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Author
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Topic: Best space cover 'bargain basement' buys
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Axman
Member Posts: 340
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
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posted 01-24-2024 06:59 AM
   
Collecting space covers can be a very expensive hobby. Many of my early space and autographed covers cost me well into the hundreds of dollars, with my insurance covers into the thousands. I have had to budget carefully and target covers I wanted as and when they became available, with many slipping through my fingers because I was outbid, or simply couldn't afford them at the time.However, I have been privileged to make some bargain basement buys on stuff that has turned out to be rare and much more valuable than I imagined. In the nearly a year since I joined this forum, through its threads, I have posted four covers that I would have struggled to buy at their true market value. - Gagarin signature on cover. Bought for an absolute bargain in India. I can't even remember how much I paid, but I remember I paid in cash and as I never carried more than 5,000 rupees on me in cash, it must have been less than £50, which is less than $60.
- Self-addressed envelope by Buzz Aldrin for the Apollo 16 launch. I found it on eBay at the start of a six day auction listed as "Apollo 16 Cape launch" at $3.50. I was the first and only bidder. It cost me an additional $1.75 for postage.
- John R Pierce recovery cover, which I purchased for $8.50 after sending off a speculative 'wants' list to Naval cover dealers.
- John Glenn recovery USS Noa 20 Feb with PM time plug. Which I offered $90 for when it appeared on eBay for auction or best offer.
So, can I ask, what are the best bargains you have obtained and how did you get them? |
astrobock
Member Posts: 186
From: WV, USA
Registered: Sep 2006
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posted 01-24-2024 05:33 PM
The John Pierce cover you purchased for $8.50 was added to the Dennis Dillman (micropooz) census — a decades long effort on his part to find them. If you don't have that list please request it from him. Congratulations. Great find! |
Axman
Member Posts: 340
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
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posted 01-25-2024 06:05 AM
Yes, it was Dennis's thread that alerted me to what a rare find it was. I have received his spreadsheet on request.Looking back on it, it was very naive of me to expect to find anything at all on the wants list I had sent out. It included all of the dates and ships names for the very earliest unmanned Mercury precursor spaceflights that I know now included ships without post offices and launches that have no known recovery covers whatsoever ... and the naval cover dealer had obviously never correlated his stock against known space recovery missions. So it was a matter of complete ignorance on the parts of both the dealer and myself that luckily unearthed such a find. Somebody with more knowledge on the subject would probably have not bothered to undertake what would have seemed like such an obviously futile task. |
micropooz
Member Posts: 1751
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 01-25-2024 07:25 PM
Thanks Garry and Alan for the kind words about the USS Pierce census! We're up to 20 (legit) Pierces out there, about double what I expected when I started the census years ago. My only regret is not keeping a separate log of the Riser fakes that I ran across. Hindsight is 20-20...So, "bargain basement" covers! Some of my faves are: A cover for a Saturn V S-II stage engine test at Bay St. Louis in 1966 in a dealer’s dollar box about 13 years ago. I don’t know if that's a good price or not, because I haven't seen another one in 40 years of collecting! An Al Worden self-addressed Apollo 15 cover that I found in another dealer's dollar box many years ago. A Gemini 3 crew autographed cover that I found at an airmail collector swap meet for $75 about 20 years ago. And then there is the oft-discussed release of Apollo 11 Insurance Type covers by Eunice Radnofsky in the late 1980's for $150 each. By the time I figured out that I should have bought more than the one I first ordered, the whole stock had been bought out. Go figure... 😊 |
Axman
Member Posts: 340
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
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posted 01-26-2024 05:41 AM
I absolutely adore the S-II static firing cover, and no, I've not seen anything similar.Your Al Worden and my Buzz Aldrin covers have a similar style: Apollo mission logo cachets hand addressed by Apollo astronauts. There may well be a few more out there slipping under the radar. I shall scrutinise Apollo mission launch day covers more closely in future. | |
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