Scott Italicized Values

In the Introduction of the Scott Catalogue, there is a note about italicized values representing items that trade very seldom. What are some of the ways that you estimate the value of these items? I have a Scott #3313b booklet with the plate #S22444. Scott has this italicized at $2500. Any thoughts?

Value for what purpose? You have a current catalogue value already,

My 2016 Durland plate number catalogue lists values for each plate # ($15) for 3313b ... except for 22444. For this number, it simply says "unique". Of course, this catalogue is almost 10 years old. The "unique" suggests the item is rare ... it also suggests that perhaps only one such 3313b was known at the time. That the current Scott lists a CV indicates that there is more than one. A newer Durland might give you another CV to ponder. I believe they were published every 4 years. Whether it would be any more accurate than an italicized Scott CV I do not know.

Well, it is not unique, but it may be rare. The Plate Single Society has an image of one in their inventory ( https://apnss.org/33-centCommems.htm ) and the plate numbers have different spacing from yours.
It's the kind of thing you want to get a certificate for and then put up for auction, before a warehouse full of them is discovered.

Craig Selig has plate 22444 on his buy list with no price but rather the note "Please Call or Write".

He also has the following in his buy list:

and the plate numbers have different spacing from yours.

Actually the plate numbers look pretty much identical. So both items must have come from the same pad.
There are a few SA booklets where only one pad (100/125 sheets in a pad) were ever discovered, and that was during the time when "plate number hunting on SA sheets" was a common sport amongst the specialist collectors. There even was a report of two unusual plate nmbers on two different issues discovered in a post office. Turned out two clerks had way too much time left over so they carefully switched the plate number strips between two issues, creating these numbers...

So there must have been another 98/123 S22444 sheets at one time.

The sheet is rare, no question. With S24422 it is one of two numbers missing in my collection.
The price will be determined if you sent it for auction at Siegel or Kelleher.

Great info. I had seen Selig had that note of the other plate #s. This collection also has another one with the same plate # (S22444) where he has picked 9 stamps off of the booklet.

That is due to a normal variation of color registration, not a plate variety.

Again serf_tide without giving a reason from your value request, folks are just tossing darts on a board blind, guessing at your question. Are you wanting to insure the item, find replacement value or to sell. Selling value cannot be determined by guessing, only by sale and then the value for that item at that time is established.

I'm ultimately going to sell it, but I was interested in how you would draw a value when the catalogue is vague about the value. In my 2021 catalogue, it just has [i]$2500[\i]. I have never sold any stamps on auction. Just (2) people deciding on a value and then exchanging.

Siegel would wait and put it in the right auction for the item and that may mean waiting a year or even two. They also have a golden rolodex (or electronic equivalent) with people to reach out to that would like this item.

Step 1: Certificate

This sheetlet does not require a certificate (it would be expensive if the certifier takes the italics $2500 as base).

For what ir's worth, I paid $125 for two "rare" sheetlets of which only one pad was ever discovered for each: That was a short while after the pads were discovered (and saved by someone alert enough to see the value) and bought by a specialist dealer.

At auction, I'd wildly guess the hammer price would be in the $300-$500 range if several bidders were around (of which I'll obviously be one....)

Yes, step one is to get a certificate at this value level. Then if selling auction, the correct auction is the way to go.

If you want a feel for the current open market price, call Craig Selig. Discuss the part booklet as well.

If you insist in a private person to person transaction, take a classified out in the USSS' The U.S. Specialist and for the partial booklet, the Plate Number single group.

No, the plate number positions are not identical. On the OP sheet, the magenta digit is shifted left touching the cyan, and in the apnss copy, the magenta is shifted to the right touching the black.



Certainly. Not claiming it is a variety. My only point was to counter the assertion in Durland that the item is unique (only one exists).

It is possible that the OP's photo was the discovery copy, and the apnss photo was also from the same unique pane, but the spacing of the digits in the two items is different enough to prove that they are different items and therefore more than one copy exists. Likely a full pad exists with this combination, but still scarce.

I agree with the auction estimate of $300-$500; 20% of CV is a common limit for modern errors and other varieties. I'd go more specific to wager $300 for the partial pane and $550 for the full pane. Good luck!

Yes, it does. Odds are that if it is bought at say Seigel it will be put on extension anyway and the buyer will factor that in. Seigel will want a certificate. The fee at the Philatelic Foundation using the $2500 would be $137.50.

If I was going to plunk down four figures for a stamp or booklet or sheetlet I want a certificate. One way or the other it will be getting one.

No certificate required, at least for me or anyone who specializes in booklets. I'd happily bid on this item at an auction without a certificate going along.

There are no known fake sheetlets from any issue from that entire period. The Chinese had not yet started up their printer shops. That does not mean the Chinese won't be working backwards with booklet issues but they seem to live excellently with selling boatloads of new faked issues....

The pane looks genuine in all respects. Even the variety shown here is the variety "in the knowledge database" (yes there are two varieties for this issue, for many but not all of the plate numbers). Possibly inspection under uv would say even more "it's genuine".

Of course you can sent this item for certification. It might cost you (including insured postage) over 30% of what you will get once you sell it at auction. The certificate will say "genuine" I am 100% sure. (Assuming the expertizers know enough about these booklets. But this is another minefield).

1) Blatantly obvious the two panes pictured are different.

2) The $2500 value was based on a sale many years ago. Many years ago when the booklet market was better.

3) "My 2016 Durland plate number catalogue lists values for each plate # ($15) for 3313b ... except for 22444."
Durland is clueless. There are a couple of numbers that are much better than $15.

4)I would not require a cert to buy it.

4a) There are two wildly different estimates of what it would currently go for ($300-500 & 4 figures). If the former, a $137 cert would eat up a lot of of that.

5) " So there must have been another 98/123 S22444 sheets at one time."
Pretty sure these wee in pads of 100, but there were far far more than 100 printed. Somewhere where I wouldn't be able to find it, I have the printing figures the printer reported for all the plate number combinations for this issue. This is where 33¢ Tropical Flowers CB/20, plates S11411, S22464, S26252, S33323 "reported printed, but never found" came from.

6) The value for the partial pane is far less in my opinion.

7) "Likely a full pad exists with this combination, but still scarce."
Why would you guess that? For someone to have bought a full pad, they would have had to be plugged in enough to be aware at the time that it was a rare plate number, yet not have been smart enough to sell them (even a few of them) when the market was stronger.