South West Africa: German colonial period stamps

A nice copy, I just had a copy arrive a few days ago. Mine does not look as good as yours. Green seems to be lighter on mine. And of course I do not have the great German text with the stamp details. Good luck on further hunting.

david

Hi, Xavier (hrdoktorx )!

Thanks for your interesting post. Ah yes, to buy or not to buy, that is the question. I think that the stamp in question is beautiful, but I think the price is high.

I have no special expertise in this area, but for me, if I were going to pay €698 for a single stamp, I would need to convince myself that this is an exceptional copy, and that I believe that I will never see another as nice as this one.

I know that I am an old fuss-budget when it comes to condition, especially centering. Perhaps too much so. I have looked through the introductory section in the Scott Catalogue, and it shows from a centering point of view how stamps are graded. Looking at their illustrations, it is not so easy to find stamps in VF and XF grades.

Based on what I have read there, most dealers and collectors overstate the grade of their stamps. They still quote the value listed in the catalogue even when it is clear that what they have is not what they claim. Scott further states all of their values are for stamps in VF condition, and that value drops precipitously for stamps in less than VF condition.

So, to my thinking, just looking at the centering of the example, it grades F-VF, being centered low and to the right. When I looked up the stamp in the 2008 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue, German South West Africa - Sc 5, it shows a CV of $575 in mint never-hinged condition ($190 mint hinged). Because the centering is not VF or better, personally, I would look for a better example than this one.

Having said all that, I also know for truly scarce items, there may be limits on condition, and perhaps a true VF or better example simply doesn’t exist or would fetch an even higher price than the €698. You probably have a better idea about that than I do.

Me, I like “eye candy” when it comes to my stamps, and even though this is a beautiful and uncommon stamp, I would not be willing to buy it at the stated price. Then again, that’s just me.

If you do still buy it, I wouldn’t blame you, as that is the prerogative of each of us as individual collectors. We get to decide for ourselves what is most important to us, accepting the fact that we are probably no two exactly alike.

That’s the blessing and the curse of collecting and of life. Best of luck, whatever you decide!

I had fun voicing my opinion, so thanks for asking.

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. They certainly do help in my decision process. As salentin certainly noticed, but I forgot to mention in the description, the card does say "geprüft" (proofed) and the stamp does come accompanied with an authenticity certificate. I would not even entertain the sale without it, for sure.

These are hard to find stamps, with an authentic overprint. The certificate is the most important thing on this stamp. The centering is not that bad for a German stamp, they are hard to find perfectly centered and even harder to find a perfectly centered stamp with an overprint.

Thanks again to all who expressed their opinions. In the end, I let reason win over passion and will be returning the stamp. This was still way above my normal max budget and I'd rather spend that kind of money somewhere else (or, more precisely, my wife has spent the money somewhere else).

Another lot of German colonial overprinted stamps, with attest. 


German East Africa

Just a fraction over my monthly stamp budget ....... yeah, right ....