 |
Canadian Stamp Auctions |
Recent Auction Highlights
|
Canadian Stamp Auctions |
Recent Auction Highlights
| 1 November, 2008 - Eastern Auctions Ltd. Once again, Eastern has presented an outstanding auction. The strongest sections were the Large Queens, Admirals, imperforates and pre-cancelled stamps. There were some real beauties. As we have noted recently the top grade stamps in Canada’s stamp auctions continue to attract record prices, but everything else is experiencing softer prices. This seems to be the case, not only for stamps, but for other collectibles as well. Large Queens – Rare stitch watermarks We find it remarkable
that this is the first time we have had any record of the following
three Large Queens with stitch watermarks:
Our pricing records cover the past 10 years. Our stamp research records go back 20–30 years. But in them, we have no record of these stamps being offered at auction. This comes as a surprise to us. The first two of
the above stamps are found in the Unitrade Specialized Catalogue, but
not the third. We must say that the fact that these rare stamps sold
for such low prices surprised us. But that’s what we love about
auctions. Sometimes, as in this case, the buyers get a huge break. We
hope these buyers realize how fortunate they were.
This beauty is as nice as they come. It has a perfectly clean surface, even perforations all around and is NH. The set, issued in 1908, commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of Quebec, and here we are, 100 years later, commemorating Quebec’s 400th anniversary. We checked our records
and were surprised to see that this was the first time this year a copy
of this stamp in investment quality has been offered. But then, in 2007
we recorded only two copies. It is obviously not easy to obtain this
stamp in this type of condition. A Rare
Booklet Single
This was quite the unusual single, which comes from the booklet page. It is well centered and comes with four jumbo margins. To top it all off, it is NH. We’ve never seen another one like this!
While this 2¢ Admiral coil has always been in great demand, even we were surprised by the above price. The previous top price for the stamp was $265, set back in 2000. To go from there to $400 is quite a leap. Someone wanted this perfect copy badly!
3¢
Confederation - Rare Imperforate Plate Block
One of the things we will remember about this sale was the fact it contained a number of philatelic items we have never seen before. This is a good example. We have no record in our research files of the sale of a plate block of this 3¢ imperforate. According to Unitrade, a lower left and lower right copy of each plate exists in imperforate form and each is unique. They give each a value of $5,250. Eastern gave the plate an estimate of only $3,000, probably because it had a small negligible tear in the bottom sheet margin. It is interesting
to note the portion of the guide arrow on the lower left side. The stamp
came with no gum as is usual for imperforates of this issue. Eastern’s
estimate turned out to be pretty accurate. $1 Runnymede Library – Inverted Inscriptions
This is said to be the toughest of all the Admiral issue to find in choice condition. This was VF NH but with a light natural gum crease. Despite this minor flaw, it reached a record new price, surpassing the previous record of $1,045 set in 2007. Hat’s off to the people at Unitrade for their accurate pricing for this stamp. Until three years
ago, the best price for this stamp was $350. It has come a long way
since then. For more details of the sale, please click on the highlights button.
This sale had 7 new record prices:
|
