PHOTO THREAD.

[farouk]

A real motorcycle man, huh? Yes, I've seen some of your pictures. I've never been there. I almost bought one once a few years before I met my wife. It did not happen or I might have a different story to tell...

Other than the tiny trickle that comes in out mail I don't gather in any new stamps. For many years I belonged to a local stamp club which met regularly. We had stamps auctions and I got some stamps that way. I also bought some from dealers and my mother, an antique collector for years would watch for stamps at the antique auctions and buy any that she saw. In the 1990's for about 10 years I was trading stamps with more than 50 collectors in other countries. I managed to get a lot of newer issues that way as they mostly wanted the U.S. stamps I could offer in trade. I was still working at my secular job full time and as much overtime as they would give me. The time of very heavy stamp trading overlapped extensively the time that I was backslid from God. I was working 50 hours or better per week on my job plus many hours on stamps. No time for God!!!

When I came back to God lots of things happened, which I won't detail here. I retired early from work in 2000 and when I came back to God in 2002 I drastically reduced my stamp collecting activities. No more trading or buying except through the local stamp club which met once a month. From 20 some members the club numbers dropped gradually until about 2010 when there were only 2 of us left and we disbanded the club. Then I became involved heavily in selling stamps by mail through regional club where I am a lifetime member. That is all I do with that club anymore. I have sold in excess of 10,000 stamps in the last 10 years, but I still have more than 100,000 stamps and many country collections I have not looked at in years. I am wading through them for sales.

I have more than 1,000 all different Canadian stamps and probably a couple of hundred all different early Dutch East Indies [prior it becoming Indonesia] stamps... with thousands of duplicates in both countries. I also have a few hundred different Netherlands stamps. I only work on a country's stamps now when I am getting them ready to sell, and I haven't touched sold any of those lately. They're both on my computer showing that I last worked on the Dutch Indies in 2008 and on Canada in 2013. The last time I worked on the Netherlands I was using a 1998 catalogue so the information on my computer on that country is very sketchy. Eventually I would get to them all, if my death doesn't come first.

I cannot give you even an estimate on my United States collection as I am just now in the process of preparing the worksheets to catalogue them. I am hoping to get it ready to sell some in 2021, but expect the sorting and identification process to take months. In the old days I did this all manually. Now with a computer the counting is faster, but first I have to finish setting up my program. I used to use Excel but now use Planmaker which is compatible with Excel. With countless thousands of U.S. stamps at the little bit of time I now work on it will take months to prepare... but you're interested you can have some of those as well.

If you are interested in receiving any of them gratis contact me by PM. Note that most of my stamps are used.

Hi @amadeus Sir.

Yes, stamp collecting can be an immensely absorbing subject.

I know a preacher who was once an avid stamp collector; he had gathered a big and costly collection.

Then a burglar stole it from his house.

In the end, the preacher was pleased it happened; he said he realized the stamp collection was using up a lot of his time which he said he should have been devoting to Bible study. (The burglar didn't steal his Bible study books...)

But yes, stamp collecting can be most interesting.

 

[Triumph1300]

People collect stamps as a way to improve their social or people skills too -- joining stamp organizations or clubs makes one feel more at home and have fun collecting and talking about stamps with other stamp lovers. Just a hobby. As long as it does not overtake you and you start making "a god" out of it. I ride motorcycles a lot, spend about 20 years into Vintage Cars, and various other things such as model trains. I travelled 3 times coast to coast in Canada with our motorhome. All these things never pulled me from my Lord and Saviour. I like to be active and watch very little TV. Yard work I like also. And of course photography. On top of that I still go and work in the family business some times.

 

[farouk]

People collect stamps as a way to improve their social or people skills too -- joining stamp organizations or clubs makes one feel more at home and have fun collecting and talking about stamps with other stamp lovers. Just a hobby. As long as it does not overtake you and you start making "a god" out of it. I ride motorcycles a lot, spend about 20 years into Vintage Cars, and various other things such as model trains. I travelled 3 times coast to coast in Canada with our motorhome. All these things never pulled me from my Lord and Saviour. I like to be active and watch very little TV. Yard work I like also. And of course photography. On top of that I still go and work in the family business some times.

Hi, Sir. Yes, travel is much more broadening than TV...

Good to get to meet Christians from other places, also.

 

[Pearl]

Ok its done. Thank you Pearl!

I like your new pic.

 

[amadeus]

Hi @amadeus Sir.

Yes, stamp collecting can be an immensely absorbing subject.

I know a preacher who was once an avid stamp collector; he had gathered a big and costly collection.

Then a burglar stole it from his house.

In the end, the preacher was pleased it happened; he said he realized the stamp collection was using up a lot of his time which he said he should have been devoting to Bible study. (The burglar didn't steal his Bible study books...)

But yes, stamp collecting can be most interesting.

I suspect the burglar did not do as well as he thought. A great many years ago there was a lot of demand for stamps as so many collectors existed at the time. The demand has decreased and so also the value for the previously most popular countries, such as the USA and the British Commonwealth, as the massive buying public is no longer there. Many have died or like me simply don't collect any more even though I still have my collection.

The law of 'supply and demand' works with stamps as in other commodities. Most stamp collectors will not buy stamps they already have, no matter how 'good' the stamps may be. Many of the remaining collectors already have most of the stamps that the thief would have stolen from that preacher. They would not be interested... certainly not for good prices. Dealers would be interested but with the number of collectors greatly diminished, so also is the number of dealers. Dealers are in business. They will pay as little as possible in order to profit as much as possible when they sell them. Too many dealers simply could not make a living from it and already have gone out of business... so there are comparatively few dealers today. Any really 'high' value stamps collections would eventually have to deal with those remaining dealers but the best dealers would be very aware that a collection was stolen.

A person with time who enjoys working with stamps could earn a few dollars selling stamps, but I would have starved to death a long time ago if I had to depend on what I received for stamps sold. My hourly rate for the time I have spent working on stamps to prepare them to sell would be a small fraction of minimum wage.

 

[farouk]

I suspect the burglar did not do as well as he thought. A great many years ago there was a lot of demand for stamps as so many collectors existed at the time. The demand has decreased and so also the value for the previously most popular countries, such as the USA and the British Commonwealth, as the massive buying public is no longer there. Many have died or like me simply don't collect any more even though I still have my collection.

The law of 'supply and demand' works with stamps as in other commodities. Most stamp collectors will not buy stamps they already have, no matter how 'good' the stamps may be. Many of the remaining collectors already have most of the stamps that the thief would have stolen from that preacher. They would not be interested... certainly not for good prices. Dealers would be interested but with the number of collectors greatly diminished, so also is the number of dealers. Dealers are in business. They will pay as little as possible in order to profit as much as possible when they sell them. Too many dealers simply could not make a living from it and already have gone out of business... so there are comparatively few dealers today. Any really 'high' value stamps collections would eventually have to deal with those remaining dealers but the best dealers would be very aware that a collection was stolen.

A person with time who enjoys working with stamps could earn a few dollars selling stamps, but I would have starved to death a long time ago if I had to depend on what I received for stamps sold. My hourly rate for the time I have spent working on stamps to prepare them to sell would be a small fraction of minimum wage.

@amadeus There are some big names out there - Stanley Gibbons - but I take your point about supply and demand, indeed, yes...

 

[farouk]

House, Charleston, SC.

Looks like it's Antebellum....

 

[amadeus]

@amadeus There are some big names out there - Stanley Gibbons - but I take your point about supply and demand, indeed, yes...

Stanley Gibbons puts out their own Catalogues which compete with Scott, but not commonly used by most U.S. stamp collectors. Stanley Gibbons, a British company focuses more on Great Britain and the Commonwealth but presents also the rest of the world just like Scott. The club to which I still belong and others to which I once belonged used Scott ID numbers and values as a basis for collecting, sales and trading using U.S. dollars. Catalogues issued by another country would make the whole thing more complex as they use their own form of currency [Pounds for example] valued for local [England] customers rather than in U.S. dollars valued for American customers. I have never owned a Gibbons catalogue, but had one from Spain. Other countries in the past with large numbers of collectors often had their own specialized catalogues as well. This was true for France with Yver & Tellier and Germany with Michel. Obtaining those catalogues for a very specialized collection of the stamps of a particular country could be useful, but I never did it myself. Scott does a good job on worldwide stamps and they are more convenient without having to pay the premium for a large book or set of books manufactured and needing to be shipped from overseas. Another thing is the Catalogues from another country would be printed in that country's language. which could be difficult considering the specialized explanations sometimes presented.

 

[farouk]

Stanley Gibbons puts out their own Catalogues which compete with Scott, but not commonly used by most U.S. stamp collectors. Stanley Gibbons, a British company focuses more on Great Britain and the Commonwealth but presents also the rest of the world just like Scott. The club to which I still belong and others to which I once belonged used Scott ID numbers and values as a basis for collecting, sales and trading using U.S. dollars. Catalogues issued by another country would make the whole thing more complex as they use their own form of currency [Pounds for example] valued for local [England] customers rather than in U.S. dollars valued for American customers. I have never owned a Gibbons catalogue, but had one from Spain. Other countries in the past with large numbers of collectors often had their own specialized catalogues as well. This was true for France with Yver & Tellier and Germany with Michel. Obtaining those catalogues for a very specialized collection of the stamps of a particular country could be useful, but I never did it myself. Scott does a good job on worldwide stamps and they are more convenient without having to pay the premium for a large book or set of books manufactured and needing to be shipped from overseas. Another thing is the Catalogues from another country would be printed in that country's language. which could be difficult considering the specialized explanations sometimes presented.

@amadeus I remember passing the Stanley Gibbons store in London England years ago. It was on such a prime site that I imagine real estate pressures have caused it to move by now, I don't know.

 

[amadeus]

@amadeus I remember passing the Stanley Gibbons store in London England years ago. It was on such a prime site that I imagine real estate pressures have caused it to move by now, I don't know.

I have no doubt that they have moved. Their business like Scott was/is dependent on a large customer base. The number of collectors world-wide has been decreasing since the 1980's especially in the USA and Great Britain. Some countries once called 3rd world have increased their customer base as more people have had time and money for stamps collections, but that has not stopped the overall decline. When I first joined the OPS [Oklahoma Philatelic Society] back in the 1990's Oklahoma members alone were more than adequate in numbers to keep the club afloat. Now there either 6 or 7 states including Texas which have joined together to keep the Sales Division going. The Sales Division needs members willing to prepare their stamps for sale and members willing to buy the stamps for sale. [I no longer even receive sales books to look it there any I would buy. I only prepare books for sale and send them in...

The Sales Division is the lifeblood of the club as its primary source of income. It takes 20% off the top for all stamps sold. In spite of that what was a quarterly stamp magazine for all members stopped being issued in 2017. The editor who compiled and wrote the philatelic magazine retired and no one has stepped up to replace him. It is a voluntary unpaid position as are all positions in the club. Once there more volunteers than positions and choices had to be made. The person in charge of sales is also unpaid, but it is good position for a collector because he gets first choice of new stamp circuits books with stamps for sale. It is a good position, but it is a whole lot of work. When I was young I would have enjoyed it. I would not even consider now even if it would not interfere with serving God. That kind of work was what made me retire from my secular job early. It would literally kill me with the pressure.

 

[farouk]

I have no doubt that they have moved. Their business like Scott was/is dependent on a large customer base. The number of collectors world-wide has been decreasing since the 1980's especially in the USA and Great Britain. Some countries once called 3rd world have increased their customer base as more people have had time and money for stamps collections, but that has not stopped the overall decline. When I first joined the OPS [Oklahoma Philatelic Society] back in the 1990's Oklahoma members alone were more than adequate in numbers to keep the club afloat. Now there either 6 or 7 states including Texas which have joined together to keep the Sales Division going. The Sales Division needs members willing to prepare their stamps for sale and members willing to buy the stamps for sale. [I no longer even receive sales books to look it there any I would buy. I only prepare books for sale and send them in...

The Sales Division is the lifeblood of the club as its primary source of income. It takes 20% off the top for all stamps sold. In spite of that what was a quarterly stamp magazine for all members stopped being issued in 2017. The editor who compiled and wrote the philatelic magazine retired and no one has stepped up to replace him. It is a voluntary unpaid position as are all positions in the club. Once there more volunteers than positions and choices had to be made. The person in charge of sales is also unpaid, but it is good position for a collector because he gets first choice of new stamp circuits books with stamps for sale. It is a good position, but it is a whole lot of work. When I was young I would have enjoyed it. I would not even consider now even if it would not interfere with serving God. That kind of work was what made me retire from my secular job early. It would literally kill me with the pressure.

@amadeus Imagine being in charge of edited a Gibbons catalogue! With all the small countries like each of the United Arab Emirates which each issue their own stamps principally for collectors, it must be overwhelming to keep such a catalogue up to date....

 

[Pearl]

Looks like it's Antebellum....

Does 'antebellum' mean before the war / pre war?

 

[farouk]

Does 'antebellum' mean before the war / pre war?

@Pearl Before....

Life was so different then; some things were bad, then. Somethings were ... just different.

Before the American Civil War, it is on record for example that commonly women would smoke after church (in the years after the American Civil War, a lot of Christians suddenly decided it was taboo; not that I advocate it at all.)

 

[Pearl]

@Pearl Before....

Life was so different then; some things were bad, then. Somethings were ... just different.

Before the American Civil War, it is on record for example that commonly women would smoke after church (in the years after the American Civil War, a lot of Christians suddenly decided it was taboo; not that I advocate it at all.)

Speaking of houses built prior to WW2 we would say pre war so it's the same thing only in Latin.

 

[farouk]

Speaking of houses built prior to WW2 we would say pre war so it's the same thing only in Latin.

@Pearl Interesting how the phase has stuck, also, because there were on 21 years between WW1 and WW2and yet the phrase has stuck, even though WW2 ended 75 years ago...

 

[farouk]

Scheel's Sporting Goods store.

That's a big wheel....I remember a picture of a 1930s helicopter within a huge building actually flying indoors....

 

[Pearl]

@Pearl Interesting how the phase has stuck, also, because there were on 21 years between WW1 and WW2and yet the phrase has stuck, even though WW2 ended 75 years ago...

My own house is pre war, built in 1927. I always used to think that antebellum was a type of design but just realised that it just means before (or pre) war - but obviously a different war.

 

[amadeus]

@amadeus Imagine being in charge of edited a Gibbons catalogue! With all the small countries like each of the United Arab Emirates which each issue their own stamps principally for collectors, it must be overwhelming to keep such a catalogue up to date....

They have a person, usually a stamp collector, within a country or region, or sometimes connected with the local postal system, tracking new issues and such for them and sending in the collected information including samples in many instances. I never knew all of the details. I wouldn't be surprised to find that one person in a small country or region did it for more than one company, such as Gibbons, Scott and Michel. When countries began to heavily issue stamps specifically for collectors, Scott reduced the amount of information obtained and produced for the catalogue as those stamps were frowned upon by older collectors and had a very low resale value, and many collectors refused to collect them.

Values assigned for stamps was done yearly by groups of countries. More popular countries among collectors were done more often. A few popular countries were updated every years, others every other year and some every few years. Of course new issues since the last catalogue would be included for every country in the world. That was how it was done when I was collecting.

On my computer many years ago I used an Excel program to list every country/entity that had ever issued postage stamps. It has about 850 names. Many of them are 'dead' countries or the same country under different names of special issues like the A.M.G [Allied Military Government] in Europe at the end of WWII. Occupation stamps abound anywhere and everywhere countries were conquered. Lots of entities. Germany issued stamps as an empire from 1872. Prior to that the many little German states each issued their own stamps.

With the diminished based of collectors they have probably made adjustments accordingly. Some collectors with huge valuable collections growing all of the time would buy a new set of catalogues every year. I bought an 8 volume set for 2008 which included two specialized catalogues. For 2016 I replaced the 6 catalogues covering every regular postage stamp issued in the world from the first ones in Great Britain up through sometime in 2014. It cost $500.00. I'll never do that again. I had a windfall at the time to cover the expense.

The cost pf the books continues to rises as cost rise and the size and number of volumes increases due to the number of stamps, issued. I believe my 1992 set had only 4 volumes for the world and each one was thinner than the one I have now. If they have not increased the size of the set to 7 yet they probably will soon.

 

[farouk]

They have a person, usually a stamp collector, within a country or region, or sometimes connected with the local postal system, tracking new issues and such for them and sending in the collected information including samples in many instances. I never knew all of the details. I wouldn't be surprised to find that one person in a small country or region did it for more than one company, such as Gibbons, Scott and Michel. When countries began to heavily issue stamps specifically for collectors, Scott reduced the amount of information obtained and produced for the catalogue as those stamps were frowned upon by older collectors and had a very low resale value, and many collectors refused to collect them.

Values assigned for stamps was done yearly by groups of countries. More popular countries among collectors were done more often. A few popular countries were updated every years, others every other year and some every few years. Of course new issues since the last catalogue would be included for every country in the world. That was how it was done when I was collecting.

On my computer many years ago I used an Excel program to list every country/entity that had ever issued postage stamps. It has about 850 names. Many of them are 'dead' countries or the same country under different names of special issues like the A.M.G [Allied Military Government] in Europe at the end of WWII. Occupation stamps abound anywhere and everywhere countries were conquered. Lots of entities. Germany issued stamps as an empire from 1872. Prior to that the many little German states each issued their own stamps.

With the diminished based of collectors they have probably made adjustments accordingly. Some collectors with huge valuable collections growing all of the time would buy a new set of catalogues every year. I bought an 8 volume set for 2008 which included two specialized catalogues. For 2016 I replaced the 6 catalogues covering every regular postage stamp issued in the world from the first ones in Great Britain up through sometime in 2014. It cost $500.00. I'll never do that again. I had a windfall at the time to cover the expense.

The cost pf the books continues to rises as cost rise and the size and number of volumes increases due to the number of stamps, issued. I believe my 1992 set had only 4 volumes for the world and each one was thinner than the one I have now. If they have not increased the size of the set to 7 yet they probably will soon.

@amadeus You are right about defunct countries, indeed.

I remember stamps from places such as Tana Tuva and Saar.

Now absorbed by others.

 

[amadeus]

@amadeus You are right about defunct countries, indeed.

I remember stamps from places such as Tana Tuva and Saar.

Now absorbed by others.

I wish I could show you my collection, but already some countries, like France are gone. Oh I have odds and ends left but during a period of several months I sold hundreds of all different French stamps. For Germany I have about 3500 all different stamps with at least twice that many more in duplicates. I sold a few German ones several years ago, but it will take weeks to prepare books to sell a country that large. My USA collection is much larger. Just after the turn of the century [2000] when I was backslid and we were really desperate for money I sold all of my identified high value US stamps to buy groceries. I still have hundreds left from the 1800's which may be worth a little but the identification process for some them can be a nightmare. The difference between a $50.00 stamp and a stamp not worth a quarter can be a tiny secret mark only visible under a magnifying glass or by a hard to identify water mark in the paper. I'll be getting into that soon, but it will take many months to complete... if I can.