Vintage Ww II Cinderellas, Occupations, Etc.

The collection shown at the link below is interesting to me because it focuses not just on German and occupation issues found in Scott and those common to many collecion but on Cinderellas, cancels, and other more unusual items...all issued during the era vs. later commemoratives.

http://www.ww2f.com/art-paintings-t...ction-2.html

My questions are:

Would pursuit of a collection similar to the link above be expensive and hard to accumulate? Is the collection referenced pretty typical? I know the general theme of WW II is popular. I have the Azah Hind stamps shown (Indian independentist Pro Nazi volunteers) and the French Nazi supporters against the Russians (La Legion Des Volontaires Francais Contre Le Bolchevisme, fund raising stamps). I haven't know what to do with these Cinderellas but if I could accumulate more like on this web site I could build custom album pages and a topicl collection. At a minimum I might create a page for the French Volunteers fighting Bolsheviks and add it to my French collection. I already have a German collection with the Scott listed occupations stamps. It's the extras I that seem interesting. Historically I haven't known what to do with the non-Scott listed items.




Azah Hind

You could create a very nice collection of similar material without breaking the bank. Some of the pictured items are pretty rare, but some are pretty common. Historically important covers would be potentially pricey, but you can easily get some feldpost covers to capture that flavor if the idea of the covers is attractive to you. Otherwise, postmarks on piece, or on memory cards, are pretty easy to find.

The Laibach overprints got me drawn into this area. The Italian stamps are filled with overprint possibilities, which that link only began to hint at.

All that being said, there are probably a few caveats.

There are some tricky forgeries and fakes. The fact that there are plenty of Hitler heads floating around, coupled with the quick and dirty nature of some of the late war overprints, makes expertizing difficult. Some of the other issues were reprinted off of the original plates, which also complicates a positive identification.

The various legion issues are plentiful on ebay, but I've found a few of them much cheaper here and there through other sources. It seems like this is one of the areas where dabblers in stamp collecting seem to hang out. That leaves one with sellers who assume things are rarer than they are, and buyers who will pay high prices because of the hype.

Buying or selling this material online will bring some interesting characters out of the woodwork. Expect the occasional message from both ends of the continuum. The far ends...

Good luck if you decide to head off in this direction. Share your findings.

Cjd

No kidding. We're talking, like from the murky depths of the deep end.

Conn, the individual labels and cinderellas for WW2 are fairly inexpensive..although a dealer I know had a cover with the Flemish Legion (Belgium) on them and it ran in the thousand dollar range...thats only for a top shelf collector..if it was 20 bucks I would have purchased it

Be sure and hit that link supplied by Quanah. Some of the most beautiful and interesting stamp images I've seen in a long time!

Allan

I like the Flemmish Waffen SS and Vicky stamps...the site is interesting but I don't think I'm going to go deep in that direction....I will add my Legion stamps to my French album and I'm glad I now have more info on thoses issues...same for the Indian.

Very interesting cinderellas Quanah.

One can spend a lifetime pursuit of cinderella stamps alone without getting a single regular postage stamp.

Cinderellas and poster stamps in gemeral have gained popularity over the past 20 years or so.

One stumbling block with cinderellas though are with 'some' judges who examine different exhibits of these. Some judges on all levels, local, national or international will not recognize them or give any awards.

However, having said that, times are changing and they are gaining respect in most major shows today.

Apart from the judging aspect, I would go after them anyway. I have found many interesting designs with them and some are a lot nicer looking than their eegular postage counterparts <G>.

Good luck on your hunt for these stamps.

Chimo

Bujutsu