Questions On German Stamp Lot For Those Who Know...

Hi all!

I was bidding on a large(ish) lot of Czech stamps and the dealer also had a fairly large, nice looking lot of German stamps, so I threw in a bid on that and won. I figured they looked nice and I could always use them to trade if anyone needed them.

But first I just wanted to ask if anyone who collects stamps from Germany has a general impression of whether these are all just fairly common stamps or there is anything I received that I should know about. My assumption, since I got the entire lot for a decent price, is that nothing in here is all that rare, but you never know.

I don't have a Scott guide that covers Germany, so I can't look them up, and I'm not asking anyone to look all of these up either...there are too many of them! I'm just saying, if you feel like skimming through and saying "yeah, those are all common stamps" that would be great Also, if you're a German stamp collector and you skim through the pics and see anything you're interested in, please let me know. I'd be happy to make some trades!

Here are the stamps:

















(And what is that in the bottom right hand corner?)







Thanks for looking!

most of it is indeed rather common - a few of the Deutsches Reich commemoratives could be interesting. Are these MH or MNH? For instance the trains or the 1934 - Colonists...

I believe that is a registration label for Heidenau, Saxony.

k

Jan-Simon:
Thanks for the info. As for the commemoratives...I don't know much about these, so can you point them out for me? I know which ones the trains are and looking at them, they appear to be MNH, but which ones are the 1934-Colonists? Thanks again!

khj:
Thanks! Do people collect registration labels? I think I have one or two others from other countries around here somewhere...never knew what it/they were.

Looking a little closer, I'm taking a stab and guessing you're talking about the top row of this image:

If so, to my very untrained eye, they appear to be MNH.

I looked at these and the train ones on a tiny light box to try to determine if there had ever been a hinge (it's easier for me to look at stamps on a light box with a 10x loupe most times), and was surprised by the watermarks! Not expecting to see swastikas when I flipped on the lightswitch!

bwbollom, there's always someone who collects anything you can think of!

I assume a lot of stamp collectors are like me, and hang to those things when we run into them. More like accumulator, rather than collector.

I have seen a couple of people buy these labels, but they usually don't go for a very significant amount and they usually are in a lot of several labels. I remember meeting one collector who had quite a few of these, but I have forgotten who. Sorry.

By the way, I had to make an unexpected return trip home last night. Because of the traffic on I-10 with everyone trying to get home after the holidays, I took an alternate route -- Highway 36. Guess what city I passed through? Orchard, of course! Unfortunately, it was too dark for me see much other than the sign pointing to the Post Office and also Brazos School(?).

k

khj:
People do collect just about anything and everything. I should know better than to ask such questions by now They're kind of interesting, I just wouldn't even know how or where to start with such a collection...oh well, I'll leave it to the experts!

That's really funny that you ended up passing through Orchard, TX randomly like that! Almost no one that I tell about it has any idea where it could be. It's basically in the middle of nowhere...stuck in a bunch of cotton and corn fields and if you blink twice, you'll miss it If you saw Brazos High School (actually outside the city limits by quite a bit), the two blinking lights, and the gas station, you pretty much saw everything that you can see without leaving HWY36! It's a decent place to grow up though...

Yes, the left 4 stamps in the top row is the Lost Colonies issue. The 2007 Scott catalog value for MNH set is $149. Check, however, to see if your stamps have stains. It may be an artifact of the scanner, but it appears that at least 2 of the stamps have some brownish stains, often called foxxing. Again, it may just be artifact of the scan.

k

[EDIT: My apologies. The price is from the 2007 Scott catalog, not the 2009 as originally typed. Happy fingers because of bwbollum's find!]

Jan-Simon, GREAT EYE!! You saw that after a bunch of common stamps and buried in the pack!

k

khj:


WOW! Really?!? That's nutty!

As for the "brownish stains"...I'm not sure exactly. Are they supposed to be printed on pure white paper? If so, then these do have the "foxxing" I guess. They look like they are printed on a sort of off-white/tan-ish paper. I don't really know anything about them. I just assumed this is what they were supposed to look like. I scanned them in at high resolution...maybe you can tell better from this:

Now I'm pretty excited! Even if they're not perfect, to have something more than just "common stamps" out of this lot is pretty cool to me

The featured and discussed grouping just above is really all I saw that was interesting/bit different from the usual but they are really quite special and appear to be nice specimens. Good deal. You never know where treasures will emerge. Thaqt's the main reason I wade through lots of large lot bargains that many othersw won't even bother with.

There are more good stamps there. The full set of "Return of SAAR to Germany (woman hugging girl)" is valued at $10 for hinged or $80 for MNH. Schutz, Bach and Handel $22.00 if Never Hinged, and most of others Deutsches Reich commemoratives worth few bucks if never hinged

My apologies. The price of $149 for the Lost Colonies MNH set is from the 2007 Scott catalog, not the 2009 as originally typed. Happy fingers because of bwbollom's find!

Several of the 1930s MNH sets have good value. This is tempered by the reality that the stamps are heavily toned (from the larger scans, not foxxing as I previously stated). Nevertheless, a very very nice set to have!

Congratulations, again!

k

cgrotha:
Thank you for your comments! I really only bought this lot because I didn't have any German stamps at all and it seemed to be a good mixture of dates and types including a lot from the WWII era. I guess I selected well! Thanks for your comments on the group above also!

danko:
Thanks for the info on the other Deutsches Reich commemoratives. I guess I might need to pick up some sort of book/protector to put them in instead of just a glassine envelope. Any ideas other than an actual Scott Germany album? I don't plan to collect the entire country, just want to make sure these stay in nice condition.

khj:
Thanks again for the info...I wonder if the price has fluctuated up or down at all since the 2007 catalog? Also, how much would this type of toning reduce the value of sets like these? Having never dealt with this type of stuff, I'm completely out of my realm for this. I'm used to dealing in 10¢ stamps

My guess is it has gone up slightly, simply because of the strength of the Euro in the past couple of years. If someone doesn't chime in with an updated price, I'll check when I drop by the library later this week.



The toning is not uncommon among German stamps of that era. The stamp itself is not that rare, but many German stamps during that time were hinged (as are most of my German stamps), so there is a high demand for MNH sets with no faults. That is the main reason for the huge premium over the hinged sets. Unfortunately, that means there is a pretty huge dropoff for any damage, and the toning is considered a major fault. Realistic internet value, I would say probably 10%-20%. I'm open to hearing differing opinions on that as I haven't really followed the German stamp market very closely. I wouldn't bother trying to sell it to a dealer in that condition; I'd be totally surprised if a dealer offered you 10%.

It's definitely a keeper. I would recommend you keep it displayed and isolated in something like Vario stocksheets or the equivalent. I don't recommend putting toned mint stamps in stockbooks. Again, just my opinion and practice.

k

bwbollom

What I use for my stamps and does a very good job on keeping them safe and sound, is clear plastic sheets with pockets, the ones that are used for sport cards. You can by 300 of them for $30 on e-bay. You can use one pocket for more the one stamp. At least for two one facing one side, one opposite with plastic divider in between them (cut it off some clear sheet cover or something). Works great.