Stamp Club Auction Yields Treasures

Canada's Edmonton Journal reports Ian Wright spent $9,000 last Saturday buying four boxes filled with thousands of stamps and envelopes.

"A lot of money, to be sure. But with the Edmonton Stamp Club estimating the treasures in the box to be worth $25,000, Wright walked away from the stamp auction at the Fantasyland Hotel Conference Centre confident he had scored a good deal," writes reporter Brian J. Gavriloff.

Wright is quoted as saying his haul included the largest collection of a specific penny black stamp plate from 1840 that will be sold anywhere in the world this year, and an even larger number of penny red stamps.

Wright’s find was one of more than 230 lots auctioned as part of the stamp club’s final auction of the Ted Meers’ collection.

Meers, who died three years ago, was addicted to stamp collecting like a gambler is addicted to casinos, said Keith Spencer, president of Edmonton Stamp Club.

Meers a ran a business called Pack Rat Collectibles and spent 50 years accumulating stamps and covers. His basement was crammed with millions of stamps, mostly unorganized and many that were quite valuable according to the article.

Shown above, collector Alec Kulesza with a block of four 50-cent Canadian O.H.M.S overprints for which he paid $70. They catalog for $200 a piece in unused conditon.

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