eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎10-22-2023

This happened to me today.

The item (in the big stamp collection) is a "genuine color reprint of a Queen Victoria Penny stamp", there is two versions (one that looks like Penny black, the other looks like the Penny Red with letters instead of rosettes), they come in five colours.

I had no idea what these were, but I was pretty excited about it when I couldn't find them for sale on ebay. So I went to Google to do my searching to find out what the value of these are. I certainly don't want to lose credibility by listing junk for prices that are way too high, nor do I want to sell items for less than their value and lose profits...

What I found was a couple of threads on a message board about these stamps. So this is what it is... in 1940 they issued mini-sheets of stamps to commemorate 100 years since the Penny black, and they made them coloured versions. This is a real stamp in 1940 with the image of the penny black/red stamp as part of the design.

What happened here... someone took scissors and cut the penny black/red reprint part out of the stamp and is passing it off as a penny black reprint (when it was actually just part of a larger design). Someone posted pictures of what they're supposed to be, and many pictures were posted of eBay listings of people selling "just the penny black part". Apparently people in this forum hate these things and have been contacting sellers on the eBay UK to tell them the items are worthless and they're ripping people off, blah blah blah, and then posting about it here.

Well I can't sell these things, it's not even a real thing... something people made up to pass off as something of value. Supposedly on eBay UK some sellers were asking $100 for the set, but the forum was saying how they're really only worth a couple of dollars and if you bought the real 1940 stamps you wouldn't be paying much for that set as it is. So how is doing a "scissors job" make them more valuable? ("Scissors job" was their words to describe these stamps).

I was so disgusted and disappointed with what I thought was an interesting find I gave up on my stamp collection for the rest of the day and went to bake a peach cobbler instead.

It's really disappointing to think you have something good and find out that not only is total garbage, but it's controversial garbage in your collector community.

C.

sakic92710 · ‎10-22-2023

Sorry you had to have this disappointment. Usually my disappointment comes from seeing an item sell for $40-50 on eBay & you think, "I have that!" Only to find out others have the same item posted for $10 w/ free shipping & it's not selling. Why did that person get 4x 5x more??? 😞 Even saw a 1967 magazine selling for $100 US. I know I have it so I check my copy. I find out the most important article in the issue has been removed so now my copy is worth $5.00?! Argh! lol All kinds of different tales of valuable items that turned out to be a pipe dream.

lakefor94 · ‎10-22-2023

I like peach cobbler.

Posting ID

ten_o_nine · ‎10-22-2023

It does happen to all of us but it's part of the deal, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We have to take a chance.

sin-n-dex · ‎10-22-2023

@sakic92710 wrote:
Sorry you had to have this disappointment. Usually my disappointment comes from seeing an item sell for $40-50 on eBay & you think, "I have that!" Only to find out others have the same item posted for $10 w/ free shipping & it's not selling. Why did that person get 4x 5x more??? 😞 Even saw a 1967 magazine selling for $100 US. I know I have it so I check my copy. I find out the most important article in the issue has been removed so now my copy is worth $5.00?! Argh! lol All kinds of different tales of valuable items that turned out to be a pipe dream.

I hear you on that (having something that other people get more money for).

I was on Stanley Gibbon's website looking at their Queen Victoria stamps. I have a lot of those stamps. Do you think I can get SG prices though on eBay? Not a chance. He's got stuff up for $300 that regularly sells for $50-100 day in and day out... Of this particular item, I have 27 of them to list.

It kind of makes me wonder of SG actually gets the prices he's asking for stuff... or is it just listed on his website for decoration?

There was a website I found earlier today with "the most expensive stamps". One of them said it's worth 1000 pounds. I got $265 USD for mine, and others were getting $250-300, so 1000 pounds according to whom? I had a few other stamps that were on the list (but the published list had mint stamps with original gum and my copies are all used).

The B&M store has a very inflated view on the value of this collection and how rare the stuff in it is, but I'm not terribly excited about it. I told them what they think is "very valuable" is $200-300, not the 10K they're thinking it might be worth.

Anyway kind of a disappointing day... at least I have a fresh peach cobbler for the rest of the week.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎10-22-2023

@lakefor94 wrote:
I like peach cobbler.

Message me if you want the recipe. 🙂

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎10-22-2023

@ten_o_nine wrote:
It does happen to all of us but it's part of the deal, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We have to take a chance.

Sharing the adventures of my finds (or disappointment) makes me feel a little better about it... like it's not just me that these things happen to.

Tomorrow is a new day and by tomorrow morning I'll be worried about work and not thinking about my stamps at all... by the time I get home and grab the next volume of this collection to work on, I'll have completely forgotten about today's disappointment and be moving forward.

At least this Wednesday I can look forward to my visit to the coin shop. They have at least a couple decent sized collections for me to appraise (and sell if I want to). I still can't believe I got picked for the job to appraise stamps... I do not consider myself an expert by any means, but I've purchased many collections in the past few years.

C.