Looking To See If These UK Stamps Have Some Value

Hi
I found these stamps and a youtube video
Said they had quite some value,
Can you confirm this and tell me where is the best
Place to sell them?
Thank you



*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Simple answer: at first glance, no.

You could check whether these have an inverted, reversed, sideways, sideways inverted, or reversed and inverted watermark. If not, you have highly common stamps.

The third stamp in the first picture shoud be checked for the type and watermark. This might be a blue-green stamp. (It is impossible to be sure from a scan).

What video did you watch?

If these do not have the watermark varieties and that one stamp is not blue-green, the whole lot might earn you € 1 on ebay.

And if it's on YouTube, it must be true.
In all seriousness, 1) if you just "found" these stamps, they probably aren't really worth anything, and 2) as NSK alludes to, philately can very much be about minutiae; the direction of a watermark, the perforation measurement, the type of paper, etc. You have many times better odds being struck by lightning than you do being the first to find something valuable.

youtube.com/watch?v=9jO4kGGAdmg
How can you see mine are different from the video?

If the type is correct and it is blue green what price are we looking at?
Thank you

Can you do the community a big favor, and tell us where in the video you're looking? Save everyone 10 minutes of their lives trying to guess what you're looking at?

The video is "clickbait".
"Clickbait typically refers to the practice of writing sensationalized or misleading headlines in order to attract clicks on a piece of content. It often relies on exaggerating claims or leaving out key information in order to encourage traffic."
Don

That is not the correct question. The question is how can you see those in the video are different from yours?
These are stamps that paid basic postage rates. Many were printed and many were used.
They were used and printed over a long period of time (the first three in your first picture were used only two or three years but paid the Empire postcard rate). The many prints caused slight variations in colour, known as 'shades.' - This is the part where Don gets a fit, because, technically, they are not shades. - Most people do not care about these colour variations. Some sillier collectors, like I, happily part with money to pay extra for some 'shades.'

Because you do not know where used stamps have been, 'shades' on used stamps may just be caused by external influences. You might struggle to sell even the rare ones used at a premium.

To give you some indication (I am quoting somewhat older prices for unmounted mint stamps):
The three stamps in question are known as 'Downey Heads.' There are two: 1/2d (postcard) and 1d (letter rate).
Two dies were used. For the 1/2d there are two subtypes. There are three watermarks.
The original 1/2d green with Imperial Crown Watermark has a catalogue price of ca. £ 10. The bluish green shade will be £ 400.
The second die stamp is £ 15 in green and £ 160 in bluish green, or £ 200 in myrtle-green.

The 1d scarlet stamp is £ 10. The 1d, die 2, with watermark Imperial Crown in scarlet-vermilion is £ 1,400.

Used are a fraction of these prices. When you can sell them, you get a fraction of that,

We get a lot of people on this site that watch a video or find a site that shows a very expensive stamp and think they have it, because it looks the same.
In almost all cases, they do not. Since the true colour is not visible in a Youtube video, any clown can show a scarlet stamp of die 1B with 'Royal Cypher' (£ 30) and pass it off as a scarlet-vermilion die 2 with 'Imperial Crown' watermark. Most people won't even notice the incorrect die identification.

Start out by identifying the die type and the watermark. Only then start thinking about 'shades.'

Thanks for your detailed answer,
Do you know a website where I can compare die colors.
I have detected some strange watermark behavior on these four:

The watermarks are hardly visible. Used stamps of these series should, in most cases, clearly show the watermark when scanned from the back with a black background, not flooded by light with a coloured background at some distance.

The second image is of a very badly damaged stamp that has a 'Block Cypher' watermark (1924 onwards).
The third image is of a stamp with 'Simple Cypher' aka 'Royal Cypher' watermark (1912 - 1923).

You won't find any sites showing the different 'shades'.

Keep in mind that my scanner is not seeing what my eyes are seeing and that your screen is not seeing what my screen is seeing and that your eyes are seeing something different again.
It is useless to look at a website showing images of 'shades' as they are not the true 'shades' of the scanned stamps.
Keep in mind use and soaking can change the appearance.
Also, keep in mind that there is not a thick black line with a traffic light showing red or green between 'shades'. Many printings took place. At some point, a stamp's colour is closer to one 'shade' than another 'shade'.

Below scans are indicative and will give you an impression of how 'shades' compare.

Thank you for the color reference.
About what was said about getting the fraction of the price
For a used stamp, can you give an idea of what fraction that is?
If a stamp has a small black stamp on it does that give it more value?

1. the second and third stamp have no value whatsoever. They are damaged.

2.The blue-green 'Downey Head' with Imperial Crown watermark, die 1A is priced (2005) £ 400 unmounted mint, £ 300 unused with gum (hinge trace), or £ 180 used.
Its very deep green, die 1B sibling is priced £550 unmounted mint, £ 400 unused with gum (hinge trace), or £ 140 used.
However, for most shades the fraction is ca. 20%-25%, and in recent years, the gap has increased.

3.

Sadly, in the world of catalogues, everything is the other way around.

The price is what you pay for a perfect example with a nice black cancel that leaves the profile visible, bought from Stanley Gibbons (this comes with a lifetime guarantee of genuineness).
If any of these do not hold, you can start discounting. So, the big cancel is cheaper. The little cancel is normal.
If you find a postally used cancel in a different colour (let's say mint green), you might add a little.

When you say damaged
Are you talking about first photos pr the watermark photos?
Because the watermark one had folded sides,
I have unfolded them and it looks perfect.

I mean below two examples

They both have mould and are a danger to someone's collection.
The perforations, once bend remain bend. But, also, they have tears.
The corner of the first one is missing.
Those have absolutely no value.
The other two are too dark to assess.

Unfolding a stamp crease is akin to unringing a bell.

Ok thanks for the info.
Some of my penny red's
Have no plate number,
How come?