Worldwide Commercial Covers

Some years ago I purchased over 2,000 commercial covers equally divided between aerogrammes, registered airmails and airmails. The cancellations are from 1940 through late 1960's. The countries are from Aden through Zanzibar. An interesting fact is all of the covers were addressed to the same business. The covers are in good to very good condition.

Does anyone have any idea what the future holds for this type of material and what the market is like now?

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Hard to tell off hand. If you can show a few pictures it would help. Also, you might want to check ebay and Delcampe to see if something similar is offered. Oh, and a very welcome to the forum!

Peter

Thanks for your welcome!

I have checked ebay and Delcampe. Prices seem to be all over the place.

I've been away from the hobby for over thirty years. Just getting the balance of my old dealer stock together for sale. Things certainly have changed.

Tom Kaye, Greetings:

The most recent Dutch Country auction had similar lots of worldwide covers to a single destination.

Sale 303 ... Lot 98 ... ASIA Abt (7950) comml covers mostly late 1970s thru 1980s comprised of (2200) Indonesia, (2950) Korea & (2800) Pakistan all addr to the Intl Youth Services in Turku, Finland (a penpal organization) wide range of regs & commems reg & business size envs, registered etc majority cleanly opened tops, interesting lot! ... Sold for U$D 150

Sale 303 ... Lot 105 ... NORTH AFRICA Abt (14,900) comml covers mostly late 1970s thru 1980s comprised of (3700) Egypt, (3700) Morocco, (3600) Algeria & (3900) Tunisia all addr to the Intl Youth Service in Turku, Finland (a penpal organization), wide range of regs & commems reg & business size, registered etc, majority cleanly opened tops, great lot for a specialist! ... Sold for U$D 240

http://stampauctionnetwork.com/

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Thanks for the research i/P. Much appreciated.

My covers correspond exactly to the covers offered at http://postalhistory.com

I sell a of similar covers including those to the same receiver - Knox Hat Company, John Wiley & Sons, ICS, etc. Values can be all over the board and it's very hard to predict. Some of the best auction prices I've ever had have been for 1950's covers. Always pay attention to postmarks, other handstamps and labels as well as the sender (type of business, name, etc.). Frequently they add more value than the stamps. Used aerogrammes sometimes do very well too depending on the country.

ikey: I saw those listings from Dutch Country. I don't have enough lifetimes to move that many modern covers, but the price is right. I need to visit them in person some day for an auction.

If I had where to put them, I would have paid twice that price. Cheers,

With "commercial covers" one key factor is cover size. The preferred cover is a No. 8, and while same will collect No. 10 legal - and have facilities to store and display them - there is generally great reluctance to acquire anything larger unless the postage and markings are extraordinary. There is also the issue of shipping costs which are now significant. IMHO unless the larger items are valuable postal history I'd recommend soaking off the stamps.

Thanks CS.

The great majority of my covers are the sizes you described, naturally excepting the aerogrammes.

However, I do have a quantity of Russian, Romanian and Polish registered covers that do not conform to those sizes. One Romanian registered is 6 1/2 X 9. It has 14 Scott# 927's and 7 Scott# 933's on the reverse side of the envelope. The registration stamp and cancellations on the front are crisp and clear.

The Russian and Polish covers are somewhat smaller than the Romanian but larger than sizes you described.

Larger covers can be mailed via the First Class Large Flats rates domestically and internationally. It's one way to avoid those pesky parcel rates.