Why Did This Half-Cent Postage Due Cover Go So High?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-cent-p...152797534590

To me it's a $20-40 cover max. What am I missing?

Is it the prexie usage?
The solo half cent due?
The time period?
The rate/usage?
The cancel?

EDIT: Preserving an image of the auction.

Obviously, two bidders ran this up and one wasn't you(?)

We know it's a legit usage of the precan provable by the markings. So what office carried a marking that reads "CONTAINS WRITING" and actually used it to correct the mail class? It'd be more common in this time to just see a due charge marking only. I'd say the postage due S/L is a composite but the 1/2c part should be pretty rare.

The marking and charge I would expect to see would be 1 1/2c for a charge as 1st class mail, not a charge for 2nd class. I remember 2nd class mail itself being seldom used even for Christmas cards -- no written greeting or even supposedly a signature would be possible.

Of course, this is where you throw out a scan of 50 different 1/2c due covers with these exact markings upgrading to 2nd class mail.

Why is there is always an assumption on this board of a type of snarkiness?

Why can't any simple post be simply accepted for what it is?

Does everyone here have a chip on their shoulder, or what?

I'm pretty much done here, to be honest.

Jim

Hang around, James -- I enjoy your posts.

As to the cover in question, the 1/2 cent postage due looked odd to me, as the cancel doesn't tie it to the cover. Then I thought perhaps it was an unusual precancel. If that's the case it could be a high ticket item for precancel collectors. The DPO cancel is also intriguing.

I'll post an actual image. Maybe we have some precancel specialists who can add more info.

Apologies to revenuecollector, but that revelation happens often enough. James Drummond, don't take it personally, but you often post with authority without explanation of the background situation or care to give details pertinent to the situation. So then, you don't want fresh eyes on a problem, but the answer handed to you on a platter? I'll remember that.

For those who don't mind speculation with some grounding, there is also a possibility that two people who are building competitive exhibits (not neccesarily with each other) went at it here (just two bidders here going from the $50 start price). If we could only know who they are, they could tell us what they saw in these. And if they're at that level of collecting a) (I think) they saw something really out-of-the-ordinary, and b) they had the money to spend on getting what they needed/wanted for the exhibit. I've seen this kind of competition on live auction floors with bidders being known rivals and exhibitors at the regional level. Similarly, I remember two wealthy collectors with world-class collections that were exhibited internationally, and both bid up a Spain 1 pta purple Maja desnuda (Sc#397) die proof to some hundreds of dollars. Their collections were US classics, so I don't know why the interest. But at minimum they were used to spending money to get what they wanted.

That said I do think the due cover is more than a $40 cover for whatever that's worth, maybe even closer to double that. If it were a legal size cover, I'd say $40 would be a tough sell.

I'm the seller on this one.

I think it's a matter of use. My experience with the 1/2 cent dues is that they are typically seen where a sender tried to pay 1 cent on a printed matter piece after the rate went to 1.5 cents. Confusion between an attempted 1.5 cent printed matter rate and a 2 cent carrier drop rate is more than a little off the beaten track, especially on a cute little cover like this one.

Interesting. Did you have a view on why the postage due stamp wasn't tied to the cover? Was it some form of pre-cancel or a re-used cancelled stamp?

It was not unusual for postage due stamps to be already cancelled by the postal clerk and left in his drawer for future use. It would save time. Since postage due stamps couldn't be sold to the public in mint condition there was no reason NOT to cancel the stamps ahead of time thus saving a little time in not having to reach over and find a hand cancel when the postage due charge was paid.

Being a Prexie helps, but I suspect that one could search a long time before finding another example.

Geebus hy-brasil, it was a legit question, no ulterior motive. I'm with Jim, the level of snark around here lately has gone over the top, and not only is it completely unnecessary, I've seen toxic environments created because of it (see Delphi) where people are afraid to post questions publicly for fear of ridicule. I hope that doesn't wind up happening here.

The cover in question is very similar to ones I own (including with a 1-1/2 prexie) but at a price point more than double I have ever paid for virtually all of the half-cent due covers I own... so the question then becomes "why?"

If there are aspects of this particular cover that are either in demand or are particularly scarce that I am unaware of, I want to learn about them. If not, and it's simply a matter of 2 people just wanting a prexie fractional due rate, that's fine.

FYI, I was not a bidder on this cover. By the time I saw it, it was already above my comfort level.

To perhaps answer the question, why was the price so high. The internet opens up an item to the whole world. There are more eyeballs to see an item. More eyeballs means potentially more bidders. More bidders means potentially more expensive on some items which are rare but not expensive in dealers' stock if and when they can be found. Currently, I'm watching an item on which I have placed a 10X ordinary value sniping bid. I need the item for my exhibit but I have never seen it before. Since not many people collect in my area, I just want to be sure I get the item. If someone else feels the same way and bid the same way, the final bid on the item could be surprising, but I'm hoping I will get it at a normal price.

Precancel: The due stamp was (provisionally) precanceled with a parcel post roller cancel. Thus it is not tied nor listed in the precancel catalogs. Overall an unusual combination of markings and frankings that would attract a serious postal history collector.

The other aspect I forgot to mention above that was a possibility is the "Contains writing" auxiliary marking. I don't know how scarce that is on covers form this era or whether that played a part at all.

Most of the examples I have seen are when mail is either forwarded/redirected (addressee not found, moved, etc.) or 2nd-4th class mail is underpaid. The rate possibilities from this period seem to be fairly complex.

Paperhistory: 3rd class rather than 2nd class?

hy-brasil: Section 568, paragraph 4 of the 1940 PL&R, the regulations on additions to 3rd class mail:

Hmm. One should be careful and very confident about ones own behavior before making such a statement on others.