Canadian Stamp Auctions

Eastern’s summer mail sale offered two of the biggest jumbo Small Queens we have seen in some time:

What is hard to see in this image is an interesting “plate flaw” in the upper right corner margin. It is just a short line, like a French acute accent. The stamp has huge borders. The Scott value for a used 2¢ Small Queen is $2.25. Eastern put a $100 estimate on the above stamp because of the big borders and plate flaw and it went for $90. Pretty good estimate!

Here it is the second jumbo, the 3¢ Small Queen, beautifully cancelled with the date August 14, 1896. It has a catalogue value of 75¢. Eastern put an estimate on it of $45, which is pretty optimistic, but it sold for well above that at $55.

Stamps from the early 1930s

We have noticed a definite increase of interest in the regular and commemorative stamps issued in the period 1930 - 1935. Collectors are showing an interest in premium quality stamps from this period, as they should, and are prepared to bid strongly. Here are three examples from the sale:

Lot 665 Scott 200 Catalogue $90 Realized $125

Lot 668 Scott 201 Catalogue $85 Realized $180

The above stamps are not rare. There are many of them found in most collections. But what’s special about them is to find them well centered like the above. When this has happened in the past 2 years, they have often attracted strong bids as demonstrated above.

It may not make sense, but these high prices will generally only be offered for premium single stamps. So if collectors have blocks or plate blocks of these stamps and these are well centered, they may consider breaking them up. This is because 4 outstanding singles will likely sell for higher prices than an outstanding block of 4.

Scott 1764b – Rare Perforation Variety

Eastern put a catalogue value of $2,500 on this imprint block of 4. That’s quite a premium over 4 singles which would have had a Scott value of $1,600, showing the strength of the demand for this variety. The previous record for an inscription block was $1,500, set at an Eastern sale in 2007.

The regular stamp, perf. 13, catalogues at 95¢. Change the perf. to 13 x 13½ and the value jumps to $400. That’s extraordinary. Unitrade notes that plate blocks of this variety are “very rare”. This sale certainly showed that.

95¢ Year of the Rabbit

This souvenir sheet variety sold for an average price for this item. It is missing the red and is untagged. It’s lucky it sold at all as the wrong image was shown, one of those rare mistakes. It’s amazing this doesn’t happen more often as there are so many little details to cover when preparing an auction.

This stamp was issued in January 1999, but the variety only appeared for the first time in 2007, according to our records. This was 8 years after it was issued. These things always intrigue us. What happened during that 8 year period!

Over the past 2 years, the variety has sold six times for between $425 and $985, quite the spread. But, then 4 months ago, a further copy sold for $1,452, well above the price range. Now it’s back to the usual range. These details are interesting and they make you wonder what’s happening in the market. They also make you realize that it can be very hard to predict a price for a modern variety from auction to auction.

For more details of the sale, please click on the highlights button.

Eastern’s upcoming mail sale will be held on August 26, 2009

This sale had 3 new record prices: