20TH CENTURY CLASSICS

Mail Sale #24

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On To The Sale!

 

EPS Mail Sale #24 Overview

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The closing date for Mail Sale #24 is Saturday, March 22, 2008

Bids must be emailed no later than this date to the Mail Sale Coordinator. or, if sent by ordinary mail, received by this date.

Patrick J. Dowling/EPS,  P.O. Box 7536, Colorado Springs, CO 80933 USA

email:  20thonline@comcast.net

Anyone may view the sale listing, but only members of the Ethiopian Philatelic Society may place bids.

                                                                                                           

Welcome to Mail Sale #24, our eighth to be held on the Internet.  We have a wide range of material in this sale, including stamps, many overprint varieties, forgeries, postal history, revenue usages, first day covers and postal stationery.

Among the many highlights are a pair of registered covers franked with the 1930 essays with vertical overprints for the Hayle Selassie coronation issue (Lot 106)—the one thaler stamp in the set has the black overprint, rather than the green overprint.  We also have an example of an Ethiopian stamp used to pay the customs fee on an incoming letter from Germany (Lot 166), the first example of this usage offered in our Mail Sales, and the first example that I have seen—the custom fee rates are discussed by Sciaky.  There are two examples of posters used by the Ethiopian Post Office to advertise newly issued stamps (Lots 232 and 234)—this is very unusual material that we are unlikely to see again in these sales.  Another very uncommon item is the intact Eritrean 1908 parcel card offered as Lot 327, a particularly nice example.  Lot 328 is a very scarce example of Ethiopian mail carried to Italy in 1909 by the northern route through Eritrea—this mail route is mentioned in the literature (Sciaky), but with very little detail.  Another very interesting, and rare, item is a 1935 first flight cover, carried by Ala Littoria from Khartoum to British Somaliland, via Asmara and Djibouti (Lot 345).

Most of the material is offered for the first time, but some is “recycled”, that is, material which did not sell in previous Mail Sales.  Our consignors want to sell the material sent in for these sales, not have it returned to them.  So, if you see an interesting lot that looks a bit familiar, then give us a bid!  You might just get lucky!  It is surprising to me that there has not been more interest in the complete sheets and panes of earlier issues, including many overprinted issues.  As a rule, this is very scarce material and would add significantly to your collection, particularly if you exhibit.  To provide some guidance as to value, the “estimate” on these lots is the Scott catalogue value of the individual stamps, without consideration of overprint varieties, for example, and possible errors or the scarcity of such large multiples.  The Payne handbooks list the varieties and errors in detail, as do Roberto Sciaky’s books.  I am confident that the consignor wants to dispose of this material, so all bids will be considered.  The condition of these sheets and panes is normally very nice, incidentally, unless noted otherwise in the lot description.  Please note that the sheets and panes are not illustrated in the sale listing, so that you will miss them if you use the “Photo/NextPhoto” option (described in detail below).

We also have a good range of first day covers, including many of the more recent items that are sometimes difficult to find.  In addition, there is an excellent group of Eritrea and Somali Coast material.  In the “Miscellaneous” section, there are a number of hand-painted portraits of Ethiopian personages, which would be nice additions to a collection or would be quite handsome, if framed.  I have also included several Mystery Lots in the sale to dispose of material that has not sold in previous sales or material that, although very nice, we already have enough of in the sale.  You should find the Mystery Lots to be both very interesting and very good values. 

Please note that a few of the scans for the postal history lots show unusually “white” envelopes.  This is caused by my scanner.  It apparently reacts to something in the paper of the envelope, which is not visible to the eye.  If you have concerns about a particular item, then please let me know and I will give you a better idea of the item in question.

I owe special thanks to Ulf Lindahl for expertizing a number of lots in this sale.  As always, I emphasize that Ulf did not check every lot.  Also many, many thanks are due to Floyd Heiser, who put a lot of time into reviewing the lots in this sale.  He helped me greatly in checking the descriptions, catching typos and quite a few outright out-right errors on my part, and sharing his knowledge about some of the material offered in the sale.

I remind you again that I have a new email address, 20thonline@comcast.net, so please update your address book, if you did not do this for the last Mail Sale.  If you use the “Bid Now” feature, then your bids will automatically go to the new email address.

You will enjoy viewing the lots in this Mail Sale.  If you see something of interest, don’t delay.  Send us a bid!  In almost every sale, “tie bids” are received on one or more lots.  Without exception, the earliest bidder wins in the case of tie bids.  Unlike some auctions, where bidding information is revealed before the sale closes, there is nothing to be gained by bidding at the last moment in our Mail Sales.  In EPS Mail Sales, all bids are confidential.

Viewing the Mail Sale  You may use the "Next Page" buttons to move through the Mail Sale listing.  The back arrow on your browser will return you to the previous page.  Or you may use the "page numbers" at the bottom of the page to accomplish the same thing.

Similarly, after clicking "Photo", you can use the "Next Photo" button to look through the photographed lots.  No need to return to the listing by clicking "Back To Listings".  Note, however, that the "Next Photo" button skips any lot that does not have a photo.

At any time, you may use "Bid Now" to bid on a specific lot.  Just enter your bid and click on "Send" to send me an email.  This results in a lot of emails, but is very quick and greatly simplifies the bidding process.  If you prefer, you may bid on several lots in the same email.  Just make entries like "Lot 2/$30, Lot 56/$75", and so on.  As in previous Mail Sales, I will acknowledge receipt of your bids by email.

Regarding Payments  If possible, we would like for foreign members to use their PayPal accounts for purchases in the Mail Sales.  I am no longer able to accept credit card charges, as I have done in earlier sales, because of high bank charges.  Floyd Heiser's PayPal account can now accept credit card payments, so it provides a good alternative.  For our members outside of the US, PayPal does, however, charge Floyd a 4% fee for payments he receives, so this fee will be added to your invoice total.  U.S. members may also use PayPal, but the surcharge will only be 3% because currency exchanges are not required.  If PayPal is not used, then payment should be made by check (U.S. members only) or bank draft, payable to Floyd Heiser in U.S. dollars.

Details on making payments into Floyd's PayPal account will be included with your invoice.  You can set up a PayPal account at no charge by visiting http://paypal.com.

                                                                                                                                                    

Join the EPS!  I have been a stamp collector for more than sixty years, a member of the EPS for many years and a member of many stamp societies, groups, whatever, including the Canal Zone Study Group, one of the pre-eminent US study groups, the Belgian Congo Study Circle, the UPSS, etc, etc, etc.  In the last few years, the Ethiopian Philatelic Society has been the most interesting group that I have ever belonged to—very active, much new research, incredibly interesting quarterly newsletters and members who share their knowledge willingly.  Very interesting and exciting things are happening in Ethiopian philately.  To join the EPS, just visit our web site, http://home.comcast.net/~fbheiser/ethiopia5.htm.  There is a link to an application form at the bottom of the site's home page.  Annual dues are only $7.50 for U.S./Canada members and $12 for the rest of the world.  (You may use PayPal to pay your dues.)  Membership includes an outstanding quarterly newsletter, Menelik's Journal, as well as periodic Mail Sales.  Best of all, the EPS is a very active group with members worldwide, sharing many different interests in Ethiopian philately.

                                                                                   

 

 

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