In partnership with Just Collecting and Paul Fraser Collectibles
Good evening collectors. It’s Wednesday, May 20. The Beatles are back on the auction block, as are rare GB stamps, and we remember James Stewart. Sign up for free here.
Breaking News
These Mulready envelopes didn’t have the commercial impact of the concurrent Penny Black, but they’re a colourful and unusual piece of postal history. See below. Image: Just Collecting Auctions.
“Once in a generation” stamp auction
More than 300 lots formerly handled by dealers Stanley Gibbons are auctioning online this week.
Just Collecting Auctions open their latest auction with a focus on GB stamps. They say it offers a major opportunity to catch some notable philatelic and postal history items at prices that won’t be seen again.
007, 008, 009 White Album sequence sale
Three consecutively numbered test covers of the Beatles’ White Album will be auctioned as a single lot in June, with the set expected to make as much as £80,000.
The Beatles’ eponymous 1968 double album is one of the most valuable in history thanks to the band’s decision to produce numbered copies. In 2015 Ringo Starr’s copy of the record, 0000001, made $790,000 at auction and is the most valuable vinyl record ever sold (excluding recent one-off NFTs).
Three records numbered 007, 008 and 009 will be auctioned at McTear’s in Glasgow on June 3 and carry an estimate of £40,000 to £80,000. The covers were printed as a test run in Los Angeles. Just 100 test covers were made. The album that went to shops had a seven-digit number, some with a letter as a prefix.
McTear’s say the set comes from a collector who died this year in possession of “the world’s finest collection of White Albums.” These copies include the lowest numbered three-digit album known and the lowest sequentially numbered set ever sold.
In the Know
Selling this week
Chinese American pioneer: Actress Anna May Wong’s signature with Latin and Chinese scripts in a 1930s autograph book containing other contemporary stars. At Chiswick Auctions ending from May 24. £600 top estimate for the whole collection.
Early Swiss stamp: At Jean-Paul Bach Auction in Basel and online, a fascinating 6 Rp stamp from Zurich of type III in exceptional condition, used on a letter of June 15, 1844, just a year after first issue. Closing from May 21 with a £28,500 estimate.
Sold last week
Records tumble: Christie’s New York sale of the collection of publishing magnate SI Newhouse made $630.8 million with the high of many highlights the $181 million sale of Jackson Pollock’s Number 7 A from 1948.
Japanese anime: Japanese culture continues to show up well in western auctions, with a production cel from Akira (1988) making $73,200 in Heritage Auctions’ comic art sale that closed on Sunday.
Events & Exhibitions
Boston World Expo: The biggest stamp show in the world is finally here, opening on Saturday for a week. It’s too big to summarise (but includes nearly 400 events and multiple new stamp launches), and is best visited with its Cvent app downloaded onto your phone.
Whistler explored: The largest European retrospective of James McNeil Whistler’s work opens tomorrow at Tate Britain in London with over 150 works on show.
A – Z
Art: After some intimidatingly high recent art auction returns, it is worth remembering that a Picasso can be had for 10s of thousands. Christie’s Picasso ceramics auction closes this Friday.
Autographs: A signed first day cover by Dr Seuss closes at Chiswick Auctions this Sunday and looks good value. Pre-sale bids have yet to hit the reserve for an item by a collectible artist that crosses collecting boundaries.
Autographs: A row is brewing over signatures on limited-edition signed first editions of Liza Minnelli’s memoir that some fans say was signed by autopen. Copies of Kids, Wait till You Hear This! were sold for up to $250 as hand-signed.
Historical documents: Letters by Rene Magritte to a fellow chess player come with the bonus of beautiful drawings by the surrealist master whose fully realised works regularly make 10s of millions. These letters have a $23,000 top estimate at Sotheby’s in Paris.
Numismatics: On Tuesday, the Enduring Liberty Semiquincentennial half dollar becomes the latest celebratory anniversary issue of the US Mint and can be ordered in bags and rolls.
Numismatics: The 100 final nominees for the Coin of the Year Award 2025 have been published by Numismatic News. The winners will be announced at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money on August 27, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Pokemon: On Friday the Abyss Eye set will release in Japan, with US releases set for July. Previews are already going round social media, and collectors will be selling and trading this weekend.
Stamps: The death of Michael Sefi, 82, the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, has been confirmed with an obituary in the Times newspaper. Mr Sefi had been guardian of the multimillion pound royal collection since 2003.
Sports memorabilia: A Lamine Yamal shirt has soared to $39,000 ahead of its sale at Goldin next month. Yamal wore the Barca shirt in his 100th game in 2025. He is still only 18 and likely to cement his legend status at this year’s World Cup finals.
The Long Read
Forget your Allegro shame and revel in some unsung motoring heroes in:
9 terrible 80s cars that are now worth a fortune
Whatnots
James Stewart had a universal appeal, and this Italian poster for It’s a Wonderful Life sold for $29,000 in 2017. See anniversary below. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Inside: Comic book debuts
Debuts and firsts are a big deal for collectors.
Superheroes are no exception, and the first sightings of these masked heroes and heroines are among the most valuable comics in the collecting world.
Here are five notable debuts with the record prices that prove their allure:
- Superman – Action Comics #1, June 1938, sold for $15 million in a private sale in 2026.
- Batman – Detective Comics #27, March 1939, sold for $2.3 million at auction in 2026.
- Spider-Man – Amazing Fantasy #15, August 1962, sold for $3.6 million at auction in 2021.
- Wonder Woman – All Star Comics #8, October 1941 (cover date Dec/Jan 41 to 42), sold at auction for $1.6 million in 2022.
- Captain America – Captain America #1, March 1941 (cover date), sold for $3.1 million at auction in 2022.
Condition and authenticity are vital to most big comic sales, but if you see an authentic copy of any of these issues (at the right price) you should snap it up.
Quirky: Robert Otis Buck threatened to punch artist Norman Rockwell the first time the pair met. Buck thought Rockwell was staring at him. And he was right. Fortunately, they reached an understanding and Buck, then a teenager, became a long-standing model for the artist who is the most successful chronicler of the American 20th century. Buck in his regular role as Private Willie Gillis was sold yesterday for $300,000. Rockwell liked Buck’s ears, according to the model’s son.
Anniversary this week: James Stewart was born 118 years ago today in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Stewart’s relatability and easy charm made him the Tom Hanks of his age. You could pick his string of movies with director Alfred Hitchcock or three notable westerns alongside John Wayne as favourites. But it’s in It’s a Wonderful Life that he stamped his likable everyman persona most durably on the American psyche. Good quality, authenticated signatures are sought after, and original posters for It’s a Wonderful Life have gone for tens of thousands of dollars.
There are two kinds of people I don’t trust: people who don’t drink and people who collect stickers.
― Comedian Chelsea Handler
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