Sunday, October 2, 2011

Some thoughts about the Schlegel "Russia" sale

Schlegel is an auction house in Berlin that recently had a wonderful Russia sale: all postal history, from all periods.
There was some wonderful stuff in there, and I'm very pleased I got the one lot I bid on. Other lots were nice but overpriced. For example, there were half a dozen Imperial international money orders from Karasubazar, Crimea. Very unusual, but at 65 Euros a pop they'd have been around $125 each by the time they'd reached me and that was just too much. They didn't sell.
TPO collectors had a lot of fun with this sale too, a s the TPO marks were split over many smaller lots. That enabled the informed buyers to cherry-pick, and as a result the less attractive lots remained unsold.
In general, the bidders were obviously an informed lot. Azerbaijan had lots of average covers, many of which remained unsold, but for the good items there was spirited bidding, so bidders obviously knew what to look for.

In all, I think about two-thirds of the lots remained unsold. I hope this result won't discourage further sales like this!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

It is what it says it is

Yes, the title of this blog is an accurate prediction of what I "plan" on posting here. Randomly. Philatelically. I fully blame Trevor Pateman for this, since his philately blog is always a pleasure to read.
Most likely, those random acts of blogging will be around my own collecting interests. So what are those collecting interests these days, I don't hear you ask?
  • Siberia and the Russian Far East during the Civil War. Mostly postal history, and only rarely, since I rarely find anything that tells me something interesting anymore;
  • Soviet Georgia: the handstamped surcharges on the first definitives;
  • Crimea: postmarks (all periods up to 1945) and postal history (especially Civil War);
  • Paraguay 1900-1945, stamps and postal history;
  • Netherlands and colonies: "Guilder" high values, stamps and postal use, as well as proofs;
  • Guyana 1981-1989, the "Flower" definitives and their (many) overprints;
  • Prestamp international mail, mostly to and from Russia, but also through Berg and the Kingdom of Westphalia, 1806-1813.

Yes, it's an odd list! These days I just refuse to pigeonhole myself - it just complicates things.

I hope you, my entirely theoretical reader, will find something of interest here.