Benefitting From Unlisted Stamp Varieties

Have you ever benefitted from getting a stamp variety that wasn't listed in the stamp catalogue that was being used to price the stamp but that was listed in another stamp catalogue? An example would be getting Unitrade Canada # 169a instead of Scott Canada # 169 which it was listed and sold as.

In one of the last APS circuits I found a plate variety of Scott 2124a ( US ), that was marked and priced as 2124a.
Scott does not list the variety which is known as "the Buggy Whip", but other catalogs do.
Is that what you are asking about?

Peter

yes it is

Found a discrepancy like that once with a comic book. Daredevil #257. Two catalogs, two values. We would buy it at one store and sell it at another!

Jogil, it seems to happen quite a bit here in the US, especially with tagging varieties. It seems like tagging varieties have not quite caught on, maybe because of the difficulties in showing them?

Peter

Yes. One item that comes to mind is the Canadian Infantry Regiments in inscripted plate block (unitrade #1250ii). This is not listed in the Scott catalogue only the non-inscripted one. The cat. Value difference is 100x!

As I use the Maury Specialized catalogs for my French colonial collection, I actually have had this happen several times. When I was receiving approvals from Bellmore Philatelic before the owner passed away last year, I found plenty of Maury listed varieties that are not listed in Scott. Paper varieties, overprint varieties and the like.

"Knowledge is Power" and if you are a US collector who collects anything outside the USA, it is a good idea to get a copy of whichever specialized catalog is considered the catalog "of record" for the territories you collect. Especially with dealers who only price by the basic Scott catalog, lots of hidden gems can be found by the collector who takes a bit of time to learn the listings in a specialized foreign catalog.

Area66's thread "Country Specific Catalogues" is a good place to start for those interested in the wide variety of catalogs produced.

https://goscf.com/t/48062