Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

And that was 6000th post in the thread, Tony. Spectacular.

Today, I was in Prague and also visited our library and Bahawalpur book loaned. Very remarkable work on the postage issues. I will use some parts for update of KM, surely.

Any news on the status with Geoffrey Flack? I don't know if this has been noted in the past few months I haven't been here online ... but I just noticed this posted on his website today.



Due to medical issues, the site has been taken down temporarily. Current outstanding orders will be processed and I hope to return to regular business soon. Thanks for your patience and I apologize for any inconvenience.

http://www.tibetanpost.com/

Collecting stamps, like a sir.



(A popular internet meme)

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

I'm not quite old enough to have met the great man (his dates: 1847 - 1915), but it isn't that bad a likeness:

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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 haven't heard anything, but I do hope he's back on deck soon. I haven't ever bought much from him, but I do know him for an honest and conscientious dealer. There are too few of them around to lose one!

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

Thanks Tony
Member of ISC afterall. Nothing great for you people but important for me. Thanks again.

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

I hope so too. I have bought quite a few Cochin items from him (really high price but outstanding quality) and also sold him my Travancore - Travancore-Cochin collection for a fair amount some years back when I decided to concentrate on Cochin only. Met him personally at the Westpex show in San Francisco, good man.

Curiously, never saw my collection or items from my collection on his site - must have re-sold to some one else Iam guessing..

It's great to have you along. You'll find it really opens your eyes!

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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 the subject of prices for the Uglies, I've grown rather accustomed to a spray of 'Sorry, you didn't win ...' notices from eBay, when I switch on my computer each morning.

Some of them have been nudging towards full Gibbons catalogue values, on heavy competition. The latest was this lot of Bhopal surcharges:



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170821949016

Nice stamps, and I was being greedy again bidding on them. They made £150.75 on 19 bids from seven bidders. I make Gibbons value to be £178, so the final price was around 85% of full catalogue - disregarding the slightly questionable bottom corner perfs on the 4 Anna money stamp (cat. £100). Very skinny margin for any dealer who bought these

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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 was looking at some listings on ebay by "Melbournestamps". He had an item with 2 Jaipur mint sheets listed as "INDIA STATE JAIPUR 2 MINT SHEETS CAT £ ++ RARE". This is the exchange of emails that I had with him .

Dear melbournestamps,

What's the catalog # for these items?

- ravind2

Reply:

Dear ravind2,

Please check yourself , no sg no in listing.

- melbournestamps

Next email from me:
Dear melbournestamps,

If you don't know the SG number, then how can you post this item as CAT £ ++ RARE?

- ravind2

His Reply:

Dear ravind2,

If you want to bid you bid, if don't please do not waist my time, you have problem report EBAY.

- melbournestamps

even I had an exchange with him regarding Jasdan stamp which he had marked as SG2 Cat GBP++++ having perfs on all sides. I pointed out to him that only SG5 and 6 gave perfs on all sides. He replied [*]on two sides perf is very rough pin perf and the stamp is on the side of the other stamp[*] ???? whatever he meant

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

As Tony and I (as well as many others) know, 'Melbourne Stamps' is actually from India, and using 'Melbourne' in an effort to draw in more bidding (I think his son might be located in Melbourne ... not certain).

But if you purchase any stamps from this vendor ... expect them to arrive in due time, because they are being mailed from India ... not Melbourne, Australia.

Eric, if memory serves (and that's a not inconsiderable if ), the seller you're thinking of was based in Adelaide. I don't know this 'melbournestamps', but he seems to know nothing about the Indian States.

He also has a sad, and all-too-common, attitude to potential customers. As a senior citizen (ahem!), I've noticed that many salespeople seem to think my money isn't as good as that of younger people. Of course, this is very silly. There are still a hundred cents in each of my dollars, just as there are in the dollars of someone 30 years my junior. When I'm selling, I'll take anyone's money.

I remember, some years ago, and wearing my translator's hat, I opened my door to be greeted by two large, heavily tattooed bikies carrying a samurai sword. Not exactly a reassuring sight, but it turned out that they only wanted the inscription on the blade translated. It was a particularly tricky job, but they finally went away satisfied, and I was happy enough to trouser their $40 for my efforts.

Maybe melbournestamps doesn't mind offending a would-be buyer. I don't think much of that business model, though.

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

Tonymacq,
With your permission, your tale of the bikers reminds me of a funny Belgian commercial that takes the Mickey out on just such prejudice and stereotypes. If you haven't seen it...yes, it's on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS3iB47n ... ata_player

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"Making money is a hobby that will complement any other hobbies you have, beautifully." - Scott Alexander
I collect Souvenir Sheets postally used on cover, WW used stamps up to 1957 except everything of Brasil and Argentina.

Timbres: That was Great!

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Jim M.

Super video...Watched it twice.. thanks for sharing .

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http://princelystatecoins.wordpress.com
http://oldindiacoins.wordpress.com

Here's another lot of Morvi with some dubious looking stamps. The seller is cwwong in Malaysia:



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MORVI-1931-48 ... 3374fe6847

It definitely looks as if these are being leaked out onto the market, along with genuine stamps. I doubt very much that the most of the sellers realise what they have.

Now how long has this been going on? And have any been seen with postmarks? I don't remember seeing any before now - but I don't normally pay much attention to lots of Morvi singles.

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

Genuine???
and what cat no is 1 anna red perf and one anna rose perf?

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

There are dangerous forgeries of the perforated Arms types. However, you can tell them apart by the perforations, which are the wrong gauge. I'd be asking for the gauge of the perorations on those 1 Annas, and the other perforated stamps for that matter. The others look OK, but it's hard to be sure with a small scan like that.

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

Anything in this lot which should have commanded this price?
I have bagful of these
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... true&rt=nc

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

I think the seller misplaced the decimal point. $0.43 would have been closer to the mark.

This one really belongs in the eBay Dreamers thread

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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 recently acquired some travancore/cochin stamps from a dealer. The stamps were hinged to stamp album papers. I wanted to transfer these to stock books/ stamp mounts. However some of these stamps seems to be pretty well stuck to the album page. My question is, it is safe to cut the album page around the stamps and then soak these in warm water to remove the hinge?

Ravi

Ravi

Its safe to use luke warm water and be sure not to soak for too much time and dry it in a magic desert

George

Mukul

A real jacpot for the seller unless he has tried some shill bidding. I would be happy if somebody could offer 20% of this price for a similar lot

George

Here are pictures of the lot so that visitors to this thread in the future can see what the conversation is about.







Interesting to explore what went on here. The seller appears blameless to me. All the lots started at $0.99 I believe (prices are in US dollars). He had a number of Indian States lots, and all appeared genuine.

Several of his lots went for average prices, but it appears to me that 8 of them went for significantly above what most of us would have thought a reasonable price.

All these 8 had last few seconds, probably snipe bids, from two buyers, m***s and 1***0.

m***s ended up with just one lot of Nawanagar for $88.00!

1***0 bought 7 lots at a total of $243.00

Most of these lots were pretty ordinary stuff. This is the Nawanagar, with maybe $7.50 worth on a normal day:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/INDIAN-STATES-M ... 3f1642f0ae




My theory is that both the bidders, although clearly not newbies (one has 101 feedback and the other 563), thought no-one else would bid such a daft amount and put in high bids to make sure they got them, but it backfired because they both had the same idea.

Maybe they also have no idea of typical prices for this sort of material and more money than sense!

These are the total of the stamps that 1***0 bought:

Travancore at $43.00






Poonch at $45.00




Mostly Nepal at $49.00




Various at $37.00




Hyderabad at $22.50




Cochin for $15.50




Various at $32.00




I hope he's pleased with his purchases. The Poonch is OK, but I wouldn't have paid that much, but some of the others are penny stamps

Thanks for putting in all that work, Peterh. I must say that seeing it all together is rather breathtaking.

I was somewhat interested in the Poonch, though I was a bit worried by the 4 Anna. Still, I thought it was worth bidding. Of course, I was squashed by this very enthusiastic bidder. For the other lots, I can't see anything to justify the prices, either. The last, miscellaneous, lot might have seemed promising, but the first Bhopal looks like an imitation with a fake cancellation and the second was worthless before the dog got at it; I'd bet that the Jammu & Kashmir Circular is a reprint at best.

We must just hope that no reader of this thread has been so over-stimulated that they've paid these prices. If it turns out that any of our friends here have bought these lots, I shall have to go about in sackcloth and ashes for a year in penance.

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

Thanks George.

Ravi

swept off the Floor

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

Contact Information for melbournestamps
User ID:melbournestamps
Name:Pankaj Tyagi
Company:melbournestamps
City:MELBOURNE
State/Territory:VICTORIA
Country:Australia
Phone:0394673304
Registered Since:Friday, 14 Dec, 2001 20:53:24 AEDST

Not to offend anybody but the subcaste TYAGI is one of the most unscrupulous of Indian Breeds.I would be very VERY Very careful in dealing with him.

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

Hi Mukul,

I didn't understand what the previous post with the images from IDAR meant. can you clarify?

Ravi

Can you explain please mukul? I know this was sold by melbournestamps on eBay today for US $113.50, along with a number of other States lots, but what is the significance?

Yes, the high prices for Idar need some explanation.

meanwhile here are some nice imperf between pairs currently on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=ind ... m270.l1313

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http://princelystatecoins.wordpress.com
http://oldindiacoins.wordpress.com

May be time to cash this one



in, then

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

Birder
The Blue-Green variety- Imperf between vertical pair is not yet listed by SG.And as far as I Scott is concerned they do not list Idars postal fiscals at all.

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

Only if you had this sheet in Blue-Green Colour!!!!

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

No, but I can do a single on cover, and with Certificate:

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

Yes, you are right. But on the other hand, the imperforate between vertical pair is not actually an error in perforating, but for this issue a typical way of perforating. This is clearly seen in Tony´s sheet (or a part thereof). Therefore I don´t think that this "variety" is worth some large premium.

Blue-green color is slightly scarcer, but probably not so much as SG gives. But this is valid for postal fiscals used postally. In my collection I have more blue-green colored which were used fiscally.

If imperf between pairs is the typical way of perforating in Idar fiscals then why SG lists F5a: Imperf between (vert pair) separately and why doesn't it list Imperf variety of blue-green separately?
By the way has anyone seen imperf vertical pair of F5b (bluegreen) let alone a full sheet.

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

And what's going on in Indian Feudatory States ??


http://cgi.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... NA:IN:1123

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

The key is the middle stamp in the top row - a heavily toned and unlovely copy of SG 17, catalogued at £80 this year. According to legend, only 1200 were printed.

This is what SG 17 should look like:



I was mildly interested in the 2 Anna at bottom, but not nearly enough to chase that lot up to those heights

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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 know I know I have noted both the stamps but still!!! And the bottom 2 Anna seems to be stained (by some sort of oil or something else) and not toned. The toning should have been all over but there is an absolutely white patch at the Top!!

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

Mukulgarga,

Kindly provide a copy of the eBay image. Afterall, from the eBay site, the images would disappear in a few weeks. Here on Stampboards, they stay forever.

Thanks and regards

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http://princelystatecoins.wordpress.com
http://oldindiacoins.wordpress.com

OK! Here it is

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

I should have said earlier that my interest in the Barwani SG 12 (the 2 Anna on toned paper) was for technical reasons. The condition was a secondary consideration, although it did hold me back from bidding higher.

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

Ikanek, I'd be interested in what you think of some of the covers illustrated in the Isnani book. The typewriter fonts on some of the covers look too modern to me. Also, the postage rates on many of the covers seem to be irrational: there are rupee values being used to send (what look like) single rate letters. I haven't seen such a thing from any other State.

I'm avoiding Bahawalpur postal issues until I can find satisfactory answers to these problems.

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

Finished at £66.88, against a catalogue value of £131.25, ignoring condition problems. Still pretty high: none of the stamps is particularly elusive. SG 17 is rather readily available for an £80 stamp, and a deplorable specimen like that should be hard to shift under any circumstances.

A few people seem to be throwing money at the Indian States. I suppose they expect a China-style boom. I don't think it will be anything like as spectacular: a good, strong wave, but not a tsunami.

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

Yes even I have heard numerous people talk about the China like boom and even I don't believe it.Rather a good investment and the hobby of the kings.

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Beauty Lies In the Eyes of the Beholder.

Mukul, SG lists varieties which did occur in whole sheets. That means that this sheet contains several imperforate between pair, so I don´t see any reason why not to list.

KM (catalog for Indian states fiscals) lists for Idar in this series (as Type 21) the following varieties:

201 - 1a deep violet
201a - 1a - vertical pair, imperf. between
211 - 1 1/4a - pale emerald
211a - dtto - vertical pair, imperf. between
211b - dull green

So, this variety is listed as used fiscally. But it did occur also unused (i.e. mint) as recent eBay lot.

To support the idea that it was usually perforated in this way is also a fact that I haven´t record for the stamp perforated all around. Only examples perforated on two or three sides probably exist.

But the blue-green stamp may come from another setting. I have seen a booklet pane of 8 examples (I don´t have a good scan thereof).