I've now pencilled in the prices realised for the Uglies section of the Murray Payne auction on the 25 April. Some quite perplexing results: some items and sections fired, others fell flat. I'll go through, and pick out a few highlights (that struck me, anyway

)
Barwani Lot 281: SG 34A - a sheet of 4 on cover used in 1934, one stamp with an ink mark: Est. £120, sold (to me) for £170. Very cheap: this is the first sheet of this stamp I've seen on cover.
Lot 282: SG 34Aa - The close setting 1 Anna imperf between pair, mint. Cat. £1700, Est. £2200, Sold for £2500 (
not to me. I already have one, thank goodness

)
The Barwani booklets largely failed to sell. Not really surprising. They're nasty, bulky little things, and often have rusty staples.
Bhopal There was a fine spread of errors of the Service types. Many of these failed to sell, with the used errors seeming to be particularly hard to shift. I suppose I can understand the
investors avoiding used, but as a
collector, I really like to see, say, imperf between pairs properly used. A couple of highlights:
Lot 352: A block of 9 of the 1944 3 Pies blue, double print (SG O350c), only one hinged, gum cracking and with one stamp with an age spot; Cat. £585, Est. £500, sold for £600
Lots 365 and 367: SG O357 mint and used respectively; Cat. £1500 each, Est. £1300 and £1400 each, sold for £1600 each
Bijawar I make no secret of the fact that I don't think much of Bjiawar, but ... nine out of 14 lots sold, and for the most part close to or better than catalogue prices. For example:
Lot 381 The 1 Rupee SG 15, fine used (could it be any other way? Show me a genuinely postally used copy, and I'll start believing in Father Christmas

); Cat. £190, Est. £130, sold for £200
Bundi I was quite surprised by how poorly the Sacred Cows went. Only around half seem to have sold. The buyers seemed to be very selective: it wasn't
only the cheaper lots or the more expensive ones that sold. The sales were across the range, though there weren't any of the great rarities included in the sale.
Lot 412 The 2½ Annas, inscription Type A, Small English overprint in red, SG O2aB, with ISES and BPA Certificates; Cat. £325, Est. £250, sold for £375
And work this one out:
Lot 437 The Arms set overprinted SERVICE, described as 'mint, very lightly hinged' SG O53-9; Cat. £600, Est. £450, sold for £800
Lot 438 The same set mint, described as 'the 3p with hinge remainder and the 6p without gum, as issued' sold for £425
Cochin was was quite short - only ten lots (there were more than three times as many for Barwani), but some quality stuff, which I've already mentioned. A couple of others, though:
Lot 466 A basic mint selection of 77, minus the really good stamps, from 1939 to 1949. Said to have 'a few condition problems but generally fine'; Cat. £1191, Est. £400 and sold for £400
Lot 475 SG O66 mint with 'slightly mottled gum' (which seems to be a common problem from that time); Cat. £375, Est. £200, sold for £500
Dungarpur Six of seven lots sold. As usual with Dungarpur, all were faulty in one way or another. If anyone had wanted
a Dungarpur stamp to have a representation from the State, then this was the cheapest:
Lot 480 The 1939 1 Anna fine used, small ink run at left; Cat. £85, Est. £70, sold for £110
Hyderabad was another flop. Only four out of eleven lots sold.
Idar also fared poorly, with about half the lots sold. A couple of the booklets sold for at least full catalogue prices, which was surprising.
Indore Again, only six lots, of which three sold.
Lot 512 The 1927-37 set, SG 16-32 fine mint; Cat. £356, Est. £220, sold for £325
Lot 517 The 1943 2 Rupee fine and genuinely used (SG 42); Cat. £200, Est. £150, sold for £200
Jaipur Only two lots: a complete basic mint collection from 1938 to 1948; STC £693, sold for £375, and the 1932 set mint (SG 52-57), Cat. £140 sold for £95
Jasdan was the big flop. Only one of five lots sold. The big scary sheet/block of 4 of SG 1, Cat. at £7200 and Est. at £6000 didn't sell. Only an SG 3 on cover 'adhesive with central hole and diagonal crease', and with a BPA Cert., sold for £475.
Kishangarh did better, surprisingly, with four out of seven lots selling.
Orchha Three out of four sold. Two covers with SG 34 and 40 sold for £275 and £220 respectively, and the 1942 10 Rupee mint went for £750 against a Cat. of £800
Rajasthan This
was a surprise: only three out of 15 lots failed. The highlight was
Lot 551 Violet handstamp on the 1943-7 Kishangarh 1 Anna carmine-red in a strip of three on piece, with a BPA Cert. Cat. £1125, Est. £950 and sold for £1150
Soruth was patchy. The big ticket items sold:
Lot 568 A mint pair of the 1 Anna on 4 Anna surcharge, one with the ANNE error (SG O16, a); light overall toning, and with a 1981 RPS Cert. Cat. £4475, Est. and sold for £3800
but many of the cheaper (in Soruth terms) didn't. Another interesting one was
Lot 561 1 Anna on ½ Anna surcharge (SG 58) used on piece with the red manuscript 'Service' overprint, with an Una CDS, and with a BPA Cert. (I wouldn't touch this item without that). Cat. £130, Est. and sold for £200. If I'd had any bidding money left by this stage, I would have loved to get this one
A very uneven sale, and I'm not quite sure why. Was it because the online catalogue was only available fairly late, and through an auction network, not directly from the Murray Payne site? Or was a certain dealer not buying, or being more selective? I know I bid fairly extravagantly, expecting to miss plenty of items. In the end, I missed on only one - and it was the cheapest lot I bid on

Anyway, even with all the failures to sell, it looks as if we can expect some pretty strong price increases in the 2013 and 2014 Gibbons.