Brazil and Beavers

We have sold our Brazil #1 mint with original gum. There is always something which holds me back a little bit when the store "loses" a nice stamp like this. Fortunately, over the course of time there has been a net gain of really nice stamps.

After an introduction like that, today's feature has to be a number one. This stamp has excellent colour (often Canada #1 looks a bit washed out) and has four full margins all well clear of the frameline as well as strong laid lines.



This very fine stamp has a current suggested retail price of $1600. Our price of the blog is $1100. Mention the blog when you order and receive a bonus.

Today we changed 4 panels of our display to introduce customers to some visually stunning stamps.

Another "loss" to the store was an interesting volume of Australian States, which sold very quickly after we purchased it at auction.

Ian

Magnificant Magnifier

Today we received from our suppliers a superior magnifying glass. It is made of aluminum with an LED light. This means that at poorly lit stamp shows you will be able to see clearly what you are buying.



I take a very similar one to shows and it pays for itself every show because I can see undescribed faults in stamps I am interested in purchasing.

We searched the web and found that we are offering for CDN $29.95 what is offered in the USA for US $49.95. Normally we don't boast or advertise that we have the lowest price, however we would be remiss not to point it out. We can heartily recommend this product and the added bonus of a low price means you should phone or email to reserve yours before we sell out. (We have 20 and our supplier is sold out).

In case you haven't been to the home page and seen our weekly feature #301; it is worth looking at. You can no longer see it in person because the first person who saw it purchased it.

Two small lots of several thousand used Canada high values (our price $50 each cigar box) as well as some other miscellaneous was purchased today.

Bytown Cover

Featured today is a purchase from a long time friend who has been on the lookout for Bytown covers for the store.

It is an attractive small envelope 65 x 103mm (about 2 1/2" x 4") addresses to New Hampshire. The postmarks applied at Bytown include a split ring dated Oct. 13, 1854 and the rate marking of 6d. Both were originally in red to indicate prepayment of
the rate but have oxidized to a brown red. There is a Prescott backstamp and a "Canada" handstamp in a framed arc. At the border, this envelope received an Ogdensburg Oct. 17 postmark in red together with a rate marking of 10 (cents) indicating prepayment of the US postage.

This delightful small envelope should enhance any collection. The connection with Ottawa is especially interesting for our store. Our price is $100.

A first hand report back from the Maresch auction is that the prices were strong especially for topical collections.

Todays store picture shows the old bank managers office which is now
Rare Stamp Room and my office.


Ian

Used Admirals, Spinks Auction

Today brought a very ordinary two volume collection of (owner's count) 14,481 different stamps. As is our usual practice we paid 1¢ a stamp for collections of this type and offer it for sale at $280.

Several new lots have been prepared. The most interesting is the Jim Webb collection/inventory of used Admirals. This has many scarcer varieties. We are able to offer it at $450 which is a low percentage of the catalogue value. Phone us or drop into the store for more details.

This morning Spink Auctions in London offered some scarce Great Britain items. We acted as agent in placing these in this auction and in the space of a few minutes the lots sold for more than £40,000. It was quite exciting to see the best two being bid up in increments of one thousand pounds.

Old customers continue to drop in and so far everyone who has commented has been impressed. One frustration for us is the lack of cooperation that the National Capital Commission has shown in allowing a sign on the plywood hoarding the front of the old store directing people to come one block east to 62 Sparks St.

Today's picture of the store shows a view from the back of our new store and shows the impressively high ceilings.

More Packages...

Today I was reminded once again that the Canadian red postage dues sets of the Centennial issue (Scott J21-J40) need re-pricing in the Standard catalogues. We keep seeing want lists with the same Unitrade numbers for stamps with a catalogue value of less than a dollar. This is one issue which often frustrates collectors - and dealers.

With Doug's help we prepared more than 70 packages of mixed foreign stamps off paper in weights from 30 grams to 700 grams. These packages should last through Christmas.

Today we purchased a stockbook of British Commonwealth and also worked on a previous purchases of New Zealand booklet panes and souvenir sheets. In addition to the more common and often expensive semi-postal souvenir sheets there were older and better panes :
#144b fresh NH $200
#184a fresh VFNH $150
also #184a fresh fine + NH $115
and #O24a fresh VF, one stamp *, rest NH $65

Five dollar Jubilee

Brian returned from London and brought almost enough Canada inventory to open a branch store. (Does anyone know of a large vacant old bank building for rent in downtown Toronto?)

There are enough special items to last for many days of special features but today we show this lovely Five dollar Jubilee which is very well centered and has deep rich colour. Our Price $1375 (Inventory #6k1277).



There are always more stamps coming in. Within a few days we will receive the lots we won in the Firby auction. Today we purchases a large hoard of several hundred New Brunswick and PEI stamps. These latter are typically of average quality. After all these years of working with stamps I still love examining quality stamps. Run of the mill quality, however, becomes a chore to work with. Fortunately our London purchases - much of which I now discover is from the Jim Webb inventory and collection - are going to be really enjoyable to work with and describe.

Today's picture shows the west side of our new store, including the large number of red boxes for collectors to look through.

Lovely Six-Cent Large Queen

Saturday was quite busy in the store and once again we are seeing many new and first time customers.

Several new cartons lots are available and the Turkey collection recently purchased in being prepared for sale.

Over the weekend we were quite successful with two auctions and these lots will be received during the course of the week. Keep reading this for updated information.

Several classic Monaco and classic San Marino have been returned to us with brand new Certificates of Authenticity. Also returned with a good certificate from the V.G. Greene Foundation is a very nice example of the Six cent Large Queen. We feature this stamp on the blog. Our inventory number is 6k1122.



Also shown is the second picture of the store showing our ever expanding stock of Canada, British Commonwealth and Foreign.



Sometime today or tomorrow we will install a feature which allows you to make comments. We welcome yours.

Ian

A New Beginning

Today we post the first of some pictures of our new store. The first picture was taken from a ladder and gives a full view of the whole store. As we finish all the areas of the store we will continue to update these pictures.

Stamp related activities today include counting Japanese postage. It's a huge lot and might total 1,000,000 yen. Some lovely Large Queens were carefully graded and priced.

Kate has prepared a digital version of our first store Exhibition. This will soon be ready on our website, we will post a blog when the link has been posted.

Today we had no scheduled appraisals but a customer brought in quite a marvelous set of 6 albums covering Germany from the Empire in 1872 until the end of the Third Reich. The pages are of high quality acid free paper and the binders are full leather with metal corners. The album provides space for all Michel listed varieties with notes for identification. Although second hand they are like new. Our price for the set of 6 is $200 is likely less than the cost of one volume today. If interested call us for details. The albums were prepared in 1989 by John Taylor of Album Publishing Company.

We show a sample of page 22 from Volume I “The Empire”.

Ian

Sample from a Turkey Collection

Today was a pleasant day in the store in contrast to the rather dreary day outside.

There were a number of visitors including John Coles and Jane Mitchell with whom I started up in a shared premises at 90 Sparks offering fine high quality antiques (Jane Mitchell), old maps and prints (John Coles whose current shop is at 71 Sparks St across the way form us).

Brian started clearing out the northeast corner vault in preparation for the BNAPS book stock. This work included moving some very large pieces of green marble. They are 1 3/4” thick and as long as 78” and as wide as 42”. Contact us if you are interested.

I had the pleasant task of working on a collection of Turkey. Shown above is a sample of one page.

Ian

What a find!

On Wednesday we prepared the store for an Exhibition. It was originally planned to have 18 panels for Exhibition. 18 were chosen because we have 6 display tables each of which is divided into 3 sections each of which in turn hold 4 regular size (8.5” x 11”) sheets of paper. We were able to feature some spectacularly rare items. The 18 are the subject of a separate broadcast email, which will be prepared independently of this blog.

While we were preparing the store one of the things we started to do in the reading room is put some of the philatelic literature into magazine holders and then on the front of that holder we use the computers to print a label detailing the contents.

About a year ago – perhaps longer – I purchased at public auction many cartons of philatelic literature. These were mostly added to the stock in the old store. Included were several runs of several BNAPS Study Groups and most of these runs were in shallow boxes. The boxes were not in good shape and so Kate transferred the runs of literature from the old box into a file folder and then placed several file folders in each magazine holder. While doing this a glassine envelope fell out of one of the ten dollar lots. In the envelope was a valuable stamp shown in the picture. In the Unitrade Catalogue CLP1 has a suggested retail price of $1200. This example has lovely deep colour and full original gum.

We have not yet checked the other runs of BNAPS Study Journals but by the time you read this and hurry down to the store we will have checked them.

Ian