Today we received delivery of the print catalogues and they were out the door and at the post office within the hour. Customers in the Ottawa area will likely receive theirs this week, as well as much of Ontario. The rest of Canada could expect a catalogue the week of March 24-28, and other destinations will see them the last week in March.
Please let us know if you were expecting a catalogue in the mail and did not receive it in the time frame mentioned above.
We received the shipment of printed catalogues for our November 13-15th auction yesterday afternoon and promptly delivered them to Canada Post. Canadian customers should receive theirs early next week, USA by the end of the week, and international in the week of November 5th. Please contact us if you do not receive your catalogue in time to bid in the sale.
You will also find the Image Gallery which has many additional scans in higher resolution and greater detail than those on Stamp Auction Network, corrections and updates to the auction listing, and comprehensive instructions for on-line bidding.
Next week we begin featuring daily writeups of an item or area of exceptional interest in Auction 11.
We received the shipment of printed catalogues for our June 26-28th auction this afternoon and promptly delivered them to Canada Post. Canadian customers should receive theirs by the end of this week, USA early next week, and international by the end of next week.
Please contact us if you do not receive your catalogue in time to bid in the sale.
Print catalogues for our February 21-23rd auction have now been mailed. A few international and western North America addresses were shipped on Monday, and the remainder were sent yesterday. Many subscribers will see their catalogue this week, and nearly all will be delivered early next week.
Local Ottawa-area customers may pick up their catalogue at any time.
We begin our Featured Items tomorrow with the stamp that is superimposed on the main table of contents for this catalogue. The Image Gallery of additional photos will be on-line next week, as well as any corrections and notices that may be necessary.
We are often asked why we sometimes use an estimate and other times a catalogue value in our auction descriptions. Obviously a carton of thousands of inexpensive stamps which would take weeks to catalogue will be estimated. A high percentage of large lots and also postal history have an estimate rather than a catalogue value. This estimate is what we feel is the likely result IF there is reasonable competition. Sometimes there is very little competition for a lot and it sells well below our estimate; other times there is keen competition and it might sell for a large multiple of the estimate (see our comments after Auction 7 for more details).
Most single stamps or sets as well as some larger lots quote a catalogue value. It is important when planning your bids to understand that the catalogue value is a suggested retail (not auction) price of a single stamp in very fine condition. Doing research on the distinctions and criteria for very fine will let you understand why a fair market price can range from less than 10 percent of catalogue to a multiple of catalogue.
With about a week to go one lot will already open at exactly 10 times the catalogue value; another lot is languishing with an opening bid of significantly less than one percent of the catalogue value. Three reasons why a lot might sell for a tiny fraction of catalogue value are:
the lot contains faulty stamps
a large percentage of the catalogue value is comprised of inexpensive stamps where a retail price is essentially a handling charge
there is a lot of duplication especially if the duplication is of uninteresting stamps.
Something else to consider is that catalogue values can change dramatically. Many of the best items of the People’s Republic of China doubled in price between the 2011 Scott Catalogue and the 2012 which came out about 5 weeks ago. We have just received Volume Three which covers the alphabetical listing from G to I countries. In the new catalogue, for example, many of the classic Great Britain stamps have increased by about five percent. That might not affect your bidding very much but several have increased by more than 10 percent.
Lot 801 -- Great Britain #1
Lot 801 — We wrote about this in a previous posting. The catalogue value of a mint Penny Black has jumped 20% from $7500 to $9000. This reflects a jump in demand, especially from China.
Lot 824 -- Great Britain #54
Lot 824 has seen a rise from $1000 to $1200.
Lot 826 -- Great Britain #57a
Lot 826 has seen a rise from $1300 to $1500.
There are certain to be other increases (and possibly a few decreases).
