Stamps of the US Canal Zone

In the course of being a stamp collector, I often end up with "excess" material from places I'm not actually interested in. But that doesn't mean these places are not interesting, in and of themselves.

I will be the first to admit that I end up with a lot of "odd bits" simply because of "how" I collect stamps: Unlike many who simply strive to get exactly the stamps they need for precisely the blank spaces they have in their albums, I take more of the "treasure hunt" approach to stamp collecting. That is, I tend to buy "box lots," accumulations or entire estates and then proceed to sift through them in search of stamps that fit into my various collections.

Some would call me more of a "hoarder" than a collector... and that's OK. I've always subscribed to the idea that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to collect stamps... as long as you are enjoying yourself.

And I definitely do do that!

Because I do end up with a lot of stamps I have little use for-- or interest in-- I do try to stay mindful of the "hoarding thing." I've watched those shows on TV where the poor people can barely move through their houses because every surface is covered with a three-foot thick later of "stuff." And-- to be perfectly honest-- I have been to a few of my fellow collectors' houses that left me with a bit of that same impression... indiscriminate hoarding.

But I digress...

It is because I do not want to end up as a "hoarder" that I ended up being a somewhat active "stamp trader," albeit without any serious thoughts that I was a "Professional Stamp Dealer," even though I sometimes might "look like one."

Anyway, recently I came across a folder with some pretty nice stamps from the US Canal Zone.

Of course, that has nothing to do with Scandinavia (which remains my primary philatelic interest), but I remember thinking that the stamps were really interesting, when I was a little kid. In fact, when I was a young collector, the Canal Zone was not yet a "dead country," as we philatelists like to call places that no longer issue stamps.

We'd sometimes get Canal Zone stamps in the mail because my mother had friends who liked to go on cruises and we'd get postcards while the cruise ships were at-- or passing through-- the Panama Canal. I remember thinking how fascinating it was that "they" could move giant ships "up and down" in the water to get them transported across a piece of land, cutting thousands of miles off the journey from the East Coast to the West Coast. My dad explained to me how "locks" work, and I thought it would be amazing to experience a trip through the Panama Canal on a big ship.

For now, that remains on the uncharted territory of my "bucket list."

The Canal Zone was a stamp issuing entity from 1904 to 1979. Originally, postal service was started in order to serve during the construction of the canal, but the area continued as a sort of "US Protectorate" until the Panama postal service took over in 1979. The last Canal Zone stamp was issued in 1978.

Although I am not going to start, it still strikes me as an interesting country to collect, both from a historical standpoint, as well as from a philatelic standpoint.

The early issues were stamps of both Panama and the US, overprinted in various ways to be valid as postage in the Canal Zone area. There seems be a huge number of varieties in the surcharges (which were used for many years), allowing for lots of specialization. Although some varieties can be pretty pricey, it's not a horribly expensive area to collect, while not being all "cheap wallpaper," either. Meanwhile, because of the Canal Zone's geographical and political importance, it also seems to me that it would be a potential gold mine for Postal Historians. It has a lot going for it. And, of course, it's now a "Dead Country" so you don't have to worry about acquiring the flood of new issues most places seem to produce, these days.

But, as I said before, this is outside my collecting area and I really don't need to start a new collection at this point in the game-- no matter how interesting the stamps may seem! So, therefore... this modest accumulation of Canal Zone stamps was recently put up for sale on eBay... and now has found its way into the hands of nine different collectors around the globe.

Thanks for reading!

Part 8 of a European Accumulation of Classic US Stamps

As regular readers of this blog may have noticed, I sometimes use these pages to talk about my late stepfather's extensive accumulation of classic and older US stamps. This summer, I am continuing to parcel out these stamps with another group of 100+ eBay auctions.

(If you want to go directly and look at the stamps without reading the story, you can also click on this link, which opens in a new browser tab)

1c 1869 Pictorial with RED cancel

My stepdad was basically a "hoarder" who'd buy loose album pages, cigar box lots, stock sheet lots and so on, all with a focus on US stamps from the beginning to about 1930.

I know it was his intention to "eventually" build a real collection of US... but as he aged (he died at age 92) the project seemed to just become more and more overwhelming for him. And yet? He'd keep buying these "odd lots," look at them for a while and then store them away for the future.

Since I was "the stamp expert in the family," I ended up with this chaotic accumulation, assembled over a period from about 1982 till his passing in late 2010. Two large moving boxes' worth, filled to overflowing.

Although I may be somewhat of an "expert" on Danish and Swedish philately, I actually don't know the first thing about US stamps... at least not beyond what a somewhat experienced collector can figure out with the help of a Scott catalogue. As I have written previously, I was very tempted to just sell the whole thing as a "bulk lot," but got some rather lowball offers for what seemed like a good number of stamps with some decent value. So I decided to sell the stamps, myself.

Of course, much of what I am finding IS basically "common junk" not worth talking about. But it seems like pretty much every folder or wad of album pages I examine has something "of value" to be found.

I just finished my 8th stack of album pages (and bulging stockbook), which has only taken me about 1/2 of the way into the first box... if even that.

A nice mint 75c Parcel Post stamp

This time, I came up with about 120 individual stamps worth listing. The vast majority are in the $10.00 to $50.00 catalogue value range, although there are some as high as $200.00+. In other words, a lot of decent "mid-range" stamps. Some are in perfect condition, some are "presentable."

This go around I found more mint stamps than usual-- my stepdad was mainly interested in used stamps (they were "cheaper," he said!) so the mint has been pretty limited.

When I first started the massive task of sorting through all this material-- and discovered there were a good number of better stamps-- I decided that I was going to put the proceeds from sales into the grandkids' college funds. Of course, it may not be much more than a drop in the bucket towards a college education by the time they get to be young adults (they are four and one, respectively), but I figured it would be better than nothing, and I'd like to think that my stepdad would have been pleased, too. He never actually got to meet our grandkids, but I think the thought that his stamps would help with "something useful" would have appealed to him, as he was rather a pragmatist.

Anyway, this week's selection is one of the larger and best quality (120 lots) I've assembled so far, which means multiple lot winners can reasonably save with combined shipping. I've done my best to identify everything correctly, but where there was any doubt between two stamps, I've identified each as "the cheapest version."

US Scott 418, 15c Franklin, mint NH-- catalogue value $190.00

In any case, these stamps are now up for auction on eBay with my "usual terms:" ALL stamps have the bidding start at ONE CENT, regardless of value... I'm just going to trust collectors and "the market" to come up with what's a fair price... aware that some stamps may sell for $0.01.

As previously, I am using my "personal" eBay account, rather than the one I used to trade Scandinavian stamps.

Someone recently asked me-- or rather, commented: "I could go into your auctions and just bid five cents on every single item, and end up with some perfectly good stamps I could trade or resell for 100x more than that?"

Yes. Yes, you could. At several of my previous sales from this accumulation, collectors walked away with $25.00 stamps they only paid one cent for! Of course, that's the exception, not the norm-- but it does happen. The point is that I want to sell the stamps, not "collect" them or save them for later. So there will be some extraordinary bargains to be had.

Anyway, the stamps are now available for bidding. Bidding remains open till 10:00pm Eastern/7:00pm Pacific time, on Sunday, July 13th, 2014. As always, there is reduced shipping when you win multiple lots. Here's a link to the auction listing; go have a look, and I hope you find something useful!

Are there more like this? Well, maybe not like this, but I'm barely 25% into sorting the whole thing, so there are many more to come, and it will probably take me several years to finish sorting through everything.

At Auction: Cancels and Varieties from Denmark

I expect it happens to most "general" stamp collectors after a while, that they start to experience what I have come to think of as "creeping elegance."

What follows is a bit of a "back story" about the stamps I have for auction on eBay this week. If you want to skip the story and just look at the stamps, follow this link to my auctions.

What do I mean by "creeping elegance?"

Denmark 15/24 øre Provisional from 1904

 For me, it meant starting to add 2nd and 3rd copies of stamps in the margins of my album pages. Maybe there was a beautiful or unique cancel. Maybe I discovered that I had a major variety or plate flaw among my duplicates. Maybe it turned out that a particular stamp was printed in a number of different shades.

I believe this is how specialized collections get started.

After a while, I noticed that my pages were getting increasingly "messy" looking, and I was starting to mount stamps on the backs of pages as well. Not the greatest of ideas, even if the stamps are protected by stamp mounts... the stamps start rubbing against each other, and falling out when you move the pages in the album.

I suppose I have just never been "one of those people" to just collect "one of each," and then feel like I am done. In fact, this can be said about some of my other collections, as well... collections not at all related to stamps. The basic "rule" I follow goes something like "If I think it's interesting or pretty, it goes in my collection."

The stamp from above-- plate flaw "chop in top frame."

Even if I already have 42 others.

My Denmark collection remained fairly "general" for a number of years, until my limited budget was no longer able to support my adding new stamps. In other words, "the next blank space" was a little out of my price range.

But since I'd already built a large hoard of duplicates, I followed my older cousin's suggestion of starting to collect plate flaws and varieties. After all, finding varieties among stamps I already owned was basically a free way to add to my collection.

Cousin Ib even gave me my first copy of the Danish "AFA Specialkatalog" which opened up a whole new world for me... hundreds of listed varieties! And the treasure hunt was made even more interesting by the fact that some of these stamps were quite valuable.

Of course, varieties don't really fit in a standard album, so I gradually ended up migrating my Denmark collection to my own blank pages. That worked for a number of years... but then I decided it might be easier to use high quality stock books, because the stamps would be easier to move around. The project of moving my specialized collection-- with varieties, printings, plate flaws and cancels-- from albums to stack books is an ongoing project around here... that will probably take several more years to complete.

LUX quality cancel from the village of TAPS

As I mentioned at the beginning, "somewhere in there" I'd also saved some stamps with attractive and/or interesting cancels.

Cancel collecting is "A Really Big Deal" among collectors in neighboring Sweden, but it never struck me that Denmark collectors were all that interested. Sure, some people collected numeral cancels, some collected the "star" and "udslebne" cancels, while yet another group collected Danish stamps postmarked on the Faroe Islands. But it was still a highly specialized affair.

However, I liked the way really nice cancels looked on stamps... and I had never been particularly interested in mint stamps... so I decided (early on) to keep the nicest cancels I would find as part of my specialized collection.

Of course the nice thing about a cancel collection is that you can add almost endless variety to your collection without "breaking the bank." At least most of the time. Almost perfectly centered cancels like the one from TAPS (a tiny village in southern Jylland) pictured here often command rather "stout" prices.

I suppose people approach stamp collecting from different perspectives. My collections-- and my personal enjoyment as a stamp collector-- revolves around "building the collection." The idea of having something one could call "a complete collection" doesn't really enter into my thoughts. "Completion" is not a very interesting concept for me, "building" is.

Combining BOTH: A plate flaw ("pointed eyebrow") and a
really nice cancel on the same stamp!

On more than one occasion I have been asked "But how will you know when you're DONE?"

My answer to that is that I don't really plan to BE "done." This baffles some collectors... while others nod knowingly. Which just goes to show you that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to collect stamps.

As a variety and cancel collector, I am not particular about how I add to my collection. I have never really been attached to the idea that I have to "wait" till the exact stamps I need shows up for sale, before adding it to my collection.

In fact, my favorite way to go is to buy large box lots and duplicate stocks and slowly sift through them, looking for "treasure." Often there are some really good "finds" to be made, especially with lots from here in the USA, where the stamps have generally not seen the eyes of a Danish specialist for decades... if ever. At the end of the sorting process, I sell off the material I decided not to keep... and sometimes that means I have bought thousands of stamps just to add a few dozen to my collection.

This week, I am auctioning off some of my older Danish duplicate stamps, with a focus on plate flaws and really nice cancels, including the items pictured here All in all, there are 40 lots of both individual stamps as well as a few sets... with values running to about US $100.00. As always, all items have an opening bid of ONE CENT and there are no reserves-- so the possibility of picking up a few bargains definitely exists.

Bidding is open until Sunday, August 11th, till about 2:00pm US Pacific Time/5:00pm US Eastern Time or 23:00 Central European Time. I hope you'll find something of interest to add to your collection!

Click here to see the current auctions with Danish stamps.

Classic US Stamps on eBay

Occasionally, I will take a sidetrack from what I normally write about, here.

At the beginning of 2012, I first wrote about my stepdad's stamps (which I'd inherited) and about my efforts to slowly sell them off through eBay and other venues. You can see the original post here, if you're interested. You can also skip this story and go directly to looking at the stamps.

US Scott 185 in top condition

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I have a couple of moving boxes with untold thousands of mostly older US stamps, generally in stock books, on random album pages and in glassines and regular envelopes.

I don't collect US, and never have had much interest. That also means I really don't really know anything much about US stamps... aside from what a somewhat advanced collector of areas can glean from looking in a Scott catalogue. Some stamps-- like the "bank notes" and "Washington-Franklins" are somewhat of a mystery to me... and I am really not prepared to spend days and weeks learning the finer nuances of these.

My stepdad did get a lot of enjoyment from his stamps... and even though he never really formed an actual "collection," his accumulating habits kept him busy in latter years.

For me, the "easy way out" would have been to hand all this off to an auctioneer or dealer (and I thought about it) and just take whatever offer I'd get. Based on my life-long experience with collecting and trading stamps, I expect I'd have been offered about $200-300 for it all, since this is very much what you might call a "job lot."

Maybe I'm just sentimental, or maybe I am following in the footsteps of my stepfather's tendency to be very "thrifty," so I decided to take on the "leg work" myself. Of course, it will take me several years to do all this... but that's OK.

Scott 394, 3c Washington coil, perf 8.5 A difficult stamp to find
in ANY condition, and this is quite a nice copy. CV $67.50.

I'm not going to go to a huge amount of trouble here-- just trying to skim off and offer the best to collectors. I expect there are no great rarities here, but there are certainly lots of "mid value" stamps-- from $1.00 to $50.00 in Scott (a few higher-- maybe to $150.00 CV)-- and some are actually in pretty nice (and even superb) condition. There are also thousands of cheapies, and thousands of damaged-- those will just be tossed into the "sorted" box.

In my original post about these stamps I wrote that I would turn everything into "penny auctions." That is, every lot-- regardless of quality or catalogue value-- will open on eBay at ONE CENT, and the market can decide what the stamps are worth. Risky? Maybe... but my experience has been that the stamp market is pretty "intelligent," and good quality material will achieve a fair price. It's the junk nobody bids on. And I'm only going to bother with the better quality material-- the junk I may sell "by the pound," at the end.

I'm not doing this with the purpose of "making money," as such... although I do have some secret ambitions to put all the proceeds into my grandson's college fund (he's three).

Anyway, this week I am offering up my second group from this old hoard (the first went up for sale in March of 2012), consisting of 81 lots with mostly USED older US. As I said earlier, starting price is ONE CENT for all lots, regardless of value.

Also-- if you're a fan of US stamps-- it might interest you to know that all these stamps were collected in Europe, and most have not been seen by any US specialists for maybe 50+ years. I really have NO idea what might lurk...

... and last, but not least, I am not using my usual "Scandinavian Stamp Specialist" seller ID, but my private account I use mostly to buy and sell non-stamp stuff from our attic. Anyway, hope you'll have a look!

The auctions end on Sunday night, July 21st, 2013. Here's the link to an overview of all lots.

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!

US Stamps from a European Estate

Taking a bit of a sidetrack, today.

Note: Today's entry is about some classic US stamps I am selling on eBay. If you just want to skip the personal story behind them and go look, here's the link: Click here for Classic US Stamps eBay auctions (Opens a new browser tab)

My 93-year old stepfather passed away recently-- outliving my mom by about a year. They were retired and lived on a golf course community in the south of Spain. Most of their "stuff" was recently shipped to me, here in the US.

On occasion, my stepdad would "fiddle around" with a (rather messy) collection/accumulation of US stamps. In later years, his eyesight, steadiness of hand and mental clarity somewhat declined, so the "collection" eventually became more like "wads of pages with stamps on them." There were also some cigar boxes with stamps, envelopes with stamps, and some ancient salvaged stock books.

Not "rare," but nice quality!

I don't expect that I'll find any great RARITIES here, but there are certainly lots of "mid value" stamps-- from $1.00 to $25.00 in Scott (a few higher-- maybe to $150.00 CV)-- and some are actually in pretty nice (and even superb) condition. There are also thousands of cheapies, and thousands of damaged-- those will just be tossed into the "sorted" box.

I don't collect US, and I know nothing about US stamps (beyond what I can learn from opening a Scott catalogue)... and I have no "attachment" to this collection. I also know my stepdad was very "thrifty," and would NOT have wanted me to just hand the whole mess off to "some dealer" and get $50.00 for my effort.

Thus, I have decided that what I'm going to do is take "the best" of what I find, and put it out on eBay. I can make high quality scans, hopefully to somewhat compensate for my lack of knowledge about this material. I'll identify the stamps to the best of my ability, which may not be good. Issues such as the "Washington-Franklins" and some of the classics with all their printings and papers and grills completely baffle me.

What I am also going to do is turn everything into "penny auctions." That is, every lot-- regardless of quality or catalogue value-- will open on eBay at ONE CENT, and the market can decide what the stamps are worth. Risky? Maybe... but my experience has been that the stamp market is pretty "intelligent," and good quality material will achieve a fair price. It's the junk nobody bids on. And I'm only going to bother with the better quality material-- the junk I may sell "by the pound," at the end.

So, there are thousands of worthwhile stamps in the two boxes now in my office. So, I expect this little "project" may take me a few years. My plan is to "chunk" the stamps into groups of 100+ individual listings, so people can benefit from cheaper postage costs-- since some of these probably wll sell for a buck or less.

There are also some superb cancels!

My first set, which I have sent to eBay this afternoon, has 148 lots, mostly older used US. Lots of those "in-between" stamps that are too expensive to be in packets, but too cheap for MOST sellers to bother with.

Click here to go have a look at these listings now (Opens a new browser tab)

What might add some "interest" as well is that my stepdad was British and lived in Europe, and was NOT a "specialist." Much of this material has not been in the hands of US collectors for half a century or more.

Anyway, if you happen to be stopping by this page... and US stamps are "your thing," bookmark/subscribe or make a point to come back, from time to time... I'll announce as new listings of these US stamps go up for grabs. By the way, I am not using my normal stamp selling account on eBay-- I usually sell Scandinavian stamps, and I don't want to confuse my "regulars." I'm using my "private" eBay ID, instead.

It'll be a nice "diversion" from my daily routine... and not to worry, this does NOT mean I'm suddenly abandoning writing about Scandinavian Philately!