Philatelic Horror Stories

Anyone have good Philatelic Horror Stories to tell?

Like the guy who had a Post Office fresh xf to superb White Plains souvenir sheet laying face down on the table, when seemingly out of nowhere he had one of those sudden and massive slobber-snot sneezes that completely decorated the souvenir sheet.

Or grandkids sneaking into the stamp room to borrow some stamps to play Post Office.

Robert Zoellner's US C3a eaten by a vacuum cleaner.

I remember an old time dealer telling me of having a perfect 4 margin mint #2. Unfortunately he was a smoker and a hot ash fell on it and burned a hole right through the middle of it. He proceeded to get very drunk after that.

As you would!

The opposite of the story - surely apocryphal - of Hynd's stubbing out a cigar on a newly acquired copy of the 1c magenta to preserve the uniqueness of the copy for which he'd overpaid at the Ferrary sale.

History later proved he did not overpay.

History did, but not Hynd himself, if I remember correctly. Didn't he try, and fail, to re-sell it for a profit at auction?

I'm not sure about that. And it's Arthur Hind, BTW

From Wilson's The Royal Philatelic Collection




[Somewhere between "upload" and "display", my scans seem to grow tired and lie down. Apologies]

The reality is that in spite of his relative lack of knowledge, he was ahead of the curve on this stamp. The rest of the philatelic world soon caught up. And this all just adds to the story that is so much a part of the stamp's value.

i once use Lindners cleaning fluids on a perfectly SOTN 4th print 5øre bicolored to remove the rust, while engaged in a heated debate over the internet.

left the stamp in too long... the rust was gone.. and so was the blue oval color :)

2d post office Mauritius, were printed individually (if I recall correctly) so an attached pair was not a possibility.

What about when stamp collector Hector Giroux murdered fellow collector Gaston Leroux in Paris in 1892 for his 1851 2c Hawaiian Missionary stamp.

I had what I thought was a genuine Philippines Scott #53 with multiple hinges on the back, I attempted to remove the hinges by placing the stamp in room temperature water for about a minute or so. When I removed the stamp from the water the hinges were gone, the image on the face of the stamp was gone and the paper was completely disintegrating into mush. Obviously a forged stamp.

The worst thing I every had happen was I acquired a very nice collection, which I was going to break down and resell. It cam in 3 Scott Platinum Hingeless albums. It had a full set of Columbian issues, unused, though some had hinge remnants.
On the way through the collection, after I received it, I didn't notice that the "hingeless" mount was broken. WHen the page turned the $3 beautiful XF centered olive green stamp fell out. Now the Scott Platinum albums have about 40 rings in the binder. The stamp fell between two of them and when the page turned, without knowing it was there, it put a L shaped tear about 3mm deep and then 4mm long in it. Totally ruined. A stamp I should have gotten $3,000 for I wound up getting $320.
Have loathed Scott "Hingeless" albums since.