Finding Stuff in Your Mess! -- tcii 06
Fellow Collectors
Today’s message is giving you another opportunity to look over my shoulder and see some stamps I just happened to have in a small tray.
Special thanks to my European readers for adding my message to your weekly read.
Illustrations are original scans of the stamps I am talking about.
September 3, 2026
Today’s Collector part 2
Finding Answers
Finding Stuff in Your Mess!
These 12ctv 1868 issues have ten different types. This set seems to have lost one of the types.
Nor would I trust the order in which these are shown. Just another thing I planned to fix.
As I continue to go through some of the things that I have accumulated over the years, not for my collection but for adding to my sales stock, I keep getting shocked at what I am finding. Well, some of it was picked up when I purchased this collection, or at one of my favorite auctions. There is a good truth, and that is: “Every collection has odds and ends.” When I say every, I mean all of them. Sometimes we buyers don’t see these things, because they are the loose stamps that never make it into a sale. Other collections may have banker boxes filled with loose stamps, covers, and oddities. Yesterday I pulled out another tray of stamps and covers. The first thing that popped out at me was a small, four-row, black-background stock holder filled with nine of the ten 1868 12-centavos issue types. The first thing that caught my eye was 8 yellow pieces of paper, obviously there to tell which type each of these stamps had. Obviously, I didn’t feel I had the time to go to Doug Stout’s reference book and place each of the back in the original order, and add another stamp and the two missing numbers.
Civil Court case mailing sent with two different issues. Signed on the front upon arrival.
My desire to go further was fueled by what appeared to be a certified mail front, with two 3-centavos Large Numerals and a single 4-centavos Medallion issue. Looking more closely, it wasn’t a normal Certified cover but a Civil Trial cover, sent with the required stamps and signed for by the receiver on the front. I don’t have the price I may have been sold it for, but I did have the ID# I used. A quick search didn’t tell me anything, but it sparked my interest, so it was set aside for another time. The following was another cover from San Miguel de Allende with a large 10 centavos issue and a large 'A' cancel. The holder was a beat-up plastic cover holder marked $100. Of course, it was interesting to me, but whoever set that price must know more than I do. I would have sold it for a fraction of that price. I am not planning on going through the whole tray, but what followed were a number of stamps I picked up in a collection many years ago.
Interesting ‘A’ postmark for San Miguel de Allende on cover
That collection was put together by the father of two daughters who sat there at the table in their dining room as I looked through their dad’s collection. I could tell he would likely purchase stamps when they arrived in the yearly set from the Mexican postal office or maybe from a dealer that had mint stamps. Most of the stamps were purchased in sets of Blocks of Four, with one stamp removed, apparently for the collector’s album. What intrigues me is that all the blocks still had the selvage attached. The sheet margins, therefore, were printed with a safeguard to prevent anyone from printing on the wide margin with fake stamp images that would have the watermark from this issue. Most of the sets were from 1938 and into the 1940s, and one of them was the Astrophysics Set #774-776, C123-125. Since there was one hanging off the left side of these, I removed each stamp like this for a full set of singles in mint, never-hinged condition. The remaining stamps formed a vertical pair, with the fancy safety control printed on each. Why I never did this in the past and sold them then is a moot question, because I just didn’t. These will make nice little items to add to my eventual auction sale.
Famous Astrophysics set in pairs w/ selvage MNH examples.
Why I still have these and a lot of other things in what I call my mess is, as I said above, I just didn’t take the time to work them up. Today, as you read again, I am letting you look over my shoulder and see just a few of the things I put aside for later. I could do this same thing for weeks and weeks. Now I ask you a question: are you just putting off things that have piled up in your collection? Maybe they are in an old album that needs clearing out or in some old boxes. I know I often pass over things that are not in my own interest, putting them in another box or tray for another day. In the days, weeks, or months before I put my sales stock up for auction, I will have to make some serious considerations about what I am going to do with all this loose stuff. As you can already picture, this is not uncollectable junk, but has value. You might need to reconsider what you are planning. Trust me, it all comes down to you eventually. And you can definitely already recognize this, because your kids don’t want to go through it. My wife and kids have already told me that I better not die and leave this to them. So, we have a chance to do something about this before the inevitable happens. The truth is, as I work on my stuff, I have been having a ball playing with things I just put away without thinking about selling them. Now I am thinking for a change, and I also feel it is for the best.
Enjoy!
Bubba Bland
oobubba@icloud.com
1-951-833-1756
MEPSI #2795,
APS #198784, USPCS #4060,
Western Cover Soc. #1423, UPSS 6670,
CCNY #7864 and Royal Philatelic Society of London
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