duck stamps in a kiloware lot once. Are finds like this still possible. It seems as if the same material being cycled through auctions over and over would reduce the chance of a surprise find.

"surprise" finds are still possible. Most "mystery" buys these days are a mystery to the buyer, but not the seller. It is not like it was back in the 1990s when you could actually get mystery buys from sellers who didn't know what they were offering. The best auctions I get these days are from NobileSpirit ( http://www.noblespirit.com/ ) on ebay. I truly do often get surprised by contents of their collection offerings. Traditional stamp auctions houses, not so much.

I've had some great luck over the last couple years but nothing fantastic in the last few months.

My best score was getting these, along with a lot of other nice stuff in an album for $65:



I tend to stay away from dealers or regular stamp sellers while treasure hunting and look for sellers just trying to flip something they got for a profit without researching. It does happen.I look for a couple of telltale signs that there "might" be something really nice and it's not just a kid's collection from the 70s. I also grab things that turn people off because of high shipping charges due to weight. I was once the winner and 2nd bidder on a 45 pound box of albums, sheets and other nice stuff for $50 because the shipping was $45. Think it had over $800 in face value mint modern US alone and the seller never added it up before. Most of my collection has been built this way along with a few individual stamp purchases.

I've even started collecting worldwide since a lot of the old albums/lots I buy that had nice US stuff, many times had very nice foreign stuff as well that I just put aside for a rainy day

Ronv - I am jealous! I live in Morristown NJ in Morris County. Both named after Robert Morris.

ronv, very recently I bid on and won two auction, got both for very little money, in each of the lots I found two different Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company cancels.

Cheers

David (stampmaster)

I recently bought an old album on ebay, for the binder. It said a few stamps were included - well, they were - an imperf penny red for one thing, but best of all, a GB seahorse with cross-hatching, which is catalogued at £80. Totally unexpected.

Robert Morris! Truly an important figure in our American history. His contribution goes way beyond signing of those hallowed documents.

Very true stampcrow. He also signed the articles of confederation (one of only three people to sign all three documents). He financed a big part of the revolutionary war. Interestingly the cover I had was dated in the year 1800 and he was in debtors prison. I guess he spent all his money on the war. Little thanks did he get... I sold that cover shortly after I got it in an autograph auction. It paid my stamp collecting costs for quite a while.