Large group of older U.S. definitives, pre-Bureau and Bureau (1890-1903)

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This lot consists of about 85 older U.S. definitive issues from the early post-banknote era. The first image is a composite showing the entire lot; the next two are scans of individual stock sheets, and the last six are closeups of groups of the same stamps.Centering, perfs, and cancels as per the scans. This is a bulk lot, so I can't offer detailed descriptions; in general I've selected these from a larger group in someone's old stockbook by removing egregiously faulty ones with holes and missing pieces, but there are still the usual small faults. I removed stamps with scissor-cut straight edges, but there are still several with what I believe are natural straight edges (including, sadly, the 30-cent no triangle). Many stamps have hinge remnants and some even show paper adherent to the back (visible from the front on the first #223 for example), and there are of course some pencil annotations. The cork cancels are mostly standard targets. There are quite a few round corners and short perfs.With those disclaimers out of the way, there is certainly a lot of catalogue value in the lot - exactly how much depends on the watermark status of the "with triangles." Several of the 2-centers have pencilled notations: "UN 251", UN I," "III UN"; I don't have any reason to doubt they are unwatermarked, but I can't vouch for the accuracy. If you assume that all of the triangles are from the later, cheaper watermarked series, then the 2015 Scott catalogue value for the entire lot is about $500, and I've therefore put the opening bid below 5% of that. For shipping I'll transfer the stamps from the stock pages (not included in the lot) to a 3-4 glassines and mail them to you at the cost for a first-class letter. Notice regarding items ending the second week in June : from June 10-14 I will be busy tending to a variety of family and neighborhood graduation activities and will not be reliably able to process lots into the mailstream until probably Tuesday June 16 . Among the items currently in my eBay store are a few Iceland lots and a bunch of quality Denmark items, some other U.S. lots, and a wide variety of miscellaneous because I'm actively cleaning out five decades worth of accumulated material. I plan to list more U.S. in the near future, starting with miscellaneous stuff and working my way toward some premium items. Standard boilerplate to save me from typing everything every week: About me : I am not a dealer. I’m a hobbyist collector with 50+ years of experience, with particular interest in Scandinavia, Canada, Europe, and the U.S. I have been an APS member for 24 years and have twice been President of our local APS-affiliated stamp club. I collect by buying albums, accumulations, and box lots, keeping what I need, and selling the rest. I’m also in the process of trying to get rid of a lifelong accumulation in closets, bookcases, and file drawers. eBaying competes with lots of other interests and responsibilities, so I will probably list only a couple items a week, and sometimes none. Descriptions : When the catalogue value of a stamp is dependent on watermark or perforations, I have either confirmed them myself or cited a catalogue price for the cheapest type. Stamps shown within mounts may be previously hinged by a previous owner. And if I’m reselling someone else’s old album pages, it’s always possible that the original owner misplaced stamps when mounting them. I describe lots to the best of my ability, but I am human and mistakes can happen. Small lots I try to describe in minute detail. For mid-size lots and album pages I try to check stamp backs for gum status and faults, but in a such lots I can’t check or describe everything. Large lots will contain the good and the bad, but usually not the ugly because before I sell lots I weed out (into a wastebasket) grossly faulty stamps (missing pieces etc). Hinge remnants can cover faults; I generally do not remove hinges, so thins there might not be described. When I describe a lot as “unchecked by me” (for shades, varieties, wate... read more

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