Seven proofs in USPS sports-theme eBay auction

The United States Postal Service is offering 50 new items through an eBay online auction that began Feb. 16. Included are seven stamp proofs never before offered to the public.

The auction is taking place at www.ebay.com/stamps and can be accessed by navigating to the Collector’s Corner tab and then clicking on Special Auctions.

The six proofs offered are duplicate items from the USPS Postmaster General’s Collection.

The proofs are a block of four 1976 13¢ Olympic Winter Games stamps (Scott 1695-1698), the 1985 22¢ Broadbill Duck Decoy stamp (2138), the 1988 22¢ Skiing Olympic Winter Games stamp (2369), the 1991 29¢ Flag with Olympic Rings stamp (2528), the 1992 29¢ Bobsledding Olympic Winter Games stamp (2615), and the 1992 29¢ Swimming Olympic Summer Games stamp (2641).

The remaining items up for auction are mostly duplicate Postal Service products, including signed examples of the 2013 Muscle Cars stamp panes, annual year sets and other products previously offered by the Postal Service, many of which have been taken off sale.

This is the second recent auction that the Postal Service has conducted on its eBay site. The previous auction closed Sept. 23, 2013, generating $12,400 in sales from the 100 items auctioned.

Linn’s first reported on the Feb. 16-26 sports-theme auction with a Feb. 5 online posting at www.linns.com and a story in the Feb. 24 issue.

That story reported that a USPS press release with additional information was expected Feb. 16, but that release was not sent to Linn’s as of Feb. 19, with only seven days remaining before the Feb. 26 auction closing date.