Waterville bookseller nets $50,000 in sale of rare stamp
Waterville-based used bookstore Re-Books owner Robert Sezak sold a set of rare “upright Jenny” U.S. Postal Service stamps for $50,000 in an auction at Julia’s Auctions in Fairfield, the Kennebec Journal reported.
According to the U.S. Postal Service, the original 1918 Inverted Jenny 24-cent airmail stamp is one of the world’s most collectible stamps because a sheet of 100 misprinted stamps showing an upside-down biplane was accidently sold to a customer. In today’s market, an Inverted Jenny stamp could fetch close to $1 million.
“Two years ago to celebrate National Stamp Collecting Month, the U.S. Postal Service reissued 2.2 million Inverted Jenny souvenir stamp sheets,” the USPS says on its website. “The souvenir stamp sheets feature six $2 stamps and sell for $12.”
To generate interest in stamp collecting and engage new generations of stamp collectors, the Postmaster General requested that the Postal Service create 100 additional stamp sheets that showed the biplane upright. Seventy of these Un-Inverted Jenny stamp sheets were distributed to be sold in the top 50 markets along with 1.2 million Inverted Jenny stamp sheets. The remaining 30 Un-Inverted Jenny stamp sheets were to be randomly distributed in the first 60 days of release, according to the website.
The action had the unintended consequence of creating and distributing a philatelic rarity, the USPS says.
“I was hoping it would go for more,” Sezac told the paper. “A couple of people told me it would go for $80,000.” With the slump in the stock market, however, he was prepared for a lower bid.
Sezak, who uses the $2 stamps to send books from his store, started searching for his upright Jenny after he heard about the secret release.
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