Stamps of the US Canal Zone

In the course of being a stamp collector, I often end up with "excess" material from places I'm not actually interested in. But that doesn't mean these places are not interesting, in and of themselves.

I will be the first to admit that I end up with a lot of "odd bits" simply because of "how" I collect stamps: Unlike many who simply strive to get exactly the stamps they need for precisely the blank spaces they have in their albums, I take more of the "treasure hunt" approach to stamp collecting. That is, I tend to buy "box lots," accumulations or entire estates and then proceed to sift through them in search of stamps that fit into my various collections.

Some would call me more of a "hoarder" than a collector... and that's OK. I've always subscribed to the idea that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to collect stamps... as long as you are enjoying yourself.

And I definitely do do that!

Because I do end up with a lot of stamps I have little use for-- or interest in-- I do try to stay mindful of the "hoarding thing." I've watched those shows on TV where the poor people can barely move through their houses because every surface is covered with a three-foot thick later of "stuff." And-- to be perfectly honest-- I have been to a few of my fellow collectors' houses that left me with a bit of that same impression... indiscriminate hoarding.

But I digress...

It is because I do not want to end up as a "hoarder" that I ended up being a somewhat active "stamp trader," albeit without any serious thoughts that I was a "Professional Stamp Dealer," even though I sometimes might "look like one."

Anyway, recently I came across a folder with some pretty nice stamps from the US Canal Zone.

Of course, that has nothing to do with Scandinavia (which remains my primary philatelic interest), but I remember thinking that the stamps were really interesting, when I was a little kid. In fact, when I was a young collector, the Canal Zone was not yet a "dead country," as we philatelists like to call places that no longer issue stamps.

We'd sometimes get Canal Zone stamps in the mail because my mother had friends who liked to go on cruises and we'd get postcards while the cruise ships were at-- or passing through-- the Panama Canal. I remember thinking how fascinating it was that "they" could move giant ships "up and down" in the water to get them transported across a piece of land, cutting thousands of miles off the journey from the East Coast to the West Coast. My dad explained to me how "locks" work, and I thought it would be amazing to experience a trip through the Panama Canal on a big ship.

For now, that remains on the uncharted territory of my "bucket list."

The Canal Zone was a stamp issuing entity from 1904 to 1979. Originally, postal service was started in order to serve during the construction of the canal, but the area continued as a sort of "US Protectorate" until the Panama postal service took over in 1979. The last Canal Zone stamp was issued in 1978.

Although I am not going to start, it still strikes me as an interesting country to collect, both from a historical standpoint, as well as from a philatelic standpoint.

The early issues were stamps of both Panama and the US, overprinted in various ways to be valid as postage in the Canal Zone area. There seems be a huge number of varieties in the surcharges (which were used for many years), allowing for lots of specialization. Although some varieties can be pretty pricey, it's not a horribly expensive area to collect, while not being all "cheap wallpaper," either. Meanwhile, because of the Canal Zone's geographical and political importance, it also seems to me that it would be a potential gold mine for Postal Historians. It has a lot going for it. And, of course, it's now a "Dead Country" so you don't have to worry about acquiring the flood of new issues most places seem to produce, these days.

But, as I said before, this is outside my collecting area and I really don't need to start a new collection at this point in the game-- no matter how interesting the stamps may seem! So, therefore... this modest accumulation of Canal Zone stamps was recently put up for sale on eBay... and now has found its way into the hands of nine different collectors around the globe.

Thanks for reading!

Classic US Stamps on eBay

Occasionally, I will take a sidetrack from what I normally write about, here.

At the beginning of 2012, I first wrote about my stepdad's stamps (which I'd inherited) and about my efforts to slowly sell them off through eBay and other venues. You can see the original post here, if you're interested. You can also skip this story and go directly to looking at the stamps.

US Scott 185 in top condition

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I have a couple of moving boxes with untold thousands of mostly older US stamps, generally in stock books, on random album pages and in glassines and regular envelopes.

I don't collect US, and never have had much interest. That also means I really don't really know anything much about US stamps... aside from what a somewhat advanced collector of areas can glean from looking in a Scott catalogue. Some stamps-- like the "bank notes" and "Washington-Franklins" are somewhat of a mystery to me... and I am really not prepared to spend days and weeks learning the finer nuances of these.

My stepdad did get a lot of enjoyment from his stamps... and even though he never really formed an actual "collection," his accumulating habits kept him busy in latter years.

For me, the "easy way out" would have been to hand all this off to an auctioneer or dealer (and I thought about it) and just take whatever offer I'd get. Based on my life-long experience with collecting and trading stamps, I expect I'd have been offered about $200-300 for it all, since this is very much what you might call a "job lot."

Maybe I'm just sentimental, or maybe I am following in the footsteps of my stepfather's tendency to be very "thrifty," so I decided to take on the "leg work" myself. Of course, it will take me several years to do all this... but that's OK.

Scott 394, 3c Washington coil, perf 8.5 A difficult stamp to find
in ANY condition, and this is quite a nice copy. CV $67.50.

I'm not going to go to a huge amount of trouble here-- just trying to skim off and offer the best to collectors. I expect there are no great rarities here, but there are certainly lots of "mid value" stamps-- from $1.00 to $50.00 in Scott (a few higher-- maybe to $150.00 CV)-- and some are actually in pretty nice (and even superb) condition. There are also thousands of cheapies, and thousands of damaged-- those will just be tossed into the "sorted" box.

In my original post about these stamps I wrote that I would turn everything into "penny auctions." That is, every lot-- regardless of quality or catalogue value-- will open on eBay at ONE CENT, and the market can decide what the stamps are worth. Risky? Maybe... but my experience has been that the stamp market is pretty "intelligent," and good quality material will achieve a fair price. It's the junk nobody bids on. And I'm only going to bother with the better quality material-- the junk I may sell "by the pound," at the end.

I'm not doing this with the purpose of "making money," as such... although I do have some secret ambitions to put all the proceeds into my grandson's college fund (he's three).

Anyway, this week I am offering up my second group from this old hoard (the first went up for sale in March of 2012), consisting of 81 lots with mostly USED older US. As I said earlier, starting price is ONE CENT for all lots, regardless of value.

Also-- if you're a fan of US stamps-- it might interest you to know that all these stamps were collected in Europe, and most have not been seen by any US specialists for maybe 50+ years. I really have NO idea what might lurk...

... and last, but not least, I am not using my usual "Scandinavian Stamp Specialist" seller ID, but my private account I use mostly to buy and sell non-stamp stuff from our attic. Anyway, hope you'll have a look!

The auctions end on Sunday night, July 21st, 2013. Here's the link to an overview of all lots.

The Uneasy Relationship of Stamp Collecting and the Internet

Over the past few years, I have been writing quite a bit about stamp collecting and its future... outside the confines of this blog.

Whereas there is little doubt that the Internet has changed the nature of stamps collecting, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that the online environment has helped save-- and continues to help save-- our hobby.

That said, I also see an interesting duality that has developed... a sort of rift between the "tech" and the "non-tech" stamp collectors of the world.

What do I mean by that?

Whereas there are many philatelists who have embraced the Internet as part of their collecting experience-- and actively use online stamp marketplaces and social media information to help build their collections-- there are also many who are still stuck in a "we don't NEED that" mindset.

Whereas I can appreciate we tend to adhere to the ways we are accustomed to, I can't help but think that stamp collectors who are not using (or "don't need") the Internet are going to end up going the way of typesetters and horse drawn carriages. Maybe that's just a "fact of life" but it makes me sad because these collectors have a wealth of knowledge to share with future generations of collectors.

The easy "argument" is that these collectors are primarily in their senior years, making them more resistant to embrace modern trends. In fact, I used to think that, myself... but on deeper examination, many of these folks who reject technology for stamp collecting are quite actively involved in online genealogy research and communities while using Flickr to share photos with their grandkids. So it's really not a "computer issue." Or an "age issue."

I have a twitter account... and a Facebook page... and a number of other online "presences." I belong to several online stamp collecting forums and communities. This morning, I was checking twitter and was once again just amazed by the low number of tweets relating to anything philatelic. The American Philatelic Society (APS) has 30,000+ members, but only 383 twitter followers. That's about one percent of the membership. What's silly about that is that I-- as an individual stamp collector-- have more twitter followers than the APS.

Maybe it's just "the nature of the beast." Stamp collectors tend to be solitary practitioners. They will often "join" things, but be non-participants. And maybe that is really the greatest challenge facing the stamp collecting hobby.

Albums or Stock Books for your Stamp Collection?

I have been sorting stamps, recently.

I always presumed that pretty much all stamp collectors spent a large part of their hobby time engaged in sorting stamps and figuring out which ones to place where and in what album or book, and so forth. It wasn't until fairly recently that someone pointed out to me that many a philatelist doesn't "sort" stamps because they only acquire new material "one stamp at a time, exactly the one they need."

I have personally never collected "like that," so it served as a reminder that there are probably as many ways to collect stamps as there are stamp collectors-- and none of these ways are more "right" or "wrong" than any others.

But I digress.

A page from my Denmark specialized collection-- while there is still room!

The way I have always collected stamps-- and gotten the greatest enjoyment from the hobby, I might add-- is through the "treasure hunt method." I buy boxes and bags of random stamps, accumulations, box lots, kiloware, old collections, wads of album pages, duplicate books, even entire estates... and sort through everything in search of the items I want to add to my collections.

Later, I'll trade or sell off the stamps I don't want... but that's a whole different story, for a different day.

For about the 20th time in my stamp collecting history (which now spans some 45 years), I have been contemplating the question of "Albums vs. Stock Books."

As a specialist collector-- of postmarks, varieties, printings and so forth-- I am increasingly abandoning albums as the way to keep my collections. Albums worked fine for me when I was just collecting "one of each number" of the stamps issued by the country I was focusing on. After all, collecting "France" generally means collecting one of each stamp-- which is a very "finite" goal. There are only "X number" of spaces to fill in the album... and that doesn't really change, except by adding new pages for new issues, at the back end of the album.

The issue with this very "fixed" nature of traditional stamp albums arises when you start specializing-- and the number of stamps you might need to display in an "organized" fashion, in one area (or time period) of your album, isn't pre-determined. Sometimes you may need space for 73 stamps, sometimes for four. In this case, I am talking about the kind of album where you do your own layout on blank pages.

The problem I have repeatedly run into is creating a nice layout for a given page... and then having to repeatedly "insert" new finds where they logically/chronologically "belong," till I reach the point where the album page is either completely full... or looks like a haphazard pile of junk. Worse yet, I end up starting a new album page-- and for years I'll be looking at a page with ONE stamp on it.

A page from my France collection in a pre-printed album-- with stamps outside the spaces

Of course, I have the option of removing stamps from the overfilled page to the new page. On immediate glance, easy enough-- but since I put stamps in my albums with black Showgard style mounts, it actually becomes a pain in the rear. What's more, I'm left having to deal with all my pencil notations next to each stamp-- which I put there for identification purposes. Not to mention the fact that the whole process is extremely time consuming.

Hence, I have been gradually switching to stock books with black pages and clear strips, simply because the whole "moving stamps around" is SO much easier than dealing with an album. And the stamps still look really nice, in the book-- at least to my eye. And since I am not an exhibitor, I don't feel compelled to stick with an exhibition type format.

Stockbooks are definitely the way to go, for me, especially for the specialized collections.

My first major "moving project" involved getting my specialized collection of the Swedish "ringtyp" issue from album pages to stock books. It took a lot of time and effort, but was well worthwhile doing. As most of the varieties and plate flaws on this early issue are not well documented, I really had relatively little idea of the size and scope the collection might grow to. With stock books, I can easily move things around, as new material might demand it.

A page from my Swedish "ringtyp" collection, now housed in stockbooks

Do I still use albums? Absolutely! Most of my more "general" collections are still in albums, even though I expect some of them will move to stock books, over the years. In the future, a likely candidate seems to be my France collection (housed in a pre-printed album I've had since my teen years), which is suffering from "creeping elegance" as I have been adding SON cancels on the older issues, as well as precancels (quite common on French stamps) and a few blocks of four, as they show up.

More currently, I am considering moving my Denmark specialized from self-made album pages to stockbooks. I feel a little hesitant, because I have literally thousands of hours "invested" in creating those albums-- not to mention the many $$$'s I spent on supplies. However, some of the pages have gotten very "untidy" looking-- while others (recently added) are sadly sparse.

Maybe it's just part of the "journey" for long-time stamp collectors that we're always "tweaking" the way we keep our collections organized. And maybe that's part of what keeps us interested in our collections-- even after all these years-- the fact that there is always "something that needs to be done."

How do YOU keep your stamp collections? Are you happy with the way it's working? Do you often reorganize your collection to fit in new material?

Writing... for non-stamp collectors

Regular readers of these pages will know that I am not only passionate about philately... I am also passionate about "spreading the word" about stamp collection to people not currently involved with the hobby. I strongly believe that one of the ways we'll keep the stamp collecting hobby going for many years to come is to reach out to those who don't currently collect... simply relying on "former" collectors and parents passing collections to their children is not enough.

Part of what I do for a living is write-- although I haven't written much about stamps, aside from this blog. Recently, I've gotten more interested in the idea of writing "general" stamp articles in an attempt to reach the NON-philatelic press.

The first (hopefully of many!) article was recently finished and has now been posted to a web site I sometimes use to "test publish" new articles. It's a "sand box" of sorts, where I can post articles, invite people to go read them, then fine tune them and get feedback, while having them out there in "public view." If the response is positive-- after revisions have been done-- maybe the article will be "publication worthy."

As of this writing, a couple of editors I work with (on material that has NOTHING to do with stamps) have expressed some preliminary interest.

This first article in somewhat broad strokes covers how stamps came about, followed by a little bit of the history and evolution of stamp collecting, from the 1850's to the present day. It's fairly "light and fluffy," but there's only so much you can say in an "article length" piece. Of course, this is not written for the existing stamp collector, but for the casual reader marginally familiar with the idea that "people collect stamps," or possibly someone who collected stamps as a child and might feel inspired to pull out their old collection from the back of the closet.

Stamp Collecting: The Rise & Fall... and Rebirth of the World's Greatest Hobby

Naturally, any comments and feedback on the article are invited and welcomed. This is just ONE approach-- my hope is to write a whole group of "introductory" articles about different aspects of (introductory) philately-- and with a bit of luck get one or two published in non-philatelic magazines.

Mysteries in Stamp Buying

Like most stamp collectors these days, I get many of the new stamps for my collection from an assortment of online sources. After almost 20 years of using the web as a resource, there are things that continue to mystify and confound me.

Top of my list of mysteries is sellers who try to sell stamps without a photo. Just how is that supposed to work? If I can't see the stamp-- especially if it's a stamp you're expecting me to pay more than US $5.00-- why would I want to buy it?

I hear millions of rationalization about how much time it takes to scan things, followed by other rationalizations that I "can return anything I don't like." Whereas that is fair enough, it still misses the point for me. I don't want to deal with the hassle and time wasting of returning things.

VF? Perhaps, but these are NOT "the same" stamp.

Of course, I collect postally used stamps. And (I believe) the faulty assumption that underlies for sale listings without images is that collectors "don't care" what the stamp looks like.

Wrong!

Not only do I want to see what the postmark looks like before I buy, I want to be able to see your "definition" of what Very Fine might be.

Indeed, the photo at right may show two copies of "the same" VF stamp from Denmark-- but they are definitely NOT "the same," are they? Not only is the postmark quality vastly different, the stamps are different colors, meaning they came from different printings of the stamp. Without a photo, how would I know what I was buying?

Fortunately, I do have a choice, in terms of who I buy from-- and I buy from those who have scans of their stamps. Delcampe has been an excellent site for buying for me, because pretty much everything is photographed. BidStart is a good source, as well, as can be eBay, although with the latter one must be careful as many stamps are offered by non-collectors who are not aware of the importance of a good quality photo. Finally, there is private dealers Poppe Stamps-- who, as a seller, is an illustration of how it IS possible to have all your stamps scanned, regardless of price-- they have over 1.5 million items to look at!

Another mystery in my buying experience is the ambiguity of "condition."

No faults? No way! Toned perfs, round corner, corner crease...

I can appreciate that-- at least in the USA-- terms like "Very Fine" and "Fine" ultimately are only referring to centering. Thus, the Danish stamp pictured at left is-- technically speaking-- "VF."

But that's not really the "mystery." The mystery is how well-respected major dealers can list such a stamp with a picture and the description "nice stamp, no faults" when you can clearly tell from the scan that there are  toned perfs on at least three sides and a rounded corner and a corner crease at upper left. On what planet is that a stamp with "no faults?"

Is the seller just hoping to "get lucky" that someone will actually pay 50% of catalogue value for a damaged stamp... or is this genuine ignorance of what makes up stamp condition?

A "smaller" mystery is the strange sellers of "random stamps." What do I mean by that? Well, these are the people-- often on smaller auction or fixed price sites-- who will offer little lots that might contain five stamps from a country, two of them mint, three of them used; three in good condition, two spacefillers; none of them even from the same set. Almost as if the seller went through a collection and randomly pulled out stamps and offered a lot of "stamps."

Who BUYS stamps like that? It may be convenient for you-- as a seller-- but it's a meaningless offer to 95% of the collectors looking at what you have for sale.

A somewhat related mystery is "complete sets."

I realize it's kind of nifty to finish out a set in your collection. But notice something about that last sentence? The words "finish out." I don't think I've ever bought a "complete set" of stamps except when it was a new issue from the post office.

The reality of most collections is that collectors typically already have six spaces in a set of ten filled-- perhaps from packets, or trading or sales circuits. "Complete sets" are a hard sell...

... and if you think about it, have you ever noticed how most of the major catalogues actually list "complete sets" at a discount from the price of the individual stamps, added together? A lot of people will argue that the higher price for singles is a "service charge" for breaking the set... but I just don't believe that to be true. I believe the TRUTH is that sets are priced lower because there's less demand for them.

Thankfully, we have choices, when it comes to buying online... and many more choices than we used to have.

Still, when I think back on the earlier days of buying stamps for my collection, I never bought stamps I couldn't see-- except for "mystery box lots" from auctions. I never once responded to any of those endless "price lists" in Linn's Stamp News or other publications... that were just typed lists of catalogue numbers and prices. All my stamps came from shows, circuit books, stamp club or dealers-- where I could examine the stamps before buying.

Remember, you always have a CHOICE when buying stamps. And the hard-earned money you spend on your collection is like "voting" for the sellers who are doing a good job!

Classic Stamps from Denmark: Ending September 16th

The weather seems to have "broken," here in the US Pacific Northwest. About 10 days ago, we could feel the "warm stillness" of summer give way to the "cool breeziness" of autumn. We are also at the point where the days are getting notably shorter.

XF 7ø provisional with plate flaw in base stamp

For me, these changes also indicate that "stamp season" is about to begin!

As an outdoor enthusiast, I have always been a somewhat "seasonal" collector. This is probably a habit I formed in childhood, where we considered stamp collecting to be a "wintertime thing." Anyway, as the weather gets less pleasant and the days shorten, I usually move towards indoor activities... like working on my stamp collections.

Last week, I finally finished sorting a nice collection of Denmark, bought at auction in Sweden, this past winter (interesting reminder of how truly international our hobby is!). Whereas I found some interesting stamps for my own collection, there were also many really nice items left over-- and so, I decided it was a good time to put them into my first set of eBay stamp auctions of the new "season!"

Here's the direct link ▼:

Classic Denmark at auction: September 9th-16th, 2012

The current auctions include 64 lots very nice older Denmark, with catalogue values to US $300.00+.

A small selection of the current Danish stamps at auction

The large photo at left (click on the image for a larger version!) shows just a few of the items included in this sale. A few more are shown throughout this post.

Individual items include 24 different skilling period stamps, highlighted by an 1864 16sk Arms Type with a major variety and beautiful cancel; also including four different version of the 4 RBS brown, Denmark's first stamp. Then there are some nice "Bicolours," and better stamps like the 5kr Post Office and 1kr brown "Old" Airmail. There are also some nice plate flaws and varieties sprinkled in, along with some lower value stamps chosen simply because they are in super nice quality.

My "philosophy" for running eBay auctions is quite simple, and has been the same since I started on eBay in 1998:

All my auctions begin at US $0.99 and no reserve, regardless of value. If I was looking to"auction" stamps at "retail" prices, I'd just have a retail store. In the current auction series, many stamps have values at-- or above-- US $100.00.

20 øre Arms type with small corner numerals

All lots have large clear scans, allowing collectors-- and especially specialists-- to see exactly what they are bidding on.

All lots have full descriptions. In my world, "see scan" has never constituted a "description." So I actually examine every stamp and write what I see. And I am not afraid to write about faults. I want bidders to actually GET what they think they are bidding on.

Auctions all end at a "sensible" time, both for bidders in Europe, as well as in the US. In addition, I list items to end one minute apart, so those who still enjoy "live last-minute bidding" can participate in many individual auctions. I actively reject eBay's efforts to turn their site into a "shop" venue, rather than an "auction" venue... auction bidding is FUN, if you ask me!

Combined shipping at a reduced rate is always available. Because I prefer to list a substantial number of stamps from the same area, at the same time, combined shipping actually makes sense. I find it so ironic when sellers offer "combined shipping" and then list 100 stamps from 63 different countries... of which I only collect two. Honestly... what's the point?

If it turns out you don't like the stamp or I missed a fault in the description, you can always send it back for a refund. I'm basically in the "happy collectors" business.

So, please take a few moments to go have a look! You never know, I may have something that exactly fits an empty spot in your album... and you may be able to pick up something at a bargain price, as well. I have a number of dealers who always check out my auctions because the possibility exists that you could get a $100 stamp for $3. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen!

Keep in mind: Auctions end Sunday, September 16th at 22:00 Central European (Denmark) time; at 4:00pm US Eastern; 1:00pm US Pacific time.

Thank you for your interest, and good luck with your bids!

As always, I appreciate you helping spread the word about these, using the twitter, Facebook and Google+ buttons, below!

Is eBay Making Itself Obsolete for Stamp Sellers?

Yesterday, I got a notice from eBay, explaining that my "seller performance" wasn't up to snuff. As as result-- I learned-- a number of restrictions had been placed on my selling account. As a point of reference, I am a 14-year "veteran" of eBay, and have a 100% positive feedback rating.

Now, it's no secret that eBay often is the source of controversy among hobbyists (like me) and stamp dealers who sell stamps on the mega-auction site. In the course of the last 10-odd years, eBay has developed from a rather interesting "online collectibles mart and garage sale" to something akin to yet another colorless "Online Mega-mall."

That's just personal opinion, of course.

In spite of complaints and occasional collective whining, many stamp sellers have stuck it out with eBay, even though the fees are somewhat high and there are lots of "rules" that frequently make it difficult for stamp sellers to operate. But they still stick to it. I would count myself among those. Why? Because eBay works!

Here's the thing, you can go to an "eBay alt" site and pay "no fees" and end up selling three items a month (if you're lucky!) or you can sell on eBay and pay 30% overhead to sell 100 items a month. Simple math: You made $30 on the "alt" site but PAID NO FEES!!! (to be said with a combination of smugness and pride) or you made $700 on eBay paying $300 worth of fees... to me, that's a no-brainer. Being "offended by fees" is-- in essence-- just another variation of "cutting off your nose to spite your face."

Again, that's just personal opinion, albeit backed up with experience.

My background is in business management (among other things) and ecommerce. If you run any semblance of "a business," you go where you can make the money. And making money isn't about having things "FOR sale," it's about actually "SELLING" them. A lot of the people in what I dub the "No Fees Club" take a rather myopic view of selling expenses, somehow turning the avoidance of them into the single most important aspect of "success." Then they tend to point fingers at those who say "But I'm not actually SELLING anything!" (on some eBay alternative site) and actually blame the lack of sales on them for not lowering their prices since they are "not paying fees."

Ultimately, "lowering prices" is the single weakest marketing and business development strategy in the world. Let's face it-- if you lower your prices by 30% because you are no longer paying 30% overhead... but you only make 1/3 as many sales... you end up allowing yourself to be far WORSE off than you we're before. Get real!

But getting back to eBay's most recent changes, there's now a certain element of doom on the horizon, when it comes to being a stamp seller. And it's not that eBay is on some kind of vendetta against stamp sellers, it's just that we who trade stamps happen to have a product that doesn't fit eBay's new "general" policy.

This stamp can be purchased for $6.00 in my eBay shop.
75c shipping is fair, but would you pay an extra $3.00 to get it?

Here's how things have typically worked out for me, in my prior dealings on eBay: When I sell a random $8.00 stamp, it goes into a first class envelope and I have historically charged US $0.75 for shipping to buyers in the US, $1.95 to buyers elsewhere. That covers the cost of a 2-ounce (up to 60g) letter and supplies-- an envelope, a cardboard insert to protect the stamp(s), a glassine for each stamp. I'm not here to make money on shipping.

Problem number 1: In order to comply with eBay's new guidelines to be a "top rated seller," I must upload "tracking information" within 24 hours of shipment. Here's the problem: you can't have tracking information on a normal letter. In order to get that additional service, the package (containing my $8.00 stamp) would have to be shipped as a "first class parcel." So now the cost to mail is $1.95 for postage + $0.85 for trackable delivery, for a total of $2.80. What's more, I can no longer use a plain envelope to mail (cost $0.02), I have to use either a "photo mailer" or a padded envelope (cost $0.25 each, even in bulk). So... my effective cost to mail a stamp would go from slightly under $0.75 to $3.05, in order to follow the new guidelines.

Problem number 2: Stamp collectors... collect stamps. It would be possible for me to make shipping less expensive by using an online shipping service, through which the USPS offers reduced priced shipping and free (or very low cost) tracking. However, that would mean using a pre-printed and encoded paper label as postage, rather than stamps. Pretty boring, for a stamp collector-- especially given how many buyers write to me (with their payment) to say "please use current commemorative stamps on your mailing." Thus following the one avenue to savings would potentially hurt my reputation, as a seller.

Problem number 3: Even IF I were to follow eBay's guidelines to obtain "top rated seller status," I would promptly lose it. Why? Let's face it, stamp collectors are pretty "thrifty" folks. And in the "detailed seller ratings" on eBay, there's one "grade" you give sellers for "reasonable shipping costs?" If I am charging $3.05 to send an $8.00 stamp it would not be long before I'd get sufficient "low seller ratings" (because $3.05 IS expensive, to ship one stamp) to no longer be in line with "top seller" requirements... and then I'd be right back to square one.

Problem number 4: This one is particularly important! When you are not a "top rated seller," there are limitations placed on your seller account (as I just discovered), as to how many items you can list, how much you can sell (dollar wise) and how long it takes for funds from PayPal to be "released" to you. Ironically-- the delay of payment is actually being caused by the lack of tracking information-- the very requirement that's causing the "failure," in the first place. In other words, if I decide-- and even if my (and other stamps sellers') buyers agree-- that being a top rated seller is "not important" to me, I am also agreeing to the following "penalties" or "sanctions," if you will: (a) I no longer qualify for a 20% discount on my selling fees, (b) I will only be permitted to offer a fairly low number of stamps for sale, per month, (c) in case I thought to by-pass "b" by offering high value stamps, I am only permitted a limited dollar volume per month and (d) because my seller performance doesn't meet eBay's standards, I will no longer have immediate access to PayPal payments made to me. Now IF I were uploading aforementioned "tracking information" that delay would be only a few days... but since I am a stamp seller, and we've agreed that tracking information doesn't really "work" in this field, the PayPal delay will be three weeks!

I've been selling on eBay for a LONG time... and my buyers seem to
be fairly happy with the way I treat them.

I'll state, once more, that I have no individual beef with eBay, as a marketplace. But I do feel saddened by the fact that the "product" offered by stamp sellers is-- for lack of a better term-- "incompatible" with selling on the "new" eBay. As a long-time eBay fan with a good reputation as as seller, I feel like I am coming up against a "no-win" situation.

There are plenty of rumors in the stamp trade that eBay is "out to get us," prompting the question: "Is eBay trying to 'get rid of' stamp sellers?" Doubtful. Sound like "conspiracy theory" thinking, to me. As of this morning, there were approximately 2.37 MILLION listings across eBay's various stamps categories. If you're a publicly traded corporation who has to keep shareholders happy, would you be likely to "dump" one of the largest categories on the site? Probably not. It's more likely an issue of eBay management simply not understanding that not all products are sold the same way... and the people in the boardroom being so far removed from the "street level operations" that they don't see any logistical issues with a "one size fits all (sellers)" approach.

The challenge-- and problem-- facing stamp sellers is that there really is no "viable alternative" to eBay, if this somewhat hostile selling environment persists. Sure, dozens of people will read that last sentence and insist that they "do well" on any number of other sites. However, a closer examination of all these alternatives (simply done by looking at the percentage of "closed" listings that ended with a sale, and the number of listings "with bids" as a percentage of total listings) will reveal that "eBay alts" are LUCKY to have a sell-through rate between 5% at the top end (Delcampe and Stamps2Go) and down to less than 1% for most... compared to eBay's 30-40% sell-through rate. From a personal perspective, when I run stamp auctions on eBay, my sell-through rate has been in the range of 90-95%. Meanwhile my "alt site" efforts have mainly resulted in private messages asking things like "Will you take $2 for that stamp you've listed for $8?"

I don't expect eBay to suddenly "see the light" and institute lower fees for the benefit of stamp sellers, and that's not my point, in writing this article. It's not the fees I have a beef, it's the limitations placed on sellers. What I would hope for-- against the flow, no doubt-- is a chance to be able to conduct my business in peace, the way business in my "industry" normally is conducted. I accept that I may not be able to be a "top rated" seller, but I'd like the opportunity to not have "the system" automatically relegate me to "below standard," with the attendant limitations on my selling activities.

Bottom line: Individual sellers are NOT "Wal-Mart." Individual sellers are what add interest and uniqueness to a marketplace. And, ironically enough, eBay was BUILT on individual sellers... there would be no eBay, were it not for the thousands of individual sellers who sold their "stuff" and collectibles, back in the 1990's.

So is there a "win/win" solution in all this?

Perhaps. One option might be to force ALL eBay sellers to include a "weight" entry with all their listings. For stamps, sports cards and the like, that would be a fraction of an ounce. Subsequently, any parcels below a certain weight-- say 4 ounces-- could be made exempt from the tracking requirement, thus taking most stamp sellers "out of the loop" while still leaving the tracking requirement intact where it is "relevant," namely for larger packages. The beauty of this approach is that it doesn't try to "play favorites" with stamp sellers, it addresses a broader issue that items shipped in an ordinary first-class letter can't purchase tracking.

Another and perhaps more feasible solution-- given the existing eBay interface and the way pages are coded and linked to both PayPal and shipping services (UPS/USPS/FedEx, etc) is to simply add "First Class LETTER" as a shipping method, when items are listed. If you (as a seller) choose that as "how this item will ship" it will automatically "filter through the system" from the USPS site that the shipment in this particular sale can't be tracked... and if something was shipped "first class letter" there will be no place to enter "tracking information." Subsequently (to the benefit of sellers who sell "mixed goods") only "trackable" transactions would count towards a given seller's "top rated seller" status. So... if I sell 500 stamps and 50 stockbooks... I would still have to upload tracking info for the 50 stockbooks... but I wouldn't be penalized for NOT doing so, with the 500 stamps. The 500 stamps would be "non-counting transactions."

Another alternative would be to have "business" and "individual" class sellers on eBay, where an "individual" is subject to less stringent rules than a "business." They could be delineated by a number of transactions or dollar volume per year. That method would be somewhat harder to implement, however, and would make less "sense" in terms of WHY we use tracking information for packages.

Of course, that's not an easy "sell," as eBay has made itself a major stakeholder in the shipping business, by charging final value fees on shipping. But sometimes you have to look beyond the immediately obvious and consider the longer term benefits.

I hope you have learned something from reading this commentary, or-- at least-- it made you pause and think. If you are a stamp (or other) seller on eBay and you can see the inherent in eBay's new guidelines, please take a moment to tweet this article, or post it to your Facebook page, or google+ it, or post to your newsgroup, or stamp collecting forums. As you probably know, NOTHING happens unless there's awareness. And there can be no awareness, unless people spread the word. And remember, this also affects you if you're only a BUYER of stamps on eBay-- if the dealers leave, so do the stamps!


So spread the word!

Summertime and Stamp Collecting

I realized, this morning, that it has been almost six weeks since I last posted here.

In a sense, it reminds me of my collecting "habits," both as a child, and as an adult-- when summer rolls around, I just don't get the stamps out very often.

Nor, or so it seems, do very many other people. A couple of days ago, I mailed an order for stamps that someone had placed in my eBay stamp store. It was the first time in almost three weeks that anyone had bought something. In the winter, there are usually orders almost every day; sometimes several per day.

It's the time of the year for beach combing!

Summers in western Washington state tend to be short, and sun is a commodity we rarely see during the winter months. As such, we tend to get out there and enjoy it, while we can. For the most part, my wife and I have been gardening and beach combing.

Right now, there's a pile of stamp albums on one of the work tables in my home office. They came from a European stamp auction, back in late May. Aside from a cursory glance when they first arrived, I have not found the time to do the thorough examination of them I like to do... to see if there are any varieties or rare cancels I want to add to my collection. And frankly? I have not felt the inclination, either-- just like I haven't felt the inclination to scan and list new stamps in the places where I sell my duplicates. I know that these albums will most likely sit untouched till sometime in late September, when the first good autumn rain and storm arrives... and the idea of "indoor activities" once again sounds appealing.

I have not been completely out of the "stamp loop," however. I have been evaluating various eBay "alternative" sites where I have listed stamps for sale over the past couple of years-- just to see if there were any buyers. In recent years, there has been much talk about a "mass exodus" of stamp sellers from eBay (due to increasing fees) and I was curious to see just how vaible the alternatives were. After all, what good is "low fees" if NOBODY ever looks at your stamps, or buys them? I plan to review each site in a series of articles, later this year. 

During our few dull days, I have been writing. As some readers may know, I am very dedicated to help the stamp collecting hobby survive and thrive. I am working on a series of stamp collecting articles, which will we placed in NON-philatelic places (publications and web sites), in the hope of drawing a few new collectors to the hobby.

Aside from that, I don't have any exciting stamp news to offer.

I hope everyone is having a nice summer!

US Stamps from a European Estate

Taking a bit of a sidetrack, today.

Note: Today's entry is about some classic US stamps I am selling on eBay. If you just want to skip the personal story behind them and go look, here's the link: Click here for Classic US Stamps eBay auctions (Opens a new browser tab)

My 93-year old stepfather passed away recently-- outliving my mom by about a year. They were retired and lived on a golf course community in the south of Spain. Most of their "stuff" was recently shipped to me, here in the US.

On occasion, my stepdad would "fiddle around" with a (rather messy) collection/accumulation of US stamps. In later years, his eyesight, steadiness of hand and mental clarity somewhat declined, so the "collection" eventually became more like "wads of pages with stamps on them." There were also some cigar boxes with stamps, envelopes with stamps, and some ancient salvaged stock books.

Not "rare," but nice quality!

I don't expect that I'll find any great RARITIES here, but there are certainly lots of "mid value" stamps-- from $1.00 to $25.00 in Scott (a few higher-- maybe to $150.00 CV)-- and some are actually in pretty nice (and even superb) condition. There are also thousands of cheapies, and thousands of damaged-- those will just be tossed into the "sorted" box.

I don't collect US, and I know nothing about US stamps (beyond what I can learn from opening a Scott catalogue)... and I have no "attachment" to this collection. I also know my stepdad was very "thrifty," and would NOT have wanted me to just hand the whole mess off to "some dealer" and get $50.00 for my effort.

Thus, I have decided that what I'm going to do is take "the best" of what I find, and put it out on eBay. I can make high quality scans, hopefully to somewhat compensate for my lack of knowledge about this material. I'll identify the stamps to the best of my ability, which may not be good. Issues such as the "Washington-Franklins" and some of the classics with all their printings and papers and grills completely baffle me.

What I am also going to do is turn everything into "penny auctions." That is, every lot-- regardless of quality or catalogue value-- will open on eBay at ONE CENT, and the market can decide what the stamps are worth. Risky? Maybe... but my experience has been that the stamp market is pretty "intelligent," and good quality material will achieve a fair price. It's the junk nobody bids on. And I'm only going to bother with the better quality material-- the junk I may sell "by the pound," at the end.

So, there are thousands of worthwhile stamps in the two boxes now in my office. So, I expect this little "project" may take me a few years. My plan is to "chunk" the stamps into groups of 100+ individual listings, so people can benefit from cheaper postage costs-- since some of these probably wll sell for a buck or less.

There are also some superb cancels!

My first set, which I have sent to eBay this afternoon, has 148 lots, mostly older used US. Lots of those "in-between" stamps that are too expensive to be in packets, but too cheap for MOST sellers to bother with.

Click here to go have a look at these listings now (Opens a new browser tab)

What might add some "interest" as well is that my stepdad was British and lived in Europe, and was NOT a "specialist." Much of this material has not been in the hands of US collectors for half a century or more.

Anyway, if you happen to be stopping by this page... and US stamps are "your thing," bookmark/subscribe or make a point to come back, from time to time... I'll announce as new listings of these US stamps go up for grabs. By the way, I am not using my normal stamp selling account on eBay-- I usually sell Scandinavian stamps, and I don't want to confuse my "regulars." I'm using my "private" eBay ID, instead.

It'll be a nice "diversion" from my daily routine... and not to worry, this does NOT mean I'm suddenly abandoning writing about Scandinavian Philately!

The "Relative" Popularity of Stamp Collecting

I was born and raised in Denmark, and lived around Europe till I was 20 years old. Since I started collecting stamps when I was six years old, I can safely say that my original impressions of philately were shaped in Europe, and mainly in Denmark.

I have lived in the US since 1981 (I originally came here to go to University), and it has never taken a degree in rocket science for me to understand that stamp collecting in the US is just not as popular as it is in Northern Europe.

The American Philatelic Society (APS), of which I have been a member since 1984, has a group and discussion page on business networking site LinkedIn. Recently, there has been a fairly active discussion about stamps clubs and membership in stamp clubs.

Since we now have the Internet, access to "facts and figures" is much more convenient than in days of old, where writing letters and journeys to the library were required. So I decided to do a quick comparison study of the (apparent) popularity stamp of collecting in the US vs. stamp collecting in Denmark, just using "public" information.

Denmark is a small country, with a population of about 5,544,000 people. The primary organization for stamp collectors in Denmark is Dansk Filatelist Forbund, which currently has in excess of 6,000 members and 112 affiliated local and specialist stamp clubs.

The US is a large country, with a population of about 307,000,000 people. The primary organization for stamp collectors in the US is the American Philatelic Society (APS), which currently has right around 35,000 members, and somewhat in excess of 500 affiliated local and specialist stamp clubs.

If I "do the math" on this, the population of the US is 55.4 times greater than the population of Denmark. Applying that multiple to to the "known" stamp collector data from Denmark, we end up the "fact" that in order for philately's apparent popularity to be the same between the two countries, the APS would need to have 332,400 members and about 6200 local and specialist clubs.

Loosely speaking-- at least on paper-- stamp collecting appears to be ten times more popular in Denmark, than in the US.

But is this "The Truth?" What other factors could play into these numbers? Are Danish stamp collectors merely "more organized?" More likely to join clubs? Hard to say...

One possibility is that the US is-- geographically speaking-- a huge country. The population density of the US is about one-quarter that of Denmark. Access to, and distribution of, information, news and announcements-- regardless of the advent of the Internet-- tends to go down, as population density goes down. People who are widely scattered tend to communicate less-- regardless of what the topic might be. As a result, I believe there are far more "solo" (as in, non-club, non-society, collect in isolation) stamp collectors in the US, than in Denmark.

That's just a theory, though.

One of my great interests in life is "building communities," virtual, or real. The "fellowship of stamp collectors" is a community-- and I am very interested in what we (existing stamp collectors) might to do help our greater community of philatelists not only maintain in the 21st century, but even grow and thrive... in an era where "sending snail mail letters" is rapidly declining.

I look forward exploring the issue of how to help build the stamp collecting "community" in future articles on this blog. Stay tuned!

How Rare is "Rare," in Stamp Collecting?

I was surfing mega auction site eBay, a couple of days ago.

In spite of the fact that the format of eBay-- and the quality of material offered-- has changed (and not for the better) over the years, I still like to go on occasional "treasure hunts," there... looking for the unusual and esoteric for my collections. It saddens me a bit that the site has moved more and more away from being a genuine auction marketplace to being more like a giant retail store. An often severely overpriced retail store, at that.

But I digress.

It seems that eBay stamp sellers-- of all colors and stripes-- are extremely generous with their use of the word "rare." I am always amazed at the number of listings that include phrases such as "Look! Rare old stamp!" to characterize something that's quite ordinary.

It got me to thinking about what "rare" really means, for us stamp collectors. And I was reminded that "rarity" is a very subjective concept.

No doubt, we can all agree that unique stamps like Sweden's 3sk Bco yellow and the USA 1c "Z-grill" qualify for the designation "ultra rare." A US "Inverted Jenny"-- of which only one sheet is known to exist-- can also safely be called "rare." But most stamp collectors don't spend much time in such lofty domains-- we are typically looking at a whole different type of material... but does that make it "common?" Or, more relevantly, can some of this still be considered "rare?"

Let's take a stamp like this one: This is the 1kr King Oscar II high value from Sweden, issued in 1900 (Facit no. 60/Scott no. 65). As shown here, this may qualify as "old," but certainly not rare. This one is in its typically found condition, somewhat off-center with a typical somewhat messy cancel, probably from a parcel card. A pretty normal stamp, which can be had in most dealers' stocks for about $1.00, or less. And it's available, in most dealers' stocks. Rare? Hardly. I probably have 20 of them, here in my duplicate stockbooks.

However, if we compare this stamp to the 10 öre value from the same set, I suppose we could arrive at the conclusion that it is relatively rare. 3.8 million copies of the 1kr stamp were printed, while 1127 million copies of the 10 öre red were printed. So there are 295 copies of the 10 öre, for every copy of the 1kr stamp.

But in an "absolute" sense, it's still not a rare stamp. For the average collector, there's little or no "searching" involved in finding one. Pretty much any dealer who sells Sweden will have it. Or you can visit a stamp selling web site like Delcampe or Stamps2Go, and there will be a dozen presentable copies for sale, at any given time.

So let us change our perspective, a little.

Let's say that we only want "really nice" stamps in our collection, and so the first stamp shown here would be of no interest to us. We want to get our hands on a "premium quality" copy, like this one at right:

This is a well-centered example with a light cancel, fresh colors, full even perfs and a clean back. Given that this 1kr stamp was the top value in the set, and most were used on parcels (or parcel cards), it does take a little work to find a copy that isn't creased, and isn't heavily or messily canceled.

If you were to look through a random batch of 100 of these stamps, you might find two or three in this condition.

Now, we're still talking about the same "not rare" stamp, but has it become rare, because of our premium condition requirements? Well, certainly less common. We now have to "work a little" to fill that particular space in our stamp album.

Most stamp collectors are familiar with the terminology that describes stamp condition: "Average," "Fine," "F-VF," "Very Fine," "Extremely Fine" and so forth. There seems to be a parallel set of terms to describe rarity, although it's far less standardized: "Common," "Uncommon," "Scarce," "Rare," "Extremely Rare." However, stamp rarity seems to be misrepresented (or overstated) far more often than condition.

Now, let's get back to our 1kr Oscar II stamp.

Let's say we want the stamp to have an upright, readable, almost perfect town cancel, like this example here:

Given that most of these stamps were used on parcels and parcel cards, and these were seldom "neatly" cancelled like letters might be, things get a lot trickier. To get a copy like this, the stamp would first have to be one of the limited number that was used on a registered or "money" letter, requiring a high value stamp... in order to get a neat hand cancel. Perhaps 1-in-50 of these stamps were used for that purpose. But not all of those got a perfect cancel. Cancels of this quality are very difficult to find, on the 1kr Oscar. Perhaps 1-in-100 (of the 1-in-50) would actually get a "lyx" quality cancel like this.

As a collector of early Swedish town cancels, I know how difficult it is to find a 1kr Oscar with a cancel like this-- even if the stamp itself isn't perfectly centered.

Remember, we still have the same "not rare" stamp, but has it now "become" rare? Certainly something close to it. In Sweden, cancel collecting is a very popular area of specialization, and if this stamp showed up in a stamp auction, it's a good bet the bidding would ramp up to $50-75-- for a stamp with a catalogue value of $2.25.

This brings up another facet of assessing "rarity," namely the interaction between "absolute" rarity and the "desirability" of a stamp.

Back when I collected British Commonwealth, I had a copy of British East Africa no. 2. This was an overprinted GB stamp, and only something on the order of 2880 copies were created. You'd think this would be an extremely valuable stamp (given that quite a few were used up on mail and discarded), but I only paid $90 for it. Why? Whereas the stamp was definitely "rare" in an absolute sense, only a handful of collectors are interested in that area, so the number of collectible copies of the stamp vs. the low number of collectors wanting/needing it keeps the price low.

In the case of our 1kr Oscar stamp, the superb cancel certainly makes the stamp "scarce," in its own right. However, with potentially hundreds of Swedish collectors eager to own such a stamp, the demand for the available examples in this quality grade this means that it now "appears rare." And the stamp pictured above is far from "perfect:" It's a little off-center, the cancel leans 5 degrees to the left and impression is not 100% "sharp." If all these factors were present, the value placed on the stamp might go into the $100s.

So, to summarize the "meaning" of rarity in the world of philately, the most accurate answer seems to be "it depends." The best thing a collector can do is to become educated about the stamps from their areas of interest... and then take seller claims of "rarity" with a large grain of salt!

Creating Albums for a Specialized Stamp Collection

For a while, I was considering writing a stereotypical "New Year's article," filled with a look back at 2011, and assorted resolutions and hopes for 2012. But the world is overflowing with those... to wit, I've already written this kind of article for three other blogs I keep.

So, I decided to do a bit of "show and tell," instead... about the primary stamp project I am working on, and will continue to work on, during 2012.

My original "Abria" France album from 1971

I've been a stamp collector since age six, and my stamps have been housed in an assortment of different places. I started with a large stockbook my father gave me. It had 12 pages, and the colorful cover was a photograph of stamps from all around the world. For a few years, all my stamps fit in it. But my collection kept growing, and when my dad realized I was going to stick with stamp collecting, he presented me with a pre-printed "Abria" album for Scandinavia for Christmas. I was maybe ten. The following year, I received a matching album for France-- which I still have.

This was 1971.

Needless to say, my collections have grown and morphed-- more or less continuously-- since then.

If you are a lifelong collector, perhaps it is just part of the journey that your interests become more and more specialized as you go along. For me, specialization was part choice, part necessity: I reached a point where "filling the next empty space" would cost me more money than I had available to spend on stamp collecting. So I went from "collecting one of each" to looking at "more than one" through plate flaws, printings and postmarks. This happened-- gradually-- in my mid-20s.

Of course, traditional pre-printed albums do not lend themselves to specialized collections. For a long time, I have kept my Denmark specialized in stockbooks. This served as an adequate-- but far from perfect-- solution, for many years. The upside of this approach is that it's easy to move stamps around, as you get new additions. But the main issue I have always had with this approach is that my "primary" examples of each stamp (and blocks and covers) have been in my pre-printed album, while my varieties and postmarks were separate in the stockbooks.

So, a few years ago, I decided I wanted to create my own albums for my Denmark collection.

One of the first new pages, allows for multiples, cancels and more

After looking at my options, I decided to use "Lighthouse" multi-ring binders and quadrilled blank pages. To show the stamps off as much as possible, everything would be mounted in black mounts.

As I said, that was a few years ago...

I soon realized that "layout" is not as easy as it looks. Strike that... I realized that organizing a highly specialized collection requires a lot of planning and foresight, in order to avoid ending up with a giant uncohesive mess.

So, whereas I've actually had the binders and pages for six years... I have mainly been "studying" how I have organized and moved the stamps in my stockbooks. The lesson here, is patience. I don't want to have to significant undo and change anything, once I get going.

I am keeping it very simple. For a while, I considered printing pages with my laser printer, but decided against it-- the almost infinite potential for expansion of a collection that includes minor varieties and cancels would make this an almost impossible task. Instead, I am just using the plain pages with the black mounts... and annotating everything in pencil-- thankfully I have fairly neat handwriting... well... printing. Why pencil? Well, if I do have to move a few items around, it allows me to erase and rewrite descriptions.

Individual captions done in pencil

This will be my primary stamp project for 2012... and beyond. As I assemble the collection, I will also be "putting my money where my mouth is," with respect to documenting the collection (See December 14th post), both for my own benefit... and for the benefit of anyone who might have to "deal with" the collection sometime in the future.

There is, of course, no "right" or "wrong" way to house a specialized stamp collection. My primary objective was to come up with something that works for me. Specifically, I wanted to end my previous problems of not being able to find specific items, because they could be located in an assortment of different books, boxes and albums.

Since I am not an "exhibitor," that was never part of my considerations, although I did want to come up with something fairly "presentable," for when I share with other collectors.

My advice to anyone who wants to create albums for their specialized collection is primarily to plan well. Spend some time looking at how you want to organize, then consider where you will (most likely) be adding more stamps... and where the collection is "finite." This will have a major impact on how you design your pages.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Where Collectors Come From

I have long had an interest in "community building," as a central part of ensuring the continuance of the stamp collecting hobby. I strongly believe that if we make an effort to be more connected-- as collectors-- we present an image to potential newcomers as having something they'd "want to become part of."

If we portray an image of being "solitary and antisocial hermits in our dark studies," it will not serve us well, in this modern world where the Internet increasingly connects us all.

As "keeper" of this blog for some five years, I periodically sit down with the site's "visitor logs," which help give me a sense of "what's going on" and who's reading these pages.

Whereas Google (searches) has always been the primary referrer to this site, I noticed something interesting, the last time I looked at the site logs:

"Spanning the Globe"

"Google.com" (the "main," USA- and worldwide-based site) is not my top Google referrer. In fact, it's not even in the top three:

Google.co.uk (United Kingdom)
Google.ca (Canada)
Google.se (Sweden)
Google.co.in (India)
Google.com.au (Australia)
Google.com (US/World)

Of course, it's open to interpretation what this really means.

It could mean that stamp collecting is more "active" in top five countries listed, than in the US-- even though they all have much smaller populations.

It could mean that Scandinavia-- as a collecting area-- is more popular in the top five countries listed, than in the US.

It could mean that stamp collectors in the top five listed countries are more likely to use the Internet, than collectors in the US.

What it does tell me, however, is that we have the ability to connect globally, these days. There can still be "stamp clubs," even if they become increasingly online-based, and they may be stronger and more focused than ever.

It's all about connecting across common ground!

The Future of Stamp Collecting

It's a new year, and I find myself wondering about the year ahead. It got me to thinking about collecting stamps, and the future.

I wonder if people will continue to collect stamps. I wonder if-- when I die and my collections will be offered for sale-- anyone will buy them.

On one hand, we hardly ever use stamps, any more. Let's face it, email has replaced a vast volume of snail mail. And to the degree we send things through the postal system, we often don't even use stamps. There's less and less to collect-- at least if "postally used" is your bag.

From a different angle, stamp collecting seems less "cool" than it was, in the past. The children and youth of today seem less into "collecting" things, and more into "playing things." That is, video games and electronic interactions have replaced "finding and collecting." Where stamp collecting once was a "viable" thing to do, it is now "deeply nerdy," if you're under the age of 30.

And the nature of stamps has changed, too. How we collect. Many countries-- no doubt in response to sagging revenues-- issue more and more new stamps, every year. And because fewer of them are actually used on letters, we feel increasingly pressured to "collect mint." Not so good, if you're eight years old and only have a few dollars. Not so good, even, if you're adult and have limited income.

Perhaps I am representative: I only collect used stamps, and I don't collect modern issues anymore, because (a) I can't keep up and (b) I don't seem able to find postally used stamps the way I used to.

Which leaves me collecting issues from the late 1800s. 50 years down the road, will there be a new generation, who ALSO collect issues from the late 1800s? Or will the "challenge" for them be to find stamps from the 1990s, that actually carried a letter? Or will "collecting stamps" pass from the realm of being something you (theoretically) can do on a shoestring, to being something you "buy," like a collection of "labels" or Barbie dolls?

Just pondering out loud, here...

Stamps For Sale!

Because I have philatelic material for sale in so many different locations, and the material often changes, I have decided the easiest way to keep announcements all in one place is to simply have this post always sitting at the top of the blog.

Here, then, is a listing (with brief description) of the places I have stamps for sale (titles are links to the sites):

Delcampe Stamp Auctions:

Currently 200+ lots stamps from Sweden, almost all used, with better and some of the "tricky" mid-priced items. All are identified by the Swedish Facit stamp catalogue. Please note that the bidding here is in EURO.

StampWants Auctions:

Currently about 250 lots mid- and lower priced Swedish stamps, from classic to the 1960's, some mint, but mostly used. All listed by the Swedish Facit catalog as well as Scott, with varieties, town cancels, and more.

eStampAuctions UK:

About 120 lots older Denmark, mostly mid-priced material. Please note that the bidding here is in UK pound Sterling, and that stamps are listed by the Danish AFA stamp catalogue. However, the descriptions are clear enough that you can easily "convert" to your own catalog of choice.

In general, there are some good values to be had, with many stamps offered for as little as 20% of catalogue value.

Selling on Stamp Wants

I have recently signed up on the Stamp Wants web site, with the hope of having found an "eBay alternative" that allows me to sell lower priced items without getting skinned alive with fees.

It seems like a neat enough site, and looks like it was created by people who actually know both stamps, and the technology that's needed to drive an auction web site.

I have decided to try having one of their "Stores," and have gone back to the trade name I have used in the past, Scandinavian Stamps, Etc. So far, having a store there is free, but I feel pretty sure they will start charging for them, after some time. Perhaps once there is enough traffic to justify it.

So far, I have just listed a few stamps from Sweden, and plan to continue getting some of the medium and lower priced material over there. Here, have a look at the Scandinavian Stamps, Etc. store!

Stamp Collectors' Alternatives to eBay

There always seems to be a lot of uproar among stamp collectors and dealers over eBay. People seem to eternally be moaning and groaning about how "the big auction site" is gouging sellers with their fees, and buyers are being taken advantage of by being offered low quality and misrepresented material.

I opened my account on eBay in May of 1998, and I grant you that things were a little "different" back then. However...

... back then things moved a lot slower, and even though it was not hard to become "known" as a seller, there simply weren't that many people out there looking. Unsold lots were common. Whether I agree with eBay's fee structure or not, truth remains that I sell more than 95% of the lots I list on eBay, first time around.

I have been looking at "alternative" auction sites for stamp collectors-- places where there is an active buying and selling atmosphere. Frankly, the alternatives are few and far between. Sure, there are a few "free" sites out there, like StampHead but the offerings there are seldom much to be impressed with. The more general alternatives like Yahoo and Bidville rarely have enough stamps listed to make it worth anyone's while.

For me, the only seriously viable eBay "alternative" is Belgian collector supersite Delcampe, which regularly has more stamps listed than eBay-- and generally seems to have created a philatelic online auction niche marketplace for itself.

On the whole, though, it strikes me that the majority of those stamp sellers who complain are mostly bellyaching over not being able to sell common stamps at near full retail... and they get all annoyed with eBay because it costs them money to list every item that just sits there for a couple of years before some sucker comes along and pays the inflated price.

The Expert Issue

To expertize or not to expertize?

I seldom have too many doubts about expertizing items in my own collection. The issue of yes/no arises far more often when it comes to something I plan to sell... when is it worthwhile, when is it not?

Over the years, one of the things I have noticed is that getting an expert opinion from a recognized expert costs a lot more in the US than it does in Europe. I know several (well-known, I might add) European experts from whom I can get five color photo certificates for about $100. The same certificates in the US would cost twice that, or something more. This difference is important enough to me that the only certificates I buy from US authorities (typically the Philatelic Foundation or APS) are for US stamps... otherwise, it is simply not worth my while.

Besides, in many cases the US expertizing bodies lack the specialized knowledge needed to (as was recently the case) warrant the authenticity of a very rare Swedish postmark, for example.