Great Britain FDCs - What To Do With Any With Small Damage

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I ordered about 3 dozen Great Britain FDCs - nothing of high value but all quite beautiful and impressive-looking. In their transit from or undetected while in storage by UK sellers two suffered damage from moisture it seems - in once case the gum from the envelope adhered a little to the card insert with information about the stamps thereby damaging the card and and disturbing the envelope gum, for the other the envelope flap sealed to the main envelope and in my attempt to carefully unseal the flap the gum and envelope were disturbed (although nothing was torn just that you see some fibers stuck to the gun or some paper fibers sheared off from the main envelope).

Again these are not high-value FDCs - the purchase value of each averaged about $5. For now I am keeping them stored in Vario stock sheets in an archival (or at least non PVC) 3 ring binder. But should I keep them as is or just soak off the stamps? The FDCs do have beautiful cancels on them. For this particular reason I am leaning toward leaving them alone in the Vario stock sheets (2S ones for those curious).

Any thoughts?

I would not soak the stamps off. Keep them as they are.

Thanks very much!

What kind of FDCs are these? From what period are the FDCs? What cancellations do they have?

The description of the insert would fit the standard Royal Mail FDCs. At $5, that seems quite expensive. Or are they privately produced?

First-day cancels are philatelic and considered inferior to ordinary cancels. That would be a reason to leave them as they are. At least, you will have a collection of FDCs, even if two have minor damage, instead of a collection and a few used stamps.

Regardless of what you are doing with the ones you have I would review where you get you GB first day covers from decimal bfore 2000 should be available in bulk at about 10pence each, unless you are being very picky.

Chris - what period are you collecting? I have a run of 1970s covers to which you're welcome if interested. Send me a PM.

Thanks all for the input and forewarning in the future about how much I pay. And correction I paid between .50 - $15 for the GB FDCs. A mix of Royal Mail (those I usually paid

As a buyer in the US I did not realize you could get some so cheaply. The ebay sellers I see offering GB FDCs seem to run between $1.50 to as high as $12. The cheap ones are the Royal Mail ones usually with a philatelic cancel. The higher priced ones I got are by private producers of GB FDCs - Bradbury, Cotswold, Covercraft, Buckingham - and some signed and limited editions.

Below are some of the GB FDCs I purchased from sellers on ebay (and BTW I ended up getting a catalog and yes I see why many could be sold so cheaply):

Bridges of London Retail Booklet GB Bradbury FDC 2002 No. 40 of 350 - paid about $10

10p Coil Definitives 8p 1p GB Philart Deluxe FDC Windsor 1980 $3

1991 ROYAL MAIL FDC - ORDNANCE SURVEY STAMPS - WESTMINSTER LONDON SW1 - $1.80

4 x 2009 ROYAL MAIL FDCs - REGIONAL DEFINITIVES 56p + 90p- LON/BEL/ED/CAR - $2 (note for 4 FDCs, so each .50)

GB QEII 1974 Great Britons Cotswold FDC Robert The Bruce Dunfirmline -- paid about $13

1991 NEWS OF THE WORLD FDC - ORDNANCE SURVEY STAMPS - TOWER OF LONDON EC3 --- paid about $1.50

1988 ROYAL MAIL FDC - THE WELSH BIBLE STAMPS - BIBLE SOCIETY ST DAVIDS DAY - Paid about $1.50

Would like to know if I grossly overpaid.

Mmy research after I got a catalog (after my first purchase) informed me that Royal Mail FDCs are very common and catalog value is about $3.50 - $5, so actual market about $2 or less (especially if common definitives). One you get to the private FDCs prices can go higher - as you all allude, there are several factors - privately produced ones with local handstamps seem to carry a some premium depending on the size of the FDC producer and how long they were (or are) in business, and of course the stamps and cancel as well as if there is a cachet and its quality. I see prices going for theses anywhere from about $5 to $15 on ebay.

I've never been able to get more than an average of 10p per cover for GB or French FDCs. Life is too short for me to try to sell them individually.