Ultramarine And The APS Stamp Store

A couple of days ago, I was browsing revenues at the APS Stamp Store and saw the accompanying listing, which purports to be a pair of R63e. The price was minimal, but it seemed clear to me that this was not an ultramarine revenue. Therefore, I sent a note that I thought the stamps were misidentified.

This was the response I got: "We have a complete collection of early revenue stamps in the Reference Collection. This is a very different shade from all of the other blues, so we're going to let it stand."

Am I crazy to believe that this is not an R63e pair?

You are correct, it is not the ultramarine shade.

It is always dangerous to determine color from a scan, but it doesn't even look close to being ultramarine to me. If I were feeling malicious, I'd buy the stamp for $2.75 and put it on extension. When it comes back as R63c the seller would get hit with the cost of the cert. Of course with my luck the APS would give it a cert as ultra.

Not ultramarine. There are several blue shades on first issues; Not being one that matches the reference collection means nothing relative to being an ultramarine.

I was going to do that but the Stamp Store doesn't give that option for stamps that cost less than $30. And by the way to everyone, I know they're not ultramarine. I thought maybe some APS member would log on to the Store and voice an opinion.

I will be glad to log in and voice that opinion. Given that I am one of the expertiser's for APEX, maybe my opinion will count for something.

What number is it?

Thanks, Ron. I got an email that you had also challenged the stamp and they immediately took it down.

I have reported a number of listing errors over the years, all of which (including this one) were obvious. I didn't have any particular purpose other than to help make sure the APS listings were accurate. Sometimes it has been a misidentification of the stamp, sometimes a grossly inaccurate catalog value, whatever. They've always been easily verifiable errors. This is the first time I ever got any pushback and, frankly, I was stunned, which led me to post here and make a big deal out of a $3 listing.

Just in general, it is perhaps a bit poor judgement to form an opinion based on, "well it isn't X, Y, or Z so it must be W".

Good catch!