Capex '78 Souvenir Sheets

While sitting at a dealer's booth at a stamp show, someone happily comes up to the dealer and shows him around 100 mint CAPEX '78 (756a) souvenir sheets that they want to sell. The dealer then goes over to one of his boxes and takes out around 200 mint CAPEX '78 (756a) souvenir sheets that he also has for sale. The seller gets the message and leaves looking rather upset. This is not the first time that I have seen this happen with regards these souvenir sheets. What is so notorious about them even until today?

Poor choice for speculation activity. They did that with the US CAPEX S/S and the Cape Hatteras issue as well in the 1970s. The wholesale buy price on the Cape Hatteras issue was actually above face value for a period of time; now it's all discount postage.

I've known collectors (ahem, speculators) that misinterpreted the catalog minimum values and purchased THOUSANDS of panes of 1c stamps, thinking they could net some easy future profit by selling them back to stamp dealers over time.

Actually, the answer is simpler than you would think - Canada Post issued too blasted many of them! I remember going to CAPEX 78 and people were buying them in quantity thinking they would be an investment in the future - which they turned out not to be. Also, it is not uncommon to have dealers still use these S/S on their business mail. They certainly are not scarce.

Hope this helps?

Chimo

Bujutsu

What is still scary is that there are many who are still buying very new issues with the same hope for future appreciation even though there are many older issues from the last 30 years or more that have not really appreciated in value at all.

While it is possible that some very few, if any, may appreciate somewhat, most will not appreciate but depreciate whether from yesterday, today or tomorrow.

Also, many bought post office panes without inscriptions rather than philatelic panes with inscriptions which are more desired by collectors.

There are some who think that they are sitting on a future fortune of new issues but instead have actually spent a past fortune on them that they may not be able to get back.

Here's exactly what Bujutsu is referring to.

From a dealer with a post mark of June 25, 2015.

Same with the US Capex issue. I've probably used up a dozen or so full panes (6 S/S per pane, 48 stamps total) in the past 10 years.

I use them for postage because the $1.25 stamp is perfect for International letters that cost $2.50 for 1st Class.