#9 Horizontal Pair; Good Buy At Siegel Auction?

I'm starting to collect a few varieties of the 1¢ Franklin. It truly is an almost addicting study. I can't begin to keep the characteristics of all the various plates and reliefs in my head, but it is sure fun trying.
I just purchased lot 713 from Siegel sale 1217 with a winning bid of $425. This was Siegel's description of the lot:1c Blue, Ty. IV (9). Positions 5-6R1L, horizontal pair, both recut once at bottom, large to huge margins including top sheet margin and portions of adjoining stamps at bottom and left, deep rich color, Mobile Ala. circular datestamp cancels, Extremely Fine Gem, a superb pair from the top row of Plate 1 Late Right Pane, these two positions were Type Ib on the early state of Plate 1, with 2004 P.F. certificate

I know #9 is a very common stamp, but I was still quite surprised that there weren't many competing bids. I find the top row stamps from both plate 1L and plate 2 fairly hard to find, and I'm surprised they aren't valued higher than they seem to be.

Awesome pair.

I was the underbidder at 400$

You got a good price for a gorgeous pair. In retrospect I should have bid 450

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That's a really nice pair. I briefly considered bidding on it myself, but I had to remind myself that I mostly buy covers these days.

The top row right pane of Plate 1 early or late is quite collectable. It is where the full design impression was made - 7R1E, and the adjacent positions are all very interesting.

The positions were re-entered, and recut (except 4R1L) for Plate 1-Late. That created an even bigger mess, which of course, means highly collectible and interesting stamp varieties for us.

You will not regret owning that item.

I would be proud to own it and actually have a very similar pair, also from a Siegel sale and which I paid quite a bit more for. With that said, it is usually difficult to make a case that in a public sale that is well attended and publicized, you didn't pay what the item was worth. Keep in mind that the item comes with an ancient cert ;)

Will you be getting a new cert?

Sorry that I missed your post sinclair2010 - I did request an extension and that it be submitted to the PF for a graded cert.

I think public auctions are a measure of value, but not necessarily "the end all-be all". Most collectors have limited resources, and have to pick their poison. In addition, there are millions of stamp collectors and perhaps only a few dozen meaningful stamp auctions annually. Factor in ebay, which takes millions of dollars out of the hobby, that otherwise might be spent in a Siegel auction or the like, and it becomes quite apparent that the math favors the potential for a "good buy". All of that aside, I think you got a beautiful pair at a tremendous price. I was one of your potential competitors that also spent his resources elsewhere, But, if at any time you get sick of owning this pair, let me know!

"I think public auctions are a measure of value, but not necessarily the end all-be all".

Reedededge - Your comment, and also sinclair2010's post, is the kind of general discussion about auction prices that I was hoping to generate with my initial post. I agree with you both actually. I think it is possible to make a very good buy on occasion if 1) you are lucky enough to not have many other collectors looking for the same stamp, and 2) if the stamp is ungraded. Popular graded issues, on the other hand, seem to sell, for the most part, at close to the SMQ (including commissions). My impression is that even dealers are more conservative in their bidding if a stamp is ungraded. I'm not sure if it is the uncertainty of the ultimate grade or the cost of the certificate that is of principle concern.

To illustrate the potential advantage of buying ungraded stamps at auction, I'll show another example. It is a #72 from Siegel sale 1197 (3/2019), lot 1661. Siegel's catalog listing described it thus: "Extra wide margins and choice centering, rich color, large segmented cork cancel, Extremely Fine, with 1999 P.F. certificate". The question is where in range of "Extremely Fine" does the stamp belong - will it be graded XF 90 or XF-S 95?

The SMQ for #72 Used XF 90 is $1350, and if the stamp had been graded such at the time of auction, I think very few dealers would have bid higher than $850. Since the stamp was ungraded, however, a dealer knows that bidding anything higher is a risky bet, and I have to believe this is why the bidding didn't go much higher. I could bid it up to $950 because, as a collector I don't need to think about turning around and selling the stamp at a profit. My thinking was that even if it did ultimately grade just XF 90, I would be buying a very solid XF 90 at significantly below the retail market. As it turned out, the P.F. gave it a grade of XF-S 95, for which the SMQ is $4000.