Canadian Stamp Auctions
Stamp Market Commentary

Commentary No. 79 - 17 January, 2006

The Market for Canada’s Stamp Booklets

For some reason, Canada’s stamp booklet prices have not advanced in a noticeable way over the years. This is the general case for which, as usual, there are some exceptions, particularly amongst the varieties. For example, take this booklet pane that sold at Charles G. Firby’s sale of the James W. Goss collection on June 29, 2003: Lot 18 Estimate $2500 U.S. Realized $3000 U.S. ($4050 Cdn) This booklet would ordinarily have a catalogue value of $180, but with the No. 6 inscribed in the tab, the price realized jumped to $4050. This was clearly an exceptional variety. Canadian booklet prices We have carried out a general review of the prices recorded for Canadian booklets in both the Scott and Unitrade catalogues and can summarize our conclusions as follows: • With rare exception, the prices shown in recent years in the Scott catalogue for booklet panes issued between 1898 and 2005 show little or no change.     • Around 1995, Scott expanded its coverage of booklets and began to show prices for complete booklets as well. However even these prices have shown little or no change since their introduction.     • The Unitrade catalogue, on the other hand, has a completely separate section for complete booklets, ie, those still in their cover. It has tracked the values of these booklets from the start ie from 1898 to today. What we have found is that those prices remained unchanged in Unitrade’s catalogues for most recent years up to and including the 2005 edition. But when the 2006 catalogue was issued, the prices for many if not most of the complete booklets issued before 1953 saw substantial gains. Examples of Scott Prices for Booklet Panes Here are the figures showing the changes in the prices of booklets in the past 5 years: Scott Description 2002 2006     $ $ 77 b 2¢ Victoria 2000 2350 90 b 2¢ Edward 1500 1500 104 a 1¢ Admiral 35 35 105 a 1¢ Admiral 90 90 107 b 2¢ Admiral 100 105 149 a 1¢ Scroll 30 30 153 a 5¢ Scroll 160 160 163 a 1¢ Arch 130 130 164 a 2¢ Arch 35 35 195 a 1¢ Cameo 105 105 196 a 2¢ Cameo 105 95 217 a 2¢ 1935 issue 75 70 232 a 2¢ Mufti 15 16 249 a 1¢ War 4 4 341 a 5¢ Wilding 1 1 458 a 5¢ Centennial 4 4 459 a 6¢ Centennial 6 6 543 a 7¢ Centennial 2 2 923 a 30¢ Artifacts 10 10 926 d 34¢ Artifacts 12 12 1163 b 37¢ Definitive 18 18 1189 c 39¢ Definitive 50 50 1315 b 40¢ Gardens 6 6 1359 b 43¢ Flag 20 20 1515 b 43¢ Rivers 7 7 1696 a 95¢ Maple leaf 6 7 1705 a 46¢ Flag 18 21 1715 a 45¢ Fishing 7 10 1765 a 52¢ Christmas 9 12 1879 a 60¢ Red fox 5 8 We could only find two exceptions in all this period of time where the values increased in a noticeable way. The difference was sufficient to merit special mention and these were as follows: Scott 1356b 2002 Scott $35 2006 Scott $70 Scott 1373c 2002 Scott $10 2006 Scott $14 Until the end of the 1980s, Canada Post issued booklets sparingly. They were found almost exclusively amongst the definitive sets. However, beginning in the 1990s, booklets began to be issued containing not only definitive but also commemorative stamps. Here is an example of a commemorative booklet: Scott 1273b Unitrade Catalogue prices The Unitrade catalogue provides far greater detail than Scott in its coverage of the booklet prices. The experience here is that, like Scott, the prices of the regular booklets have not advanced. However Unitrade covers two aspects of these booklets that are not found in Scott. First, it provides prices for complete booklets from 1898 to date whereas, as mentioned above, Scott only starts this process around 1995. Furthermore, for the earlier years, Unitrade provides prices for many booklet varieties not found in Scott. As will be shown below, the prices for the pre-1953 complete booklets have shown good advances in Unitrade this year as have the prices for a few of the booklet varieties. Examples of Unitrade Prices for complete booklets Unitrade Description 2002 2005 2006     $ $ $ BK 2 2¢ Edward VII 3000 3000 4750 BK3c 1¢ Admiral 45 45 250 BK 4a 1¢ Admiral 200 200 700 BK 5a 2¢ Admiral 250 250 750 BK 11 1¢ Scroll 150 150 200 BK 14 1¢ Arch 175 175 250 BK 20 1¢ Medallion 150 150 325 BK 21a 2¢ Medallion 100 100 500 BK 27 1¢ 1935 issue 200 200 300 BK 28a 1¢ Mufti issue 20 20 55 BK 29a 2¢ Mufti issue 20 20 60 BK 32a 1¢ War issue 12 12 35 BK 34a 3¢ War issue 5 5 14 BK 39a 3¢ War issue 20 20 44 BK 40a 3¢ Geo. VI 7 7 11 BK 41a 4¢ Geo. VI 14 14 30 Examples of Unitrade Prices for booklet varieties Unitrade Description 2002 2006     $ $ 104 ai 1¢ Admiral-hairlines 35 100 107 bi 2¢ Admiral-pyramid guidelines 3500 4200 163 cii 1¢ Arch-tab 4 75 140 164 aii 2¢ Arch-tab PLATE 75 200 164 aiii 2¢ Arch-perforations on right 150 400 165 bi 2¢ Arch-tab PLATE 75 120 166 cii 2¢ Arch-tab 4 75 150 195 bi 1¢ Cameo-tab PLATE 75 125 196 bi 2¢ Cameo-tab PLATE 75 200 254 ai 2¢ War-larger tab 3 10 287 bi 4¢ George-stitched 75 90 460 aiii 6¢ Centennial- HB DEX 2000 3500 Conclusion What does all this mean for the average collector? Unfortunately it means that all the money spent to buy booklets in the past 50 years will not bring much reward. This is similar to the conclusion we reached when we did a review of the prices for Canada’s First Day Covers in our Commentary No. 46. However, for those collectors who have carefully acquired complete booklets issued before 1953 or have invested in some of the more valuable varieties of the earlier booklets such as those listed above, the returns may have been very good. It took a long time for the increases in the earlier complete booklets to be recognized in the catalogues. One obviously has to be very patient. It took over 50 years in some cases for the rarity of some of the booklets to attract collectors’ attention at auction. It may take decades before some of the booklets that are around today will become recognized as rare in future. It is this hope that keeps us all going but we sure have to be patient!

©2006, Canadian Stamp Auctions Ltd., Montréal, Québec, Canada