1924 Transpolar Flight Expedition...

Slow news day at SCF, so...

Got this in the mail yesterday, $20 on ebay:



You, too, can have your very own copy of this incredibly rare post card, here:



So as not to embarrass the guilty, I left off the seller's id, though I am sure I am fooling no one with this spoof.

Basil

I see Bill has two more of these incredibly rare items at $750 & $800.

This appears to be one of those things that everyone lists high, but no one is willing to give the big bucks.

Same thing for 90 bucks https://www.ebay.com/itm/1924-Trans...bQ-afVuBf6pg

How did I miss those higher examples? Quite a few of these on ebay for something said to be "rare." I think I saw several under $100, though. Doesn't exactly fit with anything else I collect, but figured it was priced about right for $20. I had passed up one that about $40-$50 at one time.

I see these because I periodically search on "1924 flight" in "covers" on ebay looking for anything related to the 1924 Army Mass Flight of B-10's to Alaska. In all my searching I've only found one cover for this flight. Lots of covers for Navy "mass" flights in 1924, when it is the Army flight that was probably more historically significant.

Well, I can go back to ignoring all the offers for the 1924 Trans-Polar flight. It is a neat little card, smaller than the usual postcard, posted for mailing both front and back. I'm happy with it.

Basil

when the stamp is SC 554, modest value
when the stamp is SC 599, modest value
when the stamp is SC 595, high value

there are 3 different stamps referred to above
1924 was an interesting year for US stamp varieties

chasa,

Thanks for that! So, paying closer attention, the ones that Langs is asking $700-$800 for are said to be #595.

What about this one?



Does this look like a #595?

He's "only" asking $125 for this one.

Basil

looks like 554.. wild Bill would not sell 595's for 125

As flight covers these are not very rare though you do not find multiples of them in every dealer's stocks. I think that if you found one with the Norwegian cancel (that is the critical one) very clear and dark and easily readable a fair price would be as much as $75. Ones where the Norwegian postmark is unclear such as the ones shown here would in my opinion have values more in the $25 to $35 range so the one you picked up for $20 with the poorly struck Norwegian cancellation is a good deal though perhaps not a complete steal. If there are US stamps that have very high catalog values for being legitimately used on covert then I am sure those would have values corresponding to a person who was buying it as an example of a legitimately used example of that stamp on cover but the value as a flight cover would not be additive to that value since the collectability would be for that stamp on a cover and not the flight cover as a flight cover. This is because these stamps are not related to the flight. If there were an airmail stamp on the cover then that would be additive since the stamp is directly related to it being a flight cover.

Thanks for the reply, Kimo.

As for whether the stamp on a cover is worth a significant premium, I certainly wouldn't trust Langs to properly identify the variety. I know next to nothing about W-F's, but I do know something about airmails and airmail FDCs to know that Langs is often clueless. As in the following, which came up right next to each other in an ebay search:



These are both Langs offerings. As to the artist, they are identical, i.e., either both are Weigand or both are Knapp. Doug Weisz is probably the leading authority on Knapp and discusses how to tell the difference in his book "Dorothy Knapp: Philately and Family" and identifies this cover as one of Knapp's.

So besides being overpriced, Langs offerings are often misidentified. (This is why saying "Bill would not sell 595's for $125" doesn't settle the matter for me; it could still be a 595 on that cover, but Langs doesn't know it.) I've often wondered if he's acquired all of his material outright or if a lot of it is on consignment. Either way, it appears to me that he frequently describes his material the way it came to him and takes the identification at face value.

Obviously, for anything offered by Langs, caveat emptor. That said, I have purchased a couple of items from him, when it is something I really wanted, I was sure of what it was, and he'd sell it for 20-25% off in a "make offer" deal, and I was unable to find it anywhere else. Even at that, I was probably paying more than "CV" but that doesn't mean much if it is something nobody else has for sale and you really want it for some reason or another.

Basil

I do not know that guy, but I do see what you are saying. As for me (and most first flight collectors) I collect first flight covers, not postage stamps (even rare ones), so which stamps are used are not important so long as the rate is correct and the cancelations are readable and correct. The only exception is if a particular stamp is essential to that exact first flight as in the case either it being a period airmail stamp that is expected to be on the flight cover or it being a specially issued airmail stamp that was created specifically for that flight as sometimes happened in various countries. When the expected airmail stamps are not used on a flight cover the cover tends to be devalued a bit over ones that do have the expected airmail stamps.

Doug Weisz

http://douglasweisz.com/

http://douglasweisz.com/book-doroth...tely-family/

I happened upon one of these postcards on ebay and started doing a little online searching. And I noticed that the two Norwegian stamps on all the cards I looked at are affixed over a green imprint that appears similar to postal stationery. Obviously this was not postally valid, so the Norwegian PO made an effort to cover it up. Does anyone know what this was? I'm almost tempted to buy a cheap copy just to steam off the stamps.

From what I can see above the stamps on the first one are the words trans polar flight expedition. Whether it is just a boxed image or preprinted postage, maybe from another country, surly someone knows.

"So besides being overpriced, Langs offerings are often misidentified. (This is why saying "Bill would not sell 595's for $125" doesn't settle the matter for me; it could still be a 595 on that cover, but Langs doesn't know it.)"

I think you are seriously underestimating Langs' knowledge of STAMPS. He might be clueless about FDC's, but he knows stamps well; he would know a 595 if he saw one. Much better then one might think just looking at his ebay listings.

I was just re-reading some of the earlier posts here. blcjr, are you sure you have the correct year for that B-10 mass flight? B-10s weren't even prototyped until 1932.