Very Few Normal Gum Australian Used Stamps For Sale

Having searched several sites, ebay, Hipstamp, etc….I have noticed that there are very few normal gum used stamps for sale ( ie. Non S/A)
Why is this ?
Any recommendations.

Given that self-adhesive stamps only appeared in the last twenty-five years or so, aren't there 140 years of non-self-adhesive Australian stamps - i.e. a preponderance - out there? Most world or Commonwealth auction lots that I've bought over the years seem to contain chiefly pre-1990 Australian material.

I appear to have most of those before self adhesive came into play, I'm now looking non S/A used for approx 1993- 2020.

Collecting modern non self-adhesive Australia is quite the challenge.

From a personal perspective I'm glad I stopped in 1988.

I even stopped buying Australian Antarctic Territory issues after 2017.

As with my GB collection, my distinctly average Aussie collection ends with the introduction of the Currency for People Who Can't Do Sums.

Gum stamps or sheet stamps are my main area of collecting.

This quote is from another SCF thread of mine.

True story.

Many years ago I was working at a life insurance company when one of the younger staff members encountered a policy that commenced in £sd.

It took her a while, but she got her head around it eventually!



As an aside, if I didn't have so many fond memories of collecting stamps in the 1970s my Australia collection would stop at 1965. My UK collection stops at 1952.

I suspect that quite a lot of the ability to do mental arithmetic went, not just with calculators, but with decimalisation. When you have teachers firing questions at you - pennies in £1, one-third of £1? etc - you tend to learn and retain. My daughter's infinitely better than me at maths, but always consults me when mental arithmetic is required.

Thanks for your input…your right about kiloware, I purchased 1lb (sorry old weight) of Australian from a place in the UK…most of them where S/A, very little normal gum…and even the S/A where difficult to get off the paper, with some going in the bin. I think you are right, I might give up on the latter normal gum.
It might be just me, but it appears that the Australian Post Office seems to be issuing more and more stamps each year. Thanks again

They are, and it's beyond farce in my opinion.

Anyone keeping up has my respect.

I wonder how many people just buy the annual collection now?

I subscribe to the Oz stamps - have for almost 30 years - and find there to be an almost overwhelming number issued. Making it worse is the lack of support for singles when it comes to many of the commemoratives; Olympics, Christmas, etc. I neither "need" nor want the entire mini sheets sent of the same stamp but boy do I enjoy the original Roos.

Australia has lessened their new release and extended their release times.

In 2016 was getting around 10kgs per month from the same source. Now it is around 1kg per month and has been like this for a number of years.

It is such an issue for me to get gummed stamps or sheet stamps am mailing them to myself. Kick off value $1 each and am collecting 40 x sets per issue.

The challenge of getting self adhesives off paper for recent Australia comes down to using lighter fluid. They will come off in hot water but will destroy over 50% of your stamps.
Lighter fluid has been used on early Australia issues for watermark detection forever and their is no record of lighter fluid damaging stamps that I know of.

S/A issues seem to be far more popular than sheet stamps in my market place, ebay. People cannot get S/A off paper so they buy them off sellers that do take them off paper. S/A by far are the more popular.

Their are issues about lighter fluid. Lighter fluid was not an issue for early Australia as the ink went into the paper. These new issues appear to have the print of the stamp stuck on the outside of the paper. This reason is why am collecting S/A and leaving them on paper. I believe that S/A stamps will be worth more on paper into the future than off paper.

Left out a bit of info about taking S/A stamps off paper.

Even if you use lighter fluid on these S/A's to get the paper off the stamp will still have a stickiness that needs plan talc power to neutralise. If your talc power is scented it needs to be cooked in the oven at 180c for a couple of hour. This power when hot stays hot for a long period of time and it will burn you very easily.