Would You Pay This For A C19?

Personally, I think the name Siegel has something to do with it. If these were a lesser auction house I doubt the bidding would have been that crazy. Same with Harmer. Probably a wider (worldwide) clientele (including what I believe could be many foreigners probably laundering money). I don't know. Just my opinion.

Yeah, I have a hard time getting Siegel prices on ebay :)

No consistency in the parcel post stamps. A graded 98 used common 1 cent went for more than a graded 98 lightly hinged 50 cent, go figure.

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Given that one is used and the other mint, it could be completely different bidders and budgets in play on the two items. If two deep-pocket collectors REALLY wanted the 1-center and duked it out, that could easily make it surpass other higher value stamps.

I see it all the time. Something with much higher value sells for much less simply because there weren't as many active bidders for that particular piece at that particular time.

It's dangerous to extrapolate based upon isolated data points.

Also, don't forget that used stamps that are genuinely postally used have to weather the handling, canceling and travel. So there are lots of great looking used stamps that just don't survive the circumstances. So used gem stamps may be scarcer than their counterpart mint stamps.

orstampman - very true.

That might be true for some scarcer items, but a stamp as common as this should have plenty of both. As I said before, I don't think very many people go looking for them when a stamp is this common.

I agree revcollector - with a stamp issue this common, fewer are looking for the condition gems, and I can't imagine having the time/interest to sort through used copies for the chance that there is enough demand to sell one at a price worthy of the time put in. And, yes, there are likely to be some other equivalent or better mint gems to come out of the woodwork (so as to reduce prices), even though as noted, these rotary issues aren't kind to centering/margins.