Stamps of approval

How mistakes mean big money in stamp circles. Hey, don't lick that!

The Inverted Jenny may sound like a creative sexual position, but it's actually something far more exciting to stamp collectors: a 24-cent stamp from 1918 on which the Jenny biplane was mistakenly printed upside down. Collector Len Ettinger has a block of four red and blue Inverted Jennies, covered in a clear, protective plastic, and it's the first thing he'll show you during a visit to his northwest Las Vegas home.

"That's worth about $750,000," he says casually. "Only 100 were printed before they caught it."

After waiting a moment to enjoy your stunned reaction, he chuckles and says, "Now, look closer."

You see that there are no perforations--like fingerprints for stamps--between Ettinger's Inverted Jennies. They aren't real stamps at all, just well-done copies.

Ettinger enjoys a good stamp joke as much as the next collector, but don't be fooled: He takes stamp collecting very seriously, with a passion that borders on religion. He refers to the Scott Stamp Catalogue, an annual list of stamps from around the world, as "the Bible" and has an entire room--and half a garage--dedicated to his obsession.

"I'm sorting and identifying now," the retiree says while standing in his stamp room, surrounded by bookcases crammed with stamp albums and overflowing boxes of dime bag-size baggies full of stamps. There's a computer in one corner so Ettinger can buy and sell stamps on eBay.

"There was a time when you couldn't even walk into the room," he says. "Pretty soon all you're buying is albums to put stamps in."

It takes a long time to amass such an impressive number of stamps. Ettinger is no Johnny Come Phi-lately; he's been collecting since 1954. Though he specializes in pre-1940 U.S. stamps, he also has collections from Guam, Cuba, the Philippines and Danzig, Germany.

And like all collectors, Ettinger loves it when the U.S. Postal Service goofs up. Stamps printed with color errors, upside down and missing images can spell big bucks and bring plenty of stamp world prestige. One of Ettinger's prized possessions is a 1993 block of 20 Legends of the West stamps that's supposed to include black cowboy Bill Pickett. Instead, Bill's brother Ben is pictured and incorrectly identified. The Postal Service printed 150,000 of them before it realized its mistake. Ettinger says the block of 29-cent stamps is now worth about $200.

"They made [Bill] handsomer," Ettinger says. "It costs them money when they make a mistake like that, and it's worth money to us."

If a hobby like stamp collecting sounds to you about as stimulating as an afternoon nap, Ettinger wants you to reconsider. He's concerned that the philatelic pastime is being killed off by younger generations more interested in Led Zeppelin than in valuable 1930s-era Zeppelin stamps.

"Collecting is something for all ages, young and old," he says. "The history of the world is told through stamps. And it's a challenge. A lot of times I think I have something and I get all excited and it's nothing. I end up getting bupkis for it."--Lynnette Curtis