STAMPBOARDS - Postage Stamp Chat Board and Stamp Forum

First thing to stress is, I am not interested in value or how scarce an iterm is, history is what turns me on.

There is no question here, just something for you to look at and think about

In the "VERY large carton of unspeakable JUNK and RUBBISH" carton lot from Glen this week, I came across several New Guinea Inaugural, Flight and First Flights, 1933-34.

However one is of great interest to me.

Air Mail from Wahgi River, Central New Guinea. Signed by the pilot with the aircraft rego number in 1933, air mail.



Now thing is it wasn't until 1932 that the unexplored CENTRAL PORTION was
explored(https://www.jstor.org/pss/1786762" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) , all by river, the first published account of these explorations appeared in a publication of The Royal Geographical Society in 1934.

Photo in the National Library of Australia, Wahgi River taken in 1934, by AIR. I presume a small plane would be able to land on this topography.



One of the other covers is the "Faith In Australia" 1934 First Official Airmail, addressed to the Goldfields at Edie creek.






Sam

That Wahgi cover is a hell of a find IMHO, and worthy of real research 8) 8)

Ha! Well a nice find, and nobody can ever accuse me of over-describing my junk lots!

"VERY large carton of unspeakable JUNK and RUBBISH"

Global Administrator wrote:

What a load of RUBBISH.

Totally useless garbage I bought from an estate today. Only a person needing urgent psychiatric care will be interested in this.

Bit of everything here really. Old albums with junk in them. Shoeboxes of all sorts of things, ditto plastic tubs and boxes - even a steel Ammo box.

Colour catalogues and a pile of modern Australia Post fancy books that cost about $15 each .... come in SUCKERS!

Decimal first day covers and some older covers. Stamps on Hagners and 1950s FDC. Elephant droppings and dead skunks in here too most likely!

A REALLY large carton as you can see. While away the Xmas break with this. Did not really look at this as I need the garage space.

I recall seeing a bunch of interesting old first flight covers when I bought it, but never saw them again when taking pix, so assume they are buried in there somewhere!

$150 plus post - not postable overseas.

Of course, some of us will keep hoping that, one day, in a land, far, far away, you'll break some of these lots down and sell those nice bits separately.

Reminds me of the name of the Eagles' tour - "Hell Freezes Over"

Well my laziness is Sam's windfall.

That one cover is cat $2,000 in Eustis as P59, which for items of that ilk, means it is WORTH around that figure, as there are far more buyers than sellers at this scarcity level and AAMC = retail pretty much.

The one shown in AAMC (below) is very similar.

I saw the folder of NG covers when buying it, and had meant to take a closer look, but it was down bottom of box as I recalled, which I'd all sealed up, so could not be bothered to be honest.

I bought about 40 cartons that day from 2 different estates, and my garage was full, so was not quite sure what was in where to be honest.

So I just assumed the box was at least worth the $150 'as is' in photos, and if the old covers were any good, and if they were in there, they were a bonus, and I mentioned them in passing only. 8)

Eustis' 7th edition of 2002 has the Wahgi River cover valued at $1900. Only a $100 increase in value over 6 years?

With only five known covers, and the catalogue value increasing only marginally over 6 years, it suggests to me (my thinking anyway ) that one of these covers may not have been available to the market for some time.

As Sherro points out, this cover is worthy of further research. Is it one of the five, or is it a new find?

What a ripper of a discovery, and I think, worth considerably more than $2000.

Ormond the (5) shown in Eustis for anything is the number CARRIED 75 years back.

Remember Nelson Eustis started writing monthly in the ASM on airmails in 1930, and his first edition of AAMC appeared in 1937, so Eustis and Bergen and Crome were all "on the scene" when these flights were taking place! Very often being the main creators of covers carried!

So their data came first hand from pilots and others who were involved in each flight.

Rule of thumb is that more than half of such things from the pre war era vanish over the decades - being sold or more often tossed out by folks cleaning up an estate, who have no idea they have any real value.

So 5 carried we know is a fact - and 1 illustrated in Eustis plus this, may very likely be the only ones extant.

This 70ish seller said: "my uncle who collected this stuff (this box was only a small section) was up in New Guinea for a while".

So possibly this is from that era? Clearly it is rare - the Nelson Eustis Auction at Leski did not contain a copy.

I'd bet the house this cover has not left that family for those 75 years, and can truly be regarded as "new stock" to the market.

Sam, all I can say is "well done!". It's the sort of find mere mortals like us dream of. An absolute cracker 8)

sherro wrote:Sam, all I can say is "well done!". It's the sort of find mere mortals like us dream of. An absolute cracker 8)

Lucky I guess, it was the pilots signature that caught my eye and sent me on the hunt for information, Stampboards members provided the icing to the cake.

Merry Christmas to me

Sam

I am going to start up a "lets Ban Sam Kelly" thread.

Because now GLEN is going to check out every little envelope in EVERY carton, even if it takes him 25 hours a day, and he will never sleep again,

And there will never again be any wind falls like this,

In the future IF you find anything good, don,t tell us where you found it,

I certainly did not tell him when I found the plate 77 on cover a few years ago, and onsold it "As Is" or the block of 4 ..... 5/- Bridges in between the pages of a JUNK album which also had 3 dozen Pals Labels on the back page,

Great news, Sam - and just at the right time of year - good on you, mate. Got to have great historical value as well as the two thousand smackers... 8) 8) 8)

mrboggler wrote:
I am going to start up a"lets Ban Sam Kelly" thread.

Because now GLEN is going to check out every little envelope in EVERY carton...

I don't believe that for one minute Mr B...

Glen will make far more in the publicity value and additional sales to "hopefuls" from this to worry about checking things too closely - and time is money

You are right Gavin, I can see next months Stamp News ,,,,

samkelly wrote:

sherro wrote:Sam, all I can say is "well done!". It's the sort of find mere mortals like us dream of. An absolute cracker 8)

Lucky I guess, it was the pilots signature that caught my eye and sent me on the hunt for information, Stampboards members provided the icing to the cake.

Merry Christmas to me

Sam

Hey Sam...looks like Glen was your Secret Santa

Of Course the Pressure will now be back on Glen to ensure that at least every 3rd .4th . 6th etc Junk Box contains a "FIND"

If only it was cheaper to send these boxes across the Ocean.

Drew wrote:If only it was cheaper to send these boxes across the Ocean.

Boxes or anything, freight is a killer. Where I live I can drive to Castlecrag in about 5 hours.

I see items go up for sale on this board and members asking postage costs that are outside Australia, I sympathise.

There is no quick fix, there is nothing you can do and the depressed feeling of "I want" but "cannot have" being blasted in your face adds to the anxiety.

We are lucky to have a Dealer like Glen who buys and sells in bulk, has always done so, just our good fortune.

And remember anything Glen sells can be put aside and paid off (lay away or laybuy) as long as he agrees on the term period.

If he puts up a $200 item YOU want, it can be paid off at $50 a week over 4 weeks and 'happy days'

My first bulk purchase came from Glen 30 years ago. It's only recently I have come back on board, and that's only because of Stampboards.

In normal life I am a business person and the best advice I can give is do not have all your eggs in the same basket (agree Sherro). Do not rely on getting out of bed at 2:30am to get a deal off Stampboards.

The BIGGEST thing you need to do is be able to pay for items straight up, and thats buying from and scrutinizing daily at least 5 International sites, sites like Ebay and Delcamp (not dealers), there is a heap more out there. There is a nice one in New Zealand going off at the moment (in my area anyway).

Learn to use the "Search" on every site. They are not all the same and once worked out will reduce your computer time down dramatically, one tip I can give is do not use 'and' in a search, use instead cover & 1952, it cuts out a load of unwanted stuff.

You need a Paypal account and a Moneybookers account minimum ( http://www.moneybookers.com/app/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )

Sam

samkelly wrote: Boxes or anything, freight is a killer. Where I live I can drive to Castlecrag in about 5 hours.

Sam .. WITHIN NSW post of a carton is generally only $10-$15 -- pretty good value when petrol is $1.30 a litre.

I always use nice stamps, so shipping is essentially "free" no matter where collectors live.

Sam's rare cover find gets a write-up in my next 'Stamp News' article -- in most mailboxes in the next week -