Ukraine Tridents

I acquired most of my long-term stock of Ukraine tridents over a dozen years ago, when I was able to purchase part of Dr Seichter's collection and then part of Vyrovj's collection. I still have thousands of stamps and postal history items from these collections.

But I need new material to fill gaps, especially scarcer material. Recently, I travelled to Germany to view half a dozen auction lots of Ukraine which turned up in a provincial auction. As is often the case, they were poorly estimated: auctioneers just don't have the knowledge for these issues.

A banal collection of common stamps in large quantitites was estimated at several thousand euros just because the owner had gone to the trouble of getting Expert Certificates for much of the collection. The certificates must have cost considerably more than the stamps were worth. I did not bid on this lot.

In contrast, an old and sparse collection in several albums was estimated at only a few hundred euro but contained at least ten very scarce stamps, in nice condition and with decent signatures. They were all genuine. So I was able to bid twice the estimate on this lot.

Browsing other Lots I found an exhibit collection of Polish issues for Upper Silesia. There was a lot of material with proofs, essays, specimens, multiples and a bit of postal history. I don't know much about this material so I had to guess. I guessed three times the start price and got the Lot for a bit less. Now I will have to study it properly.

The trip was worthwhile because I got all five Lots for which I left bids. One of the frustrations of auction viewing is that you can devote two or three days to a trip and to viewing and still end up empty-handed.