Canadian Stamp Auctions

Celebrating Vance's 36th Anniversary of Auctions
3 December, 2008

It was not hard to note the excitement in Vance Carmichael’s report that accompanied this mail sale:

“This sale is very special to us as it marks our 36th Anniversary of Auctions. Thirty-six years ago the term’ Mail Auction’ was accurate, because virtually every bid was submitted to us by mail. Nowadays, ‘Mail, Telephone, Fax or E-mail Auction’ would be more appropriate. Not only have the ways to bid changed, but our catalogues have also changed dramatically over the years. They are bigger with a much more varied choice of material and full of colour illustrations”.

Vance also announced the birth of his first grandchild, a baby girl named Elyse Milena Carmichael. What a wonderful event for the Carmichael family. You can see where this news is going when Vance states “Maybe our new issue will be a fourth generation stamp dealer!”

This sale featuring two very valuable stamps from Newfoundland:

"Hawker Airmail"	"Columbia Airmail"
Lot 5487 Scott C1 Catalogue $25,000 Realized $17,100	Lot 5494 Scott C5 Catalogue $9,500 Realized $8,500

C1 had a slight hinge thin, but was beautifully centered. It came with a 1997 Greene Foundation certificate. C5, also well centered, was VF LH and came with a 2002 British Philatelic Association certificate. For those of you who are interested, the first stamp was sold to a collector in Canada and the second to a collector in Japan. .

Scott 4 - Rare Dated Beaver

Lot 5982 Scott 4 Catalogue $480 Realized $340

What a nice pair this is. It is rare to see one of these early Candian stamps with a date on them, let alone such a beautifully clear date. But this was a late use of the stamp, i.e. in1858, and the Post Office rules must have been changing. Unfortunately, the pair had a light crease and this undoubtedly accounted for the relatively low price.

Scott 15- Jumbo

Lot 6062 Scott 15 Estimate $225 Realized $205

There are so many of these 5¢ beavers that they seldom attract a whole lot of attention. But this one sure did with its amazing borders! Vance called them “huge boardwalk” margins. We always marvel to see stamps like this.

½¢ Jubilee – Another Jumbo

Lot 6248 Scott 50 Catalogue $115 Realized $134

Jumbos of the ½¢ Jubilee are not that rare. We have seen a number of them. Nevertheless, this example looks quite strange with its “monstrous margin “at the bottom. We find this bottom margin actually detracts from the beauty of the stamp.

Admiral Coils – What a Price !

Lot 6597 Scott 123-4 Catalogue $1,000 Realized $1,220

The price paid for this pair surprised us. The 1¢ coil stamps are clearly off-centre. The top stamp in the 2¢ pair is centered low. Granted the Admiral coils are in great demand these days, but for these two pairs to attract this price seems to be pushing it. But then, over the past year, a number of the prices at the Vance sales have surprised us on the upside. Good for them!

Scott 143a – Probably Unique

Lot 6656 Scott 143a Estimate $300 Realized $344

This top margin imperforate pair is quite special and with this No. 2 plate number, it is, according to Vance, probably unique.

The Unitrade Catalogue notes that there are 250 of these fully imperforate stamps. We have a record of two other plate blocks, 1 fully imperforate and 1 partially imperforate. These two plates and the one in this sale are all from Plate No. 2.

Scott puts a value of $180 in a no hinged imperforate pair of this 3¢ Parliament. Because of the plate number, Vance put an estimate of $300 on it and it received a successful bid of $344. We wonder why one of the previous owners did two things. First, why did he cut it so close on the left side? Second, why have only 2 stamps, why not 4, 6 or 8 which would be more normal for a plate block of this era? After all, this was part of a plate block and should be treated as such. Maybe we are just a bit jealous. Even as is, it would be a jewel in any collection.

Slightly Crooked Pair

Lot 6900 Scott 587 var Estimate $800 Realized $568

Former Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurie is shown here in a spectacular misperf error. This is the type of error that cannot be cataloged because it is probably unique. Looking through the other modern varieties in this auction, we see a number of examples of misperfs and other printing errors. Each time we see one, we wonder, did it get out of the printers by mistake or on purpose. Whatever the reason, the errors almost always command a good price.

At last – a normal stamp!

Lot 7059 Scott F3 Catalogue $450 Realized $460

We show this stamp in our review because, in our experience, it is very rare to see a well centered 8¢ registered stamp. It is XF OG. The fact it only sold for its catalogue value and not a whole lot more is a bit surprising. It was described as having “spectacular centering” by Vance and, because of this, we would say that the buyer did very well to get it at this price.

Once again, Vance has presented a wonderful auction with many interesting lots.

For further details, please click on the highlights button.

This sale had one new record price: