Spring Stamp Auctions: Better Denmark on eBay, ONE CENT starts!

On occasion, I round up some of the better "odds and ends" from my duplicate stamp books, and then put them up for auction on eBay.

Denmark no. 6, catalogue $190.00

This week, it is stamps from Denmark that are up for grabs. As with all auctions I list, every lot is listed with good photos, and all items have a starting price of just ONE CENT, regardless of the stamp's value. For example, in the current group (48 auctions, in all) you can-- at least at the moment-- bid one cent on a presentable classic Danish stamp with a US $190.00 catalogue value, or a lot of older stamps with a combined value of over US $250.00.

Auctions end Sunday, May 20th, at around 22:00 Central European Time, 4:00pm US Eastern/1:00pm US Pacific time. 

Some folks think I'm a bit crazy for offering "perfectly good stamps" in such a way... after all "What if you end up having to sell a $100.00 stamp for 1 cent?" I suppose I just believe the stamp market to be intelligent enough to set a fair price for worthwhile philatelic material. I also don't believe that listing items on eBay at something that looks like a retail price has anything to do with running "auctions."  But that's just me. And yes, I have ended up selling a few stamps for one cent, in the course of my 14 years on eBay.

And yes, technically speaking, you could go place a minimum bid on every item and potentially end up with hundreds of dollars worth of stamps for less than a dollar.

AFA Postfærge 28x

Anyway, to return to what's up for grabs-- the focus is Denmark, there are 48 lots at auction, and the material runs from classic to newer. There are a few items from the Bicoloured issue, and then a nice group of constant varieties (plate flaws)-- some of which are quite scarce, and finally a nice group of Postfærge stamps.

Detail of AFA 28x, showing the plate flaw

The Postfærge stamps are in particularly nice condition and include a used copy of a scarcer variety. The 5 øre wine red "Wavy Lines" stamp is among Denmark's most common stamps, and even with the Postfærge overprint, it is still quite common. One of the better known "modern" stamp varieties in Danish stamp collecting is the "right lion with lump foot" plate flaw. Although tricky to find, it's not that rare, on the "plain" version of the 5 øre stamp. However, this variety is very difficult to find on stamps with the overprint, and there's a very nice copy available in this sale. This is the variety that also has colour in the bottom of the "K" of DANMARK. With a current AFA Specialized catalogue value of 400,- DKK (about 54.00 Euro/$69.50) this major variety is missing from most collections.

As with all my eBay offerings, there's reduced postage when you win multiple lots.

Bidding for these items is currently OPEN, but don't wait too long to go have a look at what's available. The auctions close on Sunday, May 20th at about 22:00hrs, European time; 4:00pm US Eastern/1:00pm US Pacific time. Here's a link to all the auctions, listed together. I hope you'll find a few moments to look at my listings and add an item or two to your Denmark collection!

Finally, I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone in the US a very Happy Mother's Day!

Facebook Page for Danish Stamps

In this computer age-- where stamp stores are being replaced with web sites, and local stamp clubs replaced with online groups and clubs-- it seems only natural that we (as stamp collectors) should keep up with the times. After all, one of the best ways to get enjoyment from the hobby is to share ideas, pictures and finds with others.

Recently I discovered that Per Møller-- a fellow Denmark collector-- has started a group for Denmark collectors on Facebook. Although the group is pretty small still, it's nice to see a specialized group like this come together. Here's a link to the group:

"Danske Frimæker" on Facebook

Now, the group IS primarily conducted in Danish... but even if you are NOT Danish, you can still visit the group on use the Facebook "translate page" feature to get a pretty good idea of what is being said. There are a lot of nice photos of Danish stamps there, so a visit (and a Facebook "like") is highly recommended.

Memories: Finding Direction for my Collections

My father started me on stamp collecting, when I was maybe six years old and we were living in Denmark, where I was born and grew up. His original "purpose" in doing so was to teach me geography and world culture, through the images on stamps.

France Scott 1174, from 1967

For 3-4 years, my stamp collecting was strongly "guided" by my dad-- who pretty much told me "what" and "how" to collect. His interests were France, tropical islands and art... and that was reflected in the way he firmly guided me towards French stamps (and France was issuing quite a few large sized "art on stamps" at the time), as well as French dependencies like French Polynesia.

Of course, the only sources of these stamps were the incoming office mail at my dad's office, and going to a stamp dealer.

Meanwhile, lots of stamps from Denmark-- and neighboring Sweden-- poured in on envelopes in the daily mail. Naturally, I'd clip those and also get the ones that came from my dad's office.

However, my dad didn't really encourage me to collect Danish (or Swedish) stamps. In his opinion, they were "dull" and "ugly" and not worthy of collecting. At the same time, he was also dead set against my desire to collect stamps from Poland-- which I thought were very interesting and had lots of colorful pictures of animals and art.

"Nonsense!" said my dad, "those are 'gimmick stamps' created purely to take advantage of stamp collectors!" He was-- at least partially-- right, of course.

At the tender age of ten, I had amassed a pretty large hoard of Danish and Swedish stamps-- and most of my junior philatelist friends collected Denmark and Sweden. I was the only one who "collected" French art stamps, to be sure.

To this day, I remember the specific Danish stamp that led to my officially becoming a "Denmark collector" and to my father ending most of his interest in my stamp collecting endeavors.

Denmark AFA 485, from 1969

I was clipping the stamps from a stack of envelopes my dad had brought home from the office, when he passed and commented "I don't know why you even bother with that ugly junk. You can't even tell what it is!"

He was referring the to pictured 80 øre stamp from Denmark, issued in 1969. It was very common, at the time, as postage for oversized envelopes.

I don't remember the details of the rest of the conversation, just that I ended up telling my dad that I was "more interested in Danish stamps" than in "his" French ones. And with those words, I officially became a collector of Danish stamps-- even though I had already been "saving them" for four years.

Many years later, I came to understand that my dad's views on stamp collection-- and specifically on the issue of "French vs. Danish stamps" had little to do with stamp collecting, and a lot to do with the fact that he loved "all things French," while finding his native Danish culture small, narrow-minded and insular.

I still have my original collection of French stamps, started with my dad in a red "Abria" album. From time to time I pull out the album, and invariably find my way to the pages with the stamps issued between 1963 and 1970-- the period I have the strongest memory of. Now and then I do come across a French stamp I don't have in the collection (I stopped getting new pages in 1980) and add it to the appropriate space for it.

My Denmark collection, on the other hand, is large and varied and specialized and thriving... and has actually grown into a number of specialized "sub collections." Even though I haven't actually lived in Denmark since 1981, I never lost interest in collecting Danish stamps.

I Stopped Collecting Stamps in 1985...

Whoa.

Wait a minute.

This probably sounds a little strange for someone who's often going on and on about how we must try to bring new collectors into the hobby. Well, let me assure you that the title is not what it seems. So, let me explain what brought those words to mind.

I collect postally used stamps. My personal philosophy is that I like to have a collection of stamps that have "done" what stamps were designed to do: Carry the mail. For me, there is a certain charm and interest added by being able to look at a stamp and know that it carried some letter-- anything from a wedding invitation to a payment for a credit card bill-- from "Point A" to "Point B."

In fact, this part of philately/stamp collecting is so important to me that several of my collections are centered not just around the stamps, themselves, but around the postmarks on the stamps.

The collection I currently consider my "primary" is of town cancels on classic Sweden-- only on the issues of Scott/Facit nr. 1-51.

My broader Denmark specialized collection does consist of "one of each" but is also supplemented not merely with varieties and plate flaws, but also with what I think of as "luxury" cancels on all issues. In the US, collectors typically called them "Socked-on-the-nose" (S.O.N.).

So what's the issue?

As mail service-- and the way we communicate-- has entered the technological age, not only are we seeing fewer and fewer letters with stamps, but the way "snail" mail is being processed is increasingly automated.

From the perspective of my Denmark collection, hand cancels (like the one from Horsens, at right) pretty much became a thing of the past, during the mid- to late 1980's. But that's not all. Even nice machine cancels (like the one from the town of Års, upper right) started to fall by the wayside as more centralized mail processing became a fact of life.

What does that mean, in a practical sense? Well, local post offices stopped "handling" mail, and would simply bag incoming mail and send it-- by van or by train-- to central sorting facilities, where the postmarks would be applied. However, instead of 100's (or even 1000's) of different towns, Denmark ended up with just a handful of the postmarks of central sorting facilities.

The photo to the left shows a typical "modern" Danish cancel. It is certainly a "nice" one, and would fit my old qualifications for a "luxury" town cancel... except for the small detail that there is no longer a town involved. The cancel-- from 2010--reads (translated) "Central Sjælland's Postal Center." There is now just one standard postal marking for a region with 100's of towns and villages, and a population of some 300,000 people.

To me, that's just not very interesting. And that's why I realized that I "stopped collecting" around 1985, when town cancels started to go away.

Of course, I haven't actually stopped collecting. 1985 just became my "cutoff point," after which I no longer look for luxury cancels on newer issues.

Of course, this particular "issue" is not unique to Denmark. Other countries around the world are increasingly automating their mail delivery systems, and town cancels everywhere are becoming a thing of the past. In some places, cancels (as applied by a canceling device) have completely gone away, to be replaced by rather unattractive ink-jet "spray on" cancels.

Of course, many postal administrations still allow collectors to bring in their stamps to be hand cancelled by a postal worker at the post office. But whereas I can certainly appreciate the "extra effort" to keep stamp collectors happy, I must confess that I am a bit of a "purist:" Such cancellations-- while certainly "genuine" in all respects-- just do not fit my idea of "postally used."

Ultimately, I can't say that I blame the postal services of the world for "getting with the times." Everyone has to carefully watch where the money goes-- and in saving money, speed and technological advances often becomes a very important factor.

That said, it still makes me sad to realize that my stamp collections have become somewhat "finite;" that is, the possibility of ongoing expansion has gone away.