Postmarks

I am curious as to how I can go
about collecting postmarks from non-US countries on an exchange basis. Are there any organizations that does this exchanging?
Joel

Joel:

As one who collects postmarks as part of my collections, here is what I do.

I collect the postmark on the stamp. I have three "postmark" parts to major collections...
- Texas towns and cities on U.S. Air Mail stamps
- Costa Rica towns and cities on any Costa Rican stamp
- Netherlands Indies/Indonesia towns and cities on same

I also collect interesting postmarks on British Commonwealth stamps as part of my King George VI - Reign Commonwealth collection.

Keep looking through stamps and covers that have the type of postmarks you are looking for. You may want to contact the Bullseye Collectors Club. Bullseye cancels are those CDS (circular date stamps) postmarks that are dead-centre on the stamp. They are also called SON (socked-on-the-nose) cancels.

Keep putting those you want aside, and soon you'll have a nice collection.

David

Joel:

David has hit the nail on the head

Most sellers, on both Stampoffers, and StampWants, list their
stamps, that are SON, in the auctions description.

Just enter SON or S.O.N in the sites advanced search, and
I am sure you will find quite a few of these cancels.

If you have any interest in Canadian CDS cancels, there is a seller
on Stampoffers, who lists them from time to time.

His user ID is David_J_Dennis, a very reputable seller

The Germans have some of the most interesting postmarks being produced today. And to top things off, they generally put nice clean and sharp cancellations on their mail - something you don't usually get in the US these days.