eBay Time: Denmark

I recently purchased some collections of Danish stamps, and this week will be selling off the better stamps I didn't use for my own collection.

It's a relative modest group of "somewhat better" values, running the range from classic issues to mid-period, and  also with some back-of-the-book items.

Like is the case with most of my eBay auctions, everything starts with an opening bid of just 99 cents, and there is NO reserve on any lot-- and there are some items here with catalogue values running to US$60.00.

I hope you'll stop by and check out this week's offerings! The auctions end on Sunday, May 22nd.

Click here to visit my eBay page!

eBay Time: Worldwide bits and pieces at auction

It is already May, and only now am I getting around to listing my first set of stamp auctions on eBay, this year!

Up for grabs are 50 better items, predominantly Western Europe with most of the weight on Scandinavia. Lots include some Danish Bicolours, Swedish with better cancels on classics, some better Germany, France and Switzerland. There are also a few bits and pieces from the US.

This group is not typical of how I like to offer things for sale on eBay, but these were a bunch of "leftovers" I just didn't have any other place to put.

Like is the case with most of my eBay auctions, everything starts with an opening bid of just 99 cents, and there is NO reserve on any lot-- and there are some items here with catalogue values running to US$700.00.

I hope you'll stop by and check out this week's offerings! The auctions end on Sunday, May 15th.

Click here to visit my eBay listings!

How NOT to Ship Stamps

I usually try to leave my personal gripes at the door, when I sit down to write-- whether it is an article on spirituality, an eBay auction description, or a post on this blog.

Today, however, I am in a rather grumpy mood. Let me explain...

Most of my collections have been built through a slow process of buying large "box lots," sorting my way through them to pick out any individual "gems," or varieties, or other kind of specialist material. When I am done with a box, I "recycle" the remains back to the collector market... usually through eBay or a similar venue.

Many of my box lots and collections come from overseas-- specifically from about 5-6 large sellers in Scandinavia. Not surprising, since my primary philatelic interests are Denmark and Sweden.

I recently won several collections from a sale by a large well-known auctioneer in Scandinavia. Understanding from the description (and photos) that I was buying a lot of stamps on loose stock leaves, I took the time to write to the auction firm to recommend that they "cross-strap" each album/stockbook with heavy rubber bands to put the pages "under pressure" and to prevent the stamps from falling out and getting damaged. Most auctioneers and dealers I do business with ship albums this way. Some even insert the albums into individual padded envelopes, before putting them into the shipping box.

The stamps, as I received them... one of 12 albums

Some three weeks later, my box of new acquisitions arrived! All excited, I opened the box... and found a horrible mess. Not only had the various albums been stacked rather carelessly in the shipping box, a couple had been put in upside-down, and there had been lots of loose space for the albums to rattle around, during trans-Atlantic shipping. And absolutely no sign that the albums had been strapped, to keep them closed.

The result?

100s of loose stamps floating around the box-- many of them damaged by being beaten between heavy albums. It just made me angry, and sand... and begs the question "just HOW hard is it to take just a little care, before shipping a box of valuable stamps across the Atlantic?"

Of course, I find myself with rather a "Catch-22" situation, because complaining would do little good. I have already complained about this issue, once before. But the rest of the "problem" is that this auction house is one of the very best sources for Danish bulk lots in the world... so deciding to no longer do business with them would also mean cutting myself off from one of my best suppliers.

I guess sometimes there's just no winning...

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!

Classic Swedish Cancels

I started collecting town cancels on classic Swedish stamps in the mid-1980's.

A nice "SKENINGE" cancel on 5ö green

The collection started more or less "by accident:" I was at university in the US at the time, and had gone "home" to Denmark for the summer-- in part to visit family, and in part to work (I didn't have a work permit for the US, at the time) to make money for school.

One day, I found myself strolling through the streets of central Copenhagen, looking at stamp shops. This was back in a time where "street level" retail stamp shops were still fairly numerous; there were at least 12-15 shops I liked to check out, on a regular basis.

One stretch of Gammel Kongevej had several dealers clustered together-- one of them was a favorite: Usually a "cluttered mess" of boxes and albums; this dealer's specialty was to take in people's collections-- and even entire holdings-- on consignment "as is." His opening hours were... well... sporadic, and I expected depended on whether he was out making a "house call" to an estate or someone who wanted to get out of the stamp collecting business. I don't think more than maybe 1/4 of the shop's stock was actually the dealer's own material. Anyway, this shop offered a constantly rotating "treasure hunt" for stamp collectors-- no knowing what might show up.

Of course, being just 24 at the time and a "starving student," my stamp budget was quite limited. Besides, I was in the business of saving money... not spending it; I needed to pay for my classes. However, I was working the 11pm to 7am shift at a factory AND taking on all holidays and weekends I could get (at the time called "antisocial hours"), and making a rather good wage-- so I had allowed myself a little "stamp money."

At the time, my primary stamp collections were Denmark, Sweden and France. I had pretty good collections for someone my age, and had even (hesitantly) started a couple of specialized collections... Danish numeral cancels and the Danish "Bicolours" issue.

As I looked through the shop's endless piles of boxes and albums, I came across a battered shoebox marked "old Sweden." Inside was an unruly mess of old yellowing glassine envelopes with thousands of classic Swedish stamps, from the "Arms" issues to the "Oscar" issues. Some seemed sorted by stamp; some seemed all mixed together. Mostly, I noticed that there was extreme duplication on some stamps-- and I guessed that was why the box was only marked at 1200,- Danish kr. (about US $200, but still a hefty sum in 1984, to a young man with little money). After all, who would want 1000+ copies of a 10ö red Oscar II stamp? I didn't know much about classic Sweden, but I did know that "bundleware" (even old) tended to be cheap.

Originally, I included the Oscar II series

I am not sure what possessed me to take a second look-- but as I scanned through the old glassines, I noticed a few had been marked "better cancels" (in Danish) in pencil. I also noticed that these "better" cancels were lovely strikes, by any measure-- most of them were on 12 öre blue "ringtyp" stamps, as well as the "Oscar II" issue. Having recently started my collection of Danish numeral cancels, I decided that collecting old Swedish cancels might be a fun sideline-- since I had reached a point with my Sweden collection where adding more stamps generally required me to spend $20 or more, per stamp.

I should add that I really "didn't know what I was doing," at the time. In my mind, I had a notion that perhaps I'd get a hold of a map of Sweden and cross off (or highlight) town names as I found them. I should also add that I found this box before cancel collecting in Sweden really became "a big deal."

My Swedish cancel collection started quite humbly. I bought a 32-page stockbook, which gave me a page per letter of the alphabet, with enough left over to make a separate page for major cities like Stockholm and Göteborg. Aside from that, all I did was put stamps in the stockbook, alphabetically, by place name.

It was actually several years before I learned that there was such a thing as a Swedish cancel catalogue-- the "Facit Postal" catalogue, issued every 4-5 years. And then I was amazed to discover that quite a few of my original "shoebox cancels" had considerable value... and they went on to form the basis for my Swedish cancel collection.

That was 27 years ago. A some readers may know, Swedish cancel and postal history collecting has since become a "big deal." Although "ortstämplar" and "hembygdsfilateli" are mostly Swedish philatelic interests collected in Sweden, I have met many fellow specialty collectors around the world-- from Denmark, to the UK, to the US, to Australia.

"Finds," like my original shoebox lot, are rare these days because awareness of this type of material is so much higher than it used to be. Top quality classic cancels sometimes sell for extraordinary prices at large Swedish philatelic auctions. Even those from relatively common (large) towns have been known to sell for many multiples of their catalogue values.

"WESTERÅS" on an early printing of 20ö red

About ten years ago, I decided to narrow down the scope of my Swedish cancel collection, limiting the stamps to only the "Vapentyp" (arms type) and "Ringtyp" (circle type) issues, Facit numbers 1-51. I still have many of my Oscar cancels, but am not actively collecting them any more-- and periodically have sold off some of the better items on eBay. Even so, my collection has grown to several thousand stamps and continues to grow-- albeit slowly-- as I visit stamp shows and pick up an occasional "box lot" or collection from a stamp auction.

Part of the slowness of the collection's growth can be directly attributed to my own rather particular requirements of the quality of cancel I am willing to include. From time to time, I realize that I may have put unreasonable constraints on myself-- but I am in no great hurry, and hopefully have at least another 30 years of collecting ahead of me!

Along the way, I have had the good fortune to pick up a few rarities-- at least within the limited context of Swedish cancels. That said, I am still missing quite a few "fairly common" cancels... just waiting for examples to show up, in the right condition.

Auction News: Goodbye Thomas Høiland?

I recently clicked on my bookmark to go visit the web site of Danish stamp and coin auctioneer Thomas Høiland.

The Thomas Høiland Auctions building

For many years, this has been one of my favorite "big" auction firms in Scandinavia, offering some of the finest material from the Nordic countries and beyond. I've particularly like them, on account of their extraordinary offerings of Denmark, especially as accumulations and box lots.

Much to my surprise, I found myself looking not at what I expected-- a spring auction catalogue-- but a notice that the company had sold its stamp operations to Danish art auctioneer Bruun-Rasmussen.

Meanwhile, Høiland's "web auction" division has already been transferred to Norwegian stamp and coin auctioneer Skanfil A/S. As a long time client of Skanfil, I know the web division is in capable hands.

Now, I know the Bruun-Rasmussen firm because my father was an art collector, and he'd sometimes take me to auctions with him. I realize they are a highly respected firm, and are certainly capable of conducting high quality auctions. What concerns me is that a "stamps only" firm is becoming part of a "general" art auction house... how will this affect the quality and quantity of material offered? I have previously seen Bruun-Rasmussen's stamp auctions and they were very nice, but small affairs with maybe 800-1000 very "exclusive" items... not the giant 10,000+ lot offerings of a Thomas Høiland auction.

The news release from the Høiland firm also stated that founder Thomas Høiland-- along with a number of his staff members-- would be moving along to the Bruun-Rasmussen company.

I have hopes that the quality of Thomas Høiland stamp auctions will find its way to Bruun-Rasmussen... but, for the moment, I am taking a "wait and see" approach.

Variety Focus: Denmark's 5 Kr. Central Post Office

On September 16th, 1912, Denmark issued it's fist true "high value" stamp: The 5 Kroner Central Post Office stamp. Printed from a copper engraved plate, this was also Denmark's first "large format" stamp, being exactly twice the size of normal definitive stamps. The primary use of the stamp was to pay postage for large heavy parcels, and for high value insured letters.

This stamp was actually printed twice, on different types of paper, albeit from the same printing plate. The original printing from 1912 was made on paper with watermark III, large crown, and perforated 12 3/4. A subsequent printing was made on May 3rd, 1915, this time on the new paper with watermark multiple crosses, and with perforation 14 x 14 1/2.

Since only about 86,000 stamps were produced in each printing (yes, stamps, not sheets of stamps), this has never been a "common" stamp in Danish stamp collecting... and being able to afford a "Post Office" for my Denmark collection was a "big deal" until quite a long way into my collecting-- and work-- career. For many years, the market price for this stamp-- even for an inferior copy-- stubbornly stayed ahead of my collecting budget... and this remains true for a significant number of Denmark collectors.

Normal inscription (top) and KJØBFNHAVNS at bottom

This stamp also has one of Denmark's best known and most significant stamp varieties: Under the motif of the Central Post Office building in Copenhagen is the inscription "KJØBENHAVNS CENTRALPOSTBYGNING 1912." However, on the stamp in position 44, the word "KJØBENHAVNS" is mis-engraved as "KJØBFNHAVNS." Since the same printing place was used for both the 1912 and 1915 printings, the error occurs on both versions of the stamp.

The example from my own collection-- pictured at top-- is from the 1915 printing. It is listed in the Danish AFA stamp catalogue as no. 81x. This variety is also included in other European stamp catalogues. Because the "base" stamp already carries a fairly high value, the variety is even more expensive-- and quite difficult to find. It currently lists for 4200,- Danish Kr. (about US $805.00).

Stamp Collecting: Wanting vs. Having

I was emailing with a stamp collecting friend, and mentioned that I had received the fall catalogue from a major European philatelic auction, and had been drooling over all the marvelous and beautiful rarities up for sale.

I can't afford this stamp!

Marvelous and beautiful rarities, I might add, which there is no chance in hell I can afford.

Rather bluntly, my friend offered: "I don't know why you bother. What's the point of wasting time looking at stuff you're not going to buy, anyway?"

His words made me pause and think, for a bit.

It strikes me that collectors-- and not just of stamps-- come in two basic varieties: Those primarily focused on acquiring and having (like my friend), and those for whom a large part of the hobby is about seeing and learning... but without an attachment to "owning" what we see.

Many years ago, I used to keep shop and we sold a number of "collectible" items, including vintage fountain pens and hand crafted glass paperweights. The store had quite a reputation among these specialized collector communities, and people would travel hundreds of miles out of their way to visit our shop. And yet, there were those collectors whose only objective was "to buy," while others would spend hours looking at every single item... but eventually would leave either with nothing, or with an inexpensive item.

Personally, my enjoyment of stamps-- and stamp collecting-- is not tied to "owning" what I look at. Odds are I will never have enough money to acquire a mint copy of Sweden's 3 Skill Bco with the "double 3" error, like the one offered for sale in the auction catalogue I was looking through. But that's OK! I enjoy stamps, regardless of whether they can be "mine" or not.