Canadian Stamp Auctions

13 January, 2009 - Sparks Auctions Ltd.

We were most impressed by this latest sale by Sparks Auctions in Ottawa. All areas of Canada’s stamps were covered with a wide selection. Our viewers will see some of the finer stamps displayed below. But, what they will not see is the amazing amount of sheet material that was offered from Canada’s sets issued between 1912 and 1935. This includes the Admiral, Scroll and Arch sets. Also offered were large quantities of coils. We haven’t seen anything like it in some time.

We found the Spark’s Auction catalogue to be very used friendly and we appreciated the fact they had the prices realized up by the end of the day of the auction. Their website is easy to navigate. This is their 3rd sale since they entered the auction market just over a year ago and we see continuous improvements.

Here is some of the material that stood out:

Corner margin	Left sheet margin
Lot 404 Unitrade 1a Catalogue $2,500 Realized $1,600	Lot 407 Scott 2 Catalogue $1,850 Realized $2,500

"Stitch watermark"	Rare laid paper
Lot 430 Unitrade 17vii Catalogue $1,750 Realized $1,350	Lot 451 Scott 33 Catalogue $2,000 Realized $2,000

"Dated Jubilees"

Lot 484 Scott 54 Catalogue $45 Realized $140

Lot 493 Scott 61 Catalogue $750 Realized $1,150

Lot 515 Unitrade 90iii Type 1 Catalogue $2,200 Realized $950

Lot 735 Unitrade 2083ii Catalogue $1,750 Realized $1,000

Newly discovered variety

Lot 664 Scott 270 var Catalogue $2,500 Realized $1,800

Sparks offered the following comments:

“1946 14c Hydro Electric imperforate at right margin, lower right Plate No. 1 block, an unlisted major error, never hinged but has minor gum disturbance. Newly discovered by one of our lotters. Previously unrecorded and an important major error which is likely unique and the most important single item from the 1946 Peace issue. Comparable errors include #257i ($4,000) and 294i ($5,750) of which only one plate block of each exists. “

We can just imagine the look on the lotter’s face when he looked at this block for the first time and realized he was looking at something very unusual!

FIRST NEW RECORD PRICES OF 2009

This sale had 3 new record prices: