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Friday, December 4, 2015

December Is Off To A Quiet Start As Progress Is Made on Listing The Wilding Issue

Its been a week since my last post, so I figured I had better check in with my readers and provide an update on what has been going on this week.

After a record breaking November, sales are off to a slow start for December - just around $100 in the past four days. I'm trying not to be too worried about it, but it can be a bit difficult given that I have listed over 500 lots this past week and none of them have sold. I have to keep remembering that I am playing the Long Game here. I don't expect the Elizabethan material to sell quickly as I am up against a huge prejudice in philatelic circles against modern material.

I'm amazed at what I have learned in  the past week though. I have been working on listing the plate blocks of the 1954-1967 Wilding Issue, which look like this:


I have handled hundreds if not thousands of these blocks over the last 38 years and for the longest time I never thought anything of them. Like most dealers, this stuff was just postage to me for many years. But then, I started to look at them more closely and started to notice differences in the papers used to print the stamps as well as differences in the block inscriptions themselves. If you look carefully at the above scans you will see that the left block as 2 purple dots in the margin - one at the lower left and one at the upper right. If you look at the one on the right, there is only one red dot at lower left. This is an example of what I mean. For the longest time, I never even noticed that some plate blocks had coloured dots in the margins. Then once I did, I saw a pattern: that lower right positions always had a dot in the selvage at lower left. Or do they?

This week, I saw the left block, which has the 2 dots - something I had not seen before, and would not have thought should exist. Immediately, I have become intrigued: what is the significance of these dots? Why are they here? What do they indicate? Most importantly, what combinations exist with the different plates?

This is just one example of new information that I have gleaned from listing the blocks of this issue. The other is that there definitely are differences in gum, in paper texture and in the reactions of the paper to ultraviolet light. Which of these differences are considered to be collectible is really a matter of personal preference, but certainly there is much more to this issue than many collectors realize. 

Because of the complexity, progress in listing these blocks has been slow and will likely take 2 more weeks. My real challenge is going to be raising awareness among stamp collectors of the merits of modern issues such as this as well as showing non-collectors how taking up the hobby can provide them with many hours of enjoyment. 

9 comments:

  1. Hopefully sales will pick up. I am not a collector - do people by stamps as X-mas gifts?

    How is the employer / employee relationship going? I assume the extra set up hands is helping in getting material listed.

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    1. I think they will. This is always a game of averages. My employee hasn't started yet - that should come soon within the next month.

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    2. People do buy stamps as Christmas gifts. I expect that I will have some sales from people buying for their loved ones.

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  2. Isn't your son working for you this month?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, for one day a week as he got a different job for while he is here.

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  3. SUP??
    big sales on the weekend???

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  4. Not big, a few from the issues I was just listing this month, which is encouraging. It is going to take time for sales to reach a level that will sustain the business, but I know they will get there.

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  5. You have been posting 15x a month for the past few months. You are on pace to post 4x-5x this month. Everything OK?

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    Replies
    1. Fine.I've just been really, really busy trying to get the rest of my e-bay listings done on the Wilding Issue. Will probably write a post about that today.

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