Sad Tale:
I purchased these as a large postage lot, 50 blocks of 6 with a face value of $96.00. I paid about 80 for the lot and it was listed as 3137. When I got the stamps, I noticed that the die cutting extends through the backing, which would make it the special die cut variety produced for the stampers program. I contacted the seller and asked if he new that they were from 3138 and if he had the right hand half of the panes. He told me that he had purchased them from the USPS on line when new as an investment and a friend told him that they were worth only face value and he should unload them to get his money back. He separated the sheets and discarded the right half with Bugs imperforate, not knowing that it is valid for postage and kept 3 from each pane to use as postage and listed the rest. 50 sheets of 3138 have a Scott Catalogue value of $8,750.00 dollars! 3138 typically sells for 60 to 80 dollars, so realistically worth about $3,500.00. The USPS produced only about 150,000 of the 3138 panes and many were used in the stampers program, making them quite scarce. It's sad that 50 were destroyed due to ignorance. Research your stamps before selling! Also, 3138 is not an error as some sellers claim. It and the other Warner stamps were produced in two varieties, one normal and one with special die cutting. Varieties that are produced intentionally are certainly not errors. Sellers that call them errors are either deceiving the buyers to get more money for the stamps or are insufficiently educated about stamps. Once used they cannot be distinguished from 3137.