Question About A Lot "Sold" At Westpex Which Is Now In The Upcoming Kelleher Collection/Lot Auction

Here is another interesting comparison of the official Prices Realized versus the auction log. Notice the gap, missing lots 1797 and 1798 in the official Prices Realized:

Lot Realized
1796 $450
1799 $290

Both lots 1797 and 1798 are listed in the auction log as Sold to "Book/NET", without a paddle number:

Lot 1796 Last Call at 425...
Lot 1796 Last Call at 450...
Lot 1796 SOLD... Book/NET Paddle Ixxx for $ 450.
Lot 1797 going for 550...
Lot 1797 Last Call at 550...
Lot 1797 SOLD. Book/NET for $ 550.
Lot 1798 going for 300...
Lot 1798 Last Call at 300...
Lot 1798 Last Call at 300...
Lot 1798 SOLD. Book/NET for $ 300.
Lot 1799 going for 325...
Lot 1799 Last Call at 325...
Lot 1799 going for 325...
Lot 1799 Last Call at 325...
Lot 1799 Last Call at 325...
Lot 1799 SOLD. Book/NET for $ 325.

But now look at lot 1799. Apparently it "Sold" for $325 according to the log, but the Prices Realized says it sold for $290. I think this is a case where it went unsold at the opening price, and someone offered a lower price after the sale, and the auctioneer accepted the offer.

(This is unrelated to the OP's lot 1943, I am just trying to make sense of the interpretation of the different message in the logs).

I infer that "SOLD. Book/NET for $ [[opening bid/price]]" can actually mean "Lot passed." Does that make sense? I guess SAN has no logging code for "passed"?

Also check that a "sold book/net" lot has not reopened for bidding at a later point. Sometimes it even sells below the starting price. I have seen that several times (in Kelleher auctions at least).

Looks like some country collections come from the same world album?

Lot of guessing all over the map as to the reason the lot is being reoffered, and all are plausible. We just don't, can't, and won't know for certain (barring firsthand information).

Quick flips happen. 2 years ago I purchased a large proprietary revenue stamp collection a mere 2 months after it had sold at major auction. The buyer pulled the few key items they wanted and flipped the entirety of the collection intact.

Heck, I've seen collections and lots change hands 2-3 times within a single stamp show...

Interesting discussion , two factors that need to be brought to your attention and hasn't been discussed .

The first is the stamp auction firm is not wanting to disclose what happen ,kind of like telling you ,it should of started at a lower opening price .

Second thing is read the describtion of the lot , notice here that the lot has loss a huge amount of value to a certain amount of buyers . Let me explain that further .
I know you think I am wrong but then you don't understand auction buyers . A lot like this many times is sold to dealer who would break it down ,making money on the better plate blocks and using the rest for postage . That was fine many years ago . But lets be realistic who wants thousands of 3 and 4 cent plate blocks to use as postage ? With postal rates over 70 cents ,you can't put enough of those stamps on a business envelope to cover postage . That is part of the problem "NO WANTS 3 OR4 EVEN 5 CENTS MINT POSTAGE STAMPS" You can't fit them on a letter ,so who wants thousands of dollars of 3-5 cent stamps to use up ===Big problem .

That's an interesting observation, and paradigm change. It makes sense.

Implication:

Now, if it was sold the first time, someone did consider to it worth the bid.

If the lot did not sell, it is not all of us but one who do not understand auctions but the two auction houses involved are also as incompetent as they come for heavily overestimating the lot.

Yup. I witnessed this firsthand this past weekend at the local stamp show, co-sponsored by the MSDA and my club. Rasdale was there both selling lots and taking consignments. We had a lot, and I mean A LOT of people bringing in material that they wanted to sell or at least get valued... much greater volume of material than at last year's show... so much that the "free!" table in the center of the room was chock full of material as people who didn't sell or consign material just opted to donate rather than cart it all home.

I overheard Kevin explaining to several potential sellers/consigners the sad truth about low denomination postage: once upon a time, dealers would pay half face for low-denomination postage (when they were paying 60-80% for current or high-denomination postage)... then a third of face... then a quarter of face... and now many dealers don't want it at ANY price, as the number of stamps needed to send anything is far too many and takes too much labor to make it worthwhile.

I agree, and I can understand why dealers don't want to use 3 cent stamps for postage anymore, but there does seem to be an active market still on eBay. Search for "3 cent plate blocks" and you will find pages and pages of individual 3 cent plate blocks of four that sold for $1.00 to $2.00 each, and bulk lots selling for 100% to 300% or more of face, plus shipping.

Here is one with $6.00 face for $18.00. 175 units sold. Looking at the seller's feedback, these are individual purchases by different people, not just one person buying a ton.


Different seller, $3.60 face for $20.00, 91 groups sold.


A couple different lots just sold yesterday.


Another one that sold yesterday, $45 face for $49.


Here's a group of 110 that sold last week. $13.20 face sold for $70.


A bunch of sellers are making some good profit margins on these.

Looks like the sellers are making solid profits. What happened is that the dealers convinced a bunch of widows and grand kids that their stamps had no value. And after buying at pennies on the dollar, the dealer's parting words are "my loss is your gain".

When we had our store in Louisville, we actually did as much cash flow with our discount postage business as walk in. For most, postage customers supplied # 10 envelopes for us to put first class one ounce rate on. Many of these were regular customers, needing so many thousands envelopes per month. Secondly we sold discount lots to customers and other dealers. This and maybe most pertinent here is we kept a large supply of lower value stock for rate changes. We had even sold rate increase denominations, i.e. 2c, 3c, 4c and 5c whatever to the USPS branches locally when they ran out. Which happens more than you think. So if we were still in the biz, we would have moved a lot of 5c denominations in the last few weeks... Or 2c denominations earlier in the year, or combinations of small values to make up the increases.
And we also had a market, when buying large lots, of customers looking for scarcer plates. Durland is useful on occasion. And finally, we had a buyer buying low value sheets looking for grading candidates. But we did not let him/her pick or choose.

There is also the price point to consider.

People are probably less likely to worry about overpaying for something for $17.99 than they are for two orders of magnitude more - $3750; even if the $3750 is a better "deal". Its still a lot more money.