From: (Joe)
Organization: http://groups.google.com/
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Date: 2 Sep 2003 12:04:13 -0700
Subject: Used recent stamps worth more than mint stamps or not?

Bob Ingraham wrote in message
...

For ordinary stamps with better cancels, such as nicely placed corner CDS
cancels, yes.

Do you mean that even if the stamps don`t show the date of cancel or
don`t show the full name of postoffice, but do have a clean corner
cancel you would be willing to offer more than for mint stamps?

Basically, yes, if I were looking for particular modern stamps of some
countries, notably the U.S. and Canada and to some extent Great Britain.
These countries have for many years been incredibly sloppy with regards to
cancellations and cancellation policies. Efficiency has become the ruling
concern, and to hell with the stamps. Managers and clerks for the most part
don't understand the interest that collectors have in tidy cancellations
that convey information about the mailing, to the extent that cleanly
cancelled modern stamps are in the minority, and SON stamps are nearly
impossible to find.

If rarity is a factor in pricing, then attractively cancelled stamps should
be worth more than the same stamps in mint condition, which exist in
abundance.*All you need to obtain a modern mint stamp from these countries
is money; all you need to obtain a nicely cancelled stamp from these
countries is a lot of patience and a degree of luck.

With other countries there is less difficulty. Scandinavian stamps, for
example, are nearly always nicely cancelled, as are German stamps, and no
doubt many others that I am not aware of. (I rarely bother with any modern
stamps, except to stick them on letters; in some cases I treat them as
collateral items to my WWII and early airliner/early airmail collections,
and then generally I want mint stamps simply because they look better on web
pages and the cancel would detract from the purpose of displaying them.)

Bob