Greatest Stamp Scores/Purchases?

I was thinking about some of the great scores I've made in buying stamps through the years and wondered about others in SCF. My definition of a score is finding something positive and unexpected in a philatelic purchase. Could be a single stamp, a set or series, or a collection/lot. There must be some great stories out there begging to be shared.

What is/are your greatest/favorite stamp scores/purchases?

The search function will turn up scads of these topics. I have shared my scores before half a dozen times.

Well, why do you not start this off Walkman?


Peter

My greatest stamp score was 1965 ,when I joined the Ogden Hills Stamp Club ,in Chicago . This was the stamp club that started the Compex Stamp Show . I was 16 years old and everybody else in the club was 50+ years old . They needed a special vote to let me join .

The score was KNOWLEDGE .

A find, found shortly after joining the APS. It was in my 1st or second group of circuit books. I knew little in 1982, but enough to know there was a difference in this straight edge stamp.

I noticed what I thought at time was a shade of US 367, but did I really want to pay 1/2 catalog for a straight edge stamp? I thought about it overnight and decided that for 45 cents, I would risk it being a 369 and so bought it. A few months later I found out it really was the blue paper variety worth 50 to 100 times what I paid back then. The comparison was made at more than 2 knowledgeable dealers that it was the 369.


Not a terrific find, but one that kept me on the hunt ever since.

Nothing like the excitement I felt as a novice collector back then, even though other 'finds' at bourses, dealers, etc were made.

My most memorable one was this stamp that was in a circuit book and listed for 15 cents.



It is Scott 143i ( imperforate between stamp and right margin ) and lists in Unitrade 2018 as Fine - $2,400.

- stamporator -

My greatest stamp score has been giving back to the hobby which has given me much joy and happiness over the years.

Yes, I have stumbled upon some nicer material but these few times pale in comparison to the number of times that I have been disappointed.

Instead, I put a much higher priority on learning and giving back since these are things that the hobby can deliver consistently.

Don

For Peter (and others if interested):

My most recent score was purchasing a collection a few years ago that was half precanceled definitives and half plate number coil (PNC) first day covers, all stored in 18 Scott brown two-post binders. I paid $1,800 for the collection. I don't collect precancels (except for a few that interest me), I bought the collection for the PNC FDCs.

The precancels included Washington-Franklins with local precancels, an extensive collection of the 1922-1925 series, Prexies, a few Liberty series, Prominent Americans, and the Americana series. I was able to flip the 1922-1925 precancels for $1,600, which nearly covered the purchase of the collection. I still have the remaining precancels and will probably flip those at some time in the future.

The collection of PNC FDCs was filled with many hard-to-find covers including nearly a dozen Scott 1891 18¢ Flag Over Lighthouse plate number 1s ($150 each), a Scott 1900a 5.2¢ Sleigh precancel cover ($200), a 1901a 5.9¢ Bicycle precancel cover ($200), a 1904a 10.9¢ Hansom Cab precancel cover ($300), a 1908 20¢ Fire Pumper plate number 2 FDC ($300), numerous 2605 23¢ Flag Pre-sort covers with plate numbers A112 and A122 ($250 each), a complete set of 2890 (32¢) G Flag covers (36 different plate numbers including A4435 $200), a 2915a FDC with plate number 88898 ($500) and a set of commercial covers with Scott 1891 plate numbers 1-4 with purple machine cancels. There were many other FDCs and USPS souvenir pages with plate numbers, nearly 500 in all across the spectrum of PNC issues.

I'm along the lines of the Sage of Chitown. Nothing's ever going to better my old man coming home when I was about five with a paperback album and a packet of stamps from Woolies. I sat on his knee and we put the stamps in. He did the complicated hinging and I licked and stuck the ones that had gum.

Not a big find, but nevertheless a nice one. In January of 2010, I purchased an imperf pair (2112a) of the green D rate coil. I had recently started purchasing imperf error pairs, mostly coils ... and for $13 (vs. CV of $45) it seemed like a bit of a steal. Then, in December of the same year, I purchased a UV lamp. I immediately checked my 3785a PS5 to see if it might instead be the tagged error 3785b. Alas, it was not to be. But then I happened to check my 2112a ... and it wasn't tagged!! So it was 2112b, CV $100. Not a big gain over my initial purchase, but I instantly felt better about my UV lamp purchase.

One of the earliest "scores" I can remember is this Scott #52, from Spain. I had only been collecting Spain for a little while at that time so I was not very knowledgeable about forgeries vs. genuine. But, I did know that this stamp was way out of my budget. It actually still is. I found this unused copy at a local stamp shop in So. Cal. They, apparently, weren't very knowledgeable about them either, so they had this marked as a forgery. Knowing I would probably never be able to afford a genuine copy I decided to buy this to fill that space, like many collectors do/did. It wasn't until about 20 years later, I had some very knowledgeable collectors tell me it was indeed genuine. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to get it certified before selling it. My 2013 Scott lists this at $3000 although I'm sure this one would be quite a bit less because of condition issues............Self kick #1


Another Spanish score was this #1, which I paid the price for a common #1 at the time, like $8, without regards to the red cancel. I liked the red cancel and figured it might have added value. Again, about 20 years later, I find out, accidentally, that this particular "O" cancel (Registration marking from Torrelavega) was quite the rarity. I sent it in to Graus to have it examined and sure enough it was a Torrelavega "O". At that time I was told only 4 examples known, and current auction sales at the time had them going for $4500. Unfortunately, again, I was weak and wound up selling mine for $1500.......Self kick #2




More recently, after switching to collecting worldwide, I no longer had to rely on finding Spanish stamps and could open up the play book quite a bit.

I bought a lot of Danish bundleware off ebay, about 90 bundles of 100. Lots of cool cancels and minor varieties found, and.....this 20 ore blue, which I have posted here in the past, but now I have an official certificate for it. A common stamp according to Scott (#48), but the break on the right frame makes this a 60av2 in the Facit catalog, with a CV around $1500. Probably less because it is not an optimum copy, but I don't care.




One of the most recent finds came from an inexpensive boxlot of sweepings. This set of GB seahorses I found in an old envelope, with writing on the outside, from 1934, by whoever bought them originally at the P.O. They are MNH, although toned a bit from the paper envelope they were in. They are also form the later, re-engraved set, but that's fine as they were basically free with alll of the other useful stuff I pulled from the box.



My most recent score came from a small flea market collection I found while antiquing with the wife, maybe a year and a half ago. The collection consisted of a cheap album, a cigar box full of loose stamps and a handful of stamps in glassines. Included in those glassines was a cache of MNH, post office fresh, stamps from Norway, mostly pre-WWII. I was sold just because of that. It was cheap too. I didn't realize until I got home that that glassine included this set of Scott #261-66 with "London 17-5-43" and a serial number. . Although not an official issue, they are very popular with collectors of Norway., Scott values the set @ $750, but of course these are in pairs. I've looked and cannot find a set in pairs having been sold. Kind of cool I though.

I've been interested in artificial international languages for about 40 years, and I've been collecting examples of their actual use in postal contexts since 1996. Stuff written in Esperanto is easy to find. Ido is considerably scarcer, but still readily available. Volapük pops up now and then. Anything else is a rarity.

When I go to stamp shows, few dealers in the bourse have a designated category for covers of this sort, but I always check out one dealer at WESTPEX who has an "Esperanto" section. One time, he had this 1901 postal card from Cuba under U.S. administration for $50. If it had been written in Esperanto, as the dealer thought, I would have considered it overpriced, like pretty much everything in his Esperanto section. (The Scott value for this card is $16.50.)


But it's not Esperanto. It's Bolak, a.k.a. the Blue Language, a language that gained few adherents and saw hardly any actual use. It's the only piece of postal history written in that language that I've ever seen for sale at any price.

@erilaz, very interesting indeed. I'll have this in mind when sorting vintage picture postcards.

Only had one find. Bought an old album for a few bucks in 1986. Found a Chinese stamp. Don't remember the catalog number. Think it was First Junkers Issue Surcharged 73 cent on 25 cent . Sold it to (I think) Will Rogers for $400. Gave my father a new respect for collecting

Most of the things I've bought for fun and have made money on have been in the "miscellaneous" sections of stamp or postcard auctions - nineteenth century newspapers and prints, WWII propaganda material, old photographs. If I set out to make money on stamps, I'd lose it instead.

Bought a plate block lot from Apfelbaum(the horror!) for around $500. All modern stuff so none of the dodgy issues documented here and well worth the freight.

The lot had a manila card thrown in with some Revenues. One of the Revenues was a R60b. Sent it to the PF. Got a XF90 grade. Sold it at Siegel back in 2016. $6k less the juice. My best score. Better lucky than good I say!

Bob