When Is A Cover Collectable?

Hello
When is a cover worth keeping, and when is it just a pre-soaked stamp holder?
Does it have to be at least the last letter from Jimmy Hoffa to The Godfather, or can it be my last electric bill?
Here are 4 covers for your judgment, and hopefully, your enjoyment.

The first is a letter from Sweden to Israel, with 3 cancelations: Swedish sending cancelation, recipient main Post office, and recipient destination post office.


The second and third are two Romanian aerograms (is that the right term?) with commemorative drawings.


The last one (up to you) is an Israeli aerogram, with Romanian stamps.
How come? Hint: Economy.

In my cover collecting opinion, none are worth a dollar even, but the best of the bunch is the last simply because of the franking. Covers are difficult and many long time stamp dealers refuse to touch them and prefer already pre-valued stamps.

Any cover is worth collecting if that is what you like.

What makes a cover desirable for the market is the way it looks, the way it is franked and the cancellation. A neat cover that has been opened carefully will be more interesting to a wider public. The correct franking, with current stamps will generate more interest than a philatelic cover. A clear handstamp will generate more interest than a sloppy machine cancellation that are thirteen a dozen.

Those labels on your first item also add interesting details.

Just to add for understanding - neither of the shown covers is an aerogram, they are prepaid covers (Romanian) and an airletter cover Iisraeli).

The principal feature of an aerogram is that the message it written on the inner part of the form itself - no enclosure is allowed. Otherwise, it will be considered as a regular airletter.

It's difficult to make clear-cut recommendations as to how to do and what to keep. It really depends on the age of the cover, the rarity of the franking and the condition of the cover. Then again, how can you know about these criterias for sure if you have only seen a couple of covers - it would be like peeking through a keyhole.

One thing I can tell for certain is that if a massproduced FDC has the slightest damage - it gets the scissor treatment.

Edit: Regarding the covers shown I would say keep the Romanians, they are from the inflation period in the 1990s. Little demand but no need to bin them. The Swedish special delivery (expres) cover is ugly, the postage stamps seems to have some damages, the Stockholm machine cancel is ordinary and the postmarks of arrival blurry.

In period used usage covers may be a first step criteria. Some stamps have a short window of legitimate usage before a different replacement stamp was issued.

A simple answer to your question,

When you want to keep it in your collection.

Add: If you don't want it, and can convince someone else to buy it/take it, then it is now collectable to them.

The image that jumped into my mind reading this, is me, walking in the London streets of Oliver Twist, with a basket of covers, singing "Who will buy, a handful of covers", followed by "Have to pick a pocket or two" (brought to you by eBay).

As for aerograms, maybe this will do.

Every cover is unique in its own way (I'm not talking about philatelic covers or FDCs etc.) - they are ALL collectable

Given that the original question is quite subjective, here is a different question...
What is good stewardship of covers?

If I am trying to be a good steward of the material that comes my way, whether or not I happen to value a cover is not important. This is especially true if I am not very well versed in perforations, paper types, tagging, cancels, and postal history.

So my approach is to value every cover higher than just the stamp(s) on it. If I need the stamp, I try to move the cover onto someone else and find one that has already been removed.
Don

Somehow all of those stamp collecting folks seems to end up having their stockbooks full of used stamps that once were affixed to postally used covers and postcards.

My own very subjective view is that I will only create kiloware of the covers that are common, fawlty, overpaid, used out of period etc. at the time when I have them in my hands.

If I rephrase my original post, when I'm about to cut and soak some stamps from some covers, what would be in a cover that would suggest that it's better to keep the cover?

"Every cover is unique" - after starting with Oliver Twist, your comment reminded me of Monty Paithon's version of Oliver Twist.
But seriously, uniqueness doesn't equal interest or value. No two sand grains are microscopically identical - who cares?
I guess what I was trying to ask, is when does a cover become interesting? I know it's a too general and subjective question. Once I cut a cover for its stamps, I can't undo it.

Here's another cover, of a known philatelic collector and philanthropist.

@Rob Roy, even though the cover that you show is unique (well, perhaps it is, we don't know if she made 50 exactly the same), I must say that I would make kiloware of it. Covers with loads of stamps that are either not canceled or canceled by machine or roller cancel - they will become kiloware.

Edit: The unused Israeli aerogram that you show is folded, wrinkled and torn, which makes it unattractive to most collectors. It can be a great coffee or beer coaster. Perhaps someone can use it to make notes. It's just paper to me.

I can show a cover that I will never turn into kiloware, even if I had 50 of them that seems to be identical. I'll hold on to overprinted stamps that have not been studied or scrutinized yet for errors and such in their overprints.

Thanks, I understand now that quality is a major factor.
BTW, where is the address town on your cover? I see "A rany J." and I assume it stands for Arany Janosh, a great Hungarian poet, and maybe a street too, but not a town.

@Rob Roy, perhaps Kantorjanosi (next to the postal code)?