Sometimes Treasure Can Be Found

The seller didn't know what he had. Catalogue on this is $25,000.00. Its a bit rough, but still a great buy. This will be I think, the 17th. on cover found.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/395383753679?

Nice find. It has all the key aspects of a genuine 389 cover. It must have been quite a shock to the seller to see a $1.95 starting price whip up to over $5K near the end of the sale. It appears to be a dealer of generic collectibles, postcards, etc not a stamp specialist, but enough people found it to bid it up high.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Looks like a few people knew what it was.

Could you tell us more about what we're looking at here please?

I have never understood why bidders rush in and place 8 or 10 bids a week before the end of an auction.

That is a Scott #389 on cover -- the so-called Orangeburg coil -- more info is here:

https://stampsmarter.org/1847usa/wa...3cv12fp.html

Scott #389, a Perf. 12 horizontal (vertical perfs) coil that was specifically printed by the BEP in a small quantity of rolls to fill a special order from the Bell Pharmaceutical Company for their use in sending out samples.

Early bids are sometimes helpful. I'm sure the seller got a lot of offers to end the auction early, something many are likely to do if an item has no bids.
When I was doing ebay a lot, I lost out on a few items that were ended early to sell off ebay. And had a few items where I got offers. ALL of those offers were well below what the item ended at.

Just an observation - its way easier to spot one of these on the Bell & Co cover(s), since the corner card is easy to pick out and watch for. I'm not a W&F collector (or expert), but I am aware of these and know to look for that corner card. While its not a guarantee that it will be an Orangeburg with that corner card, it is a big flag that it may be. So the seller may have caught a break in that this is probably easier to spot, for those in the know, than just a simple off-cover single, which might get missed by buyers more easily.

edit:



So, presumably there is a census somewhere, and this is a new find, vs an existing one re-emerging?

That number comes for a post by a well known W/F collector's post on Frajola's site. I believe he would know the census data. There are 12 different 389 covers on the PF certificate data base. Perhaps the other four are before the PF searchable data? None of the ones in the PF search were sent to Dr. Swan

Date range of cancel is important as well for 389 covers.

Below I show an image which has the container which carried the pills which were the qualifying merchandise for these 3rd class then parcel post mailings.



Here, April 12, 1913, Bell & Company needed to use two stamps to pay the up to three ounce postage rate as the 3 cent Parcel Post was not available quite yet. The EKU and early use of the 3 cent PP Q-3 are also on Bell & Company covers. From 1-1-1913 through 6-30-1913 Bell & Company was required to only use parcel post stamps on their mailing. Beginning 7-1-1913, they we free to use and any normal postage stamp. However they continue to use 3 cent PP stamps well into September 1913.

I selected this example as it was forwarded three times before being delivered, a record for Bell & Co covers. However, all forwarding was within the same city thus exempting it from the forwarding postage required for forwarding or returning parcel post mail matter.

Just an observation, but 3c PP B&C covers are about or slightly more rare to find than 389 B&C covers, but the price is not close. Great demonstration of the demand side of the supply and demand price equation.

Edited: As indicated above.

Yes and no!

I contacted the seller and here is the backstory of this "new find" cover:




Posted with permission with identifying information snipped and name as initials only.

And no he does not have other 389 covers for sale but this much he added,


I wanted included the back of the envelope so others will know it is a side opening clasp envelope but my image copying is having a headache.

Edited for photo as chocolate and flowers reduced the headache.

The buyer of the cover which started this thread was Ken Lawrence who then updated the census of 389 Covers to include now 21. He published the article in Scottstamp.com, Spotlight on Philately, June 2024, beginning on page 12. The cover shown in this thread is cover 15, which he attributes ownership to himself so no secretes are revealed in this post.

It always helps to have that philatelic knowledge that makes the difference on what to look for and recognize.