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News from our eBay Shop

October update

Isle of Man 1971 stamp

Thursday 15th October was a special day in our Hospice Shops eBay office. During a clean out and tidy up at the Bucks Road shop a Volunteer has found a 1971 stamp at he bottom of a draw. She passed it on to Christine Kay, who researched the stamp and found it had some collectors' value. Fast forward to the end of eBay bidding and with five minutes to the end bids had reached £81. But within the last few minutes there was a flurry of bidding and the last one in - the one that counts - revealed the stamp had been sold for th huge sum of £415.58. Needless to say, this made everyone's day, this sort of thing does not happen very often.

Congratulations and thanks to the Bucks Road shop volunteer who's sharp eyes picked out this gem where it might easily have finished up in the bin.

For those interested in philately, the background history follows below.

Isle of Man Strike Posts - British Post Office Strike 1971

After a breakdown in pay negotiations the Union of Post Office Workers went on strike from 20th January 1971. Terms for a resumption of normal services were not agreed until 8th March making this the most serious interruption in service ever experienced by the British Post Office.

The Government announced an official suspension of the letter carrying monopoly from 20th January and dozens of private schemes attempted to fill the breech. Many of these were purely philatelic and provided little or no service but some were able to make arrangements for delivery and transmission of mail over large distances. The Post Office licensed a number of firms and individuals to carry mail often given in the form of a Letter of Authority which stated that the waiver was strictly only until the resumption of normal first class letter service.

Several strike posts operated to and from the Isle of Man which varied in their authenticity.

Post Manninagh

Mr. Gordon L. Quirk of the Island Distribution Company received a Letter of Authority to “operate a private collection and delivery service for letters” on 27th January 1971. As far as is known it was the only such authorization issued. 'Post Manninagh' operated a service for the full period of the strike 20th January – 8th March and also provided an airmail service to worldwide destinations. OHMS mail was carried for a trial period for some Government Departments of the Isle of Man.

All the issues were printed on the same stock of white, gummed paper. All were printed letterpress from single plates, with the exception of the 71/2p which was printed in pairs. All stamps were imperforate. Due to the speed of production and limited equipment some slight variations in shade occur and minor blemishes caused by small hairs, specks of dust, etc., but no major errors were issued. There were no commemoratives, price alterations or overprints with the exception of the Government overprint. No special First Day Covers were produced until the Decimal Day issue of the 15th February 1971, and this by special request of local philatelists. Earlier covers are “First Day” only by virtue of their postmark. Design, artwork, photography and printing by Gordon Quirk.

A decimal FDC was produced for 15th  February, an airmail FDC for the 1st March and quantities of Last Day Covers were sent to various addresses on the 8th  March. Some covers were sent to the Holiday Exhibition at Waterloo Station, London and rubber stamped “received” by the Tourist Department of the Cornwall County Council. Others were flown directly to New York and passed through the US postal system, then flown back to the I.O.M. by Post Manninagh Courier. Couriers were also flown to Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Rhodesia, etc. with commercial airmail for worldwide destinations via the postal services of those countries.

A genuine service was maintained for the full 47 days of the postal dispute. Eighty five percent of mail was delivered the same day as received, the balance within 24 hours. The 7½p local rate included collection as well as delivery. The 25p airmail stamp was used on mail to Mexico, Australia, Poland, Spain, USA, South America, Bermuda, Canada, New Zealand, France, Denmark, Canary Islands, South Africa, Rhodesia, Egypt, Italy, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Malta, Ceylon, West Germany and Sweden.

It is believed that these are the only stamps issued during the strike to be included in the Royal Collection of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. “Post Manninagh” claimed to be first ever Manx Stamps and Mr. Quirk the first postmaster.

March Update

The Foley Intarsio English Vase

The vase in this photograph was found amongst donated bric-a-brac. Christine Jones spotted it, and liking what she saw, brought it back to our eBay office for research to find it was “ A Foley Intarsio English Vase.” We knew then it was valuable, and owing to its age and impeccable condition a potential for eBay users to take an immediate interest.

After photography , the vase was listed on eBay, and starting at a low price, to attract attention, bidding soon got underway. By the ends of the day, it had already reached £10.00. Next day the price had risen to a £56.00. This was great news and we received approx 10-12 questions a day about this amazing vase. By The end of the second day the price had risen yet again to £174.00 with approx thirty people watching it.

The price kept on rising and the questions kept spilling in. On the last day of the listing and several hours before the bidding was due to end we had an astonishing fifty people watching this vase, either eager to bid at the last minute, or just interested to see what the final price ends up at. The bidding was up to £333 with four minutes to go; was the price going to take a sudden jump or will it stay the same?

We sat anxiously at our computers refreshing the page hoping for that little extra, although very pleased at the same time of what we had achieved already. With one minute to go, the price was still the same, looking as though we were going to settle for a very good £333. Suddenly with less than a minute left the price jumped up to an amazing £440. By this time we were absolutely over the moon. We refreshed the page once more for goods luck, and a final bidder jumped in with seconds before the end of the auction placing a bid raising it yet again up to £485.

A great start to the week, being our biggest seller of the year so far on a single item. We would just like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers and volunteers who help make this possibly. Many thanks.

February Update

We had a very busy February with some very interesting items in our eBay Shop, starting with a great donation of vintage Rivarossi train carriages.  The phone call came through to the eBay office, one of our vans collected the items, they were then sorted, photographed and put straight on eBay, below are a few photos of the carriages that sold well.

Vintage Rivarossi metal carriage 5432 made in Italy. Winning bid: £36.00	Three Plastic Rivarossi carriages 5471 made in Italy. Winning bid:£73.00

 

Collectors' models of famous aircraft

We had this deluxe model of the BAe 146 / Avro RJX British Regional Airline generously given to us. It is a big model, very well made and brought a lot of interest, finally selling for £53.99.

Collectors' Cameras

Quite a number of vintage cameras and camera parts are donated from time to time; we save them up until we have a collection and then visit Morrisons Photos Ltd in Tynwald Street, Douglas.  They very kindly give us advice helping us with a value as a guide for us to use when putting the items on eBay. Below are some examples of cameras that have sold on Hospice eBay Shop.

 

Pentax MX Camera with various lenses and more. Winning bid:£90.88	Vintage German SUPER IKONTA bought 1935 with receipt. Winning bid:£68.00

January update