What Deals Have You Scored, Because A Seller Misidentified A Stamp?

Occasionally I come across a stamp that is obviously misidentified as a less expensive stamp and pick it up for a good price. Example: I once found what the seller said were Belgium N8 and N9 in MNH (CV $135), but were actually France N25 and N26 (CV $300 in MNH). Picked those up for $18 including shipping. I thought that was a pretty good deal.

What have you found?

I've found 4 sellers in the last year who stopped reading the catalogue after finding O10s, The 1875 Continental Special Printing. It was also printed a third time by the American Bank Note company in 1879. O10xs, the soft paper Executive SPECIMEN is a noticeably different color and is a much scarcer stamp. Catalogues for almost 3x as much. 10,000 hard paper, 10,000 ribbed paper and 4652 soft paper.

Probably not as impressive as "deals" that one might report regarding classic stamps, but the best deal I ever came across was a set of 20 Collins hand painted covers for the Classic American set for $7.82 (best recollection, it was under $8.00). Individually these go for about $10-$12 each, though I've set sets of 20 for for less than $90 to over $150.

This was from a regular "stamp dealer" on ebay, not somebody selling off Grandpa's collection. I expected the sale to be cancelled, or maybe to receive only a single cover, not the complete set of 20. But it was all 20. Was it mispriced, or did the dealer just not want to mess with it and basically let it go for nothing? I'm thinking the latter.

Two purchases come to mind.
The first was a real bargain from an ebay auction. Note that the stamp in this case was not misidentified. The seller was auctioning 3 copies of Scott US 1419a (tagging omitted) as a single item. I assumed the stamps were probably tagged, but went ahead and placed a bid anyway, hoping for the best. Mine was the only bid ... I won the stamps with a bid of $5. The stamps proved to be untagged with a CV of $75 per stamp.
The second item comes from a fairly recent auction. I was seeking an unused well-centered hinged copy of Scott US K17. The auction catalogue described a beautifully centered never-hinged K17 with two certs (no mention of grading). I judged the centering to be at least grade 90 and probably 95. But there was a problem ... the listed expected price range appeared to be more appropriate for a grade 90 previously hinged stamp rather than grade 90 or 95 NH. A quick check with the auction manager convinced me that the never-hinged was indeed accurate ... someone had made a mistake in the auction catalogue. After mulling it over, I doubled my planned bid (allowing for NH) and took the plunge. To my utter surprise, even though my bid was still 20% below the SMQ for a never-hinged grade 90 K17, I did in fact just barely win the item. But the real shock came when the stamp arrived ... with two grade 95 certs (whose dates did not match those described in the auction catalogue). While I was more than content with the purchase, I felt badly for the stamp's consigner. Also note that I do not consider this purchase a true bargain. While I did end up with considerably more stamp than I had sought, I also spent a good bit more than I had originally budgeted (albeit far less than the stamp merited).

I've obtained 6-7 very nice fancy cancels, described as "heavy cancels" and so I paid a pittance. My best windfall was when I bought a big box lot from an often maligned ebay seller from NYC... (got em?). So... there was an old binder jam packed with Columbians, and mixed into the page of 10¢ was a sound, 4-margin #245 - yessireebob, I got a $5 Columbian for about a nickel!

U.S. #544 on cover (postcard) for under $10.00. Missed the EDU on it by 3 days.

How about a recalled Legends of the West pane for only $25? Scott lists it at $220, though I've seen it for as little as $70 on ebay. This one was on the wall in a brick-and-mortar stamp shop, so there's no telling how many people walked right past it without noticing....

At a show I attended about 4 years ago, I came across a Canadian military cover that was used by the Canadians in the Siberian Expeditionary Forces in 1919. A similar cover sold for close to $500.00 at an auction I had a catalogue for earlier. I got this cover for an incredible $4.00!

Didn't realize what I had in until I got the cover home and could do research from my philatelic library.

Chimo

Bujutsu

When I first started collecting Spain, I bought from a shop in California, a Scott Spain Scott #52, which at the time catalogued at $1500. It was being sold as a forgery, and I was buying as a forgery as well, knowing full well I'd never be able to fill that spot with a genuine stamp. Several years later when I became more knowledgeable about the early stamps of Spain, I learned it was in fact a genuine copy. Not bad for a $5 purchase.

It's called "cherrypicking" and happens online, at auction, and at shows. I rely on it... cherrypicking dealers at shows helps counterbalance the above-retail purchases from specialist dealers. I've also been cherrypicked. It's all part of the game, balancing the knowledge of the buyer vs. that of the seller.

Well said, revenuecollector. I've invested a lot of time studying the US 1851-57 3-cent imperforate stamps, so I usually don't feel guilty buying #10As ($150 cat) identified as #11As ($15 cat) by dealers and collectors. The benefit I receive is from years of study and effort that I invested, but the seller did not. I've acquired countless #10As advertised as #11As over the decades.

There are times when I will inform a dealer at a show that a stamp they are offering as a #11A is really a higher-valued #10A, like if I'm trying to establish rapport with a dealer who consistently supplies me with quality stamps.

I think I've mentioned this one before. Purchased some CSA (Confederate) fakes (yes, on purpose) from a Bidstart dealer a couple of years ago for 11¢ each, and one of them turned out to be a legit CSA #4 Stone 2 cataloguing at about $130 with no gum.
Not bad.

When I was about 18 I found a beer stamp, obviously decades before they were in Scott. An older collector browbeat me until I traded it to him. Today there are only 2 known and it catalogs $30,000.

Ouch!

One advantage of being in the UK is that I tend to know more than dealers. At ONE stamp show I got 3 plate blocks of air mail stamps. Canada C7 plate 2 CV $450 +50% for NH for about C$ 30. And two C8 plate 5 for C$ 15 each CV $200 + 50%. But probably the best was the matched corner block set of the Canadian 2 cent Centennial pre-cencelled for about C$3.

I do keep wondering what else I have missed though

AQ

I miss small auction catalogs with grainy, tiny black and white photos.
I recall seeing an otherwise mundane cover with a strip of 3 1c 1851 Ty II imperforate stamps on it. Horrible image, but I could tell they were A reliefs from the top row of plate 4. The command a significant premium to a normal Ty II.

I could also tell that it was a 4-margin strip that looked pretty nice. Grainy photos also hide condition. I put a very aggressive bid on it, and won it for a modest price. I later sold it when I sold my collection, with a color photo, for 18 times what I paid for it, as it turned out to be one of the finest known top-row plate 4 strips. Go figure.