Talking Moose's
Polar Philately Auction Site
Last Updated on October14, 2000 (first update since March 5, 2000)
This site is a compilation of
information about auctions featuring polar philatelic material -- stamps, covers
(envelopes), postmarks, cancels, and cachets (commemorative markings)
pertaining to the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Part of the intent is to
increase the liquidity of the market for this material: To let long time
collectors and accumulators know their holdings are in demand; To assess the
fair market value of various pieces; And to help all collectors locate and
obtain the material they are looking for. It is also intended as an educational
experience, both in philately and in the history of our polar regions.
For further information about this
site or to contact the maintainer, click here.
For links to other Polar Philatelic related sites, click here.
Apologies for such a long time
between updates! September and October, 2000, have seen some rather interesting
action in terms of polar philatelic material offered for sale. Recent activity
indicates that (a) the market for more elusive and rare material is quite
strong, (b) even very recent material (1990 and later) can realize nontrivial
prices, and (c) one can still build a nice collection without having to take
out a mortgage.
Sotheby's held an online special
sale of 78 elusive Antarctic items (including items from Scott and Shackleton
expeditions) that closed September 27th, 2000. Stefan Heijtz' annual polar
auction with over 1,100 lots closed on October 9th, 2000. Further information
on these, and other sources of obtaining polar philatelic material at auction
can be found below.
Auction Firms That Focus on Polar
Philatelic Material
Classic Stamps, Limited
Classic
Stamps’ Polar Auction No. 3 closed August 11, 2000. Auction No. 3 featured
2,000 lots, nearly double that of Auction No. 2. Auction No. 3 is strong in
several areas. There were nearly 400
Australian Antarctic Territory lots, around 300 lots from each of New Zealand
and USA, and over well over 100 lots from each of Argentina and Chile’. Some of the top realizations from Auction
No. 3 include:
-
Lot
1: Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition official cover with 1p “King
Edward VII Land” overprint, 3-Feb-1908 written on the SY Nimrod after having
arrived at Cape Royds $2,200NZ against an estimate of $800NZ
-
Lot
3: 1930 BANZ cover to Hobart, $1,700NZ against an estimate of $650NZ
-
Lot
6: AAT - Official souvenir cover from the 1st Antarctic Exploration,
HMAS Wyatt Earp, $1,500NZ against an estimate of $1,100NZ
-
Lot
19: 1949 Commonwealth of Australia OHMS Dept. of Air Cover, $850NZ against an estimate
of $350NZ.
-
Lot
25: Cover to Victoria cancelled 3 Mar 1950 Heard Island Commandant Charcot
incorrect date stamp, $385NZ against an estimate of $230NZ
-
Lot
684: 1974 official Campbell Island DL cover to Timaru, with cachet of Soviet
vessel Shantar, $375NZ against an estimate of $75NZ
-
Lot
1718: 1929 cover to Christchurch franked with US Canal Zone overprints, SS City
of New York, Little America Byrd Antarctic Expedition cachet, $286NZ against an
estimate of $220NZ
Late
in 2000, Classic Stamps will conduct an Air Mail auction that will feature a
cover recovered from the 1979 Mt. Erebus crash. Paul Wales indicates this is
the only cover from that crash to ever come on the market. No word on the
schedule for Polar Auction No. 4.
I’ve
participated in all three Classic Stamps Polar auctions and have been very
pleased with the results and the level of service provided by Paul Wales, the
proprietor. The catalogs are fairly well illustrated, with nice detailed lot
descriptions. Recommended minimum bids are 75% of the estimates, and my
perception is that the estimates are a little higher in Auction No. 3 compared
with similar material in the first two auctions. I haven’t researched this to
verify it though. In any event, this collector gives Classic Stamps’ Polar Auctions
a high recommendation.
Classic
Stamps also puts on periodic non-Polar-specific sales, which often feature
several polar lots.
Contact
information now includes an email address, and is:
Classic
Stamps Limited
Level 3, 118 Hereford St.
PO Box 13-396
Christchurch
New Zealand
Phone: +64-3-365-9916
Fax: +64-3-365-9987
email: classicstamps@inet.net.nz
web site?
The Polar Postal History Society
of Great Britain
The
PPHSGB publishes the journal Polar Post quarterly. It also periodically runs
auctions for members. PPHSGB auctions have been running twice a year recently,
closing in April and October of each year.
Auction
No. 44 closed the day of this update, October 14, 2000. There were 251 lots,
nearly all of which carried estimates of between £5 and £50. A couple items of
note include:
-
Lot
109: Two private letters from the polar pilot Levanevsky sent from his 1936
voyage acquiring aircraft for polar flights, estimate £210
-
Lot
112: 3 documents (2 service reports and a working doc of Prof. Weise), on the
1928 derigible Italia rescue, estimate of £140
-
Lot
113: A two page radiogram sent from the ice-breaker Krassin through the radio
station of the ice-breaker Malygin, 1928, estimate £550
One
could argue the above lots aren't polar philatelic material, but they were
offered in such an auction, so they are included here.
-
Lot
200: 1965-66 Thala Dan signed cover, including at least 25 TAAF stamps,
estimate £190
PPHSGB
currently has no web site. For membership information, contact the Membership
Secretary:
Robert
F. McMillan
46 New Village Road
Cottingham, E. Yorkshire
HU16 4NA
England
email: polar@mcmillan.karoo.co.uk
The American Society of Polar
Philatelists
ASPP
has been publishing the journal Ice Cap News since 1956. Of late, ICN has been
published quarterly, and each issue contains an auction catalog, with lots now
numbering near 200. Membership information can be found on the web at http://www.south-pole.com/aspp.htm.
ASPP auctions have been a great source of less expensive material. Prices
realized per lot have recently been averaging between $4 and $12. Some statistics
from recent ASPP auctions:
# of bids by winning avg price lots
bidders email bidders of
sold lot sold/offered
Auction 67 20 9 17 $4.92 66/68
Auction 68 25 10 20 $9.28 71/74
Auction 69
41 26 37 $6.08 132/149
Auction 70 33 14 28 $5.25 134/151
Auction 71 30 14 /198
Auction 72 /178
ASPP
recently closed Auction 71, and is currently distributing Auction 72, which
will close on December 31, 2000, along with the latest copy of Ice Cap News.
Auction 72 features polar material from over 20 different countries. The
catalog for auction 72 will be available at http://www.geocities.com/cjenner00/asppauc72.htm
once ICN has been sent out.
Stefan Heijtz
Stefan
Heijtz has been maintaining the definitive work on stamps and cancellations of
the Falkland Islands and Dependencies for many years. The 2000 (fourth) edition, which replaces the 1995
edition was recently released. Stefan also conducts auctions of Falklands and
related material once per year. The 2000 auction recently closed, on October
9th, 2000. The catalog and prices realized can be found at http://w1.810.telia.com/~u81002363/F.I.auction/AUCTION.CATALOGUE.html,
and http://w1.810.telia.com/~u81002363/F.I.auction/Prices.realised.html,
respectively. For information on the Heijtz Catalog and auctions, visit http://w1.810.telia.com/~u81002262/stefan .
Joe Lynch / Polar Bear Philatelics
Joe Lynch conducted no less than 35 auctions in the 1980s and 1990s with thousands of lots of polar philatelic material. At one point, Joel Porter (proprietor of the Antarctic Philatelic Exchange) had planned to catalog all the items and prices realized in Joe's auctions. I haven't heard anything about this project recently. However, Joel surfaced earlier in 2000 offering a number of Antarctic lots on eBay (see eBay section below). Joe came out of retirement once, and I'm hoping he will again. His auctions featured terrific material from both Arctic and Antarctic regions, and were very well run.
Auction Firms That Sometimes
Feature Significant Polar Philatelic Material
Stanley Gibbons
Since
the 1980s, I've occasionally obtained some very elusive (and usually expensive)
material from Stanley Gibbons Auctions and Post-Bid sales. As of the late
1990s, I've been receiving Post-Bid catalogs from both the SG UK and New
Zealand offices.
SG
UK Post-Bid sale 157 closed on October 4, 2000. I honestly haven't spent much
time looking through the last few catalogs, as I've seen very little material
that fits my personal collecting interests. I haven't heard much from SG NZ in
a while, from where I did obtain some elusive material from the 1910s a few
years ago (of course I haven't taken the time to investigate whether SG NZ
still offers nice polar material either).
SG's
web site and contact information is:
Stanley
Gibbons, Lts.
399 Strand
London
WC2R 0LX
England
Phone: +44-171-836-8444
Fax: +44-171-836-7342
I've seen a few different web addresses for Stanley Gibbons, one of which is: http://www.stangib.com
email: auctions@stangiblondon.demon.co.uk
Philatmar
Since
1998, I've been receiving catalogs from Philatmar, based in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. Philatmar primarily offers Latin America material (hence Antarctic material
from Argentina and Chile), but also includes British Commonwealth (BAT,
Falklands and Dependencies included), and worldwide. Philatmar has been
US-friendly since I've been getting catalogs (i.e. takes checks from US banks,
and has a US mailing address), and has become web-friendly (email address for
bids, catalogs on the web, and will send scans of lots upon request) since
1999. Auction 99 closed on June 21, 2000. As of mid-October, 2000, I haven't
heard anything from Philatmar since then, and their web site is still showing
the results of Auction 99.
Philatmar's
home page is at http://www.philatmar.com.
email: philatmar@telcom.net
Michael Rogers
In
my early days as a collector (accumulator) of Antarctic material (late 1970s
and early 1980s), I can remember purchasing Antarctic stamps from Michael
Rogers. Since then, Michael Rogers has focused primarily on Asia. Michael
Rogers' home page is at http://www.michaelrogersinc.com. Michael Rogers publishes
very slick auction catalogs, some of which focus on Asia, and others that
contain worldwide material. The worldwide auctions sometimes feature polar
lots.
An
example is the recently closed Worldwide Postal History & Stamps Public
Auction #73. It featured lots from early Antarctic expeditions, including
Scott's first (1901), Shackleton's 1908 expedition, Filchner (1911), Scott's
second (and fatal) expedition, Wilkins flight covers (some signed by Wilkins),
and many Byrd I, II, and III pieces. Prices realized for this auction are at http://www.michaelrogersinc.com/MRI/Auction/PR-73.html.
David Feldman
I
consider David Feldman to be quite high end. David Feldman auctions feature
some of the most elusive material in existence. I've developed an interest in
the postal history of the South Shetland Islands, and a 1995 David Feldman
auction featured what's probably the earliest Antarctic postal history material
-- a set of letters posted by whalers from the South Shetlands in the early
1820s.
I
don't consider their auctions frequent, but they are large, and the catalogs
are high quality. David Feldman is now on the web, at http://www.davidfeldman.com.
Victoria Stamp Company
Victoria
has been running auctions since 1995. Most auctions have included Falkland
Islands and Dependencies lots. The contact information is:
Phoebe
A. MacGillivary
P.O. Box 745
Ridgewood, NJ 07451
USA
Phone
1-201-652-7283
Fax 1-201-612-0024
Victoria
recently put up a home page is at http://www.VictoriaStampCo.com.
email: VictStpCo@aol.com
Guillermo A. Jalil
I've
received a few nicely produced catalogs from Guillermo A. Jalil. The auctions
include some very nice items, including significant Antarctic material. I
haven't yet participated for a few reasons. The catalogs are exclusively in
Spanish, and my Spanish skills are not so good. As of early 1999, I'm unaware
of any internet presence. From what I can decode of the minimum bids, I
perceive them to be high. Contact information is:
Guillermo
A. Jalil
Casilla de Correo 649
8000 Bahia Blanca
Argentina
Sotheby's
Lately,
Sotheby's Auction House has been running a number of specialized sales,
featuring elusive material for very specialized collecting interests. From
September 13, 2000 - September 27, 2000, Sotheby's ran a sale of 78 lots of
Antarctic material, mostly from the classic expeditions in the 1900s and 1910s.
Sotheby's appears to have already removed the pages showing the material and
prices realized.
General
information about Sotheby's special sales can be found at http://sothebys.amazon.com.
eBay
Although
there are many internet auction sites, stamp collectors seem to prefer eBay,
based on the number of lots up for bidding at any given time. eBay doesn't
specialize in polar material, so elusive items are rarely seen. There are some
dealers that regularly offer items such as Anthony’s. I've had generally
positive experiences with eBay. As a buyer, there's a regular stream of
material offered that's of interest to me. As a seller, the market for
desireable material has been tepid, but steady. In this collector's opinion,
there is a lot of undesireable and very common polar material offered on ebay.
To
get going as a buyer or seller is pretty easy. Click here for the information. When looking for
material, I've generally done searches in the stamps area on
"Antarctic", "Antarctica", and "Falkland". I'd
expect Arctic collectors would have success finding material searching on
"Arctic". Direct links to run these searches can be found below. Recently,
searches of “Antarctic” have turned up between 250 and 300 items, “Polar” close
to 200, and “Arctic” between 70 and 100.
Search Stamps listings for
"Antarctic"
(It looks like in September eBay fixed it so one can search Stamps without
searching Coins also.)
Search Stamps listings for "Polar"
Recent
items of interest offered on eBay include:
-
Item 355289316, a cover containing two strikes of one
of the earliest South Shetlands / Deception Island postmarks, that went for
$382.90US.
Other Internet Stamp Auction Sites
Stamp
collectors seem to gravitate strongly toward eBay. I haven't done an empirical
study, but anecdotal evidence suggests there is little interest among stamp
collectors in using any general-purpose auction site other than eBay (e.g.
Yahoo auctions) for philatelic material. As time permits, I'll work on
reviewing what's available outside of eBay.
Prices Realized -- Commentary,
Links, and Archive
Information
forthcoming.
Antarctic Philately - An excellent site by Gary
Pierson, featuring some outstanding historical information about Antarctic
exploration. Sections about the US Byrd, and Operation Highjump expeditions are
particularly detailed.
Polar Philately Mailing
List
(Michael DeJong) - Polar philately enthusiasts exchange information via email.
Recently, several articles have been added including an overview of polar
philately. Michael has started a lengthy polar philately bibliography on the
site, which continues to be built up. Michael's site also includes some great
links, scans, and other information.
KGØYH's Polar Philately
Page (Wes
Thorn) - Lots of scans of covers.
Shades Stamp Shop (Steven McLachlan) - Lots
of polar covers (with scans), and other great photos.
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