Scott Catalog And Airmail Cover

Nice item, and once I get my Beecher rate book in the mail I'll begin to understand everything that's going on with that cover!

If I would have known anything about covers and rates (which I don't, yet), even I would have been tempted to pay three figures for it, lol.

Edit: I even had to Google "UNI-BOMBER COIL" to see what the heck you were talking about!

I used that for that very reason, to get folks to wonder and look up. If you review the post now you will see I did an edit to add stamp and card information plus the ratings for the card for future searches on this site..

You mentioned you are waiting for your Beecher rate book, and yes the card was sent by that Beecher. Co-author Tony W. passed a few months back and may have let that card go at a few weeks earlier when disposing of his Postage Due exhibit and back up material.

Yes, the Unabomber (yes, I misspelled the name as UNI not correctly as UNA and its too late to edit the post) used 1305c, the $1.00 Eugene O'Neil coils for mailing his packages. One misfired while being carried with the US Mail on board. It fizzled and did not explode but in doing so damaged some mail. Several pieces made it into the hobby, I wish I owned one. Having seen John Hotchner's I can say they don't look like anything special beyond a basic damaged in the postal service cover. My interest comes from the fact I was on campus when his two bombs at Cory Hall went off injuring one person each time, a prof and student. I was not in Cory Hall at the times but I did frequent Cory Hall both as student and staff of UC Berkeley over the years before, during and after the bombings.

Now talk about nerves, I was at the home of a UCB Statistics (closely related to math) Professor's home when a special delivery came in a triangles tube with a strip of 5 $1.00 O'Neil coils and other stamps. But a check of the return address showed it was from a firm sending holiday holly branches with red berries which was an expected delivery. Not my house and the tube made it into the fire place before I could play stamp collector.

So this postcard is unique in that respect?

Something else I have just noticed, and have been somewhat surprised at, in relation to what we have been talking about, is that when I check through ebay listings to find definitive stamps (post Prexie) which have seen period use on covers, I'm really not seeing that much being offered for sale, and I'm referring to NON-FDC's. There's lots of FDC's out there. Now, maybe I'm not using the right search words, but I've tried many different tactics and not much shows up. Seems I can't be the only person who is interested in covers with definitives from the 50's-early 80's on cover?

A big reason is that most of them are not even considered dollar covers in many people's minds so no one bothers to list them. The Liberty series is popular, though not as big a following as the Prexies. Searching for "Liberty" though gets you too many Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, Champions of Liberty, etc. Searching for individual catalog numbers may be your best bet.

If you are just getting started on the period, maybe a collection or box lot from auction will get you going a lot faster rather than hunting for individual items.

The postcard may very well be unique, but to prove so is very very difficult. "Only know" or "only one know to ________(me, exhibitor, population reports, god, country, Bob down the street)" is better than unique which means only one.

When what I describe as radar, or other sense, goes off, I pay attention when something looks unusual or it is something I have never seen before. The more you see the better you get at recognizing things of interest. Now when something like that shows up the rule is buy it if you can because you may never see it again. In that regard, I will make a separate post shorty showing another difficult, rare or other word modern cover.

On to you second quote to which I first say I agree with ZebraMan. In philately, old stuff and specific old stuff tends to get the interest. That start early in the 20th Century. "Classic period" was more or less 19th century stamp. From 1847 to 1920 was just 73 years. In 1993 stamp of 1920 were not and still today not considered classic yet being over 100 years old now. All that has happen is the 1940 and before tends to be a cut off for many. The prexies for example only started to gain respect in the mid to late 80's. Liberties around post 2000 when Tony W. (aka Rate Book Tony) won a grand award. It include a cover I purchased either April 20, 1995 or the week after which did not go to Tony for a few years after. He was lacking an on cover commercial use of the $5 Hamilton. From there Liberties have grown in popularity.

In the ensuing 23 years, folks have tried and gotten little traction with the following regular issue sets which include the "set" of Transportation Coils. An area needs to be collected ans shown to generate interest while demonstrating the subject matter can be studied as a serious philatelic endeavor. The collector drive interest and interest drive the dealers who often have no clue how to value nor price the materiel. Thus it takes time to develop and stabilize the pricing in a new area. Likewise as interest grows (read more collector) and new material surfaces price can fluctuate. Only one of three known has little value when only two collect the area, but when ten or twenty collect the area the value climbs and can climb greatly.

So many folks selling in ebay have no idea what modern postal history (post 1975) is of interest and don't list it. They don't list, you don't find. If you follow along for enough time you will see certain sellers will list the material when it is included in an auction purchase made for the purpose of selling off as individual covers. This is the time, as a collector, to pick up cheap auction lots and visit show dealers to find the "up and coming" new areas.

I will expand more on this when I later today post the promised item. I own it and purchased it without deciphering it yet. Edit: Correct the item above from post card to cover.

Well, I do like the stamps in the "Liberty issue" starting in 1954. But in the half dozen individual stamps that I searched for use on covers, there was hardly anything. The 3 cent purple Statue of Liberty was the domestic first class rate, and the 2 cent Jefferson was the domestic post card rate, and I would have thought that there would be many covers to look at, but not much at all. There were LOTS of the 3 cent Statue of Liberty postal cards in unused condition though, but not what I was looking for. So as you said, in some people's minds they must not be worth their time listing them individually.

Thanks Parcelpostguy for sharing! This is all very informative and interesting to me to hear seasoned collectors give their perspective.

Back to the registered postal card sent by Henry Beecher ... I have every belief that he knew the need to uprate the card to the letter rate but that the best way to demonstrate the regulation was to violate it and have the card come through due and get the various auxiliary markings. A fully uprated card would not be as interesting or instructional.

For Liberty series on ebay, the vast majority of covers from the 1950s and 1960s are not worth the postage to ship them, let alone the ebay/Paypal fees and the value of the time involved. Most mom-n-pops don't know the postal history nuances to the 1/10 of 1% of covers which would deserve listing. Those with an "eye" for unusual material can get bargains in the dollar boxes.

Transportation coils: indeed, some are nearly impossible to find on commercial covers.

The thing is John, there's all kinds of stamps, new and used, older and modern, on ebay selling for just a little over a dollar "Buy It Now", with shipping included, or maybe just under a dollar extra for shipping, and they sell, so it still puzzles me why these particular stamped covers can't be listed also for about the same price and get interested buyers. As someone earlier suggested, maybe looking for larger lots of covers from that time period might be the way to have more success. The only reason I'm interested in these and a few other post 1940 definitives, is just to get my feet wet with collecting covers, and they aren't going to set me back much seeing as my budget for stamps is restrained.

I am quite familiar with ebay. Been a member since very near the beginning. Bought and sold thousands of items over the years. I'll stand by my statement you quote. Whether the lots you cite sell or not does not really change their value. There are lots of suckers on ebay - both buyers and sellers. Definitely a "buyer beware" environment where knowledge is powerful. Also, many sellers realize they need a minimum value to each lot or it isn't worth their time to handle.

Regardless, I find dealer $1 boxes at shows to be fruitful. Easy way to examine thousands of covers and a good learning opportunity whenever I see something unusual.

And in addition, looking is a lot of fun.

John, I'm not disagreeing with you that extremely low priced items are not really worth it to list and sell on ebay, after you figure your time and all the fees. I have also sold there for many years in the past, more pricey items though, and the reason I pulled the plug with them is the high fees. Its unfortunate that I don't have any shows in my area all year long. Now if I wanted to drive a couple hours, I could attend some, and maybe I will have to do that.

Edit #2: I misread the date on this cover as 1999 when in fact it is 1993. I mislead myself when I saw that domestic delivery confirmation started in 1999. International Recorded Delivery started earlier, if for no other reason than the date on this cover shown. This disconnect between changes in domestic verses changes in International rates, fees and services has been going on for well over 135 years beginning with Parcel Post and prior to that with Registry Service. I have edited my text identified as follows; superseded by strike-through, added by green italics. I discovered the error in my date reading after John Becker posted USPS Published Text in one of his posts on page 4 of this thread.

Here is the promised item I picked up this morning.




Why it struck me:

I happen to chase dollar values on mail matter of the 20th Century. The Seaplane coil qualifies. Here is one with a plate number plus another stamp. The other stamp has no particular philatelically interesting selvage attachments. Had it, I would think the plate number single was added on purpose rather than one in every so many stamps has a plate number and thus get used in normal course. Of course I am commenting on the "looks and feel" of the cover without bothering to use Google to see if there is an indication the sender was a philatelist.

This is a foreign destination usage of the Seaplane.

What really caught my eye was the yellow RECORDED DELIVERY numbered label. Not that I looked for them, but this was the first small cover (any cover) upon which the service was used.

This is the less common International, not domestic, example of use which makes this of a greater interest for the Seaplane. Modern yes, but likely a quite scarce combination. Now I will look for them just to see what I see "out there." I will still enjoy this even if John Becker can post a pile of Recorded Delivery examples. I would welcome such other examples, John.

Now I said I would give the rating on this item but I hit a brick wall. With the passing of my friend, Tony, I cannot call and ask where to find information. Specifically I need the then current 1999 1993 USPS Publication 51 which is for International Rates and Fees. That is needed to learn the charged fee for International Recorded Delivery. Tony had online updates for the International Rates at one time.

The USPS website has all the Postal Bulletins on line beginning fiscal year 2000 (meaning from mid 1999) to date. Nor have I found the information as a PDF on line nor in Stampsmarter.com .

The Recorded Delivery service, International, did not begin March 14 , 1999 when domestic delivery confirmation stated. Thus the cover is an early use example I mentioned this with my start date error, the cover seemed to be used within 60 of the start of the service in question. [Note: I will start another thread to see if I can get the information.]

So far I can report that $1.00 $0.95 paid airmail for >1/2 oz < 1oz . And based upon the fee for domestic choices, 50 55 cents for foreign Recorded Delivery is in the right ballpark.

Finally this is likely a scare item based upon the fact it sold for $38.00 + S&H as well as state sales tax to me with 7 bidders, 14 bids and 4 snipes from 3 bidders in the last seconds. Likely it was chased by Transportation coil or Great American collectors.


EDIT #1: I am planning to reveal the back room sausage making I under take to get this item rated. This is how things had to be done before the era on the Domestic and International Rate books and still must be done for areas which fell through the cracks. I added this edit after I made my post below with the 2003, not 1999 1993, definition of Recorded Delivery.