Saturday, July 17, 2010

Negev Auction #72

In the latest Negev auction, which is scheduled to complete next week, there is a lot that contains a large collection of definitive plateblocks. Since no listing of blocks was available, Sid Morginstin was nice enough to send me the lot to preview. The lot is well over 200 plateblocks, and I need only 19. When I look at the catalog value of those 19, I was shocked that the Bale 2006 value was $701. However, the majority of that value was in only 3 blocks. JA18, the 1NIS value from the Archaeology set printed on 5/5/89 was listed at $500, and SH19 and SH20, both the 10ag value from the Herzl definitive set with printing dates of 8/8/91 and 2/23/92 respectively list at $50 each. I was so shocked, that I went back to my 1998 Bale catalog to check the value there, the JA18 was listed at $4, and the 2 Herzl blocks at $2.60 and $2.75 each. That is a huge difference, so I checked the 2000 catalog, and the JA18 was listed at $10, and the Herzl blocks at $5 each. I can think of no reason that the blocks would have doubled in value between 1998 and 2000, let alone why they would have each at least added an extra 0 to the price somewhere between 2000 and 2006. Does anyone else know of one?

1 comment:

Howard rotterdam said...

Adam

Bale has always had errors that seem to stay in the catalogue once they are made. Sometimes they make an item ridiculously expensive and sometimes ridiculously cheap. Since Michael Bale's retirement and the move to Strier's editorship these types of errors have only compounded. I would address the question to Strier but you will have to wait quite some time for a reply.Bale has become a necessity for any specialist and Strier has done a great job of expanding the scope of the catlogues. However, hs editing and proofreading leave a great deal to be desired.