An Error In Your Favor

This topic has nothing to do with errors on stamps, but rather something like that card in the Monopoly game which I'm sure most of us have played at one time or another, and which says "Bank error in your favor, collect $200" or "favour" and 200 pounds for our British members. I refer to an error by a dealer or private seller in which they send you an item not as they described it in the ad, but without realizing it, they send you something more valuable. In my case it was a stamp I bought a few years ago. It was one I had been wanting for a long time and which filled a space in my Great Britain collection. It was the one pound Queen Victoria brown-lilac stamp of 1878. It comes in two varieties, both rather expensive, and they differ in the watermark. The earlier, less expensive one has a Maltese cross watermark, and the later one has a large anchor watermark. I found one on the website of a well-known dealer that was a price I could afford, and which was advertised as the Maltese cross watermark, and when I got the stamp in the mail, to my delight it was the large anchor variety. I don't feel guilty about doing the dealer out of some money, because by selling it to me at the price he did, I'm sure he still made a profit, otherwise he wouldn't have sold it at that price. It's just as likely that he bought it the same way, i.e. he was told it was the cheaper variety, and apparently he didn't bother to check. Luckily my album has a space only for the stamp design itself, so I don't need to worry about trying to obtain one of each. The picture is not the actual stamp, just a picture I pulled off of ebay. It's not a particularly attractive stamp, it's kind of an ugly color, and there is another one on ebay at the moment on which the entire picture of Queen Victoria is covered with a very smudgy cancellation. So, fellow forum members, have you ever had an error in your favor?

I bought a collection a few years back from a dealer that was brokered by another dealer. He had checked the content for me, and verified the price was good for what was being offered. (It was a dealer stock, he was selling out to retirement). When I got it, everything looked great, I proceeded to break it down and put it into my stock albums. I then took the album apart for disposal, and found a very nice 85E (Z grill on 12c Washington) wedged in between some pages at the base. I called the broker back and asked if I should feel bad about this, or offer more, and he said no. Wasn't anything malicious, and the other dealer had no idea he had a "lost stamp", so not to feel bad about it, happens all the time.
I still feel odd about it, but it was the best "mistake" I've had like that.
In another case, I bought a big red box full of glassines, and while checking through those I found a 272a (fantastic full R watermark) on one of about 150 272's in the envelope. I've found 2 of those now, but that's a little different where someone just never spotted the EFO.

Just recently I was checking the perfs on some of my MNH U.S. postage dues, and I discovered that what was in my album space for J83 (Scott value $0.60) was really a J73 (Scott value $42.50). I must have bought it as a J83 and paid for it as such, so yeah, it was definitely an error in my favor.

Interesting stories. Thanks for sharing.

A few years ago I bought a ragged cover with a business college stamp applied instead of a regular postage stamp.

I don't think that I paid more than $20 for it.

When I looked inside of the envelope, there was a mint block of eight stamps, of the same type that was on the outside of the envelope. The block was stuck down in a few places and some were retrieved with original gum while others had to be soaked off.

I traded a few of the stamps and kept the rest.

These particular stamps are fairly scarce, see below for what they usually sell for.

Lesson: always look inside of the envelopes that you buy!

Jim

Years ago I bought a few covers from a "dollar" cover box. One cover had a Canada 1897 Jubillee stamp...later I did a closer inspection of the cover and found a mint Jubilee stamp tucked inside the corner of the envelope..i was able to convert that mint stamp into a $35.00 credit at a stamp shop.

A few years back, while trying to fill a few gaps in my German collection, I bought several of the "flat top to R" varieties on the 1920 overprints of the Bavarian issues. Non of them were listed as such, it was just a case of working through the listings and magnifying the images on the page. My attitude, whether right or wrong, was that I put in the time to look for them while the vendors couldn't be bothered so they lost out.

A little different angle -

The fellow thumbing thru a Siegel catalog a couple years ago when he noticed an uncertified US 21 he knew to be rare position 99R2 recut being lotted as a regular 21. He bought it for $1,600.

The PF certed it genuine UNUSED and the buyer estimated its worth at 30K. Scott Trepel, needless to say, was not happy (and probably is still miffed). To date, Siegel has not updated their census to include the new addition.

I've only bought 1 lot from Siegel in the last 5 years. I paid $1700 and sold it for $13,500. The lot was described as having 200 items, but it actually had 4 or 5 copies of each of the 200 items, no skill on my part just dumb luck but please don't tell Scott.

Maybe it is me being naïve, but surely a major player like Siegel does not rely on just one person to correctly id an item, it seems like common sense to get that persons id double checked by another staff member when you are talking the values they deal in.

Around ten years ago, I purchased an imperf pair of the D rate eagle coil (2112a). Think I paid about a third of the $45 CV. A couple of years later, I purchased a UV lamp. When I checked this pair, I found it to be untagged ... 2112b instead of 2112a with $100 CV. Not a big bump, but nice nonetheless.

On the Type III pos 99R2, in fairness to Siegel things sometimes are missed (no matter how many folks look at it). It was consigned to them as a non-99R2 with a 1987 PF cert (it was not uncertified). I would have probably missed the faint characteristic DT at right as well although I see it now. Siegel did accurately identify it as unused with partial gum and toning and the hammer price was $2000, not $1600 (just for accuracy). But good going for the buyer - knowledge is power for sure!

Rhett -

Thanks for that. Two years of memory rehash.

The buyer of the 21 99R2 was Bernard Biales, a knowledgeable philatelist. He's also a frequent contributor to the Frajola Board. Link to a Linn's article. It notes that Scott Trepel never personally checked the stamp. Perhaps those that did relied on the PF cert. It would be ironic that maybe without the cert they would have id'd it...

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...es-sale.html

I bought a US #134 off ebay and checked the grill dimensions with my specialty gauge. It looked like a #134A I grill so I submitted to PSE and was right! That specialty gauge paid for itself (I think).

From the most recent APS sales circuit I reviewed, I purchased a St. Kitts-Nevis 2sh6p Medicinal Spring (Scott 87, perf. 14, CV $8.50).

Turns out it is actually Scott 87a, perf. 13x11 1/2, CV $22.50.

Cha-ching!

Robert

There used to be a brick and mortar stamp shop near my house which I'd frequent. One day upon browsing the dealer's inventory, I found a set of stamps which I'd been looking for but the posted price was about 1% of the actual catalogue value. I could have bought it at the posted price but I told the dealer that his price was wrong and got him to pull out his catalogue and fix the price. I bought it at the higher amended price. I didn't feel right paying the wrong value.