Pen Cancels And Catalog Value

I came across some stamps in a collection I purchased. One has a catalog value of more than $1,000. On the back the owner wrote $1 for the value. The stamp was pen cancelled. Do pen cancels reduce a stamp value that much?

How much value drops due to pen cancels is highly subjective, but in no way do I see a drop that great. Are you sure you're not looking at a catalogue number? Are there faults?
Pen cancels come anywhere from unobtrusive to total obliteration. Some can be 'artsy-looking.' There's a lot of variables. A scan of your stamp would be most helpful...

on some stamps a pen cancel is mandatory, on some it has to have both pen and ink cancel.

in most cases the value increase, and some catalogues carry prices for both - like facit.

on danish bi colored, there were privately carried post routes, on these routes (before minor postoffices were created) all the mail man had was a pen. stamps were cancelled with a pen with mail man's name and date - these stamps are very popular and very expensive.

in your cases, I think you just found the wrong catalogue number, and the previous owner is correct.

It would be nice if we could see the stamp ?

Peter

Early on, pen cancels in the USA were also used for precanceling stamp.

Or they could be fiscal cancels. Great Britain for example used the same stamps for both postage and revenue.

without seeing the item or items in question it is not possible to give a blanket, one size fits all answer.

In some cases, yes. If it's a fiscal use of a high-value British Empire stamp, for example, it certainly can. There are a lot of pound-value issues that are only valuable either mint or postally used; the vast majority were used as revenue stamps, and are common as such.

In the particular case of your stamp? Well, you didn't tell us what you have.

Thanks for the responses. I did find my answer in an old post. The pen cancels are on Germany stamps 12 and 13 and someone wrote in a forum that those are worth 150 and 525 dollars.

What catalogue? Most German collectors go by Michel.
But would this be Scott?
A picture would clear up any confusion.