Rs227B - Medicine Wrapper

Catalogs and other reference materials are as necessary to collecting as tongs, watermark fluid and a perf gauge. They are basic necessities.

The Scott catalog is a good reference source for numbers, types, varieties, and such but the prices are not realistic. And I will bet that it is even more true in the M&M section. That is why I am not sure that the catalog is worth the money if I just need it for BOB stamps. I do not have any faith in their prices from years of experience. I am looking for better information than Scott has to offer.

A printed catalogue, by definition, is obsolete the moment it is printed. That is true of all catalogues, not just Scott. What it does offer, however, is a consistent starting point to move up or down from. What is important is not the exact dollar amounts, but the comparative differences in value between stamps, varieties, issues, etc.

What you want does not exist.

The Scott catalog is a good reference source for numbers, types, varieties, and such but the prices are not realistic. And I will bet that it is even more true in the M&M section.

When it comes to m&m's, this is essentially a meaningless statement. All m&m prices must be looked at on a case by case basis. Some are unrealistic based on condition. Some are unrealistic based on actual scarcity. Many are in a reasonably realistic place for the average example one is likely to find. If they seem generally unrealistic to you it is because you lack the in depth knowledge to distinguish the market.

I am just trying to learn what I can from members here. Things like links they like to use and information they have found and would like to share regarding the M&Ms. How others determine value and such. Items like this one there was 163,534 printed on silk paper. What would the survival rate be? I think about it but I guess no one really knows. It is an interesting area of collecting.

Siegel Auction Galleries uses Aldrich Census of M&M's, Scott Catalogue and there is the Power Search.

Survival rates for many forms of revenue stamps are generally far less than that of postage stamps due to their specific usages. for many forms of revenue stamps average condition is an item that is faulty or poorly centered and would be considered a second or worse if it were a postage issue. once again: good reference books and experience are the best teachers in any collecting area.
I think for the m&ms the Aldrich survey is a fair picture of what is around, keeping in mind not all serious collectors or dealers responded, the power search is better tool for items that can stand alone as individual auction lots due to rarity either of condition or scarcity .

All those tools are nice helpers, but the only real way to understand survival rates is a lot of years looking at stamps. In dealers stocks, in auction lots, and anywhere else you find them. Then you can begin to understand which issues you see all the time and in what condition, and which you almost never see in any condition. As it has been stated here before, quantities issued have almost no significance to actual current availability, and often no relationship to actual value.

United States Match and Medicine Stamps. by West, Christopher (Elliot Perry), Patent Medicine Tax Stamps by Holcombe, and Private Die Match Stamps by West are all essential to collecting m&m's. As is the Joyce auction catalog. The Kaufmann sale 99 and Siegel sale 617 are also useful catalogs to own.

This is very similar to mintages of U.S. Morgan silver dollars vs. actual current value due to survival rates. Some of the morgan dollar date/mint mark combinations with very high original mintages are very valuable compared to dates that had much lower original mintages. Why? Melting of large caches of certain dates in the early 20th century. There isn't necessarily any correlation between number originally produced and number extant.

most revenue uses were designed or required to be damaged or destroyed by their uses. survival rates were small and not subject to later whims. m and m and regular revenue issues that have survived to this day range from a few items in sheets to one or two singles. the government also redeemed them for a period of time after the taxes were removed for a short while. others were surcharged or overprinted when rates changed. if it was not for a handful of early collectors and dealers none of some types might existent today.

Remember, m&m's were purchased by retail companies to pay the tax on a specific product. They were not purchased by the general population like postage stamps were. Occasionally a company would sell stamps to collectors, but most would not. One had to buy the product and carefully remove the stamp in order to save it.