What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

At last night's Holston Stamp Club meeting (Tri Cities area) I bought
U.S Postage Stamps of the 19th Century,
( Brookman ) , a 3 volume set with dust jackets, $60.00
U.S. Postage Stamps 1902 - 1935,
( Johl ) , with dust jacket, $20.00
Essays for U.S. Adhesive Postage Stamps,
( Brazer ) , with dust jacket, $20.00
The 3 Cent Stamp of the U.S. 1851-1857 Issue,
( Chase ) , with dust jacket, $20.00
Washington-Franklins 1908-1921,
( Armstrong ) , second edition, $15.00
INTERPHIL 1976 Publication, loose leaf copy (1869 Pictorial Research Associates) and
The 1977 Register, loose leaf copy (1869 Pictorial Research Associates), $10.00
Now I have no money for stamps but should come out ahead after reading everything.

Today I worked on a Manchukuo series of 82 stamps that my father (deceased in 1999) had bought in the 60s from somebody else. Very interesting history of this part of the world, controlled by the Japanese 1932-1945. After the war, this puppet state was dissolved after the war and transferred to Chinese administration.

My first purchase of this year in ebay was a large with some duplicated Mint & Used British Asia Stamps Collection in 27 stock-sheets!!!



Regards!
Rodolfo

I ended up purchasing StampManage for the stamp data but then took a break this weekend. In non-philatelic pursuits, I spent a lot of time watching videos online about England's Wars of the Roses.

I just finished up posting all of the USA stamps into my 2017 MYSTIC supplement. I am trying to keep the collection current because, one time, I let it go for about 20 years. It was a real pain bringing it up to a current condition. Funny thing is that I literally hate the USA stamps of today. They are just stickers instead of the nice engraved stamps of yesteryear.

Jack Kelley

@jkelley01938

Turn away from the dark side... :)

I too was where you were at when I re-restarted collecting. Rather than collect "stickers", I branched out into other collecting areas. For me, used WW, 20th century used US PNC singles, US precancels, and (once the latest catalog is issued) US perfins, filled the void of continuing my US collection. YMMV.

Finished buying stamps from an APS circuit and sent it on its way. And started to incorporate the purchased stamps into my collection.

After receiving my new mounts from Robert Corbett (Showgard seconds) I printed out the Steiner Classic Sweden pages and started remounting my pre 1945 Sweden collection. It was in serious need of getting off of acid paper. The only downside is that Corbett does not stock clear size 30 (which fits the 1924 UPU issues) so I had to settle for black. I guess it will make them stand out though. Cheers! Wolf-==-

dkabq8,

I am not sure where to go. Maybe two more years of stickers. Then I'll have 100 years USA MNH except the Harding. To add insult to injury, Linn's (2/5/2018) reported the 2017 cost of the 2017 stamps to be $95.88. I paid $278.32 to fill the 2017 Mystic Supplement (includes required sheets, ducks, and priority mails. Ridiculous as Judge Judy says.

I am fearful of the Washington Franklins, etc. So its either contemporaneous junk or fakes. Its a sad state of affairs for our hobby.

Jack Kelley

Jack you might want to look around for dealers who don' t charge arms and legs for new issues.

I got my 2017 yearset (minus duck as I don't collect them) from Connections, a dealer based in the Atlanta area. His prices are only about 50% above face and he sells single stamps from booklets without markup above the 50% that would be the same for the whole booklet. Also offers discounts if you spend above certain amount per order.

Between discounts and his lower prices, my 2017 yearset (including the 2 hivalue priority stamps) cost just under $120.

Been buying new issues from him for a few years now. Beats having to buy minimum quantities direct from USPS for single commemoratives hands down.

Website is http://www.stampconnections.com def worth checking out.

I spent time this weekend identifying some British Commonwealth stamps and adding them to Steiner pages. I also had purchased Stamp Manage software and used in it in part to assist with identification. Stamp Manage includes Scott numbers and images for most issues unlike Scott or SG printed versions. You can do searches on key words and othr stamp attributes to help locate stamps.

I spent time this weekend mounting some Switzerland semi-postals and looked through a number of the 1949 20 regular issues looking for the type 1. No luck, but learned a lot about what to look for.

Spent 2 days at Ameristamp Expo in Birmingham, Alabama, with my 7yr old daughter. Now we are back at home identifying and putting in appropriate album. Good times...
Greg

I have not attended many live bourses over the past several years but have managed to attend 2 this month- Sarasota 3 weeks ago and a small show in Largo today. Main motivation today was a dealer from Pennsylvania who carries a lot of the material I like but whom I rarely get to see.

Very fruitful stamping, could not be happier with the outcome. Yes, one of the Spain stamps from the Franco reprint set of 4 is pretty roached, but I should be able to replace it without too much difficulty.

Uploaded some images below from today's buys and more shortly. Sorry I did not always get the flash angle right (and yes I'm too lazy to capture everything on a scanner).

Additional images from today's buys. Again, sorry for the flash: