Stampless Covers... Don't Know Where To Start

Hi everyone. I am relatively new to stamp collecting and so my knowledge is limited, to say the least. My knowledge of stampless covers is non existent I am afraid. I came across these lately and I have no idea how such a thing can be researched and valued. Is there an internet site that deals with these? Maybe, hopefully and probably someone here can point me in the right direction. There are 3, of which I will post 2 or three photos of each. I find them interesting, just to get a quick view into the past.

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Good introduction: http://www.uspcs.org/stamps-covers/...rs-pre-1847/

decrynne in general, stampless covers is a huge field with many variables, but for a cover to have any value, it needs something unusual such as interesting content (talk of current events at the time, etc. Household chit chat, commercial matters and statements are the most common content found). In addition, the destination/postmark must be out of the ordinary (cities such as New York and Providence are extremely common). International stampless covers are better than domestic ones. Furthermore any sort of different marking on the cover (postmaster notes with the exception of rate) will add interest (interest = value).

The "American Stampless Cover Catalog" is the standard reference for these. A .pdf is available from the the US Philatelic Classics Society website at;

http://d2jf3tgwe889fp.cloudfront.ne...okmarked.pdf

The catalog shows covers by orgin and date and gives prices based on VF strikes. Similar to stamps the strikes are classified as f - vf- xf etc. based on the clarity of the strike. As mentioned above content, markings and addressee count too.

Agree that the Stampless Cover Catalog is the place to go. There's lots of "front matter" in the catalog that will give guidance about what you're looking at. The catalog is currently undergoing revision, which is a big project. "Value" means different things to different people, of course. I note that the catalog does not address matters of content or destination, and doesn't address rates as deeply as it could, but it's a great resource for postmarks.

Thanks all for the great links and the info. First steps up a very large hill I fear. :)

A couple of things to get you started:
- First of all, unless it says "PAID" or "FREE," you can assume that the postage was to be paid by the recipient. Only your second cover has a "PAID" marking. The other two were postage collect.

- There are two main periods for stampless covers - pre July 1, 845 and post July 1, 1845. The big difference was in how they determined rates.
- To get the easy one out of the way, post 1845, rates were calculated on weight and distance.
- Here's a chart of these rates: http://postalmuseum.si.edu/about/fr...r-rates.html
- Postage rated dropped dramatically at that time - you'll see lots of "5s" and "10s" from this period. "40s" and up are more valuable, as they are scarcer rates.

- Pre July 1, 1845, rates were both higher, and calculated based on number of sheets of paper and distance. Each separate piece of paper, whether an envelope or an enclosure, required a separate rate (and why you don't see envelopes prior to 1845). So, if you sent 3 currency notes wrapped in a cover letter, you would be charged 4x the basic rate. (there are exceptions, but this is the basic rule for how to "read" a stampless cover).
- Here's a link that should get you started with these rates: http://glennestus.com/PHrates.htm

As has been said, for value, you're looking for the out-of-the-ordinary.
Check out this article on stampless covers: http://www.uspcs.org/stamps-covers/...rs-pre-1847/
and check out these exhibits (of some of the out-of-the-ordinary): http://www.uspcs.org/resource-cente...od-exhibits/

Good luck and have fun

Hi decrynne.

People have been giving you excellent information but I would like to add a bit more.

The first thing you need to do is to sit down and think a bit about what your interest is in stampless covers. Are you interested in US covers? Or, are you interested in covers from another country? If you are interested in US covers (your examples are all US) it would be really useful to narrow things down. What is of personal interest to you? Would you be interested in covers from the state in which you live, or perhaps if different the state in which you were born? That would help narrow things down. Are you interested in covers from a particular city that has meaning to you? Are you interested in covers from the old west? Are you interested in covers that may have traveled by a particular means such as by railroad or by ship? Are you interested in covers that are to or from notable people? Are you interested in covers that have manuscript postmarks written by the postmaster in those small post offices that did not have postmarking cancellation devices? Are you interested in covers from post offices that no longer exist? Etc. etc. Try to narrow things down somehow or else you will find that there are so many tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands stampless covers available every day that you will go crazy trying to collect them all.

The next thing you need to do is decide what your budget is. Some stampless covers are quite rare and sell for many thousands of dollars each, and a great many stampless covers are quite common (such as the ones you have shown) that go for dollar or two. If you have a modest budget then collecting covers from East cost cities like yours from Providence, New London, New York, etc. would be a fun collecting area. They are very abundant and inexpensive and you can search for small variations in them.

You might also want to create some guidelines for yourself on what condition you would like to set as your bar for whether to buy a cover or not. A cover with an illegible or almost illegible cancel may not be what you want and you should bypass it. A cover that is stained and very dirty, or a cover that has been ripped open may not be what you would want in your collection. Etc.

For current values on covers in whatever area you decide to collect you should do two things. One, spend some time on ebay at least once a week looking for covers in your collecting interest area and using their advanced search page limit your search to covers that actually sold. The majority of covers on ebay have silly high starting prices and never sell since those starting prices are above their market value. What you want to see are only those covers where someone has actually bought the cover or lot of covers. Take notes and over time you will get a good idea of what covers you are interested in are actually worth and you can bid in the auctions with that in mind or skip the auctions where the seller is a bit delusional about their value. The second thing to do is if you are interested in covers that are a bit rarer and sell for higher amounts you need to start getting auction catalogs from stamp dealers who have auctions several times a year. The best place to find such dealers who run auctions would be to read the ads in the American Philatelist (the monthly journal of the American Philatelic Society), or perhaps Linn's Stamp News magazine, or doing some searching on the internet for stamp dealer's auctions.