The truth is within and only you can reveal it 16 Dec 2016 10:50:52pm
Part X was getting quite long in the tooth so I'm starting Part XI.
I ended up showing 19th century U.S. proofs in Part 10. For the next few posts I'll be showing the actual U.S.stamps from the 19th century. Besides always looking for new additions there are many stamps that I hope to upgrade someday.
Today 1840-1867
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 19 Dec 2016 12:42:09am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Abohart, Thanks, I've been working on them for nearly 50 years, so it hasn't been easy.
Money of course is the biggest obstacle. Each time I add a stamp I have to wonder if it will be the last.
My internet has been down for the last couple days. It's -10 right now. The the ice and cold seems to have broken the incoming line. The phone company finally made it out at 5: p.m. to fix it. I can't remember how we got buy with out the WWW, just seem to be hopeless without it.
For today the next U.S. issues from 1869 through 1888.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 19 Dec 2016 10:50:11pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Today I'm finishing up my collection of 19th century U.S. stamps. I'm quite happy with these pages but am wanting to upgrade most of them to mint. On the other hand there are three key stamps that are in terrible condition and really need replacing. I bought the $5 Columbian earlier this year on a whim. I did not see the stamp until the last couple minutes of the auction and just went for it. The stamp is NH which cats at $11,000 and the no gum price (price of stamp without gum) is 1,250. So subtracting the no gum price from the NH price leaves a very nice value of $9,500. Or is there something wrong with my math? The other two funky ones are 277 and 292.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 22 Dec 2016 12:03:11am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Today I'll get back to World wide stamps. I've shown around 200 countries so far so the lists of remaining countries is getting pretty short. Aftre I'm done with the regular issues I think I will start all over and show semi postals, airmails and any other nice B.O.B.
Thanks for highlighting Finland! I just picked up a Scotts Specialized for Finland, and as usual I'm in awe of your collection. Mine didn't come with many of the early stamps so I am now on the hunt. I just picked up this #10 for $5, so I'm making progress:
It has four or five short perfs, but is otherwise an attractive stamp (IMO).
A question for you... On stamps with these kinds of rouletted perfs, do you see a large premium on price to get all perfs intact? Your collection is quite nice in that regard, but these early Finnish stamps with full perfs seem rather rare. Or maybe I just haven't looked in the right places yet?
Cheers,
Steve
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"What are you waiting for? Those stamps aren't going to collect themselves."
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 22 Dec 2016 07:57:15pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Steve, I got the two pages of roulettes complete in an auction in the late 80's so I did not have to piece them together. Most of the stamps you will find are like yours with a few missing perfs and ones with fully intact perfs are quite scarce and of course will sell for more. You probably have to decide on how many missing perfs you can live with. I'm not up on the market for Scandinavia these days. It was the area I first concentrated on when I started collecting again int the late 80's. I got most all of the countries up as far as I could go and have not paid much attention to it since. In the late 80's the market on Scandinavia was down and not until recently has recovered. If I were looking for them now I would probably set a basic % of cat (say 35%) for stamps with one perf missing and deduct an additional 5% for each additional missing perf, as a basic guideline. Fully intact perfs could go for upwards of full catalog. As you study the market you will find guidelines that work for you.
I like the early Yugoslavia. So many so many commons yet inviting none the same. The regional Locals have a special place in my interest with so many little variances on common stamps.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 30 Dec 2016 11:37:44pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
For today I'm just showing a few recent acquisitions. The scans of each stamp were made separately so the sizes differ between one another.
1. Great Britain 1884 10 Shilling
2. France 1849 mint #1
3. France 1929 #246
4. France 1930 Scarce perf 11 Aqueduct
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 31 Dec 2016 01:46:36pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Mitch excellent stuff..as always, I am in awe!
Re 4. France 1930 Scarce perf 11 Aqueduct, I have one a lot like it, but it always bothered me. The bottom perforation always looked suspicious, and I wondered if they were re-perforated somehow? Yours too seem to have uneven perforations on the bottom. Any clues?
Do you also know if they were all perfin as well...yours and mine are?
Attached for comparison is my plate from the album.
By the way, I am now using on my iphone the App "googlescan" that works better than just the camera, and avoids me the trouble of scanning odd jobs on the regular scanner. Still not as good as a scanner, but much improved from regular camera shots. Free and worth a try. The above image was done with it. If you ever are out of focus, a single click on the Camera+ App does it too.
rrr...
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"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 31 Dec 2016 05:02:17pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Ralph, The 3 French stamps were very welcome additions and they only cost $98. The two commemorative types brought my needlist down to 9 regulars that I need, to complete France. I have a #1 but it is used with a tiny thin and appears to be a different shade. This mint one appears to possibly have a heavy hinge remnant and some crackly gum. I'm just hoping no thins. At 10 times the cat value, I doubt I can go to wrong with the 1.75% of cat paid. I have a thing for mint number 1's.
It is interesting that both of our #254's have the DMC perfin. I'm quite sure I have seen other used ones without the perfin. However there must have been a great many that did. No doubt someone would know what the DMC stands for and possibly a rough idea of how many received it. Concerning the funky perfs, I have to wonder if it was due to the method used of separating the stamps from one another.
I will have to look into the app for the scanner. It sounds great and should be quite useful. I only got an android phone a few months ago and haven't had much luck in figuring it out so I will have to wait until my son comes by to help me with it.
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 31 Dec 2016 05:48:39pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Mitch, it is a Google App, so it is clearly also designed for the Android phones, and it said so on the announcement I saw. Using the software is really easy, although occasionally it takes a second pass, if you don't like the results.
I got it to scan old photos in old albums, selectively, to digitize my archives and get rid of the reems of paper. It allows me with the camera to quickly scan each picture I want to keep right from the photo albums, and ignore the rest.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 01 Jan 2017 12:25:54am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Ralph, My nephew found the app and tried to download it but there was not enough memory. I need to delete some that I don't use so I can get it downloaded. It will be interesting to see what uses I might find for it.
I think the two French No. 1's I have are the same that you have but of course I will have to wait until I get the new one to find out. It's definitely not one of the Greenish ones.
I have seen a couple before and they are strikingly different and much more scarce. One of my favorite areas of collecting are finding color variants of the early stamps. Some are so different that they appear to be different stamps. Unfortunately the most attractive are usually the most expensive.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 02 Jan 2017 08:25:37pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
For today another British Colony: British Guiana. Without doubt it is one of the most expensive countries to collect an one I shall never get a high percentage of completion.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 03 Jan 2017 06:07:19pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
For today the Portuguese colony of Madeira. As with most Portuguese colonies the stamps are issues of Portugal with the colonies name overprinted or inscribed. Shown are 4 of the 5 pages of stamps printed. Not shown is the first page of the pricey Luiz curved labels, which I only have a couple of.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 17 Jan 2017 11:37:56pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XI
Doug,
Thanks, I always quite liked these as the visage of the Queen and the framework is rather unique among QV stamps.
For today the Portuguese colony of Portuguese India.
Shown are the 1st and second page with typical Portuguese type stamps and the 6th and 8th page with stamps that are unique to the colony.