ScottV Stamps

An odd corner of the stamp world is the vended postage produced by computers, machines and meters.  Here is a batch from Switzerland, showing that they can have a variety of design or be plain ink on paper.   Also, as you can see from the "Jour d'Emission" postmarks, they get their own First Day markings.  I can't picture an actual ceremony to celebrate that yet another of these has been issued, but it does look like it's a thing. These are most often found imprinted with the current first class letter rate, in this case 90c, but other values are also common.  They can have any printed value at all (within reason), so I always wondered how you would collect these.  Do you only need one of each design or do you try to collect every value you can find, never knowing if other values are out there? They are also known as "machine stamps", " Variable value stamps ", "computer-vended postage labels", "ATM stamps" (because you coul...

With the million-or-so stamps to collect, most countries just feel impossible to ever complete.   So focus on some subsets.  Many countries put out limited ranges of postage dues or airmails.  For the US, I can't stand most of the issues.  The early ones are so complex and specialized I don't even try to price them anymore, and every year they release a hundred or more new issues which are fun to put on the outgoing mail, but I wouldn't want to try and collect them.  (First of all, they don't soak properly.) Here is a collection you can complete ... just the USA parcel posts.  There are 12 of them, all red.  Scott #Q1-12.  They often have heavy smudges for cancels, but when you get them, you're done.  I like them because they're simple, with attractive engraved designs, and have decent value.  They make good lots.  The 2023 catalog value is about $180.  These are up on HipStamp now. So you found all those.  You have c...

Here is a strange item that my Dad found during his years of collecting.   At some point, afetr retiring to Arizona he found this copy of the $5 Calvin Coolidge stamp postmarked in, of all place, Coolidge AZ. The stamp itself is the high value of the classic 1938 Presidents set, and it's nice when it shows up in mixtures.  But it is always disappointing when I forget that it's not actually worth much.  The Scott catalog (2023) lists it at $3.  I guess it's not that uncommon.   The question is, how do we value this one with the obviously rare socked-on-the-nose matching postmark?  I figured I'd run it at $9.50 ... and it sold within hours. Postmarks are an odd area to try and collect.  The magazines run articles all the time about how interesting they are or how uncommon some postmarks can be, but there is never any info on how they affect the value of a stamp.  Personally, I will drop an extra $1 here and there for clear postmarks from places...

One thing that happens a lot is selling stamps to buyers back in the home country.  I can't say how many thousands of items I have shipped back home.  Here is a pair of First Day Covers from Korea that I got last week.  They don't mean much to me.  I picked them because I have a vague interest in the Universal Postal Union issues and anniversaries. But these sold for $3 in less than an hour after posting them.  One can't help but wonder if I should have started the price a bit higher.  Or would they then sit there for years, unwanted.  I'd rather start something low and have it sell.  And I don't want to drag out the catalogs for every little thing.  It's usually disappointing.  No point looking them up now.  Just go with the gut, move on to the next piece. So, they're headed back to Korea now.

Sometimes, it's not the stamps that make a cover interesting.  These three are free-franked mail from navy servicemen, each with a "Passed by Naval Censor" mark (two on front, the other was on the back) and the expected tape where it was opened and resealed. All are postmarked "U.S. NAVY" with 1944 dates. Also, they each have a letter inside.  I never know what to think about letters.  I'm sure they add to the value and historical relevance of the covers, but they also feel so private to us.  These three are part of an ongoing correspondence, but we left the letters unread.  Off to HipStamp they go ...  

Here is a busy old cover from New Zealand.  I got this at the show two weeks ago for 40 cents.  I like going through covers looking for the ones that have their own travel tales to tell.  Of course, I was already selling my own bins full of covers for 50c each, just so I wouldn't have to scan and list them all.  But this one was new to me, and I had been through all of my own covers before.  So here it is: Postmarked 1938, the kiwi cachet and crossed-out address caught my eye right away.  But other details came up: it has a "BNZ" prefin on one stamp, and a postage due "T" handstamp.  It was redirected when the recipient was not found, and got a backside roller mark from DINARD France as it was being sent back to sender.  I listed this one on HipStamp today and it sold for $4.95 in about two hours.  So there must be something about it that I'm not seeing.  Or my eyeball pricing is spot on.

Here is a collection I finally got listed, from a stack of old album pages I meant to get to "some day."  I knew I had two pages of stamps from Hatay but was pleasantly surprised to see that it was the complete country -- every stamp they issued in their short history -- mint hinged. The individual sets list for $25 to $80 each. I always liked that they included a set of maps, showing where this mysterious new country could be found ... except that it's one of the least useful sets of maps in philatelic history.  I suppose the dotted line is meant to be the border, but there isn't a single named town.  It's just a bunch of lines. Wikipedia has a detailed article explaining this phase of history in the area.  The area was previously called the "Sanjak of Alexandretta", which stamp collectors will recognize right away.  That pictorial set says "2_Eylul_1938", and sure enough, 2 SEP 1938 is the date of the decree that changed Alexandretta to the ...

As my previous post mentioned, we have been trying to keep the international side of our hobby alive.  It has become incredibly frustrating, with USPS shipping costs having gone up x5 or x6 for small overseas parcels in the past decade.  We keep having to think about no longer shipping outside the USA.   We only ship lots under two ounces overseas these days, but we just had an order where a customer bought 8 items, which came out to be a 4-ounce large envelope.  I filled in the usual customs form, but then the clerk got involved. He said he can't put a customs form on an envelope without upgrading it to a small package, so the only options for tracking were $17 (package), $24 (add registered) and $37 (global Priority).  It was a $50 order.  I really wanted to offer a tracking number, but it could not be done without taking a 30-65% loss on the shipment.  OMG.  I have shipped over 15,000 mailings over my 40 years in business.  We ...

A cover from Latvia, 13-04-2009 to Escondido CA. Printed matter, registered.   The story behind this one: I was at a stamp show, flipping through thousands of covers, and found this one addressed to me from 15 years before.  It's funny how our little collectibles make the rounds. I used to specifically try and find eBay listings from sellers in the Baltic States because every one of them took such care making their mailings look good.  The hobby was always supposed to be an international one, bringing folks together from across the globe.  I also found covers mailed to my Dad.  I suppose the mystery is easily solved, since I have donated many boxes to the San Diego Philatelic Library over the years, and most of the local sellers go to the library sales to stock up on things...

Here is another little item I found at the show on Sunday.  It's not even a postal item, not a piece of mail at all.  It's an old New Year card.  The art from that era has a good sense of nostalgia.  But check out the little 1920 Christmas Seal at the bottom.  "Merry Christmas - Healthy New Year" That's not really what the seals are for -- they were meant to seal the envelopes.  But this is fine.  It adds to the art.  It's not just the front of the card.  The card opens and has the usual private family message inside.  A little bit of Americana. Oddly, we used to make our own custom holiday cards for family, and used to look for labels and bits of art and little seals just like this person did over a century ago.  But we're convinced that nobody cares about handmade cards anymore, so we stopped. I don't expect any of these items to have big value.  It's just fun going through thousands of ordinary items and finding the ones tha...

Here's a Yugoslavia cover dated 29-JAN-1960 with a LJUBLJANA pictorial postmark on postal stationery.  An unremarkable piece, really.  I almost put it back without thinking about it.   Then I saw who it was mailed to: Elizabeth Taylor, Culver City, California.  It's not the greatest piece of film star history, but its interest suddenly went from zero to "grab it and see if someone will pay a few bucks for it."  The point is not to have a huge clutter of "stuff" for myself.  If someone buys it, I will feel good that I helped someone find a piece for their own collection. On the funny side, I have had a few covers mailed to popes over the years, and I wonder which one has the bigger star power when it comes to valuing covers: Vatican leaders or celebrities ...  

We had a table at the Sandipex show again, down in Poway.  We don't have a van, or whole shelves of red boxes to bring.  I do have a knack for knowing what will fit into any space, so we set aside exactly enough plastic bins and boxes to fill my Toyota Corolla, and it turned out to be the perfect amount to spread out and cover the three tables. Here's a look at it: Anne and Dory were there helping out. It's funny how many different ways there are to collect things, and at least as many different ways to buy them.  We had some binders and folders full of country collections.  I sold one of my Dad's old half-empty volumes of USA for $100, a big binder of Norway (1966-2005) for $50, and other collections of Belgian Congo, Senegal and others.  When I price these, I am not going to sit there for hours writing every catalog value on the margin of every page: they're almost all going to be under a buck anyway.  I save a lot of time by just doing a count and eyebal...