What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Yeah the fact that many auction houses want to charge 40-70% of catalog for common items and then do come at you with high shipping costs is precisely why I have avoided them.

Went to the Northeastern Federation of Stamp Club's Boxboro MA show yesterday (still running today and tomorrow). Had a little cash thanks to selling a car, so I treated myself to a few small additions to ye old collection:

A good few days. New Irish issue ...the annual Europa issue.
Started mounting and writing up 2016 stamps.
Customising some postcards for the upcoming Thomas Meagher issue. Where possible, I like to customise new issues.
Got a heads-up on 2018 issues which will include Nelson Mandela (Birth Centenary) and Martin Luther King (Fiftieth Anniversary of his death).
Stamp Fair today.
And thinking of a new project. STamps on A Roll sold in 1,400 plus post offices each have a unique number which identifies the place a stamp was issued. In a sense postmarks are obsolete but this means of identifying the post office of origin is a good substitute. A quick look thru a box of duplicates and I found about 75 I could identify and maybe 15 that seemed to have a code unknown to me.

Building my album pages for the 3cent 1851-57 collection.

Mounting the stamps on a page, then overlaying a second page with windows cut for viewing the stamps.
This page will show four Plate 1 Orange Brown stamps, each with a different frame line configuration.

No inner frame lines
Left and right inner frame lines recut.
Right inner frame line only.
Left inner frame line only.

I will add text and diagrams. Hopefully this page will give an introduction to type I and Type II. Also explaining Scott 10 and 10A.

I'm finally done with a major addition to and reorganization of of my modern used Japan issues. I recently went through about 2 pounds of Japanese kiloware and decided I could no longer just randomly put them in stockbooks or stocksheets. I laid out Vario pages for every single set through January of this year. The whole two pounds is soaked, identified, put in its appropriate space, and the duplicates put away. I have about 2 more pounds on its way to me now, but the next go-through should be much easier as I won't have to re-plot the Vario pages all over again.

Artful - please post pics would love to see the result!

Doing similar stuff with my Tunisia collection now, after having finished getting all the catalog coordinations entered into Stamp Mate from the first issues of 1888 to the present (including adding a few new issues even though not catalog numbers...yet).

I am still working on my Mystic style pages to cover Scott minor varieties not shown in Mystic's album.

I also ordered a color laser printer.

Stamps sure beats shelling peas on the front porch!

I was able, through trade with a friend, to add the fourth stamp to this page.
So this page is Plate 1e, showing the four different frame line cuts.
No inner, two inner, right only inner and left only inner.

Next step is to add text.

Finished layout of my Tunisia pages for the French Protectorate era (1888-1955). Now to start layouts for the first part of the independent era (1956 to 1987, the era of President Habib Bu Raqibat)

Sorted through postal stationery piles, to inventory them and add to the collection.

Over the weekend I spent a few hours cataloging and mounting stamps from a small French colony assortment I purchased recently. Got through Morocco, the Levant, Alexandria, and Reunion. As others have mentioned, Scott seems awful for this. There is no rhyme or reason for where items are located.

I've had a busy week, finally sorting out all my South Africa fore-runners used in SW Africa (ie those used between 1915 and 1923 when SWA issued her first stamps). It's been fun identifying postmark locations and types and I've now got 39 pages of them, with 42 different postage locations (towns, villages, railway halts and military field PO). It's an interesting period, covering invasion and occupation through to post-war.

I received some kiloware....Irish Stamps on a Roll (SOAR). A nice variety of Mammal/Fish Definitives, Easter Rising Definitives and Christmas SOARs.
Sorted them out and there are about 70 different post offices (the first four digits in a unique number identifies the issuing post office).
Also took pics of about 20 post offices in Dublin.
My intention is to have a collection where each album page will be a SOAR stamp and a photograph of the issuing post office. Could be a fun way to spend the next few years.

Fitzjames, that sounds like an absolutely brilliant project! I have dim and distant plans to do that in Estonia, should funds allow. Let us all know from time to time how it's going on.

Thank you Tim.
It is an idea that works on several levels. It fills the void left by local postmarks.
Typically the SOAR stamps have two designs (Christmas) eight designs (the Mammals and they changed every year for about seven years....so maybe around 56 possibilities) and sixteen (Easter) and eight (new 2017)....and a variety of denominations. I have a range from €0.02 to €8.75.
There are potential problems. I have gone into post offices with an older stamp on an envelope and asked for a top-up to national rate and on occasion the staff keep the envelope.
My new cover story (no pun intended)is that I have (say) €.0.70 on an unaddressed envelope (allegedly I dont know the address and get €0.30 stamps in a number of post offices and then put (say) four €0.30 on one envelope and post them at the Philatelic Bureau and get good cancellations.
There ARE potential problems in taking pics with an ipad outside post offices. One postmaster came out to see what I was doing but was satisfied, I was not intelligence gathering for a gang. So best to be subtle.
And having passed my 65th birthday, I am now entitled to free transport from 1st June on all public transport ...trains, buses, coaches all over the island of Ireland.
My five year mission is to "boldly go".
I think we are all divided on views on how long Stamp Collecting can endure....I am a pessimist. But I actually see this as an excellent opportunity to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty.