The "Should I Buy It?" thread for stamps and covers etc

[satsuma]

Look at the Upper RHS of the S.

KS OS comparison

On the queried item the un-inked end is an arc. On the POM'S example it is a straight line parallel to the edge of the overprint.

Also the mailbag on the queried stamp looks exaggerated compared to the POM's.

[Kevin Morgan]

Definite fake IMHO, I was not prepared to say this outright before.

[TonyL]

Thanks "The Pom" and Kevin for your thoughts on this. I have sent the seller a request for a closer clearer scan of both the overprint and cancel.

Will post when I get them.

Cheers,

TonyL.

[Global Admin]

Hi All,

Looking at purchasing this item, but I have some concerns about value.

The stamp is ACSC142(OS)d "Plane dropping mailbag".

Thanks in Advance.

TonyL.

This is 4 ebay total duds in a row from you, just in the last page (that we have heard about!)

You guys crack me up. Ebaayarrghheeeeenz.

Horribly centred, appalling FakeBay grade scan, clearly fiddled with on reverse and ONLY $565 for used, and you are STILL wasting time with this seller?

Ask if he also has any genuine ''Sold Gold Rolexes'' for you perhaps.

[The Pom]

Look at the Upper RHS of the S.



On the queried item the un-inked end is an arc. On the POM'S example it is a straight line parallel to the edge of the overprint.

Also the mailbag on the queried stamp looks exaggerated compared to the POM's.

Yes, that bit of the opt is definitely iffy. I wondered about the mailbag as well, but the scan is so poor I was uncertain about whether or not it was faked.

[TonyL]

That might be the case Glen, But is this not the reason for this thread to ask questions if unsure and get helpful advise.

As you have made very clear in the past I am no expert.

TonyL.

[johnrcrow]

I add this for no particular reason except to say it was at hand and at least offers some colour to the thread.... my art.

John

[satsuma]

TonyL:

As a general rule anything with a reasonably high catalogue value offered with a low resolution image should be treated as suspect until you have a lot more experience.

I'll be surprised if you get sent a better image. If the seller concerned really wanted an astute buyer to accept his offer, a much better scan would have been loaded the first time.

After all it doesn't take significantly longer to scan an item at a high resolution than at a low resolution.

There are bargains to be found online, when the offers are made by sellers who don't know what they have.

- for example quite a few Australian KGV halfpenny green line perf stamps have been bought by members here who were able to distinguish them from the common comb perf in an otherwise run of the mill offering.

But it's wise to remember there are a lot of sharks cruising around offering bait for those newly dipping their toes in the water.

If many of any seller's valuable lots are offered with low res images, or with a low contrast background making it hard to assess the perfs, assume it's intentional and don't waste your time engaging with them.

Low res images and low prices almost always equals clickbait, not a bargain.

[The Pom]

It would help if we were told who is selling it......

[Global Admin]

That might be the case Glen, But is this not the reason for this thread to ask questions if unsure and get helpful advise.

It IS the case. You clearly are a total fake stamp magnet. We can give you your very own thread. I am sure you would fill it readily. Much of the last page is repeatedly saving you from yourself.

We suggested you give something back to the site techie, as a small token 'thank you' for keeping this site ticking along smoothly, so that the wisdom of others can continue, in saving Bunnies like you VERY many $100s of leaping in, buying obvious fakes to add to your fabulous hoard, but the end result of that suggestion can be seen by all.

This board saved you $110 only 2 weeks back on the forged BCOF stamp with forged postmark we told you was fake. You had already BOUGHT it, paid for it via a ''PRIVATE SALE ALL BIDDERS HIDDEN' sale, that warns ANYONE sane to stay away. You had been a complete Clueless Bunny and never checked the seller was on endless warning lists here as an outright serial faker. So we save you $110 right there, and all you do is deny you were emailed twice about this, and you donated zero to the board techie as a 'thank you' as suggested, for saving yourself from your own total stupidity.

Zero thanks, zero input, but you leap back in madly chasing FakeBay sucker bait, asking others again a week later to save yourself from yourself. There are some folks in life who are takers, never givers. That will never change. There are no LAWS against ingratitude. Sadly - it is just poor manners.

Clearly you have WAY more money than sense, and spread it very freely among all the fake sellers on eBay. And expect us to keep picking up the pieces of your foolishness with zero input from you -

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=97166

Glen

I was under the impression that advise from other members was freely given to help us all learn from each other.

Your suggestion that there was a donation to be made to "Yuriy" is nowhere to be found the two responders to my request for help on the BCOF 5/- pair was from The Pom and yourself. I've reread the posts on the link you supplied and there is no mention of payment.


TonyL.

Yes it is.

And members with ANY brains buying off FakeBay, all FIRST take 10 seconds to type the name of seller into google, or into the 2 x robust search engines here, to stop yourself getting ripped off buying the string of obvious faked EBAYRRGGHHEENS.

I emailed you TWICE re this during this week - one via the board, and one to your direct email - wasting MY time to save YOU $110 - and you rudely responded to neither, despite being saved $110 via your own stupidity on this one sale alone - gawd knows how many other faked dogs you are stuck with.

Yuriy keeps this board running super smoothly so as YOU have a FREE venue to save yourself $110 per disaster buy - you can assist him here with a Pizza and some beers -

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=97166

I'd suggest HALF of what we saved you thus week goes to him - seems very fair and reasonable to me - half of what you NEAR lost cold, if it were not for our heads up, that you'd been conned with a crude fake cancel AND fake overprint

OTHER members far wiser than you, spend 100s of unpaid hours keeping these fakers tracked and ID'd and banned and indexed here, to save eternal Bunnies like YOU from getting ripped off chasing your shimmering and glittering EBAYRRGGHHEENS. You've posted THREE of them of this one page of this thread alone.

Glen

[johnrcrow]

Answer then is -- do not buy this stamp as it is ´fake`. Reasons expounded by others.

John

[32_seeker]

Very nice artwork johncrow, looks like you did it by computer on Paint, I liked the colour scheme. Its whimsy gave me a chuckle.

[johnrcrow]

Inkscape for Mac, 32_seeker.

Glad a chuckle was raised.

John

[Global Admin]

It would help if we were told who is selling it......

A low feedback seller called aaass1244 .. I am not making this up.

The same ebay purveyor of another favourite gem of keen eyed TonyL - the ugly 2d red coil strip 3 on last page, that he was drooling over, which I note was sold last week for an insane price.

Who would know with LoopyBay .. might even just be a pen dot of blue Quink Ink under the brown fly poop mark? Has no cert, so who knows. Will star heavily in the ''Tony Lorite Collection of Mega Raareeteeez'' I feel sure! Gotta just luv these $565 ebarrarrgheeenz.

[TonyL]

Hello The seller has now posted a better scan of both the "OS" and "Cancel"

As to Kevin's concerns with the Roundness of the TRH inner line of the "S" it's straighter than it first appeared, and there does seem to be the transparency as expected. Anyway I will leave it to the experts.

The reason for the cancel close up, is this a postally used or a CTO cancel?

I trust this will help to determine if this is a fake one way or the other.

OS scan

Cancel scan

Thanks,

TonyL.

[Pampstamp]

Hello The seller has now posted a better scan of both the "OS" and "Cancel"

As to Kevin's concerns with the Roundness of the TRH inner line of the "S" it's straighter than it first appeared, and there does seem to be the transparency as expected. Anyway I will leave it to the experts.

The reason for the cancel close up, is this a postally used or a CTO cancel?

I trust this will help to determine if this is a fake one way or the other.




Thanks,

TonyL.

Initially due to the bad scan my first impression was that it was fake!
But
My opinion is now that it is a, genuine CTO badly centered.

This is based on the front only*

Reasons for opinion
A- All genuine copies have the straight edge at O (as marked)
B- Top of S is straight -- all genuine copies have this
C – Inner S end is straight although a slight inked in- fake is rounded
D- Genuine is clear – fake is joined
E- Genuine is clear – fake is joined
Colour and shape of OS appear within limits

Dropped Bag flaw is in the right proportion and distance as per ACSC (note the four markings on the right hand area)
.

[Global Admin]

This is based on the front only*

Reasons for opinion

B - Top of S is straight -- all genuine copies have this

This is nonsense, sorry.

It is not always the case. Simon Dunkerley and I examined an archive sheet, and this was NOT the case, not by a long shot.

As yes, you have not examined the obvious fiddling on the reverse.

At $565 for a horrible centred, fiddled with stamp, totally unexpertised, most savvy folks would not even ask if ''is it worth buying''.

[TonyL]

Thanks Pamstamps, I'm with you on this the stamp does look genuine to me as well. Your detailed explanation was much appreciated by me and I suspect by others that do not have your experience.

The seller is obviously not hiding anything as he has supplied the requested scans and they do clear up some of the erroneous points that some brought up.

I would appreciate a comment from The Pom and Kevin if they are willing, as they did have concerns at the beginning and it would be interested to see if the new scans have changed there point of view (Kevin), or confirmed their thoughts (The Pom).

Cheers

TonyL.

[satsuma]

TonyL:

As a general rule anything with a reasonably high catalogue value offered with a low resolution image should be treated as suspect until you have a lot more experience.

I'll be surprised if you get sent a better image. If the seller concerned really wanted an astute buyer to accept his offer, a much better scan would have been loaded the first time.

...

Well, I'm pleasantly surprised that the better scans arrived. Count me wrong on my prediction. However I still have some reservations about this seller.

Here's the thing. Although the store has no negative feedback, the imaging is extremely inconsistent.
Here's a pretty good one:

bulolo high value

and here's the other end of the spectrum:

south australia reprint

This does not engender any confidence.

Lastly, I do not believe the Kingsford Smith stamp is postally used. It is CTO.

[Global Admin]

.... the stamp does look genuine to me as well.

Your track record of spotting ANYTHING genuine is pretty poor! You are a dodgy stamps ELECTRO MAGNET.

You have not even seen a scan of the dodgy reverse, and you are already an 'Expert'. For crying out loud.

You clearly cannot pick a clearly forged 5/- BCOF overprint, with a clearly forged BCOF cancel, but you cheerfully lined up in eBunny Land and bought one a few weeks back for 3 figures, off the serial Sydney forger, and left positive feedback too it appears. You are a true stamp genius.

stampboards members with some stamp knowledge saved you then too, not that you ever acknowledged that.

Hey - go buy this horrible centred thing for a mere $565 off your new favourite low feedback eBunny seller - aaassss now you have magically decided it is GENUINE.

Who would know with LoopyBay .. might even just be a pen dot of blue Quink Ink under the brown fly poop mark? Has no cert, so who knows. Will star heavily in the ''Tony Lorite Collection of Mega Stamp Raareeteeez'' I feel sure! Gotta just luv these $565 ebarrarrgheeenz.

(That is one collection I never, ever, ever, ever, want to be asked to appraise!)

[TonyL]

Glen you must really be bored

TonyL.

[Global Admin]

No, watching these train wrecks is never boring. Just VERY sad.

Rush off and buy it for the BAHRRGEEEN $565. It is EXACTLY your sort of GEMMMM. It will fit in PERFECTLY into your Gilt Medal Collection.

The other Bunnies have NOT yet, from your low feedback best mate, and that speaks volumes.

[Global Admin]

Thoughts on the value of this nice-margined, but rather toned WA Swan? Unused, no gum.

Also wondering if it would be safe/possible to fiddle with it and get rid of the toning.

Moving right along from TonyL's conga line of ever-changing disasters ........



Erich near all these 4d WA (that have not yet been washed) have the horrid chocolate brown native gum from the sap of the local 'blackboy' trees. The remnant of that is what you are seeing. It was part removed.

A warm water wash will not hurt these and colour is very fast. Mint are pretty abundant, as they got bought up at the time, and large multiples still exist. Often sold initially by PO as no gum, (see below) so they are clean.

Good sellers as one of the world's first BIRD stamps. A few $100 clean unused, with nice margins like that.

Glen


From the GURU on Western Australia -

The 1854 1d black was issued gummed, but some were damaged by seawater on the trip out from England.

These damaged stamps were issued around 1860 when the Postmaster General was getting desperate for stamps. It is doubtful that these had gum. But initially the 1d black would have been gummed.

The rest of the imperforates were ungummed and gummed at the counter, although RA Sholl said that one of his jobs he didn't like was to gum sheets of stamps. The local blackboy gum ended up staining the stamps if left on. The post office sold ungummed stamps to dealers and collectors generally.

Gummed stamps would usually come from private individuals and they are easy to recognise because they are brown from the blackboy gum.

The paper was sold in reams of 500 sheets, with the ream having to have a certain weight. If, as the count to 500 was getting close, the weight was too low, thick sheets were added. If too high, thin sheets were added. So some large extremes in paper thickness.

[erich]

Good info on the early WA. Thanks, Glen!

Bought it for a good price because the seller described it as having "hinge stains". Good to know it is from the normal gumming process and might clean up if I feel like trying. Sometimes good Australian items just sit around for sale here in the US, since many (sellers and potential buyers alike) don't know what they're looking at.

[Catweazle]

Wondering if these might be worth the punt at AUD$450 (plus auction fees), but what are your thoughts about the tone spots on these?

I might ask for scans of the reverse...

½d to 1/- (3d Die I) large part OG (3d no gum), several values with small tone spots. Also 10/- C of A Wmk part OG (disturbed gum) and £1 Light Brown and Pale Blue Third Wmk part OG with small thin and a couple of short perfs

[Global Admin]

Sigh.

Ben - Auction ESTIMATES are just that. If this Public Auction estimated them for $45, $450 or $1,450 the final price will be higher, Blind Freddie can see that.

An Auction can ESTIMATE a 1d Black, or 5/- Bridge, or Gold Sovereign etc at 5c each, and they always sell for market prices.

Offer 20 x nice CTO 5/- Bridges in 20 lots and they will ALL sell for similar sums, regardless of 'estimates'. Estimate $1, $10, $100 - does not matter - they'll all sell for far higher.

Public Auctions often are handling estates so they do not give a TOSS about sane estimates. The collector certainly will not argue with them! They sucked you in. If the estimate was a more sane $1,450 would you be making this post, or even looking twice at these? Of course not.

Bid simply what YOU think any object is worth. Ignore all estimates - the pros always do. If you are happy buying badly rust spotted mint stamps, that will get worse each year - GO FOR IT!

My advice - do not pay too much for them, as you will be skinned alive when it comes time to sell.

Show a dealer clean flat, fresh, fault free, better Roo material, and he will NOT let you walk out the door. Show him 2nd, 3d, and 4th grade defective stuff, and he does not CARE if he gets it or not. Who can HE sell it to? He will offer peanuts, and not go up one dollar. Quality sells, junk does not.

You are young. Bad rust now will be horrible rust in 10 or 20 years time. Buy CLEAN material from the onset.

Glen

[Number-O-Ne]

I don't know anything about this particular subject. As a collector, I would not buy stamps with rust stains, let alone those visible from the front side.

If it's an issue of affordability, I'd prefer mint no gum and paper intact. At least the potential future buyer will wait until they see the stamp's back and then curse me

[erich]

My advice is don't buy "rusty" stamps. If you live in a humid area, the rust will spread, and also infect any pages or stock books the stamps are in, therefore potentially ruining other stamps in your collection.

You can use stuff to kill the mildew and remove stains, but will end up with "no gum" stamps or FADED ad bleached stamps. So if you bid, price them as MNG and discount from that, your chemical experiments do not work.

[Micky]

Hi all, found this lot for sale locally for $70.

I've gone through OZ revenue and seem to be worth the buy, I'll know more tomorrow when I see them (Look before I leap).

Cheers.

[Global Admin]

The SA Cattle and Swine are seldom seen.

Thin market but they sell well.

[Micky]

Thank you Glen

[W5LDY]

Even with the obvious condition issues on show, this would be a decent purchase, whether you are collecting these, or looking for re-sale.

[Micky]

Even with the obvious condition issues on show, this would be a decent purchase, whether you are collecting these, or looking for re-sale.

Thank you W5LDR I purchased the lot.

Here are more of what the stellar has.

[Micky]

Some more pics the stellar sent me. There are a lot of Australia postal stationery as shown in first lot.

[Micky]

Also these two I believe are Forgeries, no idea if they have any value.

Plus lots more sellar said

[DarrenK]

Some very nice material there.

The Marshall Island letter is particularly rare with GRI overprint on a very nice cover. The cancel may be an issue. All the cancels I have records of are "Jaluit" Marshall Inseln. I have attached a copy of the Michel supplied example of the genuine cancel and the letter is missing the day and month so I would suggest treating it as a possible forgery. It would have been cancelled on arrival as well which would also be unusual.

This is a genuine cancel on a post card.

The 1912 special flight cover, while not hard to find, is also a good item and retails around $100.

A lot of other nice material but outside my collecting area so I will let others comment.

[Global Admin]

The Marshall Island letter is particularly rare with GRI overprint on a very nice cover. The cancel may be an issue. All the cancels I have records of are "Jaluit" Marshall Inseln. I have attached a copy of the Michel supplied example of the genuine cancel and the letter is missing the day and month so I would suggest treating it as a possible forgery. It would have been cancelled on arrival as well which would also be unusual.

100% genuine. Captain Fry was the Military TREASURER up there, he distributed the GRI stamps, and this cover above is clearly in his hand. See below.

There were Military Court Martials re these GRI stamps, and Fry was part of them.

https://www.apfelbauminc.com/a-war-stamp-court-martial/

[Micky]

Thank you DarrenK and Glen, that's positive news

Michael

[erich]

Your Victoria panes are Jeffreys forgeries from the 1890's, discussed here: https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=87740

[Micky]

Your Victoria panes are Jeffreys forgeries from the 1890's, discussed here: https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=87740

I thought so, I can tell the sellar with confidence now.

Thank you erich

[erich]

They have a modest value as reference items/curiosities, and the full panes will certainly get attention.

[Micky]

Thanks the sellar sold these plus others to an Auction Company unfortunately for me, hope they received a reasonable dollar for everything they had.

Cheers

[Global Admin]

They have a modest value as reference items/curiosities, and the full panes will certainly get attention.

Several $100s the pair all day long - the 2d in complete sheet is near unheard of.

[Micky]

Thanks Glen, hope the Auction gave the sellar a reasonable dollar.

Micky

[Global Admin]

As always, depends on how totally clueless the seller was.

[Micky]

The Lady in her 60's was not a collector it belonged to her Dad whom passed 9 Years ago, so limited knowledge and I didn't get to see everything.

Anyhow it's gone now, I'm sure you will see the sheets in an Auction some where, I'll have to ask where she sold it.

Michael

[Spartacus]

Hello everyone.
Firstly I would like to apologize for the poor scans as these are all I could get from the site.
Tasmania 1853 4d orange.
I would like your expertise on this item.
Is it a forgery or one of the plate prints described in the SG catalog?
The rear marking is it to confirm that this is a forgery or to verify this is genuine?
I cannot make out what it reads.
Any information and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[W5LDY]

Thought members would be interested in these high value parcel frankings just listed on eBay by UK seller abw58.

A piece with 9 of 1937 Robes £1 values, another with 2x 1948 Arms £2 also with Hobart, Tasmania cancels, plus one a pair of NZ £4 values cancelled Christchurch Air Mail cds etc.
I enquired with the seller and he has more similar pieces to list once he has sorted them out. Link to his items below.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trkparms=folent%3Aabw58%7 ... _ssn=abw58

Australia 1937 Robes £1 high value parcel franking

New Zealand £4x2 high value franking

Australia 1948 Arms £2 parcel franking