Australian Decimal Post Office Cancelled Stamps In Sheets Etc

This is one of my pet peeves that Australian CTO's are referred to as label rubbish.

CTO's in my opinion got a really bad name from those European countries etc. And yes they were mass produced to the point that they are now worthless rubbish.

But a lot of Australian stamp issues especially from the 70c issues on are getting extremely hard to get poatally used copies. Even the CTO's are hard to find.

High denominations from the 60c era and including all Interpost issues are even harder to come across postally used which makes the CTO's even more important to the collector.

My stock includes Australia CTO's and I am looking constantly for the hard to get stamps in CTO's form.

Some are so hard to find that only CTO's will fill that spot in a collection.

There is the Post Office machine printed CTO's and then there is the "Flinders Lane" CTO hand cancels. These are the CTO's that I look long and hard for.

My decimal Oz used collection to 2000 is made up of first day cover cancels , All from damaged covers I soaked .

Sadly even FDC's are CTO's as well so I am told but I believe it is just people wanting to be negative like most things in their lives and stretch CTO's to include FDC's.

Got heaps of FDC stock and will start buying them again next year.

For some reason FDC cancel are accepted and not called CTO's by most collectors.

I just do not get it!

They make a nice display/collection besides I only had two choices = soak them or throw them .

Found when I was servicing 1,500 listing per week on ebay with all the listings being Australian decimal 1992 to the now. Trying to find stamp issue stock was never ending and extremely wearing. It was my hardest part to selling.

Somewhere around 75% of covers I buy from this era are damaged in some way. This could very easily be why there seem to be so few FDC collectors around.

Single type stamps issue sets taken off FDC's sell heaps easier and for more off cover sadly.

Some collectors want to call Australian decimal stamps that are CTO's labels.

So we have a bunch of descriptive terms that seem to be put together by a growing number of stamp people, being Labels, Cinderellas & CTO's.

They look like stamps to me. Can not see why CTO's are called labels & Cinderellas.

Large stamp forums are changing many of our meanings to stamp terms. Sometimes this is spot on and other times they are the very opposite.

This is not a new issue with stamp terms.

Have sourced my stamp stock in many ways to suit the term "Used".

To the point of total confusion the term used has become.

Which way are the stamps used? This is my stand on this issue for used stamps for around 10 years now.

When I 1st started selling on ebay the 1st thing that went into the description area was this statement below and it is on all of my listings and always will be.

"Used can mean from 1st Day Cover, Maxicard, by mailing, cancelled to order, special cancels and no gum or cancel etc."

This definition to used is used!

It is my belief that a FDC is a postal item that can be sent through the mail. So to me a stamp removed from a FDC is a used stamp.
Sam

Not sure if the images are going to show correctly, only my second posting on the forum. MODS, delet if needed.

This is a Post on Cancelled Stamps, Australia
(https://goscf.com/t/58419)


Australia Post(APO) sells a Year Book of Cancelled Stamps. There is no wording of CTO(Cancelled To Order) in the description of the sell-able Item, the description for the sale is "includes cancelled versions of the entire 2017 catalog of Australia stamps".(NOTE ABOVE- APO - VERSIONS)

Now the BIG THING is, none of these stamps have been ALTERED BY ANY OTHER MEANS(from the original Mint Never Hinged), then by a printing process.



Because these stamps have been through a PRINTING PROCESS, NOT CANCELLED, they go through the postal system if attached to a letter, cover. They are in fact, their own variety, of a collectible Philatelic stamp.

Here is a PIC of such stamps on a cover(MY TEST), as you will all see, going through the APO system, (NO PROBLEM), WHY, because they are not cancelled, they are a FULLY INK printed item .

KGV when was the last time you where in Melbourne and visited Flinders Lane stamp shop that has been selling this CTO stuff well under face value for many years.

You can even purchase the limited edition only found in the Aussie post year books material CTO.!!

Once upon a time Australia post used to destroy left over sheets now they CTO them with a printer offer them up to the trade at under face.

I 100% agree genuine postally used high value issues are near impossible to find but how can we compare these contrived collectables that have no philatelic merit in the same breath?

CTO Issues are a collecting area in itself if that's your thing like the imperforated collectable issues Australia post are pumping out but on thing that peeves me is seeing dealers and online resellers passing off CTO as fine used

Tell me that the mass over produced Europe CTO's etc have not given CTO's a bad name. In KGV's & Map of Australia with Roo issues CTO's are as sweet as and not degraded like decimal CTO's that are in limited numbers. Not all decimal issues are possible to find because they simply got left out.

So why do collectors that do not agree with CTO's as used stamps get off degrading collectors that do like them and see no issue with superb CTO example in their collection.

Flinders Lane CTO's are my pick of CTO's because they are hand cancelled.They also have mini sheets CTO which others do not seem to have. Most of these cheaper buys come from auction supplied by Flinders Lane? And if I purchase $2,000 or $3,000 of sheet + mini sheets with a face value of 20,000 to 30,000 I am carrying a lot of cost in stock. Buying CTO's anything less in numbers and the price increases.

One other auction trick is to put together large lots of CTO sheet stamps etc. In the lot which includes many incomplete sets coupled with the very many, can not sell territories, stamps that make the 20% face value totally doctored when the real face value on the buy is closer to 40% face value. Your have to be very careful what you really do buy and end up with.

Price is the price but if I can not get a good price on any CTO stamps it is not going to be a winner for me as a seller.

A FDC is a CTO as well.

Now I will repeat that in English.

A First Day Cover is a Cancelled To Order stamp or stamps as well. Any cancel other than postally used are CTO's.

As you can see from the scan, these stamps are not cancelled in the traditional way, they are as I stated, produced as PRINTED items.
How can these item be labeled as CTO, they are not, they go through the postal system just like any other MNH stamp.



Notice that the selvege does NOT have the full Postal cancellation. These stamps are printed stamps collectable in their own right, printed as a MNH and can be used as such as a postaly.

I see your point sam931

One other thing the cancel has no date as well which I thought was a must on cancelled stamps.

KGV we need to look at how these CTOs are produced and the variances found under the term (CTO).

Everyone has different opinions and collecting methods and that what makes philately great.

The Australian decimal CTO,s are no different then the European ones in the simple fact they where never intended for any postal use whatsoever in fact 99% have never been anywhere near a post office let alone passed over the counter or gone through the mail system how can you call these used?

The pre printed CTO cancels from far flung places and Australia are aimed for the collectors market only.

I Totally agree First day covers, maxi cards etc are no different and any stamps soaked off these should be in the same category.
Lets face it when was the last time you had an addressed first day cover turn up in the mail?

Australian Cancelled to order issues even date back to pre federation state stamps but the difference to their modern pre printed counterparts is these where done by collectors at any local post offices over the counter with a post office hand stamps.

In recent times I have seen a CTO decimal block of 4 collection where every issue was purchased and cancelled at his local post office many hours work and a very helpful post master.

Flinders Lane CTO I didn't relies there was a post office located in a stamp shop?

One thing that concerns me is how anybody in the trade can purchase a multitude of mint stamps & yearbooks presumably at face value from Australia post apply their own CTO cancel and then resell at a fraction of the cost?

Used philatelic gems or contrived jam labels?

Sam these are not supposed to be used as they are classed as cancelled many things fall through the cracks within Australia post.

If you want a good one next time put 98 or 99c worth of postage on envelope and send it.

I still use Victorian Government Perfins on current mail.

Cheers

First Day Covers are dated on first day of issue (by hand) which I think puts them in a different league than these fake cancels .