posted 09-01-2026 01:42 AM               

Then, I finally found one on eBay (item 206432887189) and put in what was a large bid for me. It went nowhere near the final price of US$700 (I bet the seller got a pleasant shock)!

But that's not all. The cover is for an Atlantic ship whereas the USS Hornet was the PRS located in the Pacific. How and why was this cover made? A real mystery and a wonderful find.

posted 09-01-2026 07:03 AM               

Anyway, I found the listing because I'd put in "Apollo PRS cover FDC" and had scrolled all the way down the items that didn't quite match my search criteria. Towards the bottom was a listing for "a set of Apollo splashdown covers."

I was, at the time, quite naive about Recovery Ship covers, and was trying to collect all the Apollo series PRS covers with just the purple RSCs on them. I had seen that coloured printed Beck covers existed too but they usually went to auction and sold beyond my budget, whereas the purple rubber stamped PRS covers usually went for a low 'Buy it Now' price.

So, anyway, this complete set from AS-202 to Apollo 17 was on at a very low Buy-it-now price (cannot remember exactly but in the region of £20 or so). I had learned a little about Beck printed covers and I'd noticed that none of the ones in the advertised set had B-numbers.

At that point in my space collecting career, I was getting quite paranoid about being ripped off and buying fakes etc. and I remember thinking that all these colour printed Beck covers should have an appropriate B-number on the cachet. The fact that none of them did made me doubly suspicious that they were fakes.

To cut a long story short, I sent a message to the seller enquiring why there were no numbers on the cachets, and s/he promptly blocked me, possibly because the tone of my genuine enquiry was a little aggressive. (I find it hard sometimes to put a little warmth and nuance into what I consider to be a straightforward question).

Anyway, I was not longer able to buy-it-now. The listing was still in my active watch list, but after a number of weeks I deleted it.

There was definitely what I now know to be a Beck crew cover for Apollo 11 in that set. But unfortunately Ross, due to the circumstances, I never thought to check and look up whether it was an Atlantic or Pacific cover. I also had no clue whatsoever until reading your post today that Apollo 11 Beck Crew covers were any rarer than other Apollo missions (you live and learn).