Sterling Lot Estimated At $100-200 Sells For $3750 Plus Tip

We have all seen some incredible bidding but this one was right up there in magnitude. Today's Sterling auction had several Chinese lots consisting of postal stationary that went for 10-14 times estimate and then Lot 316 came along consisting of 50 pieces of mint Chinese postal stationery and BAM, it ended up selling for an astounding 37 times low estimate plus commission of 15%.

https://stampauctionnetwork.com/SK/sk22a16.cfm#63

I watched the sale thru about lot 200 or so. Most of the lots I saw were reasonable. Some areas are red hot, China to my opinion being red hot. I meant to mention this auction as there were some areas that members have stated are collecting interests (Russia, USSR) . Glad you are onboard.
Cheers, mark

Mark - I am surprised at the material. Some really good and different items. My only complaint would be the glacial pace of bidding. The low openings combined with $2 increments makes progress painful at times.

Agreed Rodcam
All in all a very nice auction, eclectic collecting interests
I will check in later. I think it was Mr Floortrader who posted about collectors buying all the accoutrements but not the stamps. I silently chuckled and thought of him when I saw the 14 Scott albums that were sparsely populated and I knew what he had posted about.
14 Scotts. Maybe a 150 stamps or so. To each his own.
Good luck to you Rodgcam, I hope you win all your bids.
Regards, mark

Went unsold.

Edit: Per https://stampauctionnetwork.com/Pri...thPhotos.cfm but that may not have been updated even well after the sale. See comment below...

Bidding was reasonable overall I thought (can only speak to non-US). Some spirited bidding, many within estimate, quite a few below estimate, several unsold. Picked up one of the lots I had my eye on so I'm happy.

Dutch Country has lots of country collections next week, looking forward to that.

~Greg

The 14 International's, estimated at $50, sold for $350 with 33 bids.

I ended up with the primary lot I wanted at a really, really good price. There were a couple of other major bargains in Russia that in hindsight I should have thrown some bids at. There was a consular airmail stamp, CO1 that I thought I could pick up cheap because it was a Type 5 which only occurs in one position per sheet which commands it a 120% premium and Sterling did not identify any of the consular airmails by type. I dropped out too easily but I think the floor bidder noticed the type as well. To my mind Russia B24-9 was an amazing bargain at $260. VLH and each signed Stolow the set catalogs at almost $1100 and would sell at a Cherrystone or equal for at least half of cv all day long. Kicking myself.

But yeah, China was smoking hot. Italy still amazes me at how weak it is in general. 10% of cv seems normal for really nice stuff. Same thing at the last Kelleher sale. The low prices for Italy were jaw dropping to me.

I'm glad you are pleased , mostly , with your bids Rodgcam. I was skunked on all, but was bidding as an uninterested party. Nothing really grabbed my attention.
Regards, Mark
Ps I saw your "avatar" stamp offered for sale,and was amazed at the price it brought. I hope I that your "avatar" is from your collection and not your "wish list".
Cheers, m

Yes, my avatar is from my collection Mark. That C68 at Sterling was really tempting however. Pretty close to being the best centered, whitest paper, freshest looking example I have seen and there are a ton of them around. I kind of regret taking a pass on it but am not surprised that it fetched good money. A "stellar" stamp indeed. And the cert was the icing on the cake.

R

"Today's Sterling auction had several Chinese lots consisting of postal stationary that went for 10-14 times estimate and then Lot 316 came along consisting of 50 pieces of mint Chinese postal stationery and BAM, it ended up selling for an astounding 37 times low estimate plus commission of 15%." Not the first time this has happened. There was a Chinese stationery lot that went for moon money against a modest estimate all because of one particular item in the lot.

"signed Stolow" Yikes

"The low prices for Italy were jaw dropping to me." Italy does not sell well.

Not sure what the yikes refers to. Stolow stamps are legion on Soviet era material because of their relationship with the Soviet Philatelic Association. There were some hi-jinks of course but in the main if you are educated about what you are dealing with, the Stolow mark can be a very positive thing. In this case the set was both genuine and very nice indeed. Quite a few stamps did not make it into the collector market without going through Stolow. The 1949 building missing blue will be much more accepted with the Stolow mark. Consular airmails are a different matter as are some overprint errors of the first Soviet issues. Having the SPA stamp, double has it's own meaning along with Stolow has different meanings. You need to know the history of the dealings, relationships and markets.

Eyeonwall - Perhaps you can explain your comment in order to enlighten the audience?

Obviously, but why?

It does not sell well because the quality is far from good enough for collectors from Italy. They're not bidding. The earlies found are off center, not the usual way Italian collectors collect if they can help it. They also very much prefer VF MNH for 20th Century issues. Gum is not great on the issues between the world wars; hinged stamps have often picked up ink transfer from album pages and other bad treatment by collectors. Sterling noted one lot having toned gum on some stamps as being normal, which is true, but that's damage to a collector from Italy.

Most of the really nice, fresh, well-centered MNH stamps went back to Italy long ago.

As for used, Americans seem not to trust favor-cancelled/CTO Italian area at all, nor overprints, for that matter. Much of the time, that's all that can be found in the used department. Again, the off-center earlies deserve a large discount. Cancel forgeries exist, of course, but more for occupation issues and the post-WWII issues.

There was also a point - in the early-1960s - when the Italian post office announced that it intended to sell off copies of earlier issues, including some highly catalogued items. I don't think such a sale took place, but it wasn't the action to breed confidence amongst collectors. In general, decent collections of most European countries can be picked up relatively cheaply these days.

Just my experience, but Italy & related sells pretty well for me. All periods really (although I don't have much past early 1950s). Particularly the offices & colonies. Both mint and used. Mostly to folks in the US, but quite a few in Europe too.