Rare stamps and butterflies

[Michael Gochfeld]

Chris,

This explanation is clearer and I don't think we disagree on facts.

Also, I think you are right about "American collectors" to some extent
in that many of those who advertise on the web are from foreign
countries.  Is that because they need hard currency?  Or is that where
the willing-to-pay collectors are? 

I certainly agree that  "a population of butterflies in habitat is
priceless", but ironically we are often called upon to place a dollar
value on just that very "resource".  Books on environmental economics
try to identify the direct and indirect values place on butterflies. 

Some ask questions like, "how much would it be worth to you to keep
Mitchell's Satyr from going extinct", and easy question since no long is
coming around to collect on my statement. 

Others calculate the dollar value spent on travel, motels, food,
photographic equipment, nets, pins, etc to see, photograph or collect
whatever(should we also include part of our car and part of the house
where we keep our specimens or slides).  It would be much easier to
accept "a population of butterflies" simply as priceless. 

MIKE GOCHFELD 

PS: One web site says: 

                    What are stamps?:
                    Are stamps valuable? 


                    Find out why some stamps are valuable and others
                    are sought after. 

                    What makes a stamp valuable is its rarity. It is
                    difficult to tell when a stamp is new whether it
will
                    be valuable one day. 

                    The British Guiana one cent stamp is the rarest
                    stamp in the world (only one was ever made). It was
                    found by a schoolboy in British Guiana in 1873. If
                    you had it you would be a multi-millionaire! 

Just think, 40 years ago, I could have had it for $50K----another missed
opportunity. 
=========================================ANOTHER WEB
SITE==================================================
Arthur Hind died in 1933 and left his stamp-collection as a part of his
estate. His widow, however, claimed that the one-cent British Guiana
stamp had been given to her by her husband. The court upheld her claim
and in 1940 the stamp was sold to Frederick Small, an Australian living
in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, for a price ranging between US$40,000 to
US$75,000. [THAT MUST BE WHERE I GOT THE $50K FIGURE]

In an auction held by Robert Siegel Galleries in 1970, the stamp was
sold for $240,000 to Irwin Weinberg and a group of investors from Wilkes
Barre, Pennsylvania. The one-cent Black on Magenta remained in their
collection for ten years when John E. du Pont of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, bought it at an auction for $935,000.   [WELL MAYBE TODAY
IT WOULD MAKE YOU A MULTIMILLIONAIRE].

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl