Crazy Prices On Old Stamps? Swiss #58

ok, somone must know why?

NEW, its $1.80
USED, its $160.00

most of my stamps are used, figures this one is new...

Soooo, can (used it) and make it more?

Just the law of supply and demand..there's fewer used copies out there. On used ones, you probably have to watch out for fake cancels. They have to be used around the time period of proper use to really count.

Edwin, 'used' this stamp, and you make it worthless. Collectors will only pay the big money if the stamp was genuinely used in the period in which it was on issue.

I've no idea what the story is with this Swiss stamp, but it does happen that particular stamps see very little postal use, and can be much harder to find used than mint. This (sheet of the) 1933 ¼ Anna stamp of Barwani



is catalogued at £320 used, and £24 mint. The sheet was favour cancelled - an obliging Post Office clerk cancelled the stamps for someone. The date is rather long after the stamps appeared, but ...
This is the only way I've ever seen this stamp actually used in 40 years of collecting Barwani. There was no postal need for it at all. You would have needed two of them to mail a postcard, and I've never seen that done.

So, if I wanted a 'used' specimen for my collection, and I did, I had to accept this second best. But a Swiss stamp cancelled, I don't know, a century? after it was issued ... You're not going to get $160 for it

I know ,I was just kidding about the using it, I figured it had to do more with the date of cancel... I was just amazed at the price difference, thought it funny and decided to share it.

And if you think that's a bit odd, try this link http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopi...1491&start=0 for something even more outrageous in the way of prices for used stamps on cover.

Speaking of prices

Always wondered.

Why GB stamps listed in the catalog for high, but in the real life only cost a fraction of even Very Fine?

We haven't even got into the issue of used vs Canceled to Order :)

Danko, I think the answer to both your questions is the one word 'condition'.

Early GB (not my area, as you might guess from my avatar) were printed and used in vast quantities. The discriminating collector has a wide range of condition to choose from. Top condition fetches top price; anything less fetches commensurately less.

As an unrepentant philatelic purist, I avoid CTO/favour cancellations as far as possible. I only accept them as a last resort, and then I'd replace them with proper postally used as soon as I found the real thing.

As to the price difference between CTO and postally used, well, we are entering delicate territory here. CTO cancels are usually neat and clean, and look nice. Postally used are often less attractive, and can be frankly messy. CTO/favour cancels are likely to appeal more to the less sophisticated collector - it takes a degree of sophistication to see the attraction of, say, this cover from Jammu & Kashmir



And if you take your stamps as seriously as that, you're more likely to be prepared to spend more - more, anyway, than the collector who's drawn simply to an attractive design and attractive cancellation.