Ian Kimmerly Stamps Weblog

EXHIBITING

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:17:00 +0000

Regardless of my intentions to write more frequently in my blog, something more urgent always interferes.

I recently prepared a new five frame Exhibit. The idea for this exhibit came from the devasting earthquake which hit the Solomon Islands on April 2 of this year. I decided to prepare the exhibit and entered it just within the time limit for ORAPEX on May 4 and May 5.

The title is New Georgia Tok-tok. New Georgia is the group of islands in the Western privince which was hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami; and tok-tok is Solomon pijin english meaning many people talking. I used a looser translation of tok-tok to define it as communication. The Exhibit then treated the postal history of the part of that Solomon Islands which was affected by the earthquake.

The two Post Offices in the pre-war period were Gizo and Shortland Islands (which is further to the west of New Georgia but also hard hit). In the post-war period can be added Munda as a Post Office. The postal agencies include the famous Barakoma airfield. Other postal agencies have been established on many of the islands.

A theme which I tried to get across was that just as written communication often took weeks to travel short distances in the twentieth century, so too in this century electronic communication about the hardest hit areas is very slowly coming in. The town of Gizo with modern facilities, a tourist trade, and significant European residents was immediately in the news. Small villages which were literally washed away with an undetermined number of deaths and injuries still have not been heard from.

In the weeks leading up to the Exhibit, I planned it in my head. In the days leading up to ORAPEX I started drafting the Exhibit. In the hours leading up to mounting the Exhibit in the frame I almost did without sleep but did the mount the Exhibit Saturday morning before returning to the store to begin packing for the show which opened at 10 o'clock that morning.

There were problems with my Exhibit that I was aware of; and others that I learned about because of a long discussion and critique with the Chief Judge Sam Chiu.

(During my exhibiting career I have sometimes had helpful advice about my exhibits which often related to story line and presentation. Every Judge has tried to be helpful but some have really not been able to help much. For example it was very frustrating for me to have one judge say there was nothing he could suggest to improve my Exhibit and yet award only 21 out of 35 points for importance which dropped the exhibit from a gold to a vermeil medal. What I have done after every time I have Exhibited is to re-do the whole Exhibit based on the Judge's comments I received. No Exhibit has been placed in consecutive judging situations without improving the material in the frames. These lead me to want to "hit the judges over the head" with descriptions on pages like "this is the only known example".)

That was a long aside. Most Judges have taken lots of time and I would especially mention Dave Piercey. However after ORAPEX I want to put Sam Chiu alone on a special pedestal. No Judge has ever been so focused on the whole exhibit or offered such useful comments on how to improve.

The upshot is that I am now planning to exhibit at the Royal in October with an eight frame exhibit on the same subject.

It is possible I will eventually master exhibiting; but the same cannot be said for computers. I assume this blog will NOT have a title (and you don't want to hear about how messed up the text became when I tried to italicize one phrase).

Ian Kimmerly

The Honda Fits

Ian Kimmerly — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:38:00 +0000

A new car.

After my comments about my old Ford Explorer several people have asked about my progress in getting a new vehicle. First I have to describe my past experience in car buying. My first two cars were each purchased for two hundred dollars from relatives; the next three cars were also used and purchased through Bob Provencher and each time I purchased the first "good deal" offered.

That's my experience ... now for my expertise. I had owned the last vehicle for almost ten years and driven it for more than 200,000 kilometres. It was and still is a Chevy Blazer. I don't know how often I called it a Ford Explorer and I have no idea what the difference is between the two cars. You can trust me to grade and expertise stamps; but now no one should trust ANYTHING I say about cars!

So I decided to look at a new car. I read Phil Edmonston on both new and used cars and I read a report from Slate magazine which was a consumer report on the least expensive new cars. The Slate magazine article had the Honda Fit as leading the pack by a long way. I could make this a long story about the pitfalls of my first car purchase. Suffice to say I now own a Honda Fit ... and I'll never forget and call it a Toyota.

WESTERN TRIP

I left on Wednesday March 14 and returned March 26. During that time I spent several days leisurely driving through mountains (delayed by a mudslide) and the foothills, and visiting relatives. The stamp events were the Great Western Stamp Show in Langley B.C. and the Edmonton Spring National. Both were great shows with wonderful people. Sales at the shows were strong especially from the "Michael Roberts" collection. Meeting new collectors and dealers and doing business with them was both enjoyable and in several cases the start of what will likely prove to be a long-term relationship.

Purchases were substantial including a Newfoundland collection, Cinderellas in quantity, and I was the major buyer at the Edmonton Stamp Club's auction with total purchases of just under $10,000, as well as other miscellaneous.

During the trip between Vancouver and Edmonton I stopped off to examine a substantial British Commonwealth collection. I have dealt with the owner before this and we agreed that I would take the collection to carefully examine it and find all the value. As a result in about a month I will be able to make an offer and if the offer is accepted (which is likely) we will have available a lovely fresh collection which has substantial quantities of Queen Victoria multiples, King George V issues reasonably complete, and some degree of specialization. It's a wonderful and valuable collection.

I will have more to say on my purchases (and much sooner than my last blog posting).

SOFTWARE UPGRADES

My lack of blog postings since late January have been partly that business has been so busy but mainly that the Blogger software was "upgraded." In all the years I've struggled so that computers don't simply freeze on me, I've learned that upgrade should be a four letter word standing for frustration and lost productivity. I simply could not get the upgrade to work. Kate struggled (and one blog was lost somewhere in cyberspace) and so did Matt - and he has solved most of the "upgrade"'s frustrations. Interestingly these do not include boldface except for the first time it is tried so "a new car" might now appear as bold five times and might be in italics. If so I have no intention of trying to correct it.

I fully understand why some people hate Microsoft. Me, I'm going back to stamps.

Superb Sarawak

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:50:00 +0000

To me there is always a special appeal to a block of stamps which features an error or variety in one of the stamps. One friend who exhibits internationally says "you need the "big chunks" to impress the Judges."

In 1892 there was a shortage of one cent stamps in Sarawak and the three cent stamps were overprinted to meet the demand. A recent weekly feature showed this lovely marginal block of six fresh never hinged stamps. The middle stamp in the right column has no period after cent; and Stanley Gibbons lists this variety in single hinged condition at 200 Pounds (about $450 CDN). We offered this Exhibition quality block at CDN $275. Even though it hasn't sold, I keep thinking that maybe the price is too low and our customers don't appreciate the scarcity. It often happens that when a dealer raises the price of something it then sells quickly.

FRUIT STAMPS

Often dealers will write about some exciting new purchase. One reason is that being able to offer something exciting to one's customers is often newsworthy. The great majority of collections I see have nothing or very little that even starts to get the heart beating. Recently I did an appraisal of a fairly large collection. The closet in the study had a built in bookcase which showed shelf after shelf of binders. One large binder was labelled "Fruit Stamps."

I had never seen a fruit topical collection which was this large. Perhaps it would prove to be quite an advanced collection, I thought. I had started with several of the Schaubek albums on the shelf above when the widow asked if I purchased fruit stamps. "Certainly," I replied, "We make an offer on everything."

So, I pulled out the thick binder. Hundreds of loose-leaf pages were filled with the sticky labels attached by produce stores to bananas, apples, and other fruit!

Not everything is exciting. Most is mundane. And sometimes the "fruit stamps" have no interest whatsoever.

Montreal Madness

Ian Kimmerly — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:49:00 +0000

Friday was a long and cold day.

It started with a dental appointment then a drive to Montreal. I went to look at a large collection. It was quite unlike most collections I usually see.

First a few words about my vehicle - 13 years old nearly 300,000 kilometres - the engine and running parts should be good for some time to come. My Ford Explorer has never complained about weight and its capacity is 43 Archive boxes. I've learned how to pack so as to maximize the available space. Nevertheless I was concerned that I would not have enough room for the collection. Also this was likely to be the last major haul for the Ford because rust on the car and also on me (a painful hip because of the position of my right leg when driving) necessitate a new vehicle.

To get back to the stamps. I spent several hours going through what was (for the most part) very nice quality stamps contained in about 200 volumes and miscellaneous boxes. One group of four "red boxes" contained thousands of lovely fresh French Colonies stamps and varieties with a retail value of more than $20,000. What was unusual is that the value of the Canada, USA, Great Britain, France, Benelux, Scandanavia combined was perhaps one percent of the total value of the collection. The value of Germany, Italy, Spain, the rest of Europe, and most of Africa except French Colonies would be measured in the single digits as a percent of the total value.

How can it be, you might ask, that one can buy a vast accumulation of fresh, mostly modern, mostly never hinged collections without these countries. The answer: Latin America, the Caribbean, Central America, Indonesia and several Asian countries. Best is a collection of Colombia in five volumes.

In addition to this massive group there was a major collection of fish and marine life. Wow, this collection really impressed me. It must be very nearly complete for all sets of the world up to a value of about $500; and apparently the only hinged stamps are few pre-World War II issues which the collector never found in never hinged condition. It took about 30 years to assemble. We can probably help fill almost any want list in this topic (it includes shells - and has many non-Scott listed varieties).

I did the arithmetic and made my best offer. It was accepted... and now to continue the loading story...

Usually I like to pack albums into boxes for transporting. It turned out to be fortuitous that there were no boxes. No matter how carefully one packs boxes there is always wasted space. if I had used boxes there would not have been room for everything. Instead each volume was carefully arranged in the back cargo area so as not to waste ANY space. This winter the weather has been kind for the most part - but Friday it was about MINUS 25 degrees. Eventually it was all packed and I headed back to Ottawa.

We're going to have fun with this impressive collection. We hope our customers appreciate it as much as we do.

Why the title of Montreal Madness. Part of the collection includes cartons of commercial covers and cartons of stamps which are loose, or on album pages etc. We have been packing these in cartons and boxes priced from about $25 and up. Each has a label reading MONTREAL MADNESS. Currently we have fifteen of these lots. I will try to double that quantity before I leave today.

Ian Kimmerly

Missing Year of the Pig

Ian Kimmerly — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 21:47:00 +0000

The lunar New Year of the Pig has produced some excitement for us.

Below is the pane of 25 stamps. Five stamps in the right hand column are partially showing the grey rainbow foiling. The missing silver rainbow foil is a more subtle difference. It can be seen on the non-error stamps most easily in the lowest Chrysanthemum flower on the pig's belly and especially on top of the gray colour which outlines the pig. (Click on the stamp to see a larger scan.) The silver foil is used to highlight or to give a "rainbow" effect to the outline of the pig. The remaining twenty are mostly or completely missing the silver rainbow foil. In printing terms this is an enhancement.

Most importantly all of the stamps are missing the gold foil. In the one pane there is a striking and unusual error of two missing enhancements to the stamp image! This is very likely the first time a double enhancement has been missing from a Canadian stamp.

Thus we have two different missing colour varieties on one pane of stamps.

Our price for any single is $995 with any multiples, including imprint blocks (or strips of five) pro-rata.

It's been a busy week and I'll try to catch up with some of the new additions later in this week.

Ian Kimmerly

Fancy Cancels

Ian Kimmerly — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 12:00:00 +0000

Here we show two lovely stamps with fancy coloured postmarks. First up is a ten pence Cartier (Scott #7) on piece with a light red "tombstone" postmark reading PKT PAID/ LIVERPOOL/ JY 6/ 1856. The stamp is cut close and just into the design at left which results in a resanable price of $900.
Second is a seven and a halfpenny with four margins but a corner crease. It is graced by a bright red BY CANADIAN/ PACKET postmark and; unfortunately, sold almost immediately.

Our BIG news is that we have picked up enough cartons to nearly fill a cube van (10 feet by seven feet by three to four feet high - in today's measurements at least 18 cubic metres) of commercial covers. Or think of it as about 200 cartons. They are mostly from the last 25 years; a good percentage are registered (including many AR); and a good percentage are foreign. We are selling them on behalf of the estate. Come in early for first chance at what is literally hundreds of thousands of covers.
... as we said BIG news. We have a work space in our ground floor dedicated to these.

Ian Kimmerly

German Booklets

Ian Kimmerly — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:55:00 +0000

Our post-Christmas sale kept everyone busy and now after a few days of catching up on sleep, phone calls, and emails, things are closer to normal. On Monday I looked at a huge collection in Montreal and prospects look good that I will be able to buy it. Today I purchased collections of classic Bulagaria, Austria, and Montenegro. The latter has over 120 stamps, is reasonably complete and has a catalogue value of approx. $250. In the firs (1874) issue it has #2 and #3 unused and #5 with o.g. the overall condition is fresh and fine or better. Price $150.

A collection purchased during the sale is of German booklets. We show a small sample. The current catalogue value of these was 13,330 euros (Canadian $20,261). We will sell out of the collection at a rate of $1/euro for small purchases or $.80/euro for larger purchases. Lot price was $7950, but we have sold approx. 500 euros for approx. $400 and will reduce the lot price by the amount sold.

Kate and Karen have been organizing boxes of mint stamps. One glassine marked $2.85 contained all but two values of the wildlife set from Burundi which now boasts a catalogue value in excess of $1000. That discovery will, hopefully, soon be good for the bank account but another discovery of a claret-coloured diamond shaped stamp from the "Canton de Geneve/Lettre de Voiture" was, to me, more exciting.

Ian Kimmerly

Large Queens

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 19:54:00 +0000

There is a story I heard after posting my last blog which I just HAVE to pass on. It comes from Ken Kershaw who after retiring from his distinguished career has taken up philately with unmatched passion and dedication. Ken was communicating with a fellow collector who has been a student of Canada's five cent beaver for more than 60 years. In that time he had identified close to 500 varieties of the different plates.

He brought up his collection to Ken and Ken showed him how he scanned the stamp at 1200 dpi and blew it up to fill the large screen monitor. Immediately the 88 year old collector's eyes lit up. Now he could see things he never saw with just a high-powered magnifying glass. He ordered a computer and scanner and couldn't wait to get home to use these new tools. In Ken's understated way he reckoned it had given a whole new purpose to this man's life.

Today we report on the first of some recent purchases. It is an accumulation/collection of more than a thousand Large Queens. When I first heard about it, I was skeptical about buying it. The price seemed too high and I already own more used Large Queens than I need for day-to-day retail sales. After carefully viewing the stamps, the price was still too high, there really were a lot of fairly ordinary stamps and I probably should have said no to the opportunity. However there were a lot of very fine stamps (and the page of five centers was one of the highlights) and there were also some very rare postmarks. So, as usual, the heart overruled the brain and I bought the lot.

In the coming weeks we will feature some specials from this purchase. It is available intact for a very short while.

Merry Christmas

Ian Kimmerly — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 19:55:00 +0000

Yesterday Ottawa received a dose of freezing rain. I drove a fair bit during the ice storm of 1998 but the rain of yesterday was much more slippery than 1998. When I drove home I used 4 wheel drive and travelled under 10 km an hour and still turned nearly 270 degrees instead of 90 turning onto my street. Today at plus 7 the ice is gone.

After selling our good Bytown stampless cover on Wednesday, today we sold the Canada number one on cover from Bytown dated June, 1851.

Traditionally stamp dealers do not have a strong pre-Christmas season. We attribute this to our customers using their stamp budget to buy gifts during December. This Christmas season, however, has been our best ever. One quite memorable change is that a very high percentage of parents or other relatives buying stamp starter kits for (typically) a nine or ten year old are buying them for girls. If that trend continues (and one place where it is noticeable is that among youth Exhibitors men do not dominate in the way they do in the adult categories) our hobby will have a different "look" in years to come.

We have been preparing for our post-Chiristmas sale. One item we have decided to feature (in addition to EVERYTHING else which is on sale) is uncut press sheets. While supplies last we are offering these all at the Post Office issue price (although at this low price they will not be eligible for Kimmerly Dollars).

On a Christmas theme, I was impressed yesterday listening to a local Rabbi who explained that for years he had been greeting his non-Jewish friends with "Merry Christmas" and observed that over time an increasing percentage were responding by wishing him a "Happy Honnakha". My daughter, like others of her generation who were raised in a multi-cultural/ethnic milieu, would be less impressed with the Rabbi than I was because she would regard his comments as unremarkable and quite normal.

During this season and extending into the New Year let us hope that everyone, everywhere can continue the feeling of peace and goodwill which is generated by the Christmas season and Christmas message.

To everyone, I wish you happy and safe holidays.

Imperial to Provincial

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:30:00 +0000

The item we show at left is a stampless folded letter. It was mailed from Longueil on April 4, 1851 (where it was rated 9 pence - a rate based on the mileage to be travelled) and was routed through the Montreal Post Office on the same day which was a Friday. By Monday April 7 the letter passed through the Bytown Post Office and the same day was received at its destination across the river in Aylmer. On that day (or soon after) the recipient picked up this letter at the Aylmer Post Office and paid the nine pence due.

Sunday, April 6, 1851 is perhaps the most important date in Canadian postal history. On that date the four colonies who joined in Confederation had control of the post transferred from British (Imperial) to Canadian (provincial - or colonial) control. Also on that date postal rates were dramatically changed.

This letter was mailed when the post was under Imperial control; during the voyage from Lower Canada to Upper Canada and back to Lower Canada, control of the post was transferred AND the rates were changed. As of April 6, 1851 the rate for this letter would have been reduced from 9 pence to three pence (a huge difference in those days). The first Canadian stamps were issued two weeks later and the first recorded use of stamps is May 1, 1851.

I was shown two stampless covers by a dealer who asked if they had any philatelic significance. The first and more attractive one did not and I suggested a retail value of about $20; but this cover caught my eye immediately and I suggested a figure which astounded my friend. He suggested that I put it into the store on approval which I was happy to do. I told him it might take a long time to sell because I priced it at a very hefty figure but when the right person came along the sale would be made.

The next day the first person to look at this under the counter is a noted postal historian and even though the letter had no write-up or price he immediately recognized the importance of the cover. He gulped at the price but after a few minutes of thinking about it (and my offer of a ten percent reduction) quite readily agreed to buy it.

Items like these we like to keep around for a while to show off to our customers. However they often sell as quickly as this one did.

Buying Estates

Ian Kimmerly — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:10:00 +0000

Just over 5 hours ago I wrote a fairly long blog; then because this picture had been inserted in a "draft" I hit "preview". Everything looked OK so I was about to post it; I couldn't find any button to hit so I went back one page. It was BLANK ....frustration - there is nothing on any computer that is safe when I sit down.

I have calmed down.

The picture is fairly late in the evening of our Grand Opening after the crowd had thinned out a bit.

The estate this morning was some 40 volumes with strength in Canada and USA. Before starting to appraise the collection I looked at some photographs of album pages - there were some obviously great stamps. When the album was opened it turned out the great stamps were photographs from auction catalogues. The real stamps eg #4, #8, Large Queens, Jubilees except the $3 and $5 were all bought from dealers who advertised the lowest price. What a disappointment. It's hard to find any stamp worth at least $10 that I want to add to my stock.

Nevertheless the collector who died at the age of 96 had a lifetime passion for stamps. And we will be passing on virtually all of his collection in the same manner and format as he collected. By tomorrow the volumes should all be priced and ready for sale. The early worldwide lot at $300 is my bet for the first one to sell.

New Zealand Souvenir

Ian Kimmerly — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:25:00 +0000

We spent much of the weekend getting our Christmas Flyer ready. It is 32 pages long; and Matt was here until 11:00 pm on Saturday finishing up. As a result he missed a fine hockey game with the Senators beating the Sabres for the third time this season. Now all the envelopes for sending the flyer are ready to go and we are waiting to hear that the print job is finished before rushing down to pick it up. We expect that we will get it all in the mail today. A broadcast email about the flyer will be sent out tomorrow or "soon".

Two of three cartons from an auction came in today. One group of lots which I bid on was some Great Britain mostly surface printed issues of Queen Victoria and I was successful on two lots of about half a dozen offered. My bids were prepared without seeing the lots (usually a no-no - and especially with classic stamps). I figured out what I could pay for the line-engraved issues and bid only that figure. After seeing the Prices Realized it was obvious that, except for one lot, I was the buyer or the underbidder. After opening the carton, a cursory viewing of these two lots suggests that they will turn out alright and I should be able to price them at about three times what I paid.

The lot which I liked the most was the New Zealand Presentation Book for the 1934 U.P.U. Congress in Cairo. There are four large tipped in sepia photographs, three of which show Maori women. The stamps include sets from the Cook Islands, Niue, and New Zealand George V definitive issues including Officials. Total catalogue value is not less than US$ 823.75. The stamps are affixed to the pages and if soaked off would be without gum; however the colours are wonderful and, except for gum, the stamps are Post Office fresh and mostly very fine which is above the norm for these.

Our price for this is $270; and I really do like it enough that I will make it our weekly feature on Saturday unless it is sold before then.

Christmas List

Ian Kimmerly — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:06:00 +0000

Things have been busy in the store; and I've neglected this weblog for 9 days now. Since starting to type in the title there have been three (now four) interruptions. One special project we have been working on is (now five) a sale flyer for Christmas.

This year it will be huge compared with previous years - a total of 32 or 36 pages. AND we have to get it in the mail before Christmas. (and now six - and seven). In addition to the mailing we will post all the text on our website and send out a broadcast email to our email subscribers. In this way people from outside the Ottawa area can take part in the sale.

Recent purchases include an estate from an airmail specialist, an interesting collection from a 90 year old (still sharp mentally but sadly the eyesight was going), as well as the ordinary. Tomorrow there are four scheduled appraisals.

Work on recent purchases has added significantly to Newfoundland (almost $6000 mostly VFNH), PEI over $1100 including carieties; George V from the Michael Roberts collection (over $11,000) etc. We have a nice Newfoundland remainder lot (CV by fine Unitrade is over $5200 - our price less than one quarter of catalogue at $1250.

Interruptions were holding at eight but the ninth forces me from the keyboard.

Michael Roberts & Grand Opening

Ian Kimmerly — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:13:00 +0000

I have two major events to report:

The "Michael Roberts" Collection

This collection was sold last weekend in Halifax. It was arguably the most complete Canada collection to ever come onto the stamp market. The collector (whom I know quite well) carefully assembled a mint single (often extremely fine & never hinged), a mint block of four or larger, a used single and used block (usually very fine and often SON (socked on the nose) and CDS (circular date stamp)) for every basic stamp, and also for the shades, printings, and papers which are varieties not always listed, and also for plate varieties especially re-entries; and, in addition, for the imperforates, proofs, and covers he was satisfied with basic pairs or singles as appropriate. In this respect by continuing to collect in this manner to the end of King George VI, this collection was closer to being complete than other famous collections of the past.

It is a shame that he never exhibited because had he done so some of the varieties which were in his collection would be better known. Also he might have inspired collectors to follow his example. The collection included many rare (sometimes unique) items but it was clear that he sought out the rare (and this is often distinct from the expensive). Several examples from the pence period: there are no mint multiples; he had a sound used twelve penny with a blue cancel (there are only two known and the other is faulty) but no mint example (which although very, very expensive is relatively easily obtainable).

Knowing all this I decided to concentrate on the remainder collections. There were fifteen lots of these. I was unsuccessful on Large Queens; Map Issue; Edward VII with Quebecs; Admiral Issue except coils; King George VI; and Modern Errors and Varieties. By aggressive bidding after a careful and thorough viewing I was successful on the six volumes of Small Queens; the Jubilees; the Leaf and Numeral Issue; the Admiral Coils; two different lots of King George V era; the Airmail, Special Delivery, and Postage Dues; the Registration Issues; and the War Tax Issues.

I was also successful on several dozen other wonderful lots throughout the sale. More details will follow reasonably soon.

The Grand Opening

Last night was our Grand Opening and in my completely unbiased opinion it was a great success. I'll probably report a bit more soon. Our local television channel made our opening the third story and spent three minutes airing what is in effect a tremendous commercial for the store. Visitors came from as far away as Saskatoon (John Jamieson).

After the opening I returned home and while carrying the garbage can slipped on the ice in our driveway and injured my shoulder. So while wearing a sling and with the first of four appraisals which are scheduled for this morning awaiting me, I'll sign off.

Rodrigues Rarity

Ian Kimmerly — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:06:00 +0000

Rodrigues is an island in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres north-east of Mauritius. It was discovered in the early sixteenth century but not settled (by Europeans) for several centuries. By the late eighteenth century it was being used by French privateers to raid shipping cargos of the East India Company.

The British landed troops in 1809 and used it as a base to capture Mauritius in the following year and then became a dependency of that island. In 1861 a postal system was started and operated as a branch office of Mauritius. From that time until well into the twentieth century the number of Europeans living on the island fluctuated at around a dozen.

Mauritius stamps used on mail from Rodrigues can be identified by the numeral postmark "B65"; until a datestamp reading Rodrigues was introduced about 1900. These are much scarcer than the better known Mauritius used in the Seychelles postmarks.

Going through a Mauritius stock purchased some months ago I was fortunate to find a partial but identifiable postmark freom Rodrigues Island. So, we offer it on the blog first.

B65 used at Rodrigues - Mauritius #75 with small thin
(the B is not visible in the postmark) Price $75 (Item #6n26)

B64 used in the Seychelles - Mauritius #33 with a nearly invisible crease
Price $70 (Item #6n27)

Tomorrow I leave for Halifax to view, bid on, and hopefully be successful at a stamp auction in Halifax. I will write a report upon my return Monday - maybe (the following day is our Grand Opening and there will be many many many things to do at the last minute!)

New Purchases

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 18:46:00 +0000

One of the recently purchased lots we have been working on has many dozens of attractive plate number blocks and blocks of four of early British Commonwealth from Queen Victoria issues through the early issues of Vicky's great-great granddaughter Betty. There is lots of new material for customers to enjoy - and some of it not very expensive and found in our red boxes (for example inter-panneau blocks of inexpensive War Tax or Red Cross blocks).

Today Brian has put away into our red boxes over 1000 new items. Although we don't publicize the additions to our red box stock (and with about 200 red boxes, some receive new additions only occasionally) we really do keep adding to this inventory almost daily.

Some very nice Canada has been added. Among the still affordable items are two used back of the book items. Early use of the Registered stamps of Canada are very seldom found with clear dated cancels. We offer an example with fine only centering dated Feb. 25, 1876 (the stamp was issued on Nov.15, 1875) for $20. A block of stamps which I like is this one of J6. It has very fine centering and neat "socked-on-the-nose" cds cancels from Rock Island dated 1933. Our price $30. An interesting mint item is shown below. It is a three cent brown Admiral fresh, never hinged booklet pane (#108a) with a current Unitrade cv of $240 but it has been guillotined by the printer on a bias producing a rather odd looking pane. Our price $150.

Tarifold Turnover

Ian Kimmerly — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:59:00 +0000

Stamp dealers often use a display system known as a tarifold. Typically a stand holds 30 plastic pages in which 60 sheets or pages can be displayed back to back. Currently we have 14 of these and more in reserve when we have more counter space ("Real soon now," our contractor keeps saying).

In the past number of years these have grown in a somewhat indiscriminate manner. At first we put into the tarifold oversize items and items we felt were of a lower philatelic standard than our books, then we put more and more pretty topical stamps into the tarifolds. We then expanded a little into a tarifold devoted to Canadian souvenir sheets and the like which are popular with tourists.

Stamp dealers, on the whole, are not very smart retailers. And I'm a poster boy for being a dumb retailer. The tarifolds are very popular with the public generally and even the most advanced philatelist will usually flip through a few pages. If they are one of our best selling tools, why, why, and why have we not made better use of them?

Kate has started putting together nice pages of displays of our better Commonwealth stamps; she will continue with foreign and then Canadian. These pages show off our expensive stamps as photocopies. The first tarifold is finished and it certainly sends a message that we had not been sending before as people flipped the pages. It is going to take many weeks to finish but eventually our tarifolds will have a good representation of what is found in our stock. We will still have attractive topical sets but will also have a much better representation of everything we offer.

Beautiful Bremen

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 18:47:00 +0000

It occurs to me after typing in this title that I really have no idea whether Bremen is beautiful; however the stamps issued by Bremen are among the more interesting of the early German States. Yersterday we purchased a small group of 4 items.

First, and most importantly, is the 10 grote value of 1867 (Scott #14). It is a very fine stamp with a Friedl Certificate and Herbert Bloch has signed the stamp to indicate no faults or repairs. We offer this scarce item (Michel 1400 euros) for $995.

Secondly, we offer a very fine example of the 1867 two grote with large even margins (Scott #11 $225, Michel #10 320 euros) for $200.

Our third offering is a small piece with two creased stamps and one sound example. The high value of 5 silbergroschen is creased and alas is not green (CV of $3750) but yellow green with a CV of $175. One of the two grote stamps is badly creased and cracked, the other is sound. These latter two appear, especially when compared with the second offer above, to be the red orange shade (Scott 14a $500, Michel 10b 700 euros). Michel prices the 5 silbergroschen on cover at about seven times normal. I offer this as genuine (but "as is" with respect to the shade of the two grote) for a price of $250. If it remains unsold at the end of November it will be sent out for a Certificate and if the two grotes are Scott #11a the price will go up.

Our fourth offering is a stamp of Hannover but cancelled in the medieval "Free City" of Bremen prior to the issuance of Bremen stamps. The stamp is, in our opinion, a genuine #7a (Scott $775, Michel 6b 1200 euros) with large margins but faded colour and faults. The interesting aspect is the Bremen cancel in blue; my price is $75 for this item.

Auction Action

Ian Kimmerly — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:24:00 +0000

Yesterday we got a carton of stamps in from a wholesaler. We use these to make packages and often have to pay more than half the price of the finished package just for the stamps. Sometimes we are able to get a relative bargain. One of these was the purchase of 50 sets of 25 different Walt Disney stamps for only US$62.50 plus shipping. Obtaining quantities of Disney stamps for only 5 cents each is a low price. The stamps were in sheets of 25 so I decided to prepare these in 50 packets of 25 each for my packet-maker to display in our attractive packages. That took more than one and a half hours.

Today began with a determination to start reducing the wall of stamps we have in the vault. I tackled some of the more common or more time-consuming envelopes and packages. After more than an hour I was able to bring four cartons out to the front of the store. Two are nearly full of foreign stamps and priced to sell at $100 each. Another was of British Commonwealth at $250, and the fourth is Canada at $150. One of the sources was our old half-price "102" cards. I think we are finally sold out of these once we have these cartons sold.

Today brought a large carton of British Commonwealth from an auction house. I had bid on these without viewing and was quite disappointed because the auction description proved to be inaccurate. Now I have to either return the carton or see if the auction house is able to make a price adjustment. There are some auction houses which are intransigent with respect to returns or adjustments; while others do their best to make an accommodation if the complaint is justified.

In this case I believe that there will be an amiable settlement. But it teaches two lessons about auction houses -- if descriptions are inconsistent never bid without viewing (in the case of today's carton this auction house is usually very accurate) -- and make sure to deal with auction houses which want to keep your business.

I was on the other side in the auction business (1990-2001) and it is true there are a small minority of customers who are unreasonable -- fortunately most are understanding. Auction houses, on the whole, do their best to accurately describe the lots on offer. What I have learned from decades of viewing and attending auctions is that every auction house has individual idiosyncracies. This applies to descriptions as well as lotting techniques and everything else which goes into making an auction. What you can expect, given the same set of circumstances, is different treatment from one auction house to the other.

Complicated Cartouche

Ian Kimmerly — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 20:43:00 +0000

Yesterday I spent some time on a manila stockpage of fresh mint Saudi Arabia. Most were from the 1960s and 1970s with the airmail sets and the definitive issues showing the Wadi Hanifa Dam and the Gas-Oil Separating Plant. If one has only a few of these the many listings (about 200 in Scott) can be daunting. The airmails have two designs and only six sets, and I soon was able to easily distinguish between the cartouche of King Saud and that of King Faisal. It was not too long before the airmails were identified, then graded and priced; and it turned out that a few had a high catalogue value (the best was $140 - but quite a number were over $10 - and the task of identification always seems to be more fun when there are pleasant surprises like these).

Then I turned to the regular definitives. First the two cartouche types were separated, then I decided to sort by denomination. The difference in colours could be striking. And I started to get excited. One seemed to be #323 with a catalogue value of a whopping $325. But wait a minute, the stamp clearly has a watermark (one of the tests with the airmails was checking for watermarks).

It soon became clear that the Scott listing for the 1960 set is missing the very important information that this set is on paper with watermark 361. Alas my $325 stamp has a catalogue value of only $2.10 (Scott #237). Catalogue editors get it "right" more often than 99 percent of the time and so it is fun to catch an error like this. Anyway a good deal of nice quality Saudi Arabia is now added to our inventory and now I can recognize the cartouches of the two kings.

A small collection of Turkey came in with a general estate. This is about 125 stamps on album pages and predates the much larger Turkey collection recently bought by us. These pages contain at least 4 stamps with an unusual postmark in blue of a circle enclosing a wavy line and an arabic character. I don't recall seeing it before. Some expert will likely tell me that it is quite common. In any event we will show you a sample; if anyone has any information, we'd like to know. Alternately buy the whole collection for $75 before we find out.

Today our interior doors were installed and we show you an image of the doors from the outside.

New door, new thematics

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:27:00 +0000

Some days we get so busy doing the many things which are backlogged that important things like remembering to do the blog get passed by. Yesterday we started a massive re-organization of out topical or thematic books. We have added nearly thirty books and also more closely aligned the books on the shelves with the topics found on our website.

We are still in a situation where a search from our website will show only stamps in our inventory which are found in our country books. Visitors to the store will be pleasantly surprised with the additions which are not found on the website (yet). We still have tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of lovely topicals in our red boxes. If we moved all these to our new books we would not have space. We will eventually dedicate five shelves (150 books) to stamps organized by topic or theme.

Yesterday we also continued work on a very large collection purchased over the weekend. As days go by we will report on significant groups added to our inventory.

Today we keep hearing the cling-cling-cling of a small bell. Part of our alarm system is to hear this whenever the outer front door opens. Workmen are installing our new door (we'll have a scan fairly soon) and, as a result, the movement triggers the bell about 50 times more frequently than an average day.

Those of you who have been into the store know how cumbersome the old doors were and will welcome the change.

At the end of the month I will be travelling to Halifax to thoroughly view and then bid in the Eastern Auctions sale of the "Roberts" collection. I will be able to act as agent for collectors or dealers interested in placing bids at this sale.

Our Grand Opening will be December 5th

Ian Kimmerly — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 19:47:00 +0000

We have finally set a date for our Grand Opening! We will hold it on Tuesday December 5th. Now we have to really start preparing - especially getting the art gallery ready.

There was an attempted entry early this morning, possibly because the old front doors look easy to get into. Our landlord says to expect the new front door by Thursday. It will certainly make for a big improvement.

Our new backlit signs are being built today. That's another feature which will make a huge difference once they are up: the signs measure 46 inches wide by 52 inches high. They really are huge when you consider a box is being built which has to be tight enough not to leak light from the cracks, a light source has to be added, we need access to be able to change the signs, etc. Our projected date to have these ready is the middle of next week.

Pricing rollercoaster

Ian Kimmerly — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:46:00 +0000

Lighthouse Publications has announced two major price changes. The first one to cheer about is the Canada Album. This deluxe hingeless album has been retailing for more than $1200 for the three volume complete Canada. The price has been really slashed to $797 - a price which includes the 2005 supplement. We certainly hope that this dramatic price reduction holds for next year's supplements. We have lowered the prices of our instock albums to reflect this change.

The second price change is not for the better. All Lighthouse mounts have been increased in price by one dollar. We received advance notice of the change and we were able to stock up at the old price. We will not be raising the prices of our in-stock mounts, so while they last you can buy at the old price. New orders of inventory will in the future be priced at the new level.

Today I was busy with a good customer from the west coast. He found lots of delightful stamps and toward the end of nearly five hours in the store he decided to buy the best Seaway Invert of the three we could currently offer. In one of the co-incidences that sometimes happens, a few minutes later I received a phone call from a prominent dealer who wanted to talk about Seaways in part because he had just sold an Inverted Seaway.

Our library

Ian Kimmerly — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:14:00 +0000

Brian has spent much of the past week working on the library and reading room area. With a total of about 200 square feet and with shelving 7 feet in height, there are many hundreds of books, studies, journals, pamphlets, and auction catalogues and other philatelic literature.

This reading room is becoming closer to our concept of a reading room which might become a magnet for local collectors. We welcome collectors to spend as long as they wish sampling the impressive array of literature on our hobby. Some books will only be available for reference but most will be available for sale.

Over time we will try to list as many books as practical on our website and in eBay stores.

This coming weekend has a show in Montreal and I will be viewing and making an offer on the estate of a long-time customer. Watch for details on Monday.

A lesson for dealers

Ian Kimmerly — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:33:00 +0000

Today while going through recently purchased auctions lots, there was one which was quite instructive to dealers.

I bid on one lot after valuing it at $800 and was successful at $750. The quality and value are certainly OK and the price was fair.

After checking our books I realized that this lot added nothing to what we are currently offering our retail customers. When I placed the stamps into our back-up inventory it is apparent that for most values we already had more in back-up than were offered in this lot.

Buying this lot was a mistake because $825 (hammer plus 10 percent) of our capital will be tied up for years. Fortunately, there were many other lots from the auction which have new inventory to delight and tempt our customers.

Later in the day a pleasant surprise was this rather ordinary looking Newfoundland stamp. It is printed on thick carton -type paper. I have encountered this thick paper on other values of Newfoundland stamps but it is indeed rare. This variety is unlisted, although it is a scarcer perforation 13.5 x 13.8 which is listed but unpriced in the Newfoundland Specialized Catalogue (#158iii). Our price is $50. (Inv #6m83)