Not in my album

I decided that I would revisit stamps that are not included in a typical album. These are not issues that I consider back of the book (BOB), these are what I would characterize as supplemental issues.

The first example I know of is shown here.

This is the set of souvenir sheets issued for the Israphil 85 stamp show. These stamps were overprinted by the FIP and sold at the show. My album has spaces for the normal souvenir sheets, but not the overprinted version. These are listed in Bale, and I have even seen them on some dealer price sheets, but they are absent from the albums.

Another example of this is the Ardon Windows souvenir sheet issued at Stamp World London in 1990. As a special gift to new issue subscribers, the philatelic service sent an imperf version of the souvenir sheet out. The fact that it is a gift is printed on the back. It is a great addition to my collection, but why did the album makers not give me a place to put it?

Uncommon stamps

There are some relatively new stamps that are fairly scarce. Some are valuable, others go for next to nothing. Why the difference? My theory is it comes down to the basic tenets of economics. Supply and demand. While most of these scarce issues have a low supply, the demand is just not enough to drive up the value of the stamps.

One example of this is the stamp shown here. This stamp shown here was one drawn by someone who attended the Telabul stamp show in May 2004 in Tel Aviv. A few months later, the postal service issued a similar stamp with a different drawing in the center. Examples of the stamp with different drawings in the center are fairly scarce, as I believe the only way to get the stamps was at the show, and each design was limited to 2 sheets, and each sheet had only 3 tabs. In theory, there are only 5 other tabs that look like the one example I have. When I bought the stamp, I was told that there were only 10,000 sheets printed total, which would imply 5,000 different designs, and 30,000 tabs. So, if demand were the same for this issue as it is for the early issues of Israel tabs, this stamp should have the same value as the early tabs. But the demand is just not the same. Why? One reason is the album makers do not have a place in the album for this variety. It does get mention in the 2006 edition of the Bale Catalog (1587a/b, IRS 71), but it is not mentioned in the more mainstream Scott catalog. If it had a spot in a standard album, I believe demand would go up. No one likes a blank space in an album, but it is easy to ignore, or to not even be aware of stamps that have no spots in the album.

Best buys on the net?

Over the years, I have made some terrific finds on the Internet. I made my first purchase of a stamp collection over the Internet while still in college. I responded to an add posted on the Usenet group rec.collecting.stamps. This was in the days before the Internet became the world wide web, when it was all text based interaction, and there was no such thing as E-bay. There was a post to the newsgroup by a gentleman selling a bunch of Israel stamps he had inherited. I think the whole collection cost me $50. Out of this collection, there were some really nice items. There were 2 of the early booklets (B3 and 3a, I believe) exploded with all interleaves mounted on presentation sheets. Additionally, there were some nice FDC's, including an FDC of #55 with a half tab. Not bad for $50.

Once e-bay came along, the number of interesting items available for sale increased dramatically. So to did the bargains. Up until recently, I think the best deal I made on e-bay was when I bought a lot that was only described in the title as "Israel Cover". The description was a little more helpful, and I purchased the cover shown here for the $5 minimum bid. This is a registered FDC for B7, which is worth a considerable bit more then my $5 investment.

Then, this week, I bought a rather large collection on e-bay. It was advertised as 2150 Israel covers and stamps. There were a handful of pictures included in the description, including one that showed a set of 7-9 singles. I must have been looking just minutes after the person posted the lot, because the lot was listed with a Buy It Now price of $195, and the 7-9 singles alone catalog for $400. I quickly bought the lot, and it came in the mail a few days ago. It was 4 large flat rate priority mail boxes stuffed to overflowing. I have just started looking at it, but in addition to the 7-9 set, there are 3 sets of 907-9a, 2 copies of the imperf version of the postal museum souvenir sheet, and 1 copy of the Ardon Windows imperf souvenir sheet included. Among the covers were about a dozen artist signed presentation folders (including 907-9 and 1041). Not to mention the 2000+ covers. Should take me another few weeks to decide what I need from the lot, and what I will break out and list back on e-bay. I think at a minimum, I will be able to get my $200 back, and add a bunch of nice items to my collection.

What next?

After completing as much of my tab collection as I could afford, I moved on to expand the breadth of my collection. So far, here are the areas I have expanded into:

1. First Day Covers




2. Maximimum Cards




3. Postal Stationary (Pre-stamped envelopes, Air letter sheets, postcards, and reply cards)




4. Vending Stamps




5. New issue bulletins




6. Revenues




7. Booklets




8. Artist signed presentation folders




9. Plate blocks




10. International Reply Coupons




11. Duck Stamps




12. New Years Cards




13. Rememberence Letters




14. Show Cards




15. Tete-Beche Issues




16. Palestinian Authority




17. Egypt Occupied Palestine




18. Jordan Occupied Palestine




19. and just about anything else I can find

Crazy, huh?

Some of the areas were relatively easy and inexpensive to complete. Duck stamps, for example were only issues from 1995-1998. 4 stamps, and 4 FDC's later the collection was complete. Total cost was around $30. New Years cards were a bit tougher to complete, since they were only given free every year to new issue subscribers yearly since 1987, and I haven't subscribed directly to the new issue service. I was still able to buy them slowly and complete the collection for only $1-2 per card.

Maximum cards were very difficult to complete, even though the first set put out by the postal service only came out in 1988. Every issue from then on seems relatively common, and can easily be found from a specialized dealer or on e-bay. But, that first set (listed in the Bale 1992 catalog as MC1-3)was nearly impossible to find. I finally managed to put a set together from e-bay, but it took years. I actually thought I had bought a complete set at first, but it turned out to have only 2 of the 3 cards from the first set and 1 from the second. A few years later, I bought a lot (I suspect from the same person, but I can't be sure) that had the third card. Last year, I saw a set of 3 on e-bay and quickly purchased them (for $5) to have just in case the catalog ever catches up with there actual scarcity in the market.

Intro

Since everyone else is starting a blog, I figured it was time that I started my own. Since my wife and sister both have the family covered, I decided to go with my hobby instead. Since the Yankees are well covered on the web, stamp collecting becomes the obvious choice for me. I have been collecting Israeli stamps for nearly 20 years (since my Bar Mitzvah way back in 1987).
I started collecting with a White Ace tab album, and a subscription to new issues from the Israel Stamp Agency in North America. I was able to find a dealer in Linn's that offered low priced approvals, and my collection was started. My dad and I want to the local stamp shows regularly, and I slowly was able to fill in the empty spots in my album.
Looking back, if I were to start over now, I would have been better served (at least, financially) with buying a collection at an auction, but back then there was no E-bay, and bidding in a conventional auction was just too scary. Plus, it was much more fun to explore the offerings of the various dealers at the stamp shows, or open a new shipment from the approval dealer every few weeks.
Since when I started collecting Israel stamps there was just about 40 years worth to complete the collection, and the majority of those were under $1, it didn't take too long until I had gotten to the point in my collecting that I had every Israeli stamp I could afford (pretty much complete from 1952 on). I didn't want to start collecting another country, but buying 1 stamp every few months was also unappealing. So, the question became what to collect now? I will answer the question in future posts.