All Nations Stamp & Coin reported more bidders compared to last year at this March’s milestone auction, the firm’s 1,400th in more than 26 years, with realizations nearing 110 per cent of the pre-sale estimates.
On March 11, the Vancouver firm owned by long-time dealer and auctioneer Brian Grant Duff offered more than 230 lots, covering a range of philatelic and numismatic material from Canada and around the world.
“Good material with eye-appeal did well,” said Duff. “High cataloguing material with less eye-appeal underperformed.”
Another imperforate offering, this one an upper-right plate block of four 1934 Jacques Cartier stamps in Very Fine condition, sold for $4,070 as Lot 60.
Among the top-earning Canadian stamps, an imperforate pair of 1929 Bluenose stamps (Scott #158a) in Very Fine (VF), never-hinged condition realized $1,650 to top its estimate as Lot 53.
An imperforate upper-right plate block of four 1934 Jacques Cartier stamps (SC #208a) also topped its estimate as Lot 60, bringing $4,070 in VF condition.
The sale, which marked Duff’s first live auction with an in-person bidding floor in three years, saw “only a handful in attendance” at the All Nations storefront in west Vancouver.
“Even some who intended to come stayed away,” he said, referencing colds and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Most of his bidders continued to participate online.