What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Got some pesky Ruanda-Urundi and Rwanda issues in the album last night. I know I said Switzerland was next, but there were only a few of them and I only had a little time. Progress in early 2018!

I love getting cool covers for a dollar--this one from Sweden in 1937 was taxed and unfortunately marker-cancelled by hand; postal employees were causing collectors grief even nearly 81 years ago!




--Jim Wentzell
stampguyaps177-681

I received the supplement for my Mystic US album and mounted most of the stamps. I still need to improve my skills separating large blocks from self-adhesive sheets when the die cut does not go through the liner. Yes, the Mystic pages are printed on somewhat thin paper but still priced well compared to other album pages. You can always copy to stiffer paper. I will need to redo several pages since I have complete booklets and do not want to separate into singles or smaller blocks.

Mystic did not provide a space for a whole pane Chinese New Year pane like they normally do but did have pages for full panes of Sharks and Disney in addition to blocks.

I know people do not like modern USPS (I also think some are not very good too) but still all the stamps is not a great outlay compared to other hobbies...

Favorites: JFK, Thoreau, Priority/Express Mail, Eclipse (more the novelty but they are wrinkled), Have a Ball

Not Favorites: Deliscioso, Sharks, Disney, Christmas Carol

I spent way to much time reading a thread about a possible #314a.

Today I spent six hours at the Vintage Paper Fair in San Francisco. I showed remarkable restraint, only spending $31.25 on a total of 33 picture postcards (some postally used, most not). I can't believe these were only $1 each:

Disappointing Stamp/Postcard Fair yesterday. Actually two within 250 metres. Monthly events but as they are low profile. the non-attendance of just two or three dealers (thru flu or post-Christmas fatigue) made it not really worthwhile.
Also in Belfast, preparing the ground for the issue of Brtish "Game of Thrones" stamps on 21st January. Belfast is one of the studios which produces the series. So I picked up some postcards of locations. Disappointingly the local Comic Book Guys did not have postcards of the characters which would have been ideal. Oddly I was alerted to these stamps by a non-collector in California. She is a Game of Thrones fan.
There is certainly a connexion between History, Nostalgia, Topicals and Stamps....but we are now (with Star Wars stamps and Dr Who stamps)) in a situation where the British Post Office is producing stamps for the Memorabalia market rather than Topicals for the Philately market.
Belfast POst Office used to have a philatelic shop and while one counter clerk at the Bureau de Change window draws the short straw for having a stock of new issues (for a year), the "meeter and greeter" could not tell me anything about any First Day arrangements. But one of the Counter clerks , a very pleasant young woman said "just buy them and one of us will handstamp them for you". She even demonstrated how effective her hand stamp is....
Disappointing in a way that the British Post Office seems to have good ideas but unable to really follow them thru.
Stamp Collectors are a nuisance to them

The good thing about New Year's resolutions is that you can often find last year's in mint condition. So, out has come "get country albums to auction houses and get duplicates on ebay". I decided to get rid of the bulk of my American country collections (some of which, particularly the US, aren't very impressive), and have started the tedious process of getting them in a state to sell. Cue debris everywhere.

Late last week I ran in to a friend who runs an old wares store just out of town. We've talked about stamps a lot over the years and he wanted me to look at an old album for him.

On Saturday I looked over the album. A second edition Stanley Gibbons 'Ideal' album, whole world and interleaved. It was purchased from Fred Hagen, an early 20th century dealer in Sydney. It wouldn't have been cheap but there was no indication that I saw of the original purchase price.

The album dates to 1910 as there were no spaces for George Fifth stamps and no page for Australia!

The album was very sparsely filled but was in remarkable condition for 107 years old. Those old albums are a work of art in themselves and a pleasure to look at. If only I collected 19th century whole world!

About 15 minutes I did something I have never done before in over 50 years of collecting. I actually completed an entire album with mint stamps. Unfortunately the album was a Davo Vol. II United States covering the years 1945-69 which means the album is worth more than all the stamps it holds.

howell - relax - my hinges are worth more than the stamps they hold.

Finished entering all the specialized stamp data from the Brusden-White Catalog for Australia Elizabeth II pre-decimal era into Stamp Mate. Another 286 listings added. Tomorrow hope to get the correlations with Gibbons, Michel and Scott done and then I'll have all the data entry for pre-decimal era for Australian Commonwealth finished.

Now I need to get use APS interlibrary loan to get the Brusden-Whites for Decimal era (3 volumes, 1966 to 2001). Don't have those volumes in my library so need to get ahold of them.

If anyone has any used copies of those 3 Decimal era volumes from the 2002 edition they'd like to sell, email me :)

Today was raining and cold, decided to get into one of the huge box of stamps still on paper. A lot of them are mine, a lot of them are my Uncle's. Sat and tried to think of how what I wanted to do with them.

Etsy has a huge stamp section, you can sell anything vintage there, including stamps. I started sorting through the stamps and made up packs of mixed, really nice stamps from US and Foreign, all ages, Crafters there use them for making things to sell, collages, collecting, it's a real mish mash of folks. Lost interest selling stamps on ebay, everyone scooped them up and even bought more, yet few left feedback and I lost money. Oh well, live and learn. And they want me to put up more when they won't even leave feedback. I don't get it.

So, trying Etsy since I started a store there too (it's free stamp friends). Put up 2 batches, will see how they do. If they are popular, then I am going to make up lots of them. I don't even know if I put up stamps that have value as a lot are foreign and I just have way too much here and no energy as I recover from Gangrene. Who the heck get's gangrene in this day and age? Priced them at $3.99 for over 100 stamps each, we'll see.

If you want to check Etsy out, you might find it another place to sell some stamps. I'm not sure yet, but I am taking the plunge. My seller name on Etsy is "IfYouLoveIt2", and there are a ton of people selling stamps over there and it's similar to ebay, .20c per listing, and they don't seem to take as much of your money as ebay does.

I found some odd stamps tools from my Uncle too, I will post them when I have some energy, maybe you can tell me what they are and how they are used? Some of the old stamp collecting supplies are quite fascinating, I keep finding old catalogues, hinges, protectors, I swear, I feel like I could open a store, If I had any clue what I had here!

Carry on everyone :)

I'm ordering the Mystic 2017 American Heirloom supplement today. Stamps to follow.

Jack Kelley