Frustrations In Finding Canadian Color Variations On Line.

Finding Canadian color variations for Scott #35, 37, 41, 43, 44, 45, is extremely difficult on ebay or bid start.
Let's say you're looking for Scott #44a. You look on ebay and you find 25 vendors offering Scott #44a; problem is every single picture of Scott #44a looks different, no two alike!!!
Or you find something this:


To me none of them look correct.

Buying a colour variation online from ebay, HipStamp, BidStart, etc. would be difficult because you have no indication as to how the listing picture was taken, settings, etc. yet alone your way of viewing it. For used stamps you also have to take into account how long the stamp was soaked to get it off of the envelope, how it was stored, etc.

So for subtle colour shades I would only rely on buying it in person from a reputable dealer where you could actually compare it to a proper colour chart for the issue.

What you are asking for is just about impossible.

To have some chance of seeing an accurate colour EVERYTHING used to produce / view the image must be designed for colour reproduction and colour profiled.

I suggest that most (all?) ebay seller and buyers do noy have this sort of set up. Even if they did is very difficult to transmit an accurate colour from one computer to the next.

In short there is no way you should expect to see an accurate colour representation on any ebay item.

AQ

It is very tricky - I have a small classic shade collection and have spent far too much time in the past comparing shades...

Last year Sparks auctioned off a Canada shades collection where the owner had nicely laid out & marked the various shades of the small queens, admirals etc. They included very good pics with the lots which I downloaded for reference. It may not help too much with online vendors given all the factors mentioned above, but these at least make it easier to compare shades for a particular issue. PM me if you want & I can email them.

~Greg

Greg: Is there anyway to post it here for everyone to share?

Well, there's 43 of them and most would need reducing to fit into the forum image size limit. So that's a little much I think.

But it would such nice gift to the Stamp Community Family. Perhaps you could spread it out by doing a few per week?
That's how NSK does his fantastic articles.
It's mainly the Large and Small Queens that give collectors a difficult time.

Timm,
Sparks Auctions catalogs are available online via their web site and Stamp Auction Network. For example here is Sale 48 from November last year,
https://stampauctionnetwork.com/ik/ik48.cfm

Greg, do any of the scans from that collection have a lot number, or do you happen to remember which of their 3 sales last year that collection was listed? The image filenames also usually include the auction number and sometimes the lot number, if you saved the images using the original filenames. There is no need for you to repost something that is already available online from the original source.

Yes, good suggestion to link it, thank you. It took a bit to track down the correct sale, these were all from the Meyerhof collection of shades, included in Sparks' April 2023 auction.

All lot descriptions & images still available at https://stampauctionnetwork.com/IK/IK46.cfm

The lots in question are interspersed among the other Canadian lots but are easy to spot, with a distinctive album page layout & usually with the title "Advanced Collection of xx" .They range from lot 70 (Sc 15) to lot 634 (postage dues). There are many more than I saved as well.

Hope this helps, Greg

Thank You Greg! Yes, that helps a lot. For the OP, here is a page from the collection of 44/44a/44b/44c.


Minor differences in shades are still hard to differentiate on a computer screen, but seeing them all in one place, in the same high-quality image with the same lighting, makes it much simpler to compare adjacent shades. For me I was looking for the 37s and 41s and I found a good group across 4 pages in lot 202. This is very helpful, thanks very much for pointing us in the right direction.

Thank you Zebraman. I've been working my way through the past Sparks Catalogues 2023 and before.
I copy the image and description and place them in a file. I still fine the same number having different shades, but it still helps

Hi Zebraman.
Don't get too excited about the colours in that collection. I bought the 37s & 41s from that collection and find that very little of it matches my expectations.
Collecting Small Queens by colour is a frustrating exercise. I had my 1 cent and 3 cent collections sorted by colour then had cataract surgery after which I found that my colour identification was terrible.
In my opinion, the best way to sort Small Queens is by perforation. The Hillson/Nixon book identifies the perforations perfectly. You will still find colour variations within the perforation groupings.
GJP

Thank you gmot and zebraman

I did a thorough search of the queens in https://stampauctionnetwork.com/IK/IK46.cfm

and I made my own color variety pages for the large and small queens.
Just color varieties not the other varieties like cracked plates or re-entries