World's Series 1929 Cancel

Hi,

can anyone give me advice regarding this cancelation I found in a friends collection?



My friend is trying to understand the value of the collection he acquired. It comprises a very nice baseball topic section.

What can be its value?

Thank you in advance.
Francesco

http://www.ebay.com/gds/20TH-CENTUR...70528/g.html

"During the 1929 Baseball world series the town of Genesee Depot/Wisconsin used a cancel depicting a bat, a ball and "WS" ("World Series") which was used on each day of the series. Only one complete set still is intact."

"This collecting field however, is still quite affordable, with the majority of cancels available for under $100. each when used on registered-use covers. Note that uses NOT on registered covers are not held by collectors in nearly high esteem as registered covers."

cute item.

In addition to that ebay guide mentioned, Bill Weiss also "wrote the book" on these cancellations:
http://www.philbansner.com/philatel...emnum=010939

The book is getting on 30 years old, but I don't think that there has been a great deal of movement in this market.

As a side note, there is an article on these in the January/February issue of the Stamp Insider - http://www.stampinsider.org/ (starts on page 24)

You might contact the author to see if he has some more information on this cancellation off-cover.

I digitized the Weiss "The Complete Pricing Guide of United States 20th Century Fancy Cancellations" for Bill and he was selling the PDF version on CD for $9.95. I know I burned some of these for Bill a while back and he probably had them somewhere in his office. I am unclear if his family desires to continue to sell these or if those rights have been passed onto someone else. If desired, I can contact them and ask this question.
Don

Thank you very much for your help.
So the correct name for those cancels is "fancy".
Their story is really interesting and the covers are beautiful.
I can add another one:




In your experience this covers are hard to find nowadays?

Thank you.
Francesco

I do not know the value, but the first thing you should do is to scold your friend for removing the stamps from the cover on which they were originally found. He destroyed a big chunk of the value by removing them.

I am sure there are collectors who would like to have these, especially the ones still on cover, but keep in mind that rarity and commercial value are not often the same thing, especially these days when stamp collecting has taken a big hit in terms of commercial values. There have been few new collectors joining the ranks while there have been a great many old timers who have either passed away or who are selling off their collections for caah for their retirements as few have children who are interested in maintaining or building their collections. One indication of this is the steady decline in membership in the stamp collecting societies, another is the low selling prices you see in places like ebay.

I am sure my friends uncle bought the stamps already removed from the cover.
Yes also in Italy collectors are becoming less and less..

If those covers are legitimate I'd imagine they'd fetch good money. I'd also assume they need to be expertized.

This item might also be of interest to baseball memorabilia collectors and, in fact, might be worth more to them than to a stamp/cover collector.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

As I mentioned, I do not know the present commercial value of your stamps with the World Series cancel but to give you a starting point in thinking about it you might look at ebay auctions for other US 20th century fancy cancels of that time period. I just did a quick search and some examples of auctions of US covers that actually sold. They include large arrows that sold for $36, rabbits that sold for $28, chickens that sold for $35, man wearing a sombrero hat that sold for $44, small owls that sold for $162, airplane that sold for $70, Civil War soldier that sold for $10, tree leaves in green ink that sold for $27, large owls that sold for $157, and large blue jays in blue ink that sold for $33. All of these are for complete covers with the stamps cancelled with these pictorial fancy cancels in the late 1920s to middle 1930s from various towns across the US.

I think the World Series cover is quite rare and probably valued at multiples of other fancy cancels of the period.

Talk about hitting the nail on the head driving it in with one swing! There are very likely major league players who would have an interest in this particular piece. I deal with someone in the sports field and these items are a big deal.
Tom

The world series cover is very scarce and covers were issued for each game. I know that one is in the hands of a postal history dealer who wants a few hundred dollars for it, but I do not remember the exact price. He usually keeps it under glass at shows to attract attention.

My friend would like to sell this baseball stamps collection, but in Italy there are not so many people interested in baseball...
Do you think it would be possible to sell it from Italy to US?
Thanks

Francesco, this would be a great piece for an American television program called "Antique Roadshow." (The original British program may still be filming, too.)