Bobstamp

07 Jan 2015
01:28:50pm

This post was inspired by a different thread, but I thought it best to start a new thread rather than go off on a tangent. I feel that it is my duty to do anything that keeps Moderator Bobby away from his liquor cabinet.

In the other thread, Webpaper mentioned a Helbock publication, United States Post Offices - Volume 1 - The West. Could Webpaper or someone else in who has this publication in hand could look up this official Post Office Department cover? I'm thinking it must have a fairly high rarity factor.



Arenas Valley is a small village in southwestern New Mexico, six miles northeast of Silver City. I lived there from 1949 through 1957. The post office was its only government institution; it opened in 1946 and was closed in 1987. In all my years of collecting, I've obtained only three or four covers postmarked in Arenas Valley. The one shown above was posted by Olga Harper, who was postmaster at the time (October, 1947); she was the mother of my best friend, Ernest Harper.



I have published a web page about the post office, titled Box 28, Arenas Valley, NM — A tiny country post office played a big role in my youth.

Bob

 
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re: Value of New Mexico cover

Hi Bob,

Helbock is somewhat out of date and shows Arenas Valley as still open. There is no scarcity rating given for open post offices but that is a desirable cover with a nice usage.

If you want to do your own research on New Mexico towns (or any other state for that matter) Jim Forte's website has a great search engine. You can also search by "strings" of letters which makes it a great tool if you have only part of a cancel. It's located here:

http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp

A word on scarcity - postal history has a very limited market. I have some stampless covers with a rating of "9" which means either none have been located or only a couple are known. Problem being no one collects the counties they were located in at the present time ....... several small counties in most states have no active collectors and no matter how scarce or how cheap they languish unsold.

I once bought a ship cover from one of the Antarctic Expeditions - there were 50 identical covers (#10 size) and they were held together by a rubber band that had sliced into the bottom of each cover about an inch or inch and a half. I paid the dealer $1 for it - he wondered if I wanted them all. I imagine a $20 bill would have bought all 50 of them. I put it on Ebay hoping to get $5 for it. It sold for a shade under $200. I sent out a congratulatory email and received a response stating "Congratulations my xxx, there are only two people in the whole country who want that cover. It's a southbound coal stop on the southern run and no covers have ever surfaced."

The dealer who sold it to me put one of his remaining 49 on in about a month or two (this when Ebay was small and friendly and you could track everything). It brought $10. Another put on a month later garnered no bids.

There is a lot of material out there that hasn't surfaced yet ....

Anyone who wonders what years a post office was in operation can use the link posted above. If the post office no longer exists feel free to message me and I can provide the rarity factor from Helbock.

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I still have more questions than answers
08 Jan 2015
11:36:28am

re: Value of New Mexico cover

Helbock is out of date largely because Richard passed away a few years ago. However I had several conversations with him over the years. He would have assigned a scarcity factor of one to any DPO cover where the post office was still open after 1970. His philosophy was anyone that wanted the cancel could easily obtain it by simply writing the post office.
I collect Minnesota covers and I once asked him why it was so hard to find anything with a scarcity value greater than seven. He explained to me that anything greater than seven may not exist. The scarcity factor was based on the probability of a cover existing. He based this upon, years open, population of the town, businesses in the town, railroad, time period and I know I am leaving something out. If you ever find something with a scarcity factor of eight or nine, you have a true gem.

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