Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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This second one looks like its been through the mill a bit and the back was damaged by rough opening..of course the receiver was not too concerned about the condition of the envelope like i would be...again i wanted the stamps on cover for my collection. I am learning tolerance and enjoying it more.
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I think the ‘patina’ of a stamp or cover is important and tells a story. For me and in general, I feel that ‘condition’ is less important for postal history than it is for straight stamp collecting. The attraction (and therefore market demand) of postal history is the story of the cover.
In one area that I collect, US postal seals covers, finding a cover with significant damage is quite acceptable since mail damaged in handling was often ‘repaired’ by applying a postal seal. And of course, folks who collect crash covers (both air crash and RR crash covers) hold in high regard covers with condition issues.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of covers yearning to be collected!
Don
Edit:
When I go to antique auto shows, it often seems a bit strange to me to see a pristine pickup truck being backed off an enclosed auto trailer and on to the show field. The intended purpose of a pickup truck is a work vehicle, it was designed to carry, haul, and tow things. As a person who spent countless hours detailing my cars over the last 4 decades, I understand why people do this. But I always drove my cars to car shows even if the show was 2000 miles away. Yes, 'road rash' always caused me to cringe after paying thousands of dollars on paint jobs, but enjoying the cars doing what they were intended to do always trumped making them 'trailer queens'.
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Don, in my neighborhood Red Hook-Rhinebeck there is a huge Hot Rod/Classic show at the Rhinebeck fairgrounds every year. I no longer have the interest but i see plenty when i drive by..one day they concentrate on the classic cars and the other on the street rods.
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I have never been a cover snob. Even with covers only a postal history collector could love.
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I have become much more tolerant of flaws on covers, especially the non-philatelic ones I ollect
DonSellos
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I agree! I have many less than perfect covers in my New Jersey postmark collection. I do make note in my database that the cover is less than perfect in case I come into a better example. Who knows? It may be the only existing example left from that post office.
I also list and sell damaged covers on eBay. I make sure the photos are representative and mention faults. They sell just fine and I have top marks for accurate descriptions.
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My name is Bob, and I am a cover snob. There! I said it. No! Wait! What am I thinking! I am not a cover snob!
The very first postally used cover I bought was well travelled and just a bit tatty, but interesting. I'd show it to you, but I traded it to a dealer for a hundred dollars toward an even tattier cover. I'd show that one to you, but I don't remember which one it was! Note to self: Never again sell a prized stamp or cover!
But large covers, i.e. #10 covers and anything that won't fit on a standard letter-size sheet of paper unless it's displayed vertically or at an angle? Don't much like 'em. The problem being that sometimes they are rare, gorgeous, historic, and I just can't turn them down. But I coped. I bought a Lighthouse album designed for large covers. Expensive, but works like a charm. Here's one of the covers displayed in it:
But one cover I have, an official Canadian government cover, defies display:
I didn't buy it. It was given to me as a gift. The boxed test says:
REGIMENTAL ADJUTANT
THE QUEENS OWN RIFLES OF CANADA
WORK POINT BARRACKS, VICTORIA, B.C.
The addressee
Cape JR Waldron
MCCD, PO Box 220
Saigon, Viet Nam
The cover was free franked. There are no indications of a date. of posting
The "MCCD" in the address stands for Military Component Canadian Delegation, Canada's contribution to the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS), from 27 January to 1 June 1973. The ICCS resulted from the Geneva Accords; its job was to arrange for the release of POWs being held in Hanoi and to monitor the flow of weapons from North Vietnam into South Vietnam.
While the intent of the MCCD was seen not just as benign, but as a contribution to the end of the Vietnam War, it actually served in part in an espionage capacity for the United States, which would not officially give up its efforts to control South Vietnam until 30 April 1975, a day made famous by scenes of helicopters evacuating American embassy personnel and North Vietnamese tanks driving onto the grounds of the presidential palace in Saigon. The MCCD's mission began on January 29, 1973 and ended, not surprisingly, on 30 April 1975!
There's one area of cover collecting that virtually requires the collection of less-than-pristine covers. That's "adversity mail," covers that have been through hell but survived — train, plane, ship and truck crash covers. While postmarks alone may identify adversity mail, normally the presence of rubber-stamped or handwritten postal markings tell at least part of the story. And adversity mail is often damaged in some obvious way. I collect crash covers from four airline accidents, and the covers from all four are variously bent, torn, wrinkled, stained with oil, water, or smoke, singed, or charred. Ironically in this commercial world that so often demands perfect appearance of objects and people, the more damaged an adversity cover is the more money its costs.
I probably paid about CAN $50 for this cover, which was on the KLM DC-2 airliner Uiver when it crashed in Syria in 1934:
I once complained to a bourse dealer that a crash cover I was thinking of buying didn't appear to have much damage. The dealer had a solution: "Here, I can fix that!" he said, as he pulled out his cigarette lighter.
Bob
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I will take your #10 covers off your hands Phil. 
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Heh I suspected as much.
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Smauggie, like many people i have oversized items that do not fit in a 6x9 envelope...that usually means more shipping costs which are a pain. If i could send #10s for first class shipping i would do it. I used to have #12 envelopes for shipping but i am down to one of those.
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I was only kidding Phil. No hard feelings.
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Smauggie, No hard feelings at all...i feel we are all friends here...if i were in business i would order boxes of all kinds of mailers...i am happy just selling what i can here.
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I do sell a fair number of no 11 covers. Staples gets $22 a box for 100 number 12 envelopes! They are brown paper, but really 22 cent an envelope??
Instead I take 9x12 envelopes and cut them in two to get two number 12 envelopes. I cut a filler card the same size and it works just grand!
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Until fairly recently i would discard covers which i could have used due to slight flaws ..small tears in the corner, a missing flap, a rough opening, what arrogance ! Here are a couple of examples.. the first one has a tiny tear by the return address and the upper right but i needed the stamps on cover for my collection.
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
This second one looks like its been through the mill a bit and the back was damaged by rough opening..of course the receiver was not too concerned about the condition of the envelope like i would be...again i wanted the stamps on cover for my collection. I am learning tolerance and enjoying it more.
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Login to Like.
re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
I think the ‘patina’ of a stamp or cover is important and tells a story. For me and in general, I feel that ‘condition’ is less important for postal history than it is for straight stamp collecting. The attraction (and therefore market demand) of postal history is the story of the cover.
In one area that I collect, US postal seals covers, finding a cover with significant damage is quite acceptable since mail damaged in handling was often ‘repaired’ by applying a postal seal. And of course, folks who collect crash covers (both air crash and RR crash covers) hold in high regard covers with condition issues.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of covers yearning to be collected!
Don
Edit:
When I go to antique auto shows, it often seems a bit strange to me to see a pristine pickup truck being backed off an enclosed auto trailer and on to the show field. The intended purpose of a pickup truck is a work vehicle, it was designed to carry, haul, and tow things. As a person who spent countless hours detailing my cars over the last 4 decades, I understand why people do this. But I always drove my cars to car shows even if the show was 2000 miles away. Yes, 'road rash' always caused me to cringe after paying thousands of dollars on paint jobs, but enjoying the cars doing what they were intended to do always trumped making them 'trailer queens'.
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
Don, in my neighborhood Red Hook-Rhinebeck there is a huge Hot Rod/Classic show at the Rhinebeck fairgrounds every year. I no longer have the interest but i see plenty when i drive by..one day they concentrate on the classic cars and the other on the street rods.
Login to Like
this post
re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
I have never been a cover snob. Even with covers only a postal history collector could love.
2 Members
like this post.
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
I have become much more tolerant of flaws on covers, especially the non-philatelic ones I ollect
DonSellos
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
I agree! I have many less than perfect covers in my New Jersey postmark collection. I do make note in my database that the cover is less than perfect in case I come into a better example. Who knows? It may be the only existing example left from that post office.
I also list and sell damaged covers on eBay. I make sure the photos are representative and mention faults. They sell just fine and I have top marks for accurate descriptions.
Login to Like
this post
re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
My name is Bob, and I am a cover snob. There! I said it. No! Wait! What am I thinking! I am not a cover snob!
The very first postally used cover I bought was well travelled and just a bit tatty, but interesting. I'd show it to you, but I traded it to a dealer for a hundred dollars toward an even tattier cover. I'd show that one to you, but I don't remember which one it was! Note to self: Never again sell a prized stamp or cover!
But large covers, i.e. #10 covers and anything that won't fit on a standard letter-size sheet of paper unless it's displayed vertically or at an angle? Don't much like 'em. The problem being that sometimes they are rare, gorgeous, historic, and I just can't turn them down. But I coped. I bought a Lighthouse album designed for large covers. Expensive, but works like a charm. Here's one of the covers displayed in it:
But one cover I have, an official Canadian government cover, defies display:
I didn't buy it. It was given to me as a gift. The boxed test says:
REGIMENTAL ADJUTANT
THE QUEENS OWN RIFLES OF CANADA
WORK POINT BARRACKS, VICTORIA, B.C.
The addressee
Cape JR Waldron
MCCD, PO Box 220
Saigon, Viet Nam
The cover was free franked. There are no indications of a date. of posting
The "MCCD" in the address stands for Military Component Canadian Delegation, Canada's contribution to the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS), from 27 January to 1 June 1973. The ICCS resulted from the Geneva Accords; its job was to arrange for the release of POWs being held in Hanoi and to monitor the flow of weapons from North Vietnam into South Vietnam.
While the intent of the MCCD was seen not just as benign, but as a contribution to the end of the Vietnam War, it actually served in part in an espionage capacity for the United States, which would not officially give up its efforts to control South Vietnam until 30 April 1975, a day made famous by scenes of helicopters evacuating American embassy personnel and North Vietnamese tanks driving onto the grounds of the presidential palace in Saigon. The MCCD's mission began on January 29, 1973 and ended, not surprisingly, on 30 April 1975!
There's one area of cover collecting that virtually requires the collection of less-than-pristine covers. That's "adversity mail," covers that have been through hell but survived — train, plane, ship and truck crash covers. While postmarks alone may identify adversity mail, normally the presence of rubber-stamped or handwritten postal markings tell at least part of the story. And adversity mail is often damaged in some obvious way. I collect crash covers from four airline accidents, and the covers from all four are variously bent, torn, wrinkled, stained with oil, water, or smoke, singed, or charred. Ironically in this commercial world that so often demands perfect appearance of objects and people, the more damaged an adversity cover is the more money its costs.
I probably paid about CAN $50 for this cover, which was on the KLM DC-2 airliner Uiver when it crashed in Syria in 1934:
I once complained to a bourse dealer that a crash cover I was thinking of buying didn't appear to have much damage. The dealer had a solution: "Here, I can fix that!" he said, as he pulled out his cigarette lighter.
Bob
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
I will take your #10 covers off your hands Phil.
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
Heh I suspected as much.
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this post
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
Smauggie, like many people i have oversized items that do not fit in a 6x9 envelope...that usually means more shipping costs which are a pain. If i could send #10s for first class shipping i would do it. I used to have #12 envelopes for shipping but i am down to one of those.
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
I was only kidding Phil. No hard feelings.
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re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
Smauggie, No hard feelings at all...i feel we are all friends here...if i were in business i would order boxes of all kinds of mailers...i am happy just selling what i can here.
Login to Like
this post
re: Confessions of a former cover snob.
I do sell a fair number of no 11 covers. Staples gets $22 a box for 100 number 12 envelopes! They are brown paper, but really 22 cent an envelope??
Instead I take 9x12 envelopes and cut them in two to get two number 12 envelopes. I cut a filler card the same size and it works just grand!
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