Well there are buyers out there if the right stuff is selling...

[ricarmic]

Yesterday Canada post announced that there was an error on a recently issued stamp and they pulled everything from the POs. (it only became available on Friday).

Today the folks that got them before they pulled have been selling them, at ever increasing "error stamp" prices, quite quickly!!!

Just do a search on "canada unesco" in the stamps category (sold items)...

22 sold already just today......

[reallynicestamps]

The USPS did that on their Cowboy stamps a few years back. (Okay in 1994)

http://www.kenmorestamp.com/us-recalled-legends

Their way of dealing with the problem was interesting. Basically they flooded the market dropping the percieved value rapidly.

If you have a (new) stamp variety, publicize it widely and sell it quickly, before thousands more of your 'rare' error turn up.

And give it a cool name. That always helps. Man in the Mast. Black **bleep**. Low/High Hologram (well, that one isn't too interesting.), Weeping Princess.

[ricarmic]

6 more in the last few hours. Will be interesting to see what the ones being auctioned close for.

[ricarmic]

Somewhere around 39 of them so far today July 9 at 6pm....!!!

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

I don't get it... what's the hype about a misused photo on a stamp??

[pierrelebel]

Some "errors" on stamps sometimes sell for huge amounts of money.  Take a look at this German stamp:

http://discovertopicalstampcollecting.com/the-fascinating-saga-of-germanys-audrey-hepburn-error-stam...

[ricarmic]

These ones will not be too high, a lot will depend on how many are out there. It is too soon to know how many are out there, a lot are showing up, as many as are selling, that will drag the price downward....

[ricarmic]

Ooops I forgot to add, the hype is because they pulled them so there are only a few out there, a lot less than were issued, meaning they will be harder to get than the normal ones would have been... which makes them worth more....

[reallynicestamps]

zee-chan-- In this case of the Pickett stamp, not only did the USPS use the wrong picture, but the cowboy in question was Black and racial sensitivities were involved.

A little of the old 'they all look alike.' eh?

It was pretty darn stupid , too, not to check with the Pickett family to see that the right picture was used.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

(Note that I'm not much of a stamp person) I'm not going to be one of the people buying the stamp at 3x the counter price...... Just to sell it at 50% of the counter price off to a discount postage dealer 30 years later...... I do occasionally buy stamps at the counter because I thought they looked pretty, but I do eventually use them on my packages once I'm done staring at them.

The recent announcement of increase from 0.85 to 0.90 made me glad to have just bought a discount postage lot last week. Anyhow, I do think it's a really smart idea for POs to release special looking stamps. It's essentially a piece of paper costing $5+ that collectors won't use and will simply put in a collection binder 😃

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

(Just read Pierre's link) I guess if people do know the story behind the stamp then yes, it'd be worth a fortune to them. Same goes for the misprinted Canada stamp in this thread, I'm sure there are people (like me) who might've bought the stamp without knowing that the PO pulled them days after, and then simply used them as the stamps' intended purpose......