What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

I finally got fed up with my Epson inkjet printer printing smudged pages. Purchased and set-up a new B/W laser printer. Nothing fancy, but hopefully sufficient for printing out Steiner pages.

Lasers are great. They are less fussy than inkjets and no worries about ink going bad. It is even worse when you have a color inkjet and do not use it every day. I got a color laser now and happy. It does not create photo quality like some of the inkjets but great for most printings. The best part is on color intensive work the paper never feels soggy, etc. It is dry.

I was a big advocate of color ink jets when they first came out but Al is right, most are now throw-away appliances designed to hook consumer on cartridges. I have a Xerox Phaser 6200DP color laser, a very costly 2002 printer ($2600). It was designed to be a network work horse.

But I purchased it as a refurb in 2007 for $350. (High end refurb laser printers are good since you can easily determine how much wear the printer has been through; they keep internal statistics on how many pages have passed through it for its entire life.)

It has printed beautiful color copies every single time I fire it up over the last 10 years at a few pennies per page. The reliability and total cost of ownership is by far the best I have ever seen for any printer. On the downside and since it has lasted through two major operating system upgrades, getting drivers to work takes a bit of work.
Don

My Epsom initially was a champ. But over time it started requiring frequent nozzle cleaning. And even with the cleanings, it would take printing two or three pages to finally get non-smeared prints. I considered going color laser, but 99% of my printing is B/W Steiner pages, so I went B/W. Moreover, space that I have for a printing (without rearranging my work area) is too small for a color laser.

I am getting to close to the end of needing to create/update album pages. My "to be mounted" stock book only has a few groups left. I have a some holes to fill but no responses from my trading request for often common modern US issues. The funny aspect is many of these issues you could not sell for 50% of face to a dealer and spot checking some dealers they want to sell it for 2x+ face.

Took the "northern" route back across PA to Ohio yesterday after a family vacation in NJ so I could make a stop at the American Philatelic Center in Bellefonte. Stopped in for an hour, where Ken Martin gave us a tour and I had a chance to talk a bit with Scott English, Ken Martin, Tom Horn, Judy Johnson, and Dennis Gilson, who was in as a volunteer.

It's quite a place - well worth stopping in just to see what's there and even better if you have time to look at some circuits, buy some merchandise, use the library, etc.

My printer is churning out Steiner pages for Mexico as I type this. I've begun to accumulate quite a few Mexican stamps and the term "discombobulated mess" doesn't really do justice to how I have them stored and organized. I debated whether to put them on Vario pages but I decided Steiner pages would be the path of least resistance and the most cost effective solution, at least for now. I'm only printing 20th century in an effort to save shelf space as the small handful of 19th and 21st century issues I currently have will fit on a couple Vario pages.

I print my Steiner pages on an as-needed basis. Even so, my puny 4000 stamp collection resides in 13 Vario G binders. Which I spent time adding Japan pages to this evening.

I was given a collection in an old Minkus all American album. I've been going through it and transferring stuff to mine. Much had been miss-identified. No, it wasn't a 64b I was excited about, but of course a 65. Currently slogging it through the 1894 bureau issues that are almost all Washington type IIIs despite being identified as something else. Still it is interesting to do and I am grateful to the 103 year old lady for the gift.

Keeping up to date with new issues. Took a pic of over 25 Post Offices this week. And "designed" some home made postcards to compliment two issues later this year.

In the middle of incorporating 1990s Germany stamps into my collection. Starting to get pages with more stamps that empty spaces.

Worked on GB 1840-1900 a bit. Getting easier as I get used to the different watermarks, etc..

I updated my blog: http://estampillascr.com/blog
Lots of new interesting stuff...all philatelic of course!

Ordered the classics that came out more than awhile back. Somehow I forgot to get them. For the heck of it bought the last two Jennysthat the local post office still had when I pickedupthe Sharks.

I put the Jenny's with the 10 I already had - all unopened since 2013.

I bought a copy of The Work of Jean de Sperati II from Leonard Hartmann. The 2001 edition. The 1955 edition remains on my want list with Leonard.