Sunday, April 1, 2012

April 1st Breaking News: Slabbed International on eBay

In what may be a first, an eBay seller, Bob's House of Stamps, has listed a slabbed Blue International Volume 1. According to the description, before slabbing the album was completely filled with all 35,000 stamps graded GEM100 or above. The eBay description also states that each stamp was MNH when it was hinged into the album. Furthermore, every stamp is guaranteed and the album comes with 35,000 certificates from Bob's House of Expertising. All the certs read: "We beg to inform you that is our opinion that this stamp is what it appears to be."

Opening bid is 99 cents. Bob's House of Stamps has 10,000+ all private feedback of 100% and he is a member of all major organizations including the APS (Amalgamated Peripatetic Stampers) and the ASDA (Albanian Stamp Doctorers Anonymous). Note that Bob has only twelve of these slabbed albums available so this is definitely first come, first served. The seller appears to be located in Antarctica but offers discounted shipping if you select the "Buy It Now" option for $199,999.99. The album may be returned within 24 hours for partial refund but only if the slab is unopened and the seal is intact.

9 comments:

Madbaker said...

What a timely post! Thank you so much. I was lucky enough to by one of the twelve before they were gone!

I wanted to get started in Stamp Collecting today -- collecting the classics. So I'm glad I got that over with.

Tomorrow, I think I will start collecting peacock feathers, or autographs from the brothers of famous people. If you find an ebay lot with any of these please let me know.

:)

Bob said...

The rumor I've heard is that Bob's House of Stamps is expanding into slabbed certified peacock feathers. Apparently these are a lot more profitable than stamps.

Bill said...

Isn't it too bad that I missed this one? *Sigh*.

John said...

There's an actual volume 1 on ebay now with 13,000 currently at $1400. (Note-I'm not advertising, I have nothing to do with this lot other than bidding a few hundred dollars ago).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200744335643?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1426.l2649

Jim said...

Bob, speaking of April Fools, did you see the Big Blue album encrusted with extras, that was hammered down for $21,000 at a Daniel Kelleher auction in January?

Link is found at he "100,000 stamp club" thread, page 7, on Stamp Community Forum.

Appalling and fascinating at the same time. ;-)

Bob said...

Vis-a-vis the collection mentioned in John's post, this Volume 1 with 13,000+ stamps sold for $2,650 earlier today. I remember when you could win 13,000 count collections on eBay for under $1000 (way back in 2008), not that there have ever been that many ten thousand plus 1840-1940 collections on eBay.

Jim said...

Bob

From your point of view has the market changed?

It seems most better Big Blue collections are now broken up by country and sold as country collections. Or perhaps that is what I now pay attention to, as that is what I am interested in for my own needs. ;-)

Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob said...

Jim, great question to which I don't know the answer. I had always thought that I would go after single country or region collections, too, once it became too expensive to buy large worldwide albums, but I've yet to make a successful purchase. I'm still trying to work out what makes the most sense. I know what I'm doing now which is largely buying individual stamps will be expensive in the long run, even at 50% or less of catalog, but I really like the reasonably hassle free experience of this approach versus the lottery that is eBay.