Welcome back again. Lovely stamp with so much history about the gentlemen and the aircraft. But before I get into that. I was going to buy a single copy, after all it is a 25c cat Mint Never Hinged stamp. And then I saw that a seller was asking $95. Wow, 380 times cat. And we all know cat is just a supposed retail price and a minimum, as the catalog publishers won’t go below 25c these days. Makes sense doesn’t it.
Has to be a variety, error or something I thought. But no. Some con artist hoping to take advantage of someone with lots of money and little common sense is trying it on…. Again.
Think bad of me for being blunt and saying how I see it, or should I say, how it is. But that is how it is.
Look, I am all for quality in the condition in a stamp. And even nicely centered stamps, especially in the US where the printing capability back in the 1930 and 40s seems to have been of a pretty abysmal quality, like British Commonwealth at times, yes I will acknowledge that.
But seriously, how many of these stamps were printed? Just a few hundred thousand perhaps, to go towards justifying a $95 price for a quality stamp? No, 80 million. 80 million stamps printed. How many survive. 100? 200 ? no, tens of thousands I would guess.
Seriously, you can buy a sheet of 50 with the $95 centering for $10, or a plate block of 4 for around a $1. That is, in my old school maths, 25c a stamp. Not $95 with some cocked up grading certificate. Please don’t get fooled by this grading hype.
So that s my rant. May well do it again tomorrow as I have another beautiful stamp, my view, to show you.
But for now this stamp issued in 1949 and showing the Wright brothers and their aircraft. Did you know that they only ever flew together once? Well that is what I read.
The milestone we all probably know was on October 5, 1905, their aircraft flew 24.2 miles, remaining airborne for 38 minutes and 3 seconds or so the records show. Did they really measure to the second back then? Probably the ancestors of those people “grading” stamps today. 😊 The flight was only cut short by the airplane running out of fuel, or so I read.
Hope you like my copy, one of a group of 4 blocks of 4. Yours for only $300. 😊 No, Only joking.
See you tomorrow I hope.
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Welcome back, so much to show and so much to write but am a bit stretched for time so will be very brief for a change. Three stamps. Issued in 1949 for the 75th anniversary of the formation of the Universal Postal Union.
This 10c stamp shows the Post Office Department Building, and the aircraft is, I believe, a Boeing Stratocruiser.
The second stamp in the issue is this 15c stamp and I suspect the design is such that Europe is in the middle because the Universal Postal Union has its headquarters in Byrne, Switzerland.
And the third stamp is the 25c Airmail issue.
A very easy and cheap set to collect. Did I say cheap. Yes, cheap. Don’t get fooled. 🙂
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Welcome to Monday and a new week taking us to the end of the month already.. Let’s start slow and small. I will try not to confuse you 😊
We have already seen this stamp design, in Part IX – where I talked about the design being a smaller version of the earlier DC4 Skymaster issue.
The first time we saw this stamp was in 1947 on the 5c value which was the airmail rate at the time and it was a perforated issue you may recall. Then in 1948 it was issued at 5c as a coil stamp and in January 1949 it was reissued for the new airmail rate of 6c, again as a perforated stamp.
Now we have the 1949 coil stamp, issued in August of 1949. Rather, a lot of stamps of the same design issued over those few years, just the 2 denominations and types issued. I gave up counting as the number was too big for me 😊
So 4 different copies to add to your collection. And, very affordable even if not always well centered as was very common given the printing capabilities of the rotary press printing of the time.
I hope you have at least one of each. For the coils I like to have a pair as shown.
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Hello again, here we are, Part X of the series. Wow it has gone fast hasn’t it. Today, what I consider to be one of the most stunning US airmails sets, the 1947 issue for the Pan American Conference – with the Pan American union Building 10c value (207 million issued), the Statute of Liberty 15c value (766 million issued) and the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, 25c value (132 million issued).
This is the Pam American Union Building and the aircraft is a Martin 2-0-2. Unfortunate choice of aircraft really. The Martin was a twin piston aircraft introduced in 1947 but, with a fatal crash in 1948 the expected sales did not happen and only 47 aircraft were ever built even though initial orders were for some 150 plus aircraft.
A sight familiar to many of us I am sure. The Statue of Liberty and this stamp showing a Lockheed Constellation, an aircraft I have shown and written about a few times.
The Statue of Liberty is a neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor It is a copper statue weighing 204 metric tons. It was a gift from France in 1886. It was designed by the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. It came to be because in 1865 Edouard de Laboulaye, a French political intellectual and anti-slavery activist proposed a statue be built honouring the US independence centennial and the friendship with France. The robbed figure represents Liberatas, the Roman goddess of freedom.
The third stamp is the 25c value and again we see a very famous site. In fact I mentioned this bridge in Part V when I showed the China Clipper stamps.
The bridge is the San Francisco – Oakland Bay bridge which opened in 1936 and the aircraft, I have read, is a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.
The Boeing Stratocruiser first flew July 8th 1947, and this stamp was issued July 30th 1947 so if what I read was correct that is an interesting timing.
The main operator of the type was Pan Am who started using it 1949 as did BOAC. Only 55 production aircraft were built. BOAC initially bought 6 aircraft and used them on the transatlantic routes from October 1949. The aircraft operated via Shannon and Gander westbound to New York from London and non stop from New York to London with 34 berths in the double deck configuration. BOAC added 4 more aircraft, taking them from SAS, and then 7 they bought second hand from United in the 1954.
Enjoyable? And not a single word about the price of what is for sale 😊 Have a brilliant and philatelic weekend. Still a few more stamps to show in this series. Hope to see you.
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Hello again, today, what is by now a familiar looking image. albeit a smaller version, showing the DC4 Skymaster. This one was issued in 1947. And if my source is right, there were 9,771.9 million issued.
Think about the number. Not 10 million, or 100 million or 1000 million but 9000 million, seems to high to me? Obviously that would make the chances of finding a very fine mint copy quite difficult, one would think? Or No! But one seller seems to think collectors are fools. Asking $125 (500 times cat that is) for a MNH copy which if you look at, you will find equally good copies for 25c or less even. Another seller I know of seems to think $35 is an acceptable asking price or why not pay $5? Really is daylight robbery in front of your very eyes. Well that is my view and yes ok, we can sell whatever we want at what price we want to ask, it is a free market I guess, but does that make it honest and ethical. I don’t think so.
Collectors, just know what you are paying for. Eggplants maybe? I saw some in the market this morning. We had little Johnny visit us and he was with me for a treat visit to the market. He asked if we could buy some at this stall we were passing as he really likes eggplant and I said no because the seller was asking 20 times more than the stall further down the market and they were exactly the same quality 😊
What do we do to stop these con artists roaming the internet? We cannot can we? I don’t know except to say NEVER buy anything from them, or at least until they start behaving responsibly.
Yes, I feel strongly about this because I think this is a wonderful hobby that brings pleasure to millions and I hate the thought of collectors getting conned by these crooks, well that is how view them. 😊 I am not against paying for quality but there has to be a sensible and honest view of quality in perspective.
And no, I am not selling this plate block (with the other matching three) for $100 😊
Tomorrow I will show what I consider to be one of the most stunning US airmails sets, the 1947 issue for the Pan American Conference – with the Pan Am Building 10c value, the Statute of Liberty 15c value and the Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco 25c value. And if you want to get ripped off by the grading / centering con artists this is one group of stamps just screaming to con you. But enough, surely I have got the message across by now. I will only be talking about the stamps 😊 Hope to see you then.
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Hello again, well did you enjoy little Johnny’s story? We will just do a short piece on this next stamp today.
This is from 1946 and shows a DC4 Skymaster. What is the first thing you notice? Look back a few screens. Yes, this one has 4 engines and a similar stamp shows a similar aircraft with 2 engines, but the correct answer is the rate of 5c. We saw 6c on that previous issue. So yes, the rate for domestic airmail was reduced. Never happened again since hahahahahahaha
Anyway the DC4 was built in a few versions, in fact the first version, the DC4E was not very well accepted and after various US airlines provided their requirements a new version, the DC4A, was developed. It was a 44 seat passenger aircraft although it was also widely used for air mail. It served the big name US airlines of the day as well as foreign operators including KLM, Swissair, Sabena, Air France and others. Apparently there are a few still flying for tourist trips I believe, and one I am aware of is on display at HARS, the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society field in NSW Australia.
As for adding a copy to your collection, well it is listed in Scott, Mint Never Hinged at 25c, and you can easily pick one up for a few cents, there were only 864.7 million printed… hhhmmm, still not sure how someone can ask 900 times cat for one though. Oh of course, the con trick of well a centered copy. Of course.!!!! But don’t worry you can get a nice centered copy for 10c or even $10, that’s only 40 times cat, much more reasonable….. derrgghh. NOT! 😊
This is from my collection. Anyone offer me $1000, I will add the other 3 matching corner blocks!!!!! Only teasing. 😊
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Hello again, Nice to see you. A very different story today. I hope you enjoy it. 😊
So little Johnny’s Dad has this friend who is a sort of a con artist in many ways. Nice guy and all that but one is never quite sure. So little Johnny comes home from school one day and his dad says how was school today. Johnny says really good dad, we had to do a talk about someone in our family and I decided to do you and your stamp collecting cos I think that is really cool. How nice says his dad. Yes Johnny replies, but little Bobby did a talk about his dads stamps as well. Really says Johnny’s dad, I didn’t know Bobby’s father collected stamps. Oh no Johnny says he does not collect stamps he sells stamps. Well how interesting, says Johnny’s dad, I did not know that, of course he did but he did not want to stop his son from telling about his day at school.
Yes, says Johnny, Bobby said his dad used to be in the grocery business and found that people really liked buying very nice shaped fruits and vegetables, well this is what Bobby said. Seems he found that people like their carrots to be long and straight, and their apples to be round and their tomatoes and beetroot to be nicely shaped as well. Even eggplant he said. People paid more for nicely shaped eggplant Bobby told us. So his dad came up with the idea of Perfectly Shaped Eggplants and he started calling all the vegetables and fruits in his grocery store Perfectly Shaped Eggplants, as the name seemed to click with people. And they paid more for the perfectly shaped vegetables and fruits.
Well, for a while anyway, Bobby said. Then people realized there really was no real difference between most eggplants and most tomatoes and they stopped buying from him because they realized he was being a bit devious and just making the price higher. Well that is what Bobby said. But Bobby also said his dad was sure he was onto a good thing so he started selling stamps and did the same thing. And he even used the same name Perfectly Shaped Eggplants but Bobby said his dad said that was silly so he used the name PSE instead. And people started buying his Perfectly Shaped Eggplant stamps. And he started making lots of money Bobby said. I think he wanted to tell us more but the teacher told us that was enough and perhaps we should not listen to such a silly story. But dad,……have you ever bought a Perfectly Shaped Eggplant stamp?
Which is the perfectly shaped eggplant?
25c.. or $45….or…. $245
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps, but fortunately for you, no eggplants 😊
How is your weekend going? Philatelic perhaps? I have had no emails about my last piece and plenty of reads. Perhaps that means people agree? Would love to hear from you. There is more here 😊
How about this next stamp. Issued in 1941 and as part of a series of 7 stamps issued over the years 1941 through 1944. What aircraft? Well a twin engine plane but I do not know any specifics. This was also issued in a booklet pane of three. These are from my collection.
This 6c value was used for domestic airmail services, and 5,746.5 million were issued. Yes 5 thousand 746 million. So how much would you pay for a copy? And FYI, as a baseline, the 2023 cat listing is 25c mint never hinged in very fine condition, as a retail value. 25 cents is of course a minimum value used in the catalog so really you know it is less than that.
Well here are four copies.
You tell me which ones are from sellers acting with ethical values. One could be bought for 20c plus shipping. One would cost you $20 and another would set you back $100, while another would be a little over $225. USD of course.
Pretty amazing isn’t it. But let’s do what I will call a validity test. I wonder if the three sellers of the three stamps priced at 80 times catalog, 400 times and 880, yes 880, times catalog listing would allow themselves to pay such totally exaggerated, inflated, excessive, unwarranted, disproportionate prices for a very common and easily available in very fine condition product in the market place because someone told them it was really good quality, and even gave them a piece of paper that said that, whatever the product. Or would they be saying, hey that is unethical, this is wrong, or some such words. Probably not as polite of course. Yet they behave that way and have no qualms about it in the philatelic space. My other blog has a series titled Collectors Buying With Confidence. This will make a good piece I think. Collectors Buying With Confidence they are getting conned 😊
Anyway, a nice set of the 7 stamps can be picked up for around $10, and yes, in Mint Never hinged condition. Footnote here – do make sure you see all of all the stamps and preferable the reverse as well. Stamps for sale in a set like this when they are over lapping is not a good thing in my view.
I have a few sets in my collection because if I see a really nice well centered set I buy it and one day perhaps I will sell it for a bucket load. Only joking. Shucks!!! 😊
Have a great weekend. Don’t get conned.
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Hello, one of my favourite aircraft types from the 1930 era. The China Clipper and one with so much history of achievement, especially to my part of the world down here in the Philippines and Hong Kong.
The aircraft was a Martin M-130. An amazing machine in my view and its successes and failures are far too many to write about. In fact I wrote a few pieces on Pacific flights and this aircraft type so wont be repeating all that. Just showing the three stamps, the China Clippers, that are in my collection.
And how can I resist, adding a few other comments about the numbers issued and likely price to add a decent MNH copy, or the set of three, to your collection. This first stamp was issued in November 1935 to mark the first airmail flight across the Pacific. This stamp – there were 10.2 million issued and the 2022 Scott Specialized shows a MNH listing at $1.40. That is not a typo. USD $1.40.
A decent copy will set you back a dollar or less. In fact looking through some I saw many I would be very happy to own – I even bought another copy – Or, if you are super rich and want to spread your money around, you could pay up to just over $500 dollars. Yes 500!!! Actually 367 times the listed price in the Scott catalog. Or, if that is beyond your means there are other con artists trying to fleece you from anywhere from $50 to $250. Seriously, scary stuff 😊 It beggars belief in my book but that is what some sellers think is ethical. It is a total sham of course. You do not need to fall for this con trick called graded by centering. Just pick up a decent set for say around $20 or less.
Anyway, the aircraft – It was received by Pan Am and named the China Clipper. It’s range was 3200 miles, meaning the airline could finally operate over the Pacific.
The first flight left Alameda California on November 22nd carrying the first-ever transpacific airmail. Its crew included the famous pilot Ed Musick and navigator Fred Noonan. If you have read my previous posts you will already know the China Clipper had planned to fly over the incomplete San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge shortly after taking off. However, Musick realized he wouldn’t make it over the bridge and flew under instead, fun flying I think it is called! The plane completed its historic 8,000-mile island-hopping journey across the Pacific on November 29, delivering 58 mailbags with more than 110,000 pieces of mail.
In 1936, Pan Am first carried passengers on this transpacific flight. Two more Martin M-130s, the Hawaii Clipper and the Philippine Clipper, began flying the same route as the China Clipper. For the next few years, the three planes successfully carried passengers and millions of pieces of mail across the Pacific.
After WW II Pan Am had newer, larger models of flying boats in service across the Pacific, so the China Clipper was transferred to the less-famous Miami–Leopold transatlantic route. On January 8, 1945, it attempted to land at the Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. The plane hit the water nose-first at a high speed, breaking its hull in two. It quickly sank, taking 23 passengers and crew with it. Over its career, the famous plane had spent over 15,000 hours in the air, transporting around 3,500 passengers and 750,000 pounds of mail over the oceans.
The blue 25¢ denomination stamp satisfied the rate for mail sent on one leg of the transpacific flight – that was from San Francisco to Hawaii, or Hawaii to Guam, or Guam to Manila. A letter traveling the entire journey required 75¢ postage.
By 1937 the service was extended to Hong Kong and China. A green 20¢ and a carmine 50¢ stamp were issued for this service using the same design but minus the “November 1935″ inscription above the aircraft.
So, you got this far I hope. You thought 367 times list cat price was silly, How about asking $750 for a cat stamp of $11. Then offering it as $600. Bargain eh!!!!! Just don’t check the reverse!!!! Go buy the $20 one with same centering, you just won’t get a silly piece of paper saying it is center graded.
It really is immoral in my humble view. But hey that is the world these days. It is a free and open market and someone can ask whatever they want for a piece of something and especially something philatelic, well assuming they do not contravene any Federal Regulations I guess. Someone tell me the fine line between deception and honesty?
Oh, and yes, I know you are asking, how many were issued? Only 12.7 million of the 20c value. I wonder if the selling prices went up after Covid, hhhhhmmmmm the (USA) Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2022 might apply – no, Ok I am just being mischievous.
The red one, the 50c value, only 9.2 million printed but still some sensible prices (read sellers) are available, and then some others in the $50 to $250 range. Please don’t get drawn into this rabbit hole of graded stamps, ok, each to their own, but this my own view.
PS offers of $100 or more for my set will be considered hahahahahahahahaha 😊 Have a brilliant weekend
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
Hello, this one you might enjoy seeing. Not that common, only 106.8 million printed. Certainly easy to pick up a nice copy for your collection at a round 50% to 100% of Scott, whether used or mint. Although if you are totally stupid, and fall for the centre con trick you could pay oh, for a mint never hinged copy anywhere from $25 and that for a not that well centred copy to $100 for a bit better centring, and then not always MNH. Some will even come with a certificate printed on the sellers printer. Scott Mint Never Hinged listing shows $10.
Don’t get me wrong, I think better quality should justifiably command a higher price. And better quality is at times defined by better centring for example. Full perforations is another, no bends or creases, another, spots or marks on the face of the stamp or on the gum, or just clean gum, are others you might want to consider. But just centring on its own, and perhaps accompanied by the “this is a lovely stamp” type statement and no reverse scan when the price gets up there, it is just not right. Is it? The stamp shown is mine. What do you think? 20 bucks hahahahahahaha. no way. Keep reading, it is going to get better 😊
Michael cddstamps.com …. Please visit my online store https://www.hipstamp.com/store/cddstamps where I have some interesting aviation related covers and stamps.
cddstamps on aircraft & aerophilately 