1941 B-19 Initial Flight Cover Question

Hi all. I am working my way through my husbands very large collection starting with the covers.

I know very little but am learning and seeking to learn.

Came across this 1941 B-19 first flight with a newspaper clipping inside. Which, I think is cool.

The thing of it is when I am trying to value it I am getting confused. The First day cover and checklist book he has from 2008 gives it a higher value than what it seems to have in the real world. Guessing maybe somewhere between $2 and $5?

My plan is to have a set of 'keepers' to pass down and then to sell the rest. Determining what to keep is a little tricky it seems. lol!

Your guess seems accurate to me, but if someone really, really wants it, you could get more.

I have that cover and recall I spent $10-$20 on it. I thought it was cool because of my interest in WWII aviation and that the B-19 never entered service.

There must have been a large number of those made, which will account for the relatively low value. I have a couple of them. The clipping adds something to the value, but not a lot. If you were to place on auction (not "Buy It Now") for a starting price of no more than $1.99, I think the best you could hope for is maybe $5, unlikely more than $10. And it might sit there with no takers for a while.

In the Antiques RoadShow vein, "Everything is condition, condition, condition". The cover here has significant wrinkling, and being a mass-produced philatelic item (rather than a unique piece of regular mail), its financial value is rather modest. It is not in "exhibitable" condition.

Building on blcjr's post, using ebay's auction format (rather than the buy-it-now format), one does not have to know a retail value for anything, but instead rely on decent decriptions and quality images. The marketplace will do the rest. Yes, some things will bring less than what you think, while others will astound you as every viewer/collector brings a differet set of knowledge and demand to any given lot.

As for what to keep vs sell, that it up to you and the family, but a large collection amassed by one person should not have to become a burden or obligation for the rest of the family if interest is minimal. I have found that a modest few albums or binders.with a representatve sampling of the collector's main interest is often enough of a reminder yet not an overwhelming burden. And secondly, to get help from a knowledgeable friend/collector to help sort through the collection and direct various groupings to other collectors/dealers. Otherwise it can quickly become a lengthy and time consuming task to come up to speed on someone else's lifetime of work. In other words, for most collections, 95% of the value is in 5% of the bulk. Having some help separate the wheat from the chaff often makes the task a lot simpler.

Thank you all so much for your advice and kindness.

Just being able to share like this makes it seem less of a burden to go through the collection.

I plan on donating most to a stamp club and just keeping what is valuable/special. And getting help determining what is what.

I believe that these B-19 covers were not actually flown on the 55-minute test hop of the B-19 that day and they are instead commemorative souvenirs. As has been pointed out, they are not rare and all that I have ever seen are on these legal sized envelopes with the pre-printed cachet shown. While I have not seen hard evidence that they were not flown, my belief they were not derives from several aspects to them. First, they were not listed by the American Air Mail Society in the catalogues in 1941 as flown items, and have not been added since. The AAMS is scrupulous about listing flown covers in their Catalogues. Second, they were not reported as flown covers in the Air Post Jounal of the day - since it began in 1929, the APJ was and still is very good about accurately reporting flown covers at the time they happen or within a month or two afterwards when advance notice is not given. And second, they do not have arrival postmarks which almost all flown flight covers have and which prove that such covers were actually flown from point A to point B.

As has been correctly pointed out, condition is everything, except for something exceedingly rare for example something that is a one and only or is incredibly historically famous and important. The condition of this example of a B-19 souvenir cover is terrible so instead of it being able to attract a purchase price of $5 to $10 which examples of these in very nice condition can sometimes bring, this particular one might struggle to get $1 and would be better donated to a stamp club for them to give to a first-time collector or perhaps a child who shows an interest in beginning collecting stamps.

Showing your material to a knowledgeable expert is a good idea since first flight covers can range in actual value from $1 to many thousands of dollars, though the majority are at the lower end of between $1 and $50 each.