Friday, December 4, 2009

Whitpain Sale Results for 1898 Revenues

10 days ago in this post I surveyed some of the 1898 series of revenue stamps included in the Whitpain Sale conducted by Robert Siegel Auction Galleries the past two days.  The results weren't too surprising either to the down or upside, though it did seem that every auction lot that I had an interest in went for far more than the range established by Siegel pre-auction.

For example, the final lot, lot #895, the Morton Dean Joyce Dr. Kilmer's collection, was listed between $10K-$15K.  Closing price as currently listed is $21,000.  Most of the smaller collections, like the many of R154 and R155 went for premiums over their list or towards the higher end of their listing.  I am particular interested in the Dr. K material and the study collections of the 1 and 2 cent overprints; all of these stamps and collections went for good prices.

On the other hand, the somewhat imperfect rarities of the sale, the Chapman and Daprix overprints on the 1 cent Trans-Mississippi, went for below their catalog values.  The Daprix stamp, one of only three known to exist, sold for less than half of its catalog value.  The centering and damage clearly affected the final price for this stamp.  We are not in a bull market for this sort of material right now, no matter how rare the stamp is.  So the mismatch of the final price of this stamp against material like the Dr. Kilmer collection is interesting, with the premium the Dr. Kilmer collection commanded.  There is probably nothing like Joyce's collection, and the provenance is worth a fair premium all on its own.

Its good to see many of the 1898 revenues maintaining their values at auction.

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