Gruss Aus Deutschland

Although I already wrote a few posts, I want to introduce myself a bit.

I'm from Germany, so naturally I collect german stamps From Old German States up to today.
I'm getting more and more into stamps from New Zealand, though.

I started my collection in elementary school (at least I think that's what it is called ) and stopped collecting, when I came into my teens.
About a year ago my grandfather gave me his collection, because he can't see that good anymore and he can hardly recognize the stamps. So I began collecting again. From him I got a thematic collection "chess", and piles of unsorted stamps.
Now, about one year later, I have sorted out the stamps, traded a lot, sold a lot and bought a lot.
I have a nearly complete DDR (East Germany) collection (only one of the "expensive years" left), large amounts of German Reich stamps (from Kaiserreich up to 1945), a small collection Saar,... The collection is expanding very fast
I'm currently suffering from a stockbook shortage. I don't havy any empty ones left, so my stamps are piling up and I can't sort them. I already ordered like 10 new ones, I'm waiting for right now
I fear they won't last very long, as I haven't even started sorting the BRD (German Federal Republic) stamps in stockbooks. They currently rest stuffed in envelopes - one envelope per year.

But what I treasure most is that chess-collection, my grandfather gave me. If I have to sell everything, I will never give away this one album.

Na dann wünsch ich mal fröhliches Weitersammeln.

Hello Drudenfus.....

Welcome to the club.

I think it's great that you are continuing your grandfathers' collection and I can understand your desire to keep the chess collection.

When you have time, I'd like to see your earliest material. Posting photos here is easy once you try it a few times.

Do you mean the oldest stamps I have, or the first I had?

I have a small stockbook with all the old stamps that are not part of my collections (countries I don't collect). But most of them I just put in there, because they look old, but I never looked them up in a catalogue, so I don't know if they really ARE old or if they just look that way. Most of them are in very bad shape.

But then again, I collect coins as well - with some 1800 years old coins in a collection, how can stamps possibly be old

Gibt meir Bitte! (I think I said that correctly)
Would love to see some of the topical "chess" stamps--sounds like a great collection!
I have a large Red Cross/Nursing Collection--thanks to the sharing spirits here at the forum!

Gussyboy1
Welcome!

Welcome Drudenfus!

Chess is an intersting topic.

I'll keep my eyes open for any articles in my ATA Journal "Topical Time" on chess.

Cheers!

David

I fear not
I can't quite figure out what that's supposed to mean

Well, I made some photos and I'm trying to upload them, to show them to you... coming up soon

The two chess stockbooks I got. The big one contains the stamps, the small one contains postcards and letters, as well as correspondence chess cards and some telephone cards.
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The small album inside. It's about half full.
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The big album. It's nearly full.
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Some personalized chess stamps from Austria:
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Some random german chess stamps. The two series that look very similar are two seperate issues from the time when West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory. The first row of the two is the issue from West Berlin, the lower row ist the "normal" issue of West Germany:
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Germany or East Germany collectors will love it ...
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...and this as well. Germany's largest block issue
Haven't found a proper way of storing this beast yet, because it is just too huge for my stockbooks.
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And last but not least my possibly oldest german stamps, Bavaria Michel-Nr. 2 from 1849.
Don't get confused, I don't own a Bavaria Nr. 1, but every empty space on this page is stuffed with bavarian "coat-of-arms" issues I haven't been able to identify yet.
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I think this does it for the moment
If you want to see more, just say so

Welcome Drudenfus Germany is a very popular collecting area...at a flea market I found a series of 4 of these Saar envelopes in a box of hundreds of worldwide envelopes..i gave the man 60 dollars for the box and ran home !!

That's not too bad, I think.
The 10 Fr. Madonna alone has a catalogue value of 30,- € (Michel 2004).
Although this cover is kind of "made"...

True the covers are philatelic..probably favor cancelled and no address on the envelope..but the stamps are nice !! I have a stock page of Helgoland..i have to almost assume they are all fakes or reprints but I would not know !!

Welcome to the forum. I am a collector of WWII Germany and other occupied countries. Do you collect them as well?

That depends, I don't collect all the occupied countries. I have some "Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren", and some "Generalgouvernement" stamps.

I have many Third Reich stamps, most of them I got from relatives who bought them back then. I also have a pile of "Feldpost" letters from my grandfather he sent home from Russia - he was part of a tank crew there.
My other grandfather used to fight against the Wehrmacht in a resistance group in Bohemia (that's the reason why I collect stamps and letters from there) - it was always big fun having my two grandfathers together at one table at family gatherings

Yes you are fortunate they both survived the war !

My great-grandmother (the mother of my grandfather) was fortunate! BOTH her sons survived WW2, and her husband survived WW1 AND WW2!

Here is a picture of my grandfather's tank in Russia:
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Sorry for the bad quality, but my scanner currently refuses working.

Here is a big part of my Böhmen und Mähren collection. It was posted some time ago. I thought you might like to see it.

https://goscf.com/t/1719&SearchTerms=Bohemia

If you click on each pic you can see the quality better. Let me know what you think.