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If you are looking for the Dynasty Auctions website --

http://www.dynastyauctions.net/php/home.php

Here is the link to the online auction catalogue --

http://www.dynastyauctions.net/php/toc_auc.php?site=1&sale=1&lang=1

Ah, their website is aliveeeeee.

Using the same design/software as other auction houses, so easy to navigate.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Thanks Eric for the link.

The website is so so so similar to IA (well, who says you can't copy a good idea?)

"Here we go again" that's right and I think I need a bank loan!

Probably they're using 'off-the-shelf' software.

So just insert your name, choose the colour scheme, and upload your material (OK, there's probably more to it than that or IT people wouldn't be earning the big-bucks, but for the most part...).

Glen has mentioned before that SB runs on fairly standard bulletin-board software so there's probably other sites on other topics 'out there' that look like 'us'.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Yes, I can vouch for that - I used to forum elsewhere on othes topics and the look and feel is exactly the same as SB.

It seems the prices have something to do with income of the middle class there?! More and more people, including some from Vietnam, are getting onto the market!

A lull for awhile before the sales end of March. In the meantime, some interesting online results.

These were items I watched on eBay, so results have to be taken with a bit of a grain of salt perhaps, give the "Bunny Factor" often attached to online sales.

At Interasia's special sale of Cultural Revolution, the on-cover usages didn't seem to attract as much interest from the room as the basic stamps, some lots being passed-in. Strange really, as covers can be very hard to come by. So this item was interesting,



Described as

it made $338 USD. (item 150572212584)

The next is


I'll just show 1 of the 2 covers here, they're each franked with a set of 3 (different sets) of 1976.



Winning bid on this was $322 USD. (item 230591969400). Frankly I wouldn't add covers from the Stamp Export Corp. to my collection, its 'philatelic' use regardless of the fact that the mail is technically a commercial transaction.

Moving back in time, there was also




For $1,026 USD (item 350442784496)

and the 'biggie', started at 99p (quite possibly because the seller 'knew' it would sell higher and no need to spend extra on listing fees)




sold at 3,101 GBP (eBay's exchange rate $4,966 USD) (item 380319607761). To a buyer with a feedback of 3, so the underbidder might be receiving a "second chance offer" .

It finished in early March, but reading the message from the back of card,



yes, the seller will be having a merry time indeed.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

The N series PRC stamps continue its upward trend in March, latest eBay prices for selected sets are up 25% or more from Feb prices. N4,N5, N6,N7, N8,N12,N13 and N17 are the hot items. Let's see what will be auction prices at the end of the month.

"Newcomer" Dynasty Auctions held their inaugural sale this past weekend. The owners and executives are former Harmer's/John Bull staff, who bought the Daniel Kelleher auction house in the USA, and founded this branch in HK (and are renting the former office space of John Bull).

I wasn't able to attend the sale in person, but will recap from the posted prices realized. Prices here do not include the 15% buyer's premium.

It seems that there's no such thing as a bargain out there. The sale started with China collections. There was lot 6, a "packet maker's stock 1913-49", est. $15-18,000 that made $80,000. Then more amazing, lot 16 at a modest $5-6,000 made $140,000. If enough eyeballs preview the lots, at least a couple will notice hidden value I guess. For someone looking for an 'undervalued' area or a 'cheap collecting interest', perfins might be a way to go. Lot 25 was a collection of 70, est. at $1,200-1,500 and only making $800.

Moving on to Shanghai Local Post, Large Dragons, prices were a bit all over the place, averaging about $2,000 per piece among a several dozen lot offering of mint copies. Later issues also performed at estimate or above, and virtually every lot sold. Attractive pieces draw demand, such as a handpainted cover (lot 123) est. $1,200-1,500 which made x10 that at $12,000.

In China Large Dragons, sets of Scott/Chan 1-3 made $13-14,000 each Mint, and $8,500-9,500 Used (several sets of each offered). Sets of 4-6 Used were $11,000 (2 lots). Sets of 7-9 Used were $9-11,000. The Small Dragons had 2 lots of Mint (Sc 10-12, Chan 16-18), which made $5,500 and $3,000.

The Empress Dowager's 60th B'day issue (Sc 16-24/Chan 22-30) brought prices 50% over estimate, and prices were in relation to condition, ranging in Mint from a "superior" set at $15,000 to a "delightful" set at $13,000 to 2 "attractive" sets at $12,000 each. Used brought from $8-13,000. Stand-apart items commanded strong prices. Lot 204, an imperf between pair from the Birthday issue described as a "major rarity" made $175,000 on estimate of 25-30,000. A similarly described item from Shanghai (lot 96) est. at $15-20,000 made $110,000. Finally for this area there was a strong offering of Mollendorf Special Printings (Chan 22m-30m). 3 complete Mint sets offered (and 1 broken set not counted) and making $28-30,000 each, on estimates of $10-16,000.

Onto the Red Revenues then. The 2c on 3c (Sc 79/Chan 84) was all over the place at $4,500-8,000 Mint, $2,400-2,600 Used. A nice inverted surcharge (lot 290) did well at $325,000 (est. $100-150,000). The 1c on 3c (Sc 78/Chan 87) was $3-4,500 each Mint. These were all 50-100% over est. Getting into higher values, the $1 on 3c was $38-45,000 (est. $16-30,000) Mint, $18-19,000 Used (est. $10-12,000). Finally there was a copy in both Mint and Used of the $5 on 3c, the Mint est. $200-300,000 made $375,000; while the Used est. $150-180,000 made $225,000.

What can be said so far is that while this sale had nothing 'spectacular' in it (ie. no million-dollar showpieces), and a Red Revenue section that didn't go on for 100 lots or more, almost every lot sold, and for good prices. Besides, one can't expect 'gems' in the first sale of a 'new' auction house.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

I attended this auction both days. The auction was considerably more lively with a faster pace. However, the two auctioneers were error prone possibly due to the faster pace.

Prospective buyers for this auction items must be beware that they are rather generous on descriptions as some items described as "pristine" had obvious tone spots. One item described as MNH turned out to be lightly hinged. One Lotus MS was mistakenly marked as Dream of the Red Mansion MS and finally I still could not figure out what item 907 was. This item was described as N1 1970 "taking tiger mountain by strategy", the photo showed a W5 stamp and the lot sold for $6500 - too much for a N1 set and too little for a W5 set!!!
A physical inspection of the stamp lots is definitely recommended for future auctions

I remember attending the John Bull sales when these guys were Harmer execs...that was 2-3 years ago now...there would be lot after lot after lot estimated at $1,000-1,200 or $1,000-1,500, and their policy was to open things at the reserve of 60%, so the 2 of them sat the front, one did the auctioneering banter while the other controlled the books or something, they had a repetitive patter of "$600" from person A, then "$600...600 to start...600..." from person B. Nowadays of course so much material doesn't even open below $2,000.

Sounds like they made some slip-ups in the cataloguing, but then if that duty is passed off to a junior, mistakes could happen, and really do you need a senior person to catalogue every PRC M/S etc?

Physical inspection of lots is a good idea for any auction. If such is possible of course...if the auction is in another city or overseas, well you'd have to be a big spender for the plane ticket to be worth the trip.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Since there are physical constraints in on site inspections of the lots in an international auction, one can reasonable expect the lots should be described as accurately as possible.

In the case of Dynasty, some lot descriptions can really be improved....

To illustrate, the PRC W3 set was described as NH, fresh and near pristine and VF. The lot sold for HK$10,000 without the premium. The W5 set was described as o.g., never hinged, lovely, fresh color, Very Fine and sold for a rock bottom price of HK$8,000. Right at this very moment, two similar lots are selling at eBay from a German vendor, the bids have reached beyond US$2,000. The winning bidders for the Dynasty lots are either getting a real bargain or the eBay bidders are real fools......

Continuing with the Dynasty Auction sale...again these are hammer prices not including 15% premium.

1897 Coiling Dragon series (Sc 86-97/Chan 92-103) 2 mint sets at $20,000 and $26,000 each.

People were super gung-ho for lot 328, a set of imperf colour proofs of the 1898 Coiling Dragons (Sc 98-109/Chan 104-115). Described as all but the 20ct being in unadopted colours. Est. was $5,000-7,000; final hammer $300,000.

Postal history is too much of a one-off to draw conclusions. Lot 370 stood out, and drew the same hammer as the last. This is another example of "the unusual is in demand". An 1899 cover from Korea to Wuhu, franked with an Imperial Chinese Post 2ct defin. Est. of $10-15,000.

Moving into the Republic, a set of the 1913 London Printing complete (Sc 202-220/Chan 208-226) which was described as being "for the true connoisseur" (but no, not UM, so not "perfect" ) was est. at $12,000 and made $19,000.

The 1915 First Peking Printing $20 Hall of Classics (Sc 242/Chan 248) offered 2 copies mint; they made $50,000 and $55,000 respectively.

And jumping ahead to the hot PRC era.

1955 Chinese Scientists M/S, Yang C33M, had 2 copies sell at $1,600 each.
1958 Monument of People's Heroes M/S, Yang C47M, $2,400
1958 Kuan Han Ching M/S Yang C50M mint, $4,500 (Interasia had them at $4,200-4,500, so their higher end may be the new benchmark?)
1960 Goldfish Yang S182-S193 UM $6,500 (racing ahead)

1961 Table Tennis M/S Yang C86M, Mint at $11,000 (Interasia was $9,500-12,000)
Mei Lan-Fang the set, within estimate of $12-16,000 at $15,000, while the M/S Yang C94M Mint, was $160,000 (highest at Interasia was $140,000).

1963 Butterflies Yang S285-304 UM $6,000; MNG $2,800-3,600 (odd that the UM set was followed by 3 sets described as "mint no gum as issued")
Giant Pandas S330-32 & imperf S332-32i $4,500
Golden Monkeys perf & imperf Yang S333i-335i $2,400
Huangshan Mountains UM $6,000-6,500

1964 Peonies M/S Yang S61M, several at $30-34,000.
PRC 15th Anniv M/S Yang C106M, 1 at $36,000 and 1 at $60,000 ( ).

Thoughts of Mao Yang W1-W11, $26,000 (and even another lot of them failed to sell, which happened here and there throughout the PRC material, usually unheard of, maybe the ambitious $30-35,000 estimate? Being lot 888 didn't help it ).
Talks on Literature and Art Yang W20-22 $10,000 UM (Interasia had a set make $12,000)

1967 Poems of Chairman Mao W39-52 UM $22,0000 (Interasia was $28-32,000). Maybe its a case of 'glut in the market' or simply 'market correction'?

1971 Paris Commune Yang N8-11 UM $3,200
1978 National Science Conf. MS Yang J25M $3,800-4,500
Galloping Horses M/S, Yang T28M UM $4,000-4,500
Arts & Crafts M/S Yang T29M UM $3,000
Highway Bridge M/S Yang T31M UM $3,200 ea (3 offered)
Study Science M/S Yang J41M UM $18-19,000 each (est. $17,500-20,000, so estimates are 'catching up' to the market?)
1980 Qi Baishi M/S Yang T44M $2,200-2,400.
1980 Monkey Yang T234 Singles at $13-14,000 (Interasia's sold at $12,000).

Then in Taiwan, there were irregular blocks of 3 of the 1962 Postal Savings stamps. These were talked about once in a thread on SB, and no-one could come up with a catalogue identification. Well, the auction catalogue gives no cat. # either, so obviously 'unlisted' but generally accepted. Odd limbo to be in. No-one collects a block of 3 that looks stupid, so I'd break them into 3 sets or pairs and singles. Est. $1,800-2,200, and hammer $5,500. Gives a benchmark idea what those are worth.

And the Hong Kong section was highlighted by an intact old collection, including all the rarities, definitive sets and more and more. Someone's estate, according to the catalogue, instructed the auction house gave the auction house a 'must sell' order and put it up intact. Estimate already a healthy $750,000-$1,000,000, it made a hammer of $1,600,000.

The 1948 Silver Wedding set UM brought $1,600.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

I think we know the answer to that one.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Sale of a stamp via auction can produce very different results at different auctions within a short time frame. The 1916-19 Junk series overprinted for use in Sinkiang including the $20 yellow Hall of Classics was sold at the Zurich Asia auction in Feb, Dynasty Auction in March and Phila China in April. The realized prices including the 15% buyers premium were HK$14,950, HK$27,600 and finally a whopping $46,000. If you were the lucky buyer at the first auction and sold it at the third auction, you would have tripled your money!

I happened to buy a Galloping Horses M/S on eBay in 2004 for about US$ 100.00. I saw it on eBay at over US$ 600.00 the other day. Should I sell it now, or wait until some time later? Thanks for any advice.

Just read the entirety of this thread - really interesting!

Is demand for Tibetan material and India used in Tibet equally high as for China considering Tibet's current status?

Ben

Galloping Horses M/S: $100USD is a great price compared to nowadays. You could sell now and double or triple your money easily. (Remember that asking $600 on eBay is one thing, selling it for/getting that amount is another ).

Sell now or hold? Well, since modern PRC material is now being traded like a commodity, then the 'rules' of playing the stock market can be applied. You can sell now and 'take your profit', or you can 'hold' and hope the price climbs more. Is it any wonder this material is called 'blue chip'?

Tibet material: Auctions here in HK tend to have limited offerings of it. Most auctions tend to go through all the China material, then HK, then way down at the end is the 'other Asia' alphabetically, and that's where you find Tibet, so the last lots in the sale pretty much. Classic Tibet is of course rife with fakes/forgeries, which will put off the less-experienced; prices for a lot of the material are on the high side (even more discouragement as who wants to get 'stuck' with an expensive dud); and the issues are in the "Uglies" category, so they probably won't appeal to any but serious phiatelists.

To think/assume/hope that Tibet material will be popular with Chinese buyers is getting into a geo-political minefield. Generally at this point, Chinese buyers are going for material that is clearly their cultural heritage...Imperial China issues, Republic, and PRC. The Treaty Ports issues see little interest as they were issued by foreigners, for foreigners, and are a reminder of foreign meddling/domination; same for the Foreign Post Offices. Mainland buyers are starting to warm up to buying issues of Taiwan, but even that requires a certain broadening of their political views and acceptance of history.

Tibet is a totally different animal, and I'd say mainland buyers will be as interested in building collections of it as they would be of collecting Indo-China, its a peripheral territory to China proper. Do Russian collectors collect the issues of Ukraine and the Baltic States, simply because those states were once part of Russia/USSR?

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Thanks for that detailed response; I can see the issues you raise and agree that it seems unlikely demand will increase similar to demand for China and even Taiwan.

As Tibet is currently part of China I would have thought a better comparison than Russia and Ukraine, might be UK collectors (based in England) still collecting Scottish regionals - I don't know if they do though .

Thanks,

Ben

Arh ahh, der be a fine comparison (sorry, its even harder to type a Scottish accent than to imitate one ).

I was a bit 'stuck' trying to think of what would be analogous to China's shifting borders. The whole matter of Tibet is one filled with confusion and everyone has a different opinion about what is and was and should be. Some people will tell you that Tibet has been part of China for the past 600 years (and indeed it was conquered by Kublai Khan in the 14th century and 'owned' by China for a while, but then the Mongols conquered everything as far as Egypt and Hungary but didn't hold it for long).

The current 'official history' is that Tibet was 'absorbed' into the PRC in 1959. Since then, the central government has been moving large numbers of Han Chinese into Tibetan regions to 'Sino-ise' the territory (similar was done by the USSR, shifting ethnic Russians into the various republics to undermine the local population).

However, Scottish (and other) regionals are a modern thing, done during the Machin era and a bit before. There were no Scottish postage stamps issued in the 19th century. Another interesting analogy: would collectors in Ireland collect the Northern Ireland Machin regionals?

Demand from mainland China collectors for Taiwan material is a only starting to pick up. In the past, only Taiwanese collected Taiwan, so prices were rather stagnant and the market limited. Similar to trying to sell Korean material, there's just not a big market for it. PR China used to take a pretty hard line towards Taiwan, pooh-poohing it as a 'renegade province' and such, so collectors in China probably regarded the stamps of Taiwan as not 'legitimate'. Relations are warming now, there are even flights between China and Taiwan, so the territory is starting to be 'brought into the fold'.

On the other hand, interest from China in material from Hong Kong and Macau is still limited. It has been noted lately that the market for HK seems to be picking up, after poking along for a long time, but i can't foresee large numbers of people from the mainland thinking "HK is part of China, therefore I'll collect HK stamps"...this conclusion is based on the fact that one of the hottest areas of China philately is the Cultural Revolution era -- stamps depicting Mao, his sayings and poems, victories of the workers and all that. I can't see that that would 'mesh' with pages of defins showing British sovereigns, and commems honouring Royal wedding anniversaries and coronations.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &viewitem=

Manumicheli - got for this absurd cut down photocopy - US $1,035.00 - 24 bidders.

"The M/S has been damaged and lost some colour,see scan. Sold as it is."

Only on ebay can such brain dead morons walk the earth.

REAL sheets are this size and this colour.

I guess the stamp alone is worth quite a bit of money. If the sheet is intact, you need to add at least one more zero....

I wish I could get prices like that when I list PRC material on feeBay. (Of course, I wouldn't be pushing ridiculous garbage like that so-called M/S, wow that would insult the bird if you used it as budgie cage lining ).

I've been putting up various lots of PRC material on eBay the last couple weeks, and its interesting to note that several of the buyers are in Japan. This is for 1950s-70s PRC material, nothing overtly propagandistic, but interesting that it seems everyone is in on collecting PRC.

(This is not an entirely isolated idea. To reference art & antiques as an analogy, Chinese ceramics have long been popular with Japanese collectors, but they have particular interests and taste, and only 'go for' certain types of items).

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Look at the perforation holes on the MS!!!! That doesn't look real!

[Mod Hat On]
Fixed up the post a bit as you had inserted your comment inside the quoted text.
[Mod Hat Off]

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Mint, or used?

Had a look in my old "ETA" album I stuck stamps in when at school.

My entire China stamp collection , well I think some of them are Chinese anyway.

"Inactive image - Link deleted by Moderator"
Sam

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Silence is golden

I don't follow this area's auction prices as closely as I should, but I've seen notable increases over the last couple of years in much "China-related" material.

I'm thinking particularly of offices in China, of which I am interested mostly in US, moderately in Germany, and a little in Russia. I am not seeing the bargains in US Shanghai overprints that I saw 2-3 years ago, in fact I'd guess that the prices for even slightly unusual material (anything other than the basic set of 18 single stamps) have about doubled.

I'm still missing a couple of those plate blocks, and when they come up at auction now they fetch prices I would have laughed at in 2009 or even last year (and yes, I'm kicking myself for not buying a few more than I did).

I suspect that VF blocks of US K15 and K16 (the high values in the set) would fetch 50-75% of catalog these days, which is more than double.

For modern PRC, I like to use Scott 1647a (the 1981 Year of the Cock booklet) as an indicator of prices. It's available enough that you can always see what it's selling for and anyone can afford it, but expensive enough that is isn't changing hands randomly.

It's also on all the dealer buy lists. Currently it's on buy lists at $450 and selling on eBay for between $450 and $500 -- this is up about 20% from 6 months ago. I'm sure by tomorrow it will be different.

Indeed, there is interest in the Offices stamps; some of it coming from the 'home country' of the Office, but there do seem to be Chinese collectors also, looking for 'something different' to collect.

As I've said before, from what I see at auction, Chinese collectors go #1 for things that are purely 'theirs', Imperial China period, Cultural Revolution and other PRC. #2 would be China regions, the Offices, the regional overprints. A bit further down is 'other China' like Taiwan (growing interest but not hot).

But in the Offices there are 'hot and not'. I'm sure there's a fair number of collectors in the home country that have always pursued the issues, and they're joined by Chinese collectors, who choose the Offices based on what they know of the issuer. Add to that market dynamics in the 'home'. Thus German Offices go along well, Russian Offices are showing really strong interest, USA does well (probably due to the coveted reputation of the USA as some sort of fabled land).

But Austrian Offices, Italian Offices. If you happened to have an Italian Offices in China stamp valued in Michel at 50,000 Euro, you might get 10% of catalogue for it.

The USA Offices in China stamps will also have a demand supporting them as they were overprints on the Washington-Franklin defins, so specialists in that series will 'need' these stamps as part of their collection. In my collecting of Mongolia, I see great demand for covers franked with Russian stamps for the Russian Offices in Mongolia. The major reference literature on Russian Foreign Offices, ie. Tchilingirian, covers offices in Poland, Austria, and yes Mongolia.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

I have a theoretical question, we all know that the main China stamps market is in China and the prices are RMB based. What if the RMB appreciates by X percent eg 10% in one go (rumour suggests this may happen soon). Will China stamp prices appreciated by the same amount in the world market or the world market prices remain the same and the RMB prices reduced to reflect the currency appreciation?

Ahh, bringing exchange rate flucuation into the picture...good point really.

The HKD is unofficially tied to the USD. I say unofficially because the way the market here works is that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HK's version of a central bank) will wade into the market and buy/sell currency to keep the HKD within a trading band of 7.7 to 7.75 HKD = 1 USD.

Since most of the 'auction action' for Chinese philatelic material is in HK, and since the largest portion of buyers are from China, a significant change in the exchange rate between RMB and USD would result in hammer prices in HK changing, but the price paid by the buyer, in terms of how many RMB they withdraw from their account may not change.

I'm not an economist, and technical talk about buying power and exchange rate movements can bring on a headache, or sleepiness (if you're having insomnia, listen to a deposition by Alan Greenspan before Congress, zzzzzz ). Adds a new angle to consider when considering price movements in the market.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

This will add a new element to investing in China stamps, hedge against local dollar (US$ and HK$) depreciation against the RMB!

I am thinking is it NOT only stamps that are attracting high prices, I understand that some of the high prices are for UNofficial stamps(whatever that means).

Are those Chinese that were young/children now collecting the items that were associated with there life at that time. Has anyone bothered to see if the ceramics/pottery produced at that time, depicting marching and flag waving gaining a price increase, I have seen this pottery.

What about the posters and propaganda http://www.easterncurio.com/easten%20curio/D%20chinese%20cultural%20revolution/ChineseCulturalRevolution.html.

I don't think it's JUST STAMPS, they are a part of the big picture gaining amazing prices, my gut feeling is there is a more happening in China than just stamps.

Sam

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Silence is golden

Was thinking about the unoffical thing and decided to Google about, ended up here on a site in China. http://www.xabusiness.com/china-resources/rare-stamps-of-china.htm


The epigraph for the workers of Japan by Mao Zedong. Unofficially Issued.


The big "Whole Country is Red" stamp.Unofficially Issued.


Long live of the complete victory of the great proletarian culture revolution. Unofficially Issued.

I am not a freiend of Moa and his wife Me. If any of you get the chance to read this book "Wild Swans", do so.
. It may change your minds wanting anything associated with this pair of sadists in your home.

Sam

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Silence is golden

You reminded me of one of the great (ancillary) joys of stamp collecting: the intellectual "side trips" that stamps (or other philatelic items) engender. I'm sure I'm not alone in having greatly broadened and deepened my knowledge of history, and historical trivia, as a result of having wondered, "Why exactly is this stamp/cover the way it is?"

I don't know if "unofficially issued" is quite the right term for the Whole Country is Red stamps and the others of that period. (being pedantic here)

In the case of Whole Country at least, the story is well-known. The stamps were printed, nationally distributed, and only when they were about to go on sale did someone notice Taiwan was not coloured and the decision was made to pull the stamp. The stamps were sold for about 1/2 day in one city though as they didn't get the message.

The stamps then were "produced but not officially released" maybe? They were in the post office, they were sold over the counter of the post office. Unlike an issue that never leaves the warehouse when its destruction is ordered, but copies 'sneak out the back door' or 'fall off a truck'. If that happens, then they get only footnote status in catalogues. In the case of the China issues, they were recalled from sale.

As for 'other collectables', I would say the problem there is authenticity. Things with a Mao/Communist 'flavour' are still massed produced today. Indeed, reading the descriptions for some of the items in the link you provided, ie. satchels, it says "this item is made in the style of those in the Cultural Revolution".

I see lots of shops selling tat like statues or posters, and its highly doubtful these pieces are vintage, its just tourist souvenirs. Find something authentic and you'll probably get a good price, as Chinese are obsessed nowadays with buying everything -- Chinese stamps and coins, GB Penny Blacks, Ferraris, French wine, Andy Warhol prints. Their tastes and demands are going global.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

What in the hell are you on about.

In other words for our International members, I have no idea what you are talking about

Sam

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Silence is golden

I guess "withdrawn stamps" might be the term. There are some such issues in Vietnam, but none had been withdrawn as early.

Well, I will put it in small syllables (look that word up).

When you collect stamps, you learn other stuff, even if only by accident.

Seemed simple enough to me.

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Me too

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

I picked up the following postcard at a local fair recently.

I'm hoping someone here can give me some information regarding the issue and the date of use.



Thanks in anticipation.

Mark.

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Reddog aka Mark Rowen.
I have a red dog, his name is Buddy.

ROC (Taiwan) Scott #C76, 1967.

Valued at US$0.25 used.

Thanks deerlandstamps, I thought it may have been Taiwan (no "Peoples").

Mark.

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Reddog aka Mark Rowen.
I have a red dog, his name is Buddy.

Picked up the catalogues for the David Feldman in HK sale next weekend. They have quite a nice and seemingly large office in the business district.

The sale is filled with innumerable valuable items and showpieces -- 2 sheets of the Monkey stamp; a full sheet of HK's Geo VI $10 Pre-war print and QEII Annigoni $10 glazed paper (each stated to be unique); piles of hot PRC M/S.

Some of the material seems optimistically priced--a special catalogue of 'ephemera' related to SYS (Sun Yat Sen) and the Republic for instance. There is a large group of covers addressed to SYS, but these are not personal correspondence and only a couple have manuscript markings. For the most part it is ordinary correspondence from ordinary people, who thought that by sending their mail to the President their letter will get more attention, yet these items are estimated at $15-20,000 each.

One interesting feature that Feldman has done, and which no other auction house in HK does, is they have created a separate booklet that gives Chinese translations of every lot in the sale. A text-only booklet, it serves as a good complement to the regular, English-language catalogue, so that non-English speakers (of which a large number of the mainland Chinese buyers seem to be) have more to refer to than just the pictures in the catalogue.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Imagine watching a train-wreck happening in slow-motion. That's the feeling I was getting at Day 1 of "The Inaugural Auction at David Feldman Hong Kong" as they billed the sale.

Almost every lot was opened at reserve, which was 80% of estimate, and generous (read: ambitious/wishful) estimates they often were. Strangely though the bidding increments seemed set too small-- for items up to $2,000 by $100; $2-4,000 by $200; $4-20,000 by $500. Made things a bit slow going, when there was any bidding at all...

The auctioneer's style was different from that of the auctioneers calling other sales, and I don't know that it went off well. He frequently fell into the 'auctioneer fast-speak', ie. what you see them do when calling a livestock sale. I think it might have left some in the room confused. Oh yes, the floor bidding. You could have skateboarded around the room and probably not run over any toes, the crowd was rather thin.

The auctioneer tried to liven things up, making light of the lacklustre results with lines such as "there's complimentary tea and coffee at the back to wake yourselves up".

On to the results, the sale opened with a small selection of European classics--Penny Blacks, early France, some Swiss Cantonals. No bidder interest. Then HK banknotes and China coins, again little interest.

Then came literature (vintage auction catalogues). Here something interesting happened. Every single lot was being snapped up by the same telephone bidder. It seemed as if someone wanted to build a philatelic library, and they wanted to do it instantly.

I made them pay dearly for a couple items, a copy of Tolman's Mongolia I pushed to the same hammer realized at Interasia in February, $2,400HKD (est. $500-700).

Then a copy of Dawson's Indian States I again engaged with the dreaded "T11" until dropping out at $1,100. Suddenly the telephone bidder ended their spree, after going in for probably $40K worth, although there were still a few dozen items left. Maybe they reached their budget limit?

Then it was onto the philatelic material, Imperial China, Mongolia and ROC. "Went to the house" became a phrase heard over and over.

Browsing the prices realized, it appears that in some cases this meant they had a bookbid, but in many cases the lot went unsold. Maybe some of the items registered as sold have been picked up after the auction?

Large Dragons (Scott/Chan 1-3) on thin paper made $14,500 mint, $8,500 used.

There were quite a few items in the $200-250,000 estimate range, some even higher, none of which found takers.

One of my main collecting areas is Mongolia, and there was about 40 lots of this in the sale. On the floor not a single item appeared to sell, the auctioneer announcing verbatim the lots were "to the house", and burned through the section in what seemed like 5 minutes.

Browsing the catalogue online now, there are a few items listed as sold, even at above estimate. I assume that the "realised" price shown in the online catalogue is the hammer, as there's no way to get the nice round numbers shown once the 15% buyer's premium is added.

I didn't attend Day 2 of the sale, which was the PRC and HK section of the auction, but that is where the value lies in terms of sell-through, and items did go there. Will report later, drawing from the prices posted in Feldman's online catalogue.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Dear me, Aethelwulf, did you push the phone bidder that high on the Dawson Indian States catalogue simply out of mischief, or were you genuinely prepared to pay $1100 for it? Either way, I congratulate you

I'm not surprised Feldman's estimates were high. They must have the highest overheads in the business.

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

On a weird side note ...

Yesterday I received an email from the China Stamp Society, reminding me of the current auction (members only), which ends on May 31, 2011, and encouraging my bid.

The weird part is that I haven't been a member since 2008.

I went to Day 2 of the auction, there were a fair number of bidders in the room, mostly local dealers and very different from the Interasia auction where the room was dominated by Mainland Chinese.

David Feldman made a guest appearance as auctioneer as he wanted to deal with the two monkey sheets but did rather poorly as an auctioneer.

He had problems distinguishing $1,120,000 and $1,200,000 thus in a couple of instances, the bidding increment became $100,000 rather than $10,000.

The PRC material prices were fair and not too exciting. Two lotus T54 stamp sheets were sold at $21,000.

The same sheet was sold at $35,000 at PhilaChina, a rather dramatic difference for a T series full sheets.

Thus either the buyers at the DF sale got away with bargains or the seller at the PC sale got away with way above market price.

Great in person reports guys.

So the view of you both was that the debut Feldman sale was pretty flat?

The Monkey sheets are a bit of a barometer .. . how did they go compared to say if InterAsia had them?

The monkey sheet went for $950,000 at Interasia and $1,120,000 and $1,130,000 at David Feldman, both without buyers premium. Guess both reflected prevailing market value at time of auction.

I have no idea really what a copy of the Dawson catalogue is worth, but I assumed it might be a scarce item and something with a following. Plus it was buried in amongst all the China catalogues so I thought I'd give it a go. Of course that determined telephone bidder was in on the bidding, so a side of me did feel comfortable with continuing the bidding for awhile. And actually I might have a copy of the catalogue already , I know I have something Indian States lying around at home that I found on a used book website for a few dollars and have been meaning to ask on the Uglies thread about.

Tolman is the only major Mongolia reference I'm missing, and every time a copy comes up for sale its estimated in the $600-900HKD range (around $100USD). For a 1983 auction catalogue that was given away free that's good money, yet every time the final hammer will be over $2,000.

Feldman's new office in HK is a nice place in the CBD. Interasia is also in that neighbourhood, but they maintain a small space, espescially relative to the volume of their realizations. ZurichAsia, Dynasty and John Bull are located a ways east in cheaper office districts, so if Feldman is aiming for an "upper crust" of the market, they are halfway there...their catalogue was packed with mid to high 5-digit USD items, the only problem is they weren't selling.

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/