I let a unique opportunity get away from me the other day, and it will haunt me forever. Has this ever happened to you?
A dealer near me ran an advertisement offering a collection of 102,000 different covers and cut squares. Some deeply focused maniac had tried to obtain postmarks from every post office in the USA. A life’s work. Maybe the life's work of several people. The price: $3,000.(The details are at the bottom of this post).
It was a real collection, arranged by US state, using some catalog – not an accumulation. (again, the details are below).
Plus, the collection was from the 1960s, so plenty of those cancels were from Post Offices now long gone.
Plus, the collection was so heavy that the seller
required the buyer to pick it up – and the seller lives in my city and I’d been to his store! No competition from California or Hong Kong.
Plus, I had been thinking about starting a postmark collection for just my US state, Illinois – and last year had purchased a book evaluating Illinois cancels from R to RRRR.
I decided not to buy the collection, but it preyed on my mind for weeks. After a month, I called to ask if they sold it. The dealer’s son told me:
“We just loaded it in the buyer’s car now. It’s not a secret – the Postmark Collector’s Club bought it for their archives. They’re driving back to Ohio tonight. We almost couldn’t fit all the boxes in the trunk and back seat.â€Why didn’t I buy it? Because I did not know anything about postmark collecting. I’d never done it. I might not like it. Postmark collecting was just an idea. I don't even collect USA.
Why didn’t I buy it? Haven’t you started a dozen collections in your imagination which seemed stupid later on. (I won’t give an example for fear of offending you, or collectors of...uh...Mr. ZIP blocks of four).
Why didn’t I buy it? Because who drops $3,000 on something he or she knows nothing about? What if postmarks were boring? What if it was worth only $1,500? You know, "knowledge is power," and all that stuff.
Why didn't I buy it. Because I knew I'd never get around to examining it and I'd just be keeping the collection from someone who would - right up to the day I died. I'm serious! I had an altruistic thought.
Why didn’t I buy it? I never spent $3,000 on a stamp purchase in my life. That money could buy a few mortgage payments.
I should have bought it.
And now I will never be happy again.Here is the advertisement:
LOT 296 UNITED STATES - POSTMARK COLLECTION This collection is a bit difficult to describe but I’ll do my best. There are approximately 31,000 town cancels first or last day post cards, 31,000 commercial mail, and 40,000 2 x 4 inch cuts with slogans/machine cancels. All of these are organized by state and were put together in the 50s and 60s. The collectors goal was to obtain postmarks from every post office in every state based on Howard Thompson Willet. There are over 102,000 total pieces in this collection. Someone in the Postmark Collectors club will probably fall in love with this collection. In store pickup only due to the weight of this collection. Net $2995.
http://www.drbobfriedmanstamps.com/down ... d-sons.pdfThe ad is still up today, anyway.
My postmark catalog was: "United States Post Offices, Vol. III - The Upper Midwest" by Richard Helbock. (in print, I think).
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) in Oz, then was making multiple trips in their car to take it all home. That might lift the spirits of the OP so they won't feel they let "the big one" get away. 
With the multi-page ads they take out, that can't be cheap marketing.
