Sometimes You Have To Do The Right Thing (Rja Series)

A seller offered the below stamp on ebay this morning.



This was the item description:



Clearly, the seller had no idea of what he/she was offering. So I sent the seller this message:



And the seller did this, along with several "thank you's:"



What would you have done?

Jim

p.s. I suggested to the seller that she should contact a reputable specialist revenue dealer to sell her stamp to, rather than offer it on ebay. This is what she wrote back:



So, as rogdcam suggests, though there are some angry sharks playing in the murky waters of ebay, there are also some innocent dolphins as well.

Jim,
That was very nice of you, thank you.
Don

Nice indeed and you should be proud of yourself !
René

Kudos!

It is sad that doing the right thing is now seen as extraordinary. It is supposed to be the rule not the exception.

The stamp is now relisted with a start price of $499.99.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-STAMPS-...AOSwZ5Ra7fmz

This appears to be the fifteenth copy that I have recorded. Twelve of the fifteen are on Buffalo printed documentary stamps (the Scott Specialized calls it type 2, with no dots in the circles to the left and right of the word CENTS). The BEP prints (Scott Specialized type 1, with dots in the circles) are decidedly scarcer. The example on ebay is on a Buffalo print. As Jim has noted this example is in damaged condition, arguably one of the poorest in condition that I have seen.

Richard Friedberg has one of the Buffalo prints listed on his website with a thin priced at full catalog, but its appearance is far, far superior to the one being highlighted here.

For those that are interested, here is a census of the copies that I have seen. Image is from my book.

Jim

Jim,

You have recorded three more than me, but I note that like me you have only recorded three on the BEP print stamps.

Ron,

The two different printings of the one cent documentary stamps that were overprinted by Lily then suggests that at least two panes were overprinted, all with the same date.

Since the documentary stamps were issued in panes of 100, then at least 200 Lily stamps were overprinted, and presumably used.

With about 18 copies currently accounted for, that means the survival rate for this stamp is around 10 percent.

That seems pretty high to me. What do you think?

Jim

I think you have greatly underestimated the number of sheets that were overprinted/cancelled. Do you really think that Lily only manufactured and sent out 200 packages of narcotics on that date?

Ron,

I stated that the different printings show that at least two panes were overprinted (i. e. at a minimum), and at 18 known copies that represents a ten percent survival rate.

I stated that that percentage seems pretty high.

The implication therefore is that many more than two panes were overprinted.

Sorry that I didn't make that more clear.

Jim

Jsmes

Usually do not follow US (BOB) posts but your thread is impressive, so are the comments and I am learning at the same time....

René

Jim,

I saw that this morning and immediately put it on my watch list. I am pretty confident that it would have gone significantly higher than the starting bid.

Regardless, I expect some fierce bidding towards the end.

Thanks Tom,

My census records show that the cheapest of these stamps sold for $400 in 2016 for stamp #7, and the most was stamp #4 for $7,500 in 2006.

Most were sold from $2,000 to $4,000.

So Linda's stamp should sell for at least $500, in my opinion.

It has its problems, but there are only about 17 other copies to chose from.

Jim

Well done, James.

It probably would have found it's natural level anyway, but this way it's more likely.