Auctions: Ebay 5c Proprietary Multiple with Plate Block

RB31p margin block of 20 with plate block

Currently for auction on Ebay.

A seller with the handle rmtconsulting and a history of only 10 sales has listed this block on Ebay with a starting bid of $1200 and a buy-it-now price of $1320.

Most of the stamps are badly off center and it appears as if there is a substantial crease running through the perfs on what would be the upper third of the plate block of six.  Scott places a value of $1500 on the plate block.

The auction closes on April 27.

Ebay Listing: RB31p 5 Cent Proprietary Plate Block

Above and below:

For sale:  Ebay listed 5 cent proprietary hyphen hole plate block. 

Starting bid:  $1,295

Buy it now:  $2,795

Unlisted by Scott 3 years ago, the battleship plate blocks now have a place in the specialized catalog.  No blocks are cheap; some are quite expensive and scarce.  The copy above currently being sold by Steve Wittig on Ebay is an example of the expensive and scarce.  He has set a starting bid over a thousand, and a buy it now for close to three thousand. 

When the listing for this block first appeared in the 2010 specialized catalog, there was only a dash where a price should have been.  Now in the 2012 catalog, instead of a dash, there is a price of $1750, though the price is in italics, indicating a lack of robust market information.  What happened in the intervening 2 years?  In April 2010, Siegel sold a plate block of 12 of this stamp for $1900.  And sometime over the past 2 years a copy of this block for sale at Eric Jackson's website listed for $1500 was removed from his site.  It must have had a buyer.

So there is some demand for these blocks out there, though I doubt we are quite ready to have anybody willing to pay the buy it now price on the Ebay lot above.  Two years ago I wrote a full post on proprietary hyphen hole plate block values. Perhaps it is time to do it again. 

5 Cent Proprietary "Plate Crack"?

Current Ebay listing for RB31p with an alleged "plate crack"

Currently, a dealer on Ebay is selling the above copy of a 5c proprietary battleship with a printed cancel for a $75.50 Buy It Now price due to a supposed plate crack running across the top portion the stamp.  While it may not be perfectly visible on this site, there is a clear, straight line running through the center of the left 5 on the stamp.  This line the dealer has labeled a plate crack.

While I am not an expert in printing techniques of the time, I am fairly certain that this is not a plate crack.  The line was placed on the plate on purpose by siderographers laying out the plate.  The line was used by these technicians placing the impressions of the stamp from the transfer roll on the plate in order to lay out the subjects in neat, straight and squared rows. 

These layout lines should not exist.  Normally they would be burnished off after the plate was produced.  In some cases, and this is one, they were not.  This particular line is solid and quite strong, which makes it stand out from the stamp.  While this may seem like a special item, there are literally tons of battleship stamps out there with evidence of these types of layout lines.

Don't be fooled, and certainly don't pay $75.50!

Auction Update: RB31p Block of 12 Sold in Robert Siegel US Stamp Auction of April 6-8

RB31p

5 cent proprietary hyphen-hole block of 12

with plate block and bureau imprint

Siegel Opening:  $1,125

Sold for: $1,900

A high realization for this block of 12.  Scott does not list a price for the plate block.  See the actual result here:  Siegel auction result.  I did not buy this!  Image taken from Siegel auction listing. 

Tracking 1898 Values: Battleship Proprietary Plate Blocks

My copy of the 2010 Scott US Specialized Catalog arrived early in November.  My usual practice on receiving the catalog each year is to turn to the revenue section to see whether Scott Publishing has made any radical changes in prices, especially for the 1898s.  From 09 to 10 there were no changes of price among the battleships - not for singles, blocks of four, or part-roulettes, so far as I can tell.  But there was a major addition to the battleship listings in 2010.  Scott has chosen to list plate block prices for the battleships.

In the field of revenue collecting plate blocks have not been regularly collected.  There have been exceptions.  The first postage stamps to be overprinted for revenue use, the first 1898s from the first Bureau postage series, have been regularly collected in plate strip and plate block form. The blocks and strips are listed in Scott and have been for years.  This is probably because postage stamps were collected this way, and these stamps were, at one point, postage stamps.  But there have been no plate listings for the first, second, and third revenue series.  And for the most part there have been no subsequent plate listings.  But the battleships represent a change. 

I don't know why this change was made.  Listed advisors at the front of the catalog include the dealers Eric Jackson who maintains a substantial quantity of battleship plate blocks for sale on his website.  In the last few years Steve Wittig, a specialist in revenue and back-of-book plate material, has sold pieces of his collection.  And many battleship plate blocks were made available in the Tolman sale from about two and half years ago.  So there is some market activity, perhaps enough to make the case to list the battleship plate blocks. 

Whatever the case, we now have them in the catalog, and can track Scott's estimate of their value year over year.  Below I will look at the 2010 prices for some of the proprietary plate blocks in my collection, comparing Scott valuations with prices of blocks listed on Eric Jackson's website and a list of plate blocks and plate material for sale in 2008 by Steve Wittig.

RB20 One-Eighth Cent Yelllow Green Roulette Top Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value:  $140.00

2009 EricJackson.com: None listed

2008 Wittig: $100.00

RB20p One-Eighth Cent Yelllow Green Roulette Left Imprint Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value: $140.00

2009 EricJackson.com: $75.00

2008 Wittig: $100.00

RB21 One Quarter Center Brown Roulette Top Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value:  $110.00

2009 EricJackson.com:  $125.00

2008 Wittig:  $125.00

RB21p One Quarter Center Brown Hyphen-hole Left Imprint Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value: $125.00

2090 EricJackson.com: $75.00
2008 Wittig:  $125.00

RB22p Three-eigths Cent Deep Orange Hyphen-hole Left Imprint Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value: $200.00

2009 EricJackson.com: $125.00
2008 Wittig:  $125.00

RB23p Five-eigths Cent Deep Ultra Right Imprint Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value:  $100.00

2009 Eric Jackson.com:  $100.00
2008 Wittig:  $150.00

RB24p One Cent Dark Green Right Imprint Plate Block of Six

Scott 2010 Value:  $550.00

2009 EricJackson.com:  $900.00

2008 Wittig:  $650.00

I debated whether to post this block.  It looks like its been run over by a lawn mower.

RB25p One and One-quarter Cent Violet Left Imprint Plate Block of Six
2010 Scott Value:  $250.00
2009 EricJackson.com:  $200.00
2008 Wittig:  $200.00

RB27p 2 Cent Violet Brown Right Imprint Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value:  Dash -- no price

2009 EricJackson.com: $450.00

2008 Wittig:  $375.00

For several values of the proprietary series, both roulette and hyphen hole, only a dash is present.  The Scott value for the roulette RB27 is $475, nearly the same as Eric Jackson's hyphen-hole price.  RB29, RB30 and RB31 have dashes for both the roulette aand hyphen-hole plate blocks.  About a month ago Steve Wittig had an RB29 plate block for sale on eBay.  I posted on this auction item earlier in the fall.

RB28p 2 1/2 Cent Lake Left Imprint Plate of Six

2010 Scott Value: $375.00

2009 EricJackson.com:  $350.00

2008 Wittig:  $250.00

RB30p Four Cent Purple Left Imprint Plate Block of Six

Scott 2010 Value:  Dash - no value

2009 EricJackson.com:  none listed

2008 Wittig: $1,500.00

RB31p 5 Cent Brown Orange Right Imprint Plate Block of Six

2010 Scott Value:  Dash -- No price

2009 EricJackson.com 2009: $1500.00

2008 Wittig: $1750.00

I acquired this block along with a matching right side block from a Robert Siegel auction in 2007.  It sold for $375, substantially less than Jackson's website sale price.  The matching right-side block went for $350 at auction.

Its encouraging to see new Scott listings for items that I collect.  Unlike collectors of US postage stamps, the revenue field is loaded with possibilities for new listings.  The battleships are a winner in 2010.  It will be interesting to see whether these new listings creates a bit more life in this market for these items.

Thanks to Steve Wittig for sending his price list back in 2008.