You gotta take a look. The Best 19th Century thru 1940 collection I've ever seen. Certainly will fill every hole in my collection. And everything is top quality, best centered, enough to make you want to give up!
Comments on value? I'm thinking it's worth more than the asking price. I can put in a $10,000 offer and see what happens?!
Take a look at over 700 photos.
Now imagine some small unassuming guy shows up at your stamp club. He pulls out his album. Do you just have your heart attack right there? Or do you make fun of his album pages?
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
"Done with love and care"....yep, and VERY deep pockets. This is going to sound like I'm a little jelly and yeah, I am but...
It's not very difficult or hard to buy the best. All you have to do is raise your bidding paddle and keep it up until the guy stops talking. The hardest part, or easiest part, depending on how you look at it, is the money involved.
It's visually stunning, beautiful, amazing etc etc it's all of those things but if you've got the money it's not particularly difficult. All of those items are offered in just about all the major auctions.
I'm much more impressed by those collections put together through diligent searching. Collections of unusual usages, elusive items etc.
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
Agreed Ernie, but the care of the centering/color/mint status is stunning. I do note that the varieties/EFO's/some rarities are not included, but it is breath taking none the less.
Dan C.
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
""Done with love and care"....yep, and VERY deep pockets. This is going to sound like I'm a little jelly and yeah, I am but..."
I'd love to know the background, but the way the stamps are presented tells me there was great personal involvement and much enjoyment. If one is very rich, you could hire people to find everything there, BUT you'd also hire someone to create professional album pages ( I am available! ).
It is very difficult to assemble a collection such as this, with absolutely perfectly centered stamps and multiples. And quite a challenge. I'd like to think our collector pursued this as ardently as we do, but on a different financial level.
Now if one was totally stamp nutz and hit their 401K and other assets, buying this is indeed possible. But then it's done. Part of stamp collecting for me is the thrill of the chase, and once you have this, well there isn't much more to do!
If I did acquire this collection, I'd be timid to take it apart and put it on new pages, out of respect for the guy who created it. And the sad part is that this will probably be bought by a dealer who will auction off each piece separately for the maximum return!
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
Tom said,
"If one is very rich, you could hire people to find everything there, BUT you'd also hire someone to create professional album pages ( I am available! Happy )."
I don't know about the rich part, but I've come across two "situations" that just don't seem somehow "right" to me:
• Queen Elizabeth owns her father's stamp collection (he of course was King George VI) which was started by her grandfather (King George V). Several years ago, the Keeper of the Royal Stamp Collection presented an illustrated talk about the collection to my stamp club. Fabulous collection, of course. I asked him if the Queen had anything to do with the collection. He said that she had seen it once during his time in office.
(Question: Should we really consider QEII a stamp collector? Answer: No.)
• A VERY WELL KNOWN American judge and collector told me a few years ago at VANPEX that among his activities is that of designing exhibits for other collectors, and being paid for it, of course!
I'm sorry, but if an exhibitor doesn't have the cojones to design his own exhibit then he darn well shouldn't be exhibiting! If he or she does exhibit, then I hope that there is a special place reserved in Hell for him/her! (Actually, I'm not all sorry sorry for saying!)
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
"I'm sorry, but if an exhibitor doesn't have the cojones to design his own exhibit then he darn well shouldn't be exhibiting! If he or she does exhibit, then I hope that there is a special place reserved in Hell for him/her! "
Agreed. We have the same issues in the model car world. There are people who will get a pro to build a model for them and then compete with it as their own work. The hobby rules say any model in competition needs to be the work of the entrant. It gets worse when adults enter models they built in their children's name, just to win a trophy!
And for the record... I was willing to create album pages, not an exhibit!
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
If it has been put together over many decades by one individual its provenance will be well known to many dealers. A bit of poking around the various stamp boards or asking a dealer who mainly does private treaty sales should ferret it out. If there is provenance there is a very good chance that everything is as it appears.
If there is no provenance and it has been assembled from various auction lots over a few years than it presents a bit of a challenge. I would be wanting to inspect the stamps for thins, regums, rebacking, repairs, reperfing (pix don't always tell the whole story), chemical freshening and etc.
There is no way anyone should bid on this lot without personally inspecting it.
Just my opinion having seen more than a few high value lots that fall into the "assembled recently" category (almost always made up to look like it was assembled over years).
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
"Just my opinion having seen more than a few high value lots that fall into the "assembled recently" category (almost always made up to look like it was assembled over years)."
I'm thinking if it was a "assembled recently" collection, they would've done a better job on the pages and albums. The care put into the hand lettering and layouts, along with the amateur look overall makes me believe it's real.
And I do agree that anyone should investigate in person and bring an expert along for he ride. I remember that the auction text said something about the inclusion of 120 expert certificates, so those alone with their dates would establish authenticity of the collection.
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
Beautiful collection!
Bobstamp:
I COMPLETELY agree with you. HM The Queen is NOT a stamp collector.
I knew one fellow who had someone help him design his pages for his exhibit... but, one, that gentleman was arthritic and was not too good on a computer. He sat beside a fellow who was younger and more adept on the computer and directed him to produce what he need; making changes as he saw fit.
David G
Ottawa, Ont.
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re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
I think it could have been presented better since there was no rhyme or reason to the scans. I also agree it's totally overpriced, but wonder what they're smokin'. I was surprised there wasn't a single plate block of the Zeps either, or no C3a. I did put in a BIN, on the condition he would accept payments, but I haven't heard back from him, yet!
Mike
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"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
re: Fricken Amazing! The Best Collection I've Ever Seen!
Some gorgeous material there, especially amongst the plate blocks.
There's also a lot of material I would be very hesitant to touch without certs. With many of the items, NH, vs H vs. NG vs. regummed could make a HUGE difference in the actual value.
In short: There's too much required information that cannot be gleaned from the obverse images presented.
Not that I could even remotely be considered a buyer...