USA First Day Covers With Cachet From Small Companies?

I have about 400 First Day Covers from the USA, here are a few covers with cachets from other than the big producers.
HF
AJO
HJS
Colorano "Silk" Cachet

two of these are from HF, one from 1946 and the second from 1991

are any of these rare enough to have any real value?

It's extremely rare for FDCs dating after around 1935 to have any "real" value. Exceptions are mainly hand painted cachets by famous cachet artists (and perhaps error stamps). None of the FDCs you show are out of the ordinary.

Thank you

Please don't tell Jim Roselle that Colorano was an also-ran ;)

https://goscf.com/t/48560 ... Colorano FDCs sold to Mystic

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

No one has yet mentioned that the "HF" cachet is House of Farnum.

I would not consider HF and Colorano "other than the big producers." The HJS (Henry J. Schmidt) might bring $3 or more from someone specifically interested in his work, which was predominantly Christmas related. I don't know who "AJO" is, but the cachet is generic, and I've seen it on other FDC's worth about a dollar. The large HF cover with the souvenir sheet is probably worth $3-$4; asking prices for other similar FDC's with the entire sheet are $6 to $9, but do not sell well at those prices. Based on the few examples that are posted, I'd offer $40 for the lot (ten cents each) hoping to find 3 or 4 keepers, and then offer the rest on ebay at a starting price of $0.01, free shipping. I might break even.

Basil

HF and Colorano were big producers. Anyone over (imo) 2,500 is a big producer.

The "AJO" cover is a cachet for #935 Navy which was their first. It is a generic cachet and seems someone used a blank for the Stone Mountain issue.

"It's extremely rare for FDCs dating after around 1935 to have any "real" value."
What the heck is "real" value? MANY FDCs otherthan "...hand painted cachets by famous artists..." have a value over the mass producers (Artcraft, Artmaster, Fleetwood, Farnam, Colorano, Aristocrat, etc.).

Agree HJS cachets are relative value of $3 or so. Oversized covers are tough to sell as many people don't collect oversized covers. $5 would be fair.

Out of 400 FDCs I would be surprised if there are only 3-4 keepers, and I would NOT sell them in a bulk lot for 10 cents or so until you identify what else you have in the group.

Here is a link to a typical auction for a group of US First Day Covers currently on ebay. I am not the seller and I do not know the seller. This is for a group of 460 of them from 1939 to 1989 with a starting bid of $70 with free shipping which works out to be 15 cents per cover. So far there are no bids at that starting price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/460-U-S-FIR...AOSwepJXWVbc

Or here is another current auction for 150 US First Day Covers from the 1940s to recent times with a starting bid of $13.33 which is about 8 cents per FDC. There are no bids on this lot at this time. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-Of-150-...172252432702

Of course there are exceptions, but they are few and one needs to be knowledgeable as to which ones they are out of the many tens of thousands of different US FDCs, but in most every case US First Day Covers after the mid-1930s are available wholesale for a few cents each. If a person wishes to buy them one at a time, there is a cost that includes the dealer's time and effort to buy and then sort large quantities of FDCs, and then advertise and sell them one at a time. This is why one normally sees US FDCs being advertised at prices such as $2 or $3 each for the common ones. The reason is that the dealer must also add in a profit margin to stay in business and earn a living wage for himself and his family.

The good news is that because of such low prices, collecting US FDCs of this age can be very inexpensive and a lot of fun. The bad news is that if one wishes to sell them the price that you could expect would be even less than you paid for them since dealers need to buy for substantially less than they sell in order to make a profit.

fdcusanc,

Since I specialize in US airmail and aviation themed stamps, I'd be surprised to find more than 3-4 keepers in the lot.

Kimo's posts are always worth reading, and I usually agree with him, as here. I would add that one way to collect FDC's and have your collection retain some kind of value is to narrow the interest somehow. Then look for things that distinguish FDC's from the common "garden variety" FDC -- things like less common cachet producers, or more popular cachet producers (especially handpainted, which are typically issued in more limited numbers), FDC's with plate blocks (or line pairs, for coil issues) rather than a single stamp, unusual or distinctive unofficial cancellations, FDC's signed by the stamp designer, one of a kind FDC's, etc. These kinds of distinctions can take an FDC that would be worth one or two dollars and turn it into something worth 5 or 10 times that ($5-$20). Even then, if you pay those kinds of prices, be realistic in any expectation of what you might get if you chose to sell your collection some day. Selling it off piece by piece, be happy to get half of what you paid for it. Selling it in bulk, be happy to get ten cents on the dollar.

I continually repeat this, but don't think of a collection as an investment. Collections are typically "investments" only the items in it are worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars each. Think of it as what it is, a hobby. Hobbies yield significant non-financial rewards or benefits, and are pursued for reasons other than monetary reward. If one cannot get past thinking about a collection solely in terms of what it is worth, one should not be collecting.

Basil

I've been in the hobby for over 30 years as a buyer, seller, cachetmaker, and collector. Primarily a collector (North Carolina and Fire Service). No need to preach to me - I know more than you think I know...

fdcusanc,

I wasn't preaching to you. After my first sentence, I was responding more to the OP. I apologize for not making that more clear.

Basil

10-4, sorry I interpreted it wrong.