Ireland: 1934 Gaa First Day Cover

In recent years, I have developed an interest in "commercially used" Irish postcards and covers. While First Day Covers are collectable, I personally feel they lack the autenticity of commercially used covers...ie a national or international (air mail) cover. It always seems to grandiose to call these covers or postcards "postal history".
In terms of Ireland, the first commemoratives were produced in 1929 and while it was a three stamp issue....most issues from 1930 to 1966 are two stamp issues (in national and airmail or parcel rates).
There is of course an element of social history. These commercial covers (often edged in black for mourning) have survived from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
First day covers from the 1930s are rare and very expensive.
They are still relatively expensive to 1960.
In terms of commercially used covers, the national rate examples seem to appear at fairs and ebay in Britain and Ireland....but understandably I see airmail covers being sold in USA.
Over the last year I have bought a lot of 1930s, 1940s, 1950s commercial covers. They have been cheap...around 25pence each.
Having five or six covers of some issues is rewarding. They look good in an album, alonfgside the traditional mint and used examples.
They add context...texture to a collection.
And it makes me feel that I have stamps and covers that are actually on display while others are simply in storage and I can change the "display" in an album.
The 1934 GAA single stamp issue is a typical example. I have maybe four commercial covers.
I was changing the cover on display in my album ...I chose one sent from Ireland to Britain ...and I noticed a note on the back of the envelope. It simply said "do you like the new stamp?".
On checking the catalogue....I discovered that I own a 1930s First Day Cover. Not illustrated of course but a nice clear First Day canellation.
What is it "worth"?
Well realistically there are two prices....the price I would get for it and the price I would have to pay for it.
It is irrelevant anyway. It is maybe the only genuine lucky find that I have had in over forty five years collecting Irish stamps.
Maybe I would be offered £50 but that would be less that "retail".
It will of course never be sold....
It is just nice to be lucky for once.

Great to hear. I had a similar experience recently and elected to write up a single page exhibit about the cover. I designed it in MS-Word and printed it on album paper. I showed it at my local club and then put it in the album where it complements the single stamps in their spaces. I find the brief research and preparation involved to be a nice "one evening project".

I, too, enjoy GPU (Genuinely Postally Used) stamps on cover; they feels so much more 'real' than stamps alone.

Finding a cover with a first day postmark would be a treat.

Do you albumize your covers using pocket pages, corner mounts, hinges, denture paste ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Cjppalermo....thats an excellent way of doing things.

Ikey Pikey
I guess back in October 1970 (aged18) when I started collecting Ireland, I made some mistakes in organising.
I settled on a Stanley GIbbons Senator Medium (black) album, using one page for each issue.
In those days I did not fully appreciate "unmounted mint" and casually knocked some value off my stamps by mounting them with hinges. By the mid 1980s I was using black Hawid stamp mounts.
I tend to write up new issues, one per page with info supploed by the Irish Philatelic Bureau...ie date of issue, design, colour, perforation and notes on subject matter.
Each page contains a mint and used stamp.
I gave up collecting in 2001 and when I resumed in 2012, I was disappointed that Gibbons had reduced the range of colours available. There are now only Red and Green. This has turned out ok as I use Black for 20th century and Green for 21st century. I am lucky that this is a natural division.
Black might be more classic but Green is also appropriate.
The commercially used covers means that the 1940s, 1950s issues have maybe two or three pages each.
Over the past two years,I have tried sending commercially used covers to myself from Dublin but they look "phoney" because it is always my handwriting, always Dublin....commercially used covers work best when they are "accidental".
I use Hawid clear pockets for the commercially used covers and it works out well as I can get two standard envelopes in pockets on each page.
I keep some in storage and occasionally change the display in the albums.
Although I collect from 1922-to date, the commercially used covers work best from the early years. I am probably missing only two domestic rate covers from 1929-1960. And only a few are missing to 1966 (generally regarded as a watershed in Irish collecting) and to 1971 (another watershed because of decimalisation).
At the moment, I have ten Black albums (ie1922-2000) and nine Green Albums (2001-2015) which reflects how few stamps were issued in the early years and how many were issued in later years.
For example, I need one album just for 2016.
I also have three Red Albums...for North Ireland regionals, illegal and propaganda stamps from the 1970s, joint issues with other countries and stamps issued by other countries that haave an Irish dimension.