Suzi's Stamps & Stuff

Ordering more kiloware !?!

2010-03-10T17:56:00.005-05:00

In order to facilitate the trading I've been doing lately, I realized that I needed more USA stamps so I started looking to order some kiloware.

Of course, I couldn't buy just one batch of kiloware. I searched around and read many online ads, and finally decided to make a purchase from B. Schulze Stamps, a company I remember purchasing from when I was just a girl. They have never disappointed me. I had to do some digging to find them, as I noticed that they don't have a website. I went to my online Linn's subscription and found they still are advertisers there and had a phone number listed, so I placed a call.

I ordered the following:
1 lb. British Commonwealth
1Lb. USA mission mix
1 lb. World Elita mix
2500 off paper USA regulars (I have several partners looking for USA definitives, especially coils, booklets, etc)
and for good measure asked them to send some stuff on approval as they still send out lots and singles on approval and I thought I'd see what they had these days.
Now, mind you, I probably have no business buying anything except the US kiloware as I have way too many other stamps. But somehow I rationalized this by saying I needed some new trading stock as what I had was getting "stale". Actually, what I need to do is finish soaking and sorting what has been laying around here, but I've been working on that.

If anyone would like me to review these mixtures, please let me know and I'll put pictures and my analysis of what I thought of each purchase.

I am also considering ordering another Great Britain mission mix from the charity I buy from occasionally. What do you think? Should I buy some GB too or wait? Maybe I should sort the huge box of GB that I have sitting around....hmmm....

I will be writing more soon. I have been receiving trades from folks and so have been busy trying to put together packets for you.
Remember, my trading offer still stands if you are interested, just search this blog for Trading Offer.

Snowed in Today - Australia Stamps

2010-02-10T14:36:00.007-05:00

Today I am snowed in here in Mertztown. We have gotten over 2 feet of snow (on top of the 18-20" already on the ground from this past Saturday).

I was logged in to my work network, but it keeps kicking me out and now I can't get back in at all, so I realized that I have time to work on my stamps. Yay!

I have noticed that I need many, many Australia stamps from the last 20 years or so. Earlier than that I have quite a few, but of course not all. Australia is one of my favorite countries. I would be willing to trade any of my duplicates for Australia that I need (see my trade offer).

I also want to talk about some of the more in-depth collecting one can get involved in, particularly in Australia. There are of course, many types of specialized variety collecting that one can do and I am only touching on a small piece of that area of collecting today.

I have a copy of "The 1D. King George V Australian Commonwealth Stamps, Surface Printed Types, 1914 to 1947". This publication contains detailed information and illustrations of such things as papers, watermarks, retouches and plate varieties. Personally, I am especially interested in the plate varieties, which involve such things as variances in line thicknesses of frames or letters due to retouches, small flaws visible as a result of plate wear prior to plates being retouched, and the like.

Another great publication for all sorts of detailed information on Australia is the Brusden White Australian Commonwealth Specialists Catalogue. This is a terrific catalogue for anyone who wants to work on a more in-depth Australia collection. My own Australia collection still has a long way to go, but I like to know that I have the resources to do more detailed research if I choose to. This catalog has just about all the information on varieties of Australia and states that one could ask for. Collecting the Australia states can get quite complicated and this catalogue has been a tremendous help to me.

Of course, the internet is an excellent source of information as well, and I often do a search online if I am trying to find out more about a variety, as one can find good pictures in auction catalogues or even exhibits that collectors have posted online. Best of all, most of the information you can find online is free.

In closing, if anyone wants to trade Australia stamps, I am especially interested in that country at the moment. The 2 collections I have been spending the most time on lately are Australia and India. (See my trade offer in the post prior to this one.)

If anyone else wants to share what you have been focusing on lately, or what sorts of specialization you do in certain countries, it would make for an interesting discussion.

Happy Stamping!

Trade Stamps - My Trade Offer

2010-02-08T16:55:00.004-05:00

Today I want to discuss trading stamps. I would like to set up a simple trade system whereby we can quickly and easily trade, while having fun. Because I work a lot of hours I can't spend time looking up wantlists, but would love to try trading with some of you.

Here is the trade that I propose:
Send me any postally used stamps that you would like to trade. I will look through your stamps and take the ones that I can use, and replace them with worldwide stamps from my stock. The stamps that I cannot use, I will send back to you untouched and as I received them. I will not take damaged stamps and will return them with the ones that I cannot used. I will not send damaged stamps in exchange, either.

I collect mainly British Commonwealth, but often take worldwide in trade for children I know who collect, friends, etc. And sometimes I decide to add other countries to my collections, such as helping my daughter collect Japan, so send what you have and I'll see what I can use. It changes from time to time anyway.

I will try to send a large stamp for a large stamps, small for small.

Please enclose the following in the envelope with the stamps:
Your name and address I am to ship to, written clearly
Any preference as to used only or willing to accept some mint and/or CTO;(please note I don't have a lot of mint stamps and 95% of my trading stock is used)

Please do NOT send wantlists, requests for countries or themes, types of stamps, etc. Don't send extremely high value items either, because I am only sending back my trading stock against it, and I probably don't even know the value of your stuff at the time I receive it.

If you have other trades to propose, you can feel free to email me or write a letter, but I don't fill specific stamp wantlists. I do sometimes work out deals such as my country for yours, on-paper trades, etc.

Here is my address for trading:

Susan Boyer
58 Hertzog School Rd.
Mertztown, PA 19539
USA

Please feel free to email me with any questions, and happy stamping!

Don't feel bad if it takes me a couple of days to read your email, I'm not ignoring you, just short on time.

Sending stamps to Indonesia

2009-11-22T14:18:00.004-05:00

Today I am making up a stamp trade to send to Indonesia. A fellow collector contacted me via Facebook with a trading request. It has taken me way too long to get her stamps together but this is the first free weekend I've had in a while.
I had never thought to use Facebook as a vehicle for meeting other collectors or trading stamps, but I am there if anyone wishes to contact me. My full name is Susan Boyer.
Does anyone else use Facebook or similar websites to meet new trading partners and other collectors? I'd love to hear about it if you do. I am interested to hear how everyone else connects with other collectors.
The stamps I am sending to Indonesia are used Great Britain and Australia from my trading stock. These are mostly stamps that I have soaked from various kiloware purchases over the years, so I have many duplicates of some of them.
As I was putting together this trade packet, I thought I'd share with you how I organize my stock and invite the rest of you to share your own methods. My system is not very original. It is neat and organized and works for me.
I have soaked a lot of kiloware over the years, so I have a great deal of duplication in some stamps from countries for which I purchase a lot of kiloware. When I soak, I sort everything first by country then complete sorting based on what I need at the moment or which stamps I have the most of. Each country that I collect extensively (GB, Australia & States, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, and USA for right now, because I have a lot of these countries) has a plastic shoebox of stamps from that country. Once items are soaked and dried, I put them in larger glassines and put them in those boxes. Countries that I don't have such huge quantities of simply go in large glassines labelled with country name and all go in one box, with those glassines in ABC order.
Once I want to sort a certain country, I get the box or glassine for that country and sort by era and denomination, usually choosing a certain period to focus on unless I don't have very many for that country. I sort by sets and then finally by catalog number, setting aside sets requiring additional research such as watermarking or perfing for last. I file all my sets by catalog numbers in #4 glassines in long 3x5 card file boxes, similar to some dealer boxes but 3x5 sized. I put all stamps for a set that I have in those glassines, so some have many duplicates and some sets might have more than one glassine.
I use these boxes for both sorting through for stamps to fill album spaces and for trading purposes. Most of my countries I kind of know how far I am in mounting stamps, so I know which sets are available for trading.
On my stamp wish list right now is stamps from India, India states, and more recent New Zealand. But I like all stamps! Which is why I have so many...sigh.. and why my library is full of stamps and not more books.
I think I will clean my library a bit now.

Bye!

It's been a long time- India stamps today

2009-07-11T15:12:00.008-04:00

I have had some things going on in my life that took up a lot of time, including elder care issues and job training that caused me to have to set my stamps aside for a while.

I am hoping to have some time to devote to them and to this blog. I apologize for neglecting this blog for so long. I will try to post here occasionally.

Today I am looking at what India stamps I have around. I printed out the album pages for the classic period of India from a disk I purchased a while ago from http://www.stampalbums.com/ which is one of my favorite Philatelic websites. You do have to subscribe, but if you are interested in putting your stamps in albums, or (like me) want to being able to print out pages to give to your children, other folks' children, etc., all in an extremely affordable format, check out their site now! Sorry to go off on a tangent here, but I can't say enough about this site, it has changed the face of philately. I am not paid to advertise for them nor do I know the site owner. I'm just a satisfied customer.

I have a small pile of classic India on my desk, starting with a Queen Victoria single star watermark 2 anna pale blue issue. According to the Stanley Gibbons catalog, this one comes in pale blue or in blue, but I think any used issues would be pretty difficult to discern whether they were faded or pale blue. But I am guessing mine is pale blue. At any rate, there is only one album space for it so I don't feel a need to distinguish. Most of my classic India is well used and not in top condition, but I still find them to be attractive stamps.

One of the things that is interesting about this series of Queen Victoria stamps is that, according to the Stanley Gibbons catalog, they are the first stamps issued after Queen Victoria declared herself the Empress of India.
What I wonder is did the Queen of England ever actually set foot in India? Does anyone know enough India history to be able to answer this? Or perhaps a Royal Family member serving in the British military?

~Suzi~

Kiloware Sources

2006-07-03T15:57:00.000-04:00

Now that my home internet connection is restored and I am catching up things on I can continue with my project of trying to list some kiloware sources.

The first source I wanted to list is the charity which I purchased the 2 kg of Great Britain mixture:

BMS World Mission
PO Box 49
129 Broadway
Didcot Oxfordshire OX11 8XA
Registered Charity Number 233782

The contact person who I ordered through is: David McLellan- Dmclellan@bmsworldmission.org

This mission also sells world mixtures, but I have not purchased any of the worldwide mix from them yet.
This is the mixture that I reviewed and showed photos of in my April 23, 2006 posting, so you can take a look there if you want to see the mixture that I received. It is a true charity mixture, with plenty of duplication as expected, but I was quite happy with the mixture. Also, I felt there was a surprisingly low percentage of damaged in this mix.

I will be posting more kiloware sources, including recommendations from readers. There is also a collector who purchases large quantities of kiloware who is sending a sample of some kiloware that he occasionally sells to other collectors when he has some to spare. I will write more about him when I receive the sample mixture and can show you a scan.

Suzi
suziboyer@hotmail.com

Heavy rain and flooding

2006-06-28T07:43:00.000-04:00

My internet connection has been down at home since the weekend, so I am writing this form work, which I am glad to have reached safely.
We have had days of heavy rain here in the Northeast US, and our rain gauge is overflowing. Tonight it rained more, and my morning commute was quite interesting. There is no really easy way for me to get down off of our hilltop, but I chose what I hoped was the safest route. There were a lot of washouts, but no water deeper than 6 inches and no trees or other insurmountable obstacles across the road for the first 12 miles, so I thought I was doing pretty good. There is a two-lane road that I take which is on a narrow ledge; it has small cliffs going up on your left, a few stories high, and a one story drop off the right hand side down to a large stream, which the road follows in a winding, twisting fashion. The road is paved well, and it is generally quite picturesque, winding through woods and past 200 year old mills and stone houses. Today that stream was a raging brown river sweeping along lawn chairs and debris like toys. It was fascinating to watch.
Since the road is elevated above the stream for most of the way, I figured that I was safe. I was enjoying the antics of the surging waters when I saw a few orange cones in the road. They looked like they had been tossed there carelessly, and 2 were lying on their sides- perhaps swept away by water rushing down the road overnight. I slowed down but saw no danger so kept going. About a half-mile further along, I saw on my right that a tree was down over top of electric/utility wires (there are poles with wires that cross that stream, and there are so many wires you'd think the weight would pull the poles down). I slowed again and was looking down to my right at the devastation-- the huge tree was still halfway supported by the wires, which weren't broken yet, like it was across a hammock. Then I approached a sharp left curve, and in front of my Astro van were more wires, with one of them right across my path. The wires sloped down from the cliffs and towards the water, so were higher on the lefthand side than on the right. I stopped altogether to think for a minute. There was definitely not enough room to turn my van around right there, between the cliffs and the guard rail and the wires. I moved to the lefthand lane, hoping that no one would come around the curve from the other direction, as the curve is so sharp that they wouldn't see the van or the wires until it was too late (remember, we drive in the righthand lanes here in the US). I stuck my head out the window to judge the height of my van versus the wires, and then backed up, folded my lefthand mirror against the side of the van, and proceeded slowly under the wires in the left lane, scraping the cliffs slightly on the driver's side.
Thank goodness it fit. I was glad to be around that curve. I was almost to the end of that road, with about 1/4 of a mile to go. There were no more wires or trees down in the road, but lots of mud and water. At the end of the road, I saw one small caution horse and an orange cone in the righthand lane, in a half-hearted attempt to close the road. I got out and left a large note on the highway horse, on the back of a brown paper grocery bag I found in my van. "CAUTION-WIRES ACROSS ROAD". I stuck a tree branch in the metal clamp on the horse and firmly impaled my note on it. Hopefully it will stay put for a while, until someone does a better job of closing the road.
Sorry, no stamps yet today, but I thought you might be interested in what was going on here in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so I tried to give you a good description.

If anyone else is experiencing flooding, tell us about it! I'd love to hear. And please be safe!

Lately I've been trying to identify and file various Commonwealth items, so I may have some questions soon for all of you, as you are so knowledgable and helpful. But it will have to wait until my internet connection at home is back up, so I have use of my scanner.

Reviews

2006-06-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

After reading many of your emails, and discussing this with collecting friends, I have made a decision.
I will put contact information for sources of kiloware or mixtures that I have purchased, reviewed and found to be a fair price for the material received. I will also put information about sources that are sent to me via email that one of you has sent me a review of or a recommendation for, provided it is not your own company or one that you work for. Please tell me what you liked about the material. I am looking for legitimate reviews from actual customers. I am also not interested in *bashing* companies, so would prefer to put more positive reviews, although they don't always have to be glowing and wonderful; honesty is fine and so is room for improvement. Companies that I am not satisfied with at all will be left out and their contact information NOT posted here. If someone honestly disagrees with one of my recommendations, please email me and I will consider pulling the information or adjusting the review.
To start with, I will look back through your emails and see who sent me information about sources of stamp mixtures so I can start listing them. Thanks again for all of your information that you have sent to me thus far.
I will also, from time to time, describe and review some supply item or piece of literature that I have purchased.

Regards,
Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Hello from another member of Suzi's Wonderful life.

2006-06-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

Hello!

I am Dreya, Suzi's 16 year old daughter. I am planning on spending much of the summer with my mom, and therefore hope to have much time to work on my stamps, when I am not doing other important things (I play both double bass and bass guitar as well as flute). I collect Japan mainly, but also Ireland, Medical topicals, turtles, space, horses, and girafees. I'm a member of YSC (what used to be JPA) and the International Japan Collectors' Society. I don't have a lot of stuff to trade, but I am always looking for offers that show up. Feel free to email me at:

ReinaMerchedePlanetStardust@hotmail.com

I hope to be able to keep up more with all the philatelic comings and goings now that school is out and we have DSL (it used to take forever to publish blogs, and everytime I tried to talk to you guys before, it came to no avail). But, everything is sorted out now and like I said I will have much more free time from now until September.

Have a great time and I hope to hear from you all! XD

Dreya

Stamp Purchases and the JPA

2006-06-14T20:10:00.000-04:00

These are most of the stamps that I purchased at the show. Sorry for being so late getting to these, I've been very busy studying and working.

I did not have much luck finding inexpensive covers, as they were not many and the only $1 cover booth that was there was so crowded I couldn't even get near it. But I patiently stood in line at some dealers' booths and looked through their Australia and New Zealand to try to find some recent used commemoratives, with some luck. I picked up a stock sheet of some used South Africa. I also bought some items for stamp friends and trading partners.
Dreya purchased quite few Japan stamps, buying some mint sheets of anime stamps and some recent used Japan. Overall, I didn't see many of the items I was hoping to find for trading partners or for our own collections, as many dealers had more large ticket items rather than some of the more common material. Those who did have more common, lower priced items, were the ones with by far the longest lines at their booths.

I am very happy with the purchases I made there, however. I received my long wave UV lamp in the mail yesterday, so now I have a set. I haven't had a chance to try them out yet, but plan to do so soon. I have plenty of stamps to check tagging on!!

Now to tell you about Dreya and the Junior Philatelists of America (JPA). Dreya has been a member of this youth group for some years. Actually, it has been around so long that I was a member as a teenager. Last year, they stopped publishing a newsletter at one point, saying they no longer had the funding to support the project. When we arrived at the show, the first thing Dreya did was to go in search of the JPA, with no luck whatsoever. When she came back to me all distressed because she couldn't find them, I suggested that she ask at the APS booth or in the youth area. In one of those areas, she finally found some answers. Apparently, the club had finally folded due to lack of money and leadership. Therefore, the APS has started a new youth group, known as the Young Stamp Collectors of America. Dreya was give 2 years membership for her persistence in searching them out, and she said the lady who helped her was very nice. I did not get that lady's name, but I want to thank her for her efforts in keeping this youth group alive.

Please support young stamp collectors. :o)

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Show- fun, shopping and purchases

2006-06-06T20:26:00.000-04:00

Once we split up we could keep in touch with our walkie-talkies, and we used them to report on what the various dealers offered for purchase.
I went in search of various supplies first off, looking for UV lamps, a watermark tray without those little annoying ridges on the bottom, and some literature. The first dealer I found was a smaller shop selling Prinz brand supplies, listed just as Prinz Verlag on their sign. The gentleman who helped me was a Mr. Edelman. I have always liked the Prinz brand, and I purchased my watermark tray, UV lamps, and some extra watermark fluid from him. The shortwave lamp he had right in stock, and the longwave I am supposed to be receiving in the mail any day now. The price was great and the gentleman was very helpful.
Next I went to Subway Stamp Shop. They were MUCH, MUCH larger than the smaller dealer I had visited, and had huge lines and were very busy all day Saturday. From them I purchased a copy of the Gibbons Commonwealth simplified catalog to identify newer Commonwealth stamps from kiloware, and a copy of "The Commonwealth King George VI Catalogue" byMurray Payne Ltd. It's a pretty nice little book, and although not as detailed as some of my country specialized catalogues, it is detailed in some respects. It had good information regarding telling shades apart utilizing UV lamps, and I like the way the author has used flowcharts to assist in the identification of some of the more complicated issues. I am quite happy with it.
In addition, Dreya joined the Japanese Philatelic Society, and I renewed my membership with the Great Britain Collectors Club.
I need to go get ready for bed and work, but on my next post (hopefully tomorrow) I will discuss our stamp purchases AND the burning question of Whatever happened to the Junior Philatelists of America (JPA)?

Saturday at the Show

2006-05-31T19:28:00.000-04:00

The train pulled in right under the Convention Center, and up the escalator we went, where we were greeted by friendly, helpful staff who pointed the way to the building where we picked up our badges. I arrived around 10:45 am.

This is the view we saw of the exhibition floor:

The show floor was well organized and the turnout was impressive. I don't think I've ever been to a show quite this crowded and with such lines of people actually buying large quantities from dealers. I hope that trend continues throughout the show and the dealers find it a profitable venture.

The Kids Zone was wonderful and I'm happy to report that there were a good number of kids enjoying it. It included plenty of free stamps and even a visit from Postman Pat. There were Boy Scouts working on their Stamp Merit badges, and kids just enjoying the many activities.

The society area waw well set up, although not all societies were present on that first day. Dreya joined the Japanese Philatelic Society and I renewed my membership in the Great Britain Collectors Club.

Once we took in the scene, Dreya & I got our walkie-talkies out and split up. Peter & Wynne stayed with me for a while, and we all wandered a bit to see what was there. Wynne was interested in the printing press demonstrations. After a while both Wynne & Peter got bored of stamps and set off into the city to see the Natural History Museum, leaving Dreya & I to more serious stamp shopping.

The exhibits were quite impressive and comprehensive. I didn't see them all as I spent quite a bit of time standing in line at dealer's booths hoping to get a chance to look at their stamps.
I wasn't able to find a great many stamps that were on my want lists, but it was fun nonetheless.
I did get a lot of supplies that I needed. I will show and discuss my purchases on the next post.

Trains in the youth area:

Printing Press demonstration:

suziboyer@gmail.com

Washington 2006: Part 1, getting there

2006-05-30T19:17:00.000-04:00

I have survived the trip to DC with my family and returned to give you details. I will publish several posts in order to keep them from getting too long.

We left Friday morning for our Super 8 hotel room in York, PA (which incidentally is the self-styled "Factory Tour Capital of the World"). Not being particularly interested in factory tours, we checked in and then went to the local mall to pick up 4 walkie-talkies so that we could all keep in touch in DC and at the show and had a great dinner at an Olive Garden.

For Saturday we arranged a 5:45 wake-up call, went to have breakfast at the York Central Market which is open very early, and set off down 83 south to Greenbelt Station in Maryland. Greenbelt turned out to be a huge commuter station, bigger than I had expected. From there, we fought with the very confusing ticket machines and managed to coax from them 4 tickets that would cover our fare to and from the Convention Center. The Metro subways run every 10-20 minutes, so we didn't have long to wait for the train. The trains were quick and clean and the trip took 23 minutes.

The Convention Center was MUCH larger than I expected and very impressive. There are some very interesting sculptures on display there.

Washington 2006 final preparations

2006-05-24T17:52:00.000-04:00

I am finalizing my preparations to leave on Friday morning. I have printed out the wantlists that people have sent to me, along with maps of DC and of the bourse area, and also a schedule of the show. We expect to be there most of the day Saturday, and then stopping back for a bit on Sunday.

I am hoping to have plenty of pix and information to share with you, but you won't hear from me while I am gone as I don't have a laptop or anything I can use to keep in touch. But I will be sure to post plenty of news from the show.

Currently, I have to get back to packing. I need to finish getting together laundry and ironing shirts before packing them neatly and hoping they stay unwrinkled, LOL.

If anyone has any cool suggestions regarding places to eat (reasonable and family friendly) in the DC area, please let me know. We will be travelling back to York PA to sleep, so anything along the way would be fine also.

Our plans so far are as follows:
We will be staying in York PA. From there, I plan to make the roughly 45 minute drive to the Greenbelt Metro station, where there is plenty of secure parking, and take the Metro subway into the Convention Center station. We will pick up Metro fare cards for use on the train and also for the DC Circulator, which is a wonderful bus service that you can use to get from one tourist area to another.
We are hoping to see, in addition to the Philatelic Exhibition, various museums, Chinatown, and the Cathedral. We may also take the bus to the Waterfront area.

If anybody has any last minute suggestions regarding family stuff to do in DC please feel free to offer your suggestions.
And please, if you will be at the show this Weekend, let me know so we can try to meet up.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Kiloware

2006-05-17T09:28:00.000-04:00

I have had many email requests from everyone regarding sources of kiloware. I am constantly searching for sources of kiloware. My most recent acquisition came from a Mission in the UK, and I liked what I received from them. That was the mixture I reviewed here in this blog last month.
The only other kiloware I have purchased in the past few years has come from Ebay, and to be honest I couldn't tell you who it came from. It was a while ago, and it was Canada for myself (definitives and Xmas only) and Japan for Dreya. Overall, these were nice mixes, but the Japan was only 1/4 lb. and I think the Canada was a whole pound. I have noticed that the price of kiloware has gone up quite a bit recently, and it is harder to come by. I would like to find good sources of Canada kiloware and also Australia and New Zealand, which are a good mix that includes both commemorative and definitives. But I would be willing to buy almost any good worldwide mix if it was reasonable priced.
I have intended to keep this blog from being commercial, but would like opinions from all of you on the following:
Do you want me to post on here the contact information from the Mission where I purchased my kiloware?? I don't want to advertise for others on here, so I will ONLY post such information as part of a "review" of someone's products. I prefer to support non-profit organizations, also, such as the Mission I am referring to. I do have permission from the folks there to provide their contact information.

Perhaps we can all put our heads together and gradually come up with a "buyer's guide" to kiloware on here, with others giving their opinions and reviews also? I'd love to hear from anyone who has information to share about good kiloware sources, either post them here or email me.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Washington 2006

2006-05-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

I have been very busy, so I am writing to you from my coffee break at the office today. I have been taking of my elderly Grandpa for a bit now, and will have to continue to do so until my Mom returns from vacation on Sunday (just in time for Mother's Day).

I have heard from some of you about when you will be at the show and I'd like to fill you in on my own schedule. The plan is that we will be leaving on Friday, May 26 to get to our hotel and get settled. Depending on how long that takes, we may go to DC that afternoon/evening to pick up our entry badges for the show and to explore and have supper in Chinatown.
I want to be at the show Saturday AM as it opens or as early as I can get everyone up and moving, at any rate. I expect to be there all day Saturday, and maybe part of the day Sunday. We will also be visiting the museums Sunday and Monday.
Anyone who wants to meet up at the show, please let me know. Perhaps we can explore the exhibits together. If you have teenagers who are tagging along, I will have my 14 yo son and 16 yo daughter with me, so they will have company. :o) My son will probably spend more time at the museums with my husband than at the show, however.
I plan on taking plenty of pictures and putting some of the better ones here, as well as any interesting stories about the show or our trip. With the whole family traveling there's sure to be something interesting to tell.....so stay tuned.

I am also working on finalizing my shopping lists for Washing ton 2006, including items that any of you have asked me to find for you.
One item that is on my own shopping list is a UV light, preferably one of the ones that can accommodate both long and short wave bulbs in the same lamp, so that I don't need 2 of them. Can anyone recommend a brand? I know that at least one person told me about a brand some time ago, but I apologize as I can't find your email anymore even though I was sure I saved it.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Topics--and high speed internet connection

2006-04-28T12:20:00.000-04:00

I am always fascinated in the variety of topics collected by all of you. The sheer number of unique collecting ideas that everyone comes up with just proves that philately is a completely individualized pursuit.
Collecting a topic or a theme can be pursued in a very specialized manner, or in a more lighthearted way as a diversion perhaps from one's more specialized country or other collections. Within my own family, my children and I collect or have collected at various times, horses, giraffes, medical/health, dragons, Lunar New Years/Eastern zodiac, turtles, items depicting the settlement of Western North America, World War II, and I'm sure I'm probably missing a few.
Amongst the collectors I trade with, I have met over the years collectors who fancy women on stamps, chess, music and ballet, trains, monkeys, Bible- related art, Jewish history, orchids, dinosaurs, Madonna and Child artwork, and many other varied topics. While pondering this plethora of creative collecting themes, I thought it might be fun to see what sites I could find that are related to specific topics, and list some of them here for you.

Here are a few excellent topical references that I came across:

Prehistoric Animals:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/delacroix/

Birds (this one is very comprehensive):
http://www.bird-stamps.org/

Famous Women:
http://www.geocities.com/ZOMIRP/st-galer-aa-okvir.htm

Chess:
http://www.faulquemont.com/phil.html

Sea Turtles:
http://www.2xtreme.net/~nlinsley/

There are many, many more sites about topicals, and I chose these for their breadth of subject and because they all dealt with topics which I had mentioned above.
I would love to hear about everyone's topics, especially any unique or highly creative ones.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that our little dead end road on the mountaintop finally has DSL high speed internet connection. That is why I haven't posted in over a week. They've been working on the phone lines on our street and my service has been spotty at best. But that should all be over now, and I am finally set up with a DSL connection and a wireless router so that the whole family can use the net. My dear friend Bryan went out of his way to come over today just as the phone technician was finishing installing the filters on our connection box. He gave us the router we needed, set everything up, and made sure it was all working properly. He has a computer company, and built and maintains 4 computers for our family. Thanks, Bryan! :o) That should allow me to post pictures here much more easily, and keep in touch with everyone as well.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Kiloware arrived

2006-04-23T14:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday my Great Britain kiloware arrived and I am quite pleased with it. It is 2 kilos total. I ordered 1 kilo of GB closely trimmed, unpicked mixture, and 1 kilo of GB trimmed close, (in order to see the difference between the 2 mixes). It was ordered from a charity in GB.
It is mainly very recent, and in excellend condition. It appears as if damaged material was removed where it was noticed, as this mix has less than a normal percentage of damaged that I see in kiloware from charities or office mixes.
Here are scans of a representative sample from the 2 mixes:

This is the trimmed mix. It is very nicely close trimmed, and definitely yields more stamps per kilo. But there was less variety in this one than the untrimmed/unpicked mixture.

The untrimmed mixture below showed more variety, more different commemoratives, and a nice smattering of Channel Islands and foreign countries. I found stamps from places as diverse as New Zealand, Gambia, South Africa, and Germany. Overall I am quite pleased with the entire parcel, and am going to see about ordering other items from this charity as well as more of this mixture down the road when the variety changes. They have worldwide stamps mixtures available also.

The most common stamp found in either bag of stamps was the first class gold Machin. There were also plenty of other nice Machins.

Anyone interested in trading for any of this material, let me know! I will be working on soaking over the next few days, but I can send stuff still on paper also. Do you have some interesting stamps on paper that you want to trade? You can trade some of your on paper mix for mine if you have any on paper stamps that either my kids or I collect. Just email me and ask- we're very flexible. I also have an older Machin/GB mixture, and can send some of either or both if you would like.

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Washington 2006 item requests, Queen's Birthday

2006-04-19T09:37:00.000-04:00

I have been receiving many requests to pick up various small items for my stamp friends at the show.
I will be making up a shopping list for the show, so if you can all help me out and send a note to my gmail (suziboyer@gmail.com) reminding me what you are looking for that would be great. I will save all of your emails in a special folder and use them to make up my list. I already have some emails filed, and some items on my list, but I want to make sure no one is forgotten.
Thanks for your help!

On another note, I have been working a lot of hours lately, but I received some lovely stamps from a friend in Malaysia. I will have some scans to post soon.

I have had a few responses to my requests for the GB Ice Age Animals set, so thanks to those who are willing to help.

Finally, I just had the time to take a good look at the stamps issued by the Royal Post for the 80th birthday of the Queen, and I think they are quite lovely. I even found a nice article about them in Hello magazine. I'm always interestedin sarticle about stamps that are in the non-philatelic press, so to speak. Here is the link:http://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2006/04/11/queenstamps/

~~Suzi~~
suziboyer@gmail.com

Great Britain Prehistoric Animals stamps wanted

2006-04-12T17:36:00.000-04:00

I am very interested in acquiring these stamps postally used, and am looking for a set both for myself and also for a friend who has asked for them. I would like to be able to fulfill his request, but have had trouble finding recent used Great Britain. If someone wants to send some on a cover to me, or has them used, just let me know what you would like in exchange. I will be attending Washington 2006 (barring any major catastrophes) so I should be able to pick up items being released there by the Philatelic Bureaus attending. You can find out the stamps that are being released at the show by going to http://www.washington-2006.org/wstamps.htm .

Please let me know if you can trade used copies of these stamps. Thanks for everyone's help!

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

South Africa printing debris flaw

2006-04-07T18:13:00.000-04:00

As I was taking apart the South Africa bundleware that I mentioned earlier, and sorting through the stamps to remove the damaged ones, I found this interesting printing flaw on the 4c Emily Hobhouse stamp of 1976.
There is a place where the ink did not adhere due to some sort of debris. I have circled the flaw and put some normal stamps for comparison.

According to Gibbons this stamp was printed by lithography. Since the debris was moving around, and interfered with all ink colors, I believe it would have to have been on the blanket, which means this flaw could possibly have been on several plates of this stamp. Anyone else out there have multiples of this stamp? If so, have you noticed any similar flaws--remember, it would be moving around, so could be anywhere on the stamp. Please let me know if you have seen anything like this on the same stamp. Thanks.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

I have been sorting more Machins

2006-04-04T14:30:00.000-04:00

In the process of sorting Machins in order to trade with some stamp friends, I remembered that there was some very good Machin information in an old club handbook that I had around. Just a reminder that sometimes the information you get in club newsletters and the like is often never published anywhere else, and can be quite useful, so don't throw out all those old newsletters until you're sure you don't need them.
I had, a few years ago, the fortune to be the winning bidder on a large, heavy auction lot of supplies and literature. The literature was what I was mainly interested in. It contained a great deal of useful information, some of it quite old. The stuff I wasn't going to utilize myself I have traded with others for literature that I know I will use. In this lot, in addition to several specialized catalogues and similar materials, was 2 binders of clippings saved from old philatelic journals. They are very interesting. As I read through some of them, I will see if any of the stories seem as if they would be interesting to write about here. I am not sure what to do with this information. Some of it is in not poor shape , with fading and discolorations, so I photocopied the whole lot and darkened the faded material. There is a lot of information to be found, much of it about Australia, and other Commonwealth countries. For now I am saving everything.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

The rest of the pictures I promised I'd post

2006-04-03T17:31:00.000-04:00

Dreya is holding her Japanese collection which she is very proud of. She has a great start on a collection, with the potential for a lot of expansion and specialization. If anyone is interested in trading Japanese stamps with us, Dreya is always looking. She is also always on the lookout for pertinent information to assist in the study of these stamps.

I haven't mentioned my wonderful husband, Wynne, because he doesn't share our stamp obsession. He has a different obsession. He is a very talented restorer and customizer of classic cars. Wynne does exacting work for demanding clients, with outstanding results. He enjoys his job and has had a lifelong interest in all things automotive.

The cars below are for customers, but the truck is Wynne's personal customized hot rod.
If anyone is interested in any more info on classic cars, you can email me privately. Now I will return to discussing stamps.
Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Pictures and too many stamps

2006-04-02T16:33:00.000-04:00

My daughter has been trying to get me to put pictures of her and of some of our stamps on here for some time, so today I have decided to post some of those pictures.
Here are Dreya & I surrounded by 2 of my 5 boxes of Machins and a box of South Africa stamps.

I have been trying to work on sorting and soaking as much as possible before my new kiloware arrives. I had a huge mess of stamps in my library this weekend, and we took some pictures.

Here are some assorted Worldwide stamps that are coming out of my drying books and getting sorted by country.

Once they are sorted by country, they get put in glassines and filed alphabetically by country name. When I have a large quantity for a certain country, those are sorted by denomination and identified. Once I have identified stamps by catalog number or at least year of issue, I file them in the green file boxes if they are countries that I collect.

I tried to add a picture of Dreya and also of my desk area, but Blogger doesn't seem to like them. I think I may have too many on this one post. I will put them in another post and see if that works.

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Weekend stamp work

2006-03-27T12:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend I tried to get some stamp work done each day. I soaked Great Britain commemoratives and a few bowlfuls of mixed worldwide kiloware and these stamps are in my drying books currently. I also sorted some of my many Machins, and have started identifying some of the more recent, higher value ones. I should be able to get an idea soon of what I have and what I need in the Machin issues of the last 5 years or so.
I have not yet found any of the postcard rate or foreign airmail rate Machins! I would be interested in purchasing used copies of these stamps if anyone has any, or better yet, if anyone can mail me covers/cards with these stamps on them, tell me what you want in exchange. : )

I also worked on separating and sorting South Africa stamps. I have a box full of South Africa bundleware that someone gave to me some time ago, and I have slowly been separating the bundles one by one and sorting the damaged stamps from the collectible stamps. This collection contains mainly definitives, in heavy duplication, although they are some commemoratives. They are from the 1960s and 70s for the most part. I have also been setting aside the readable postmarks. There are quite a lot of stamps in this box.
Does anyone know of any good references for South Africa stamps? I'd love to be able to study these stamps more thoroughly since I have so many of them. I used to have a very nice South Africa catalog, but I can no longer remember who published it.
If you are interested in stamps from South Africa, I can make up a packet of about 50 different stamps for anyone who might like to make a trade. You can email me if you are interested. I would be interested in stamps from any British Commonwealth country in exchange.

Regards,
Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

More GB kiloware

2006-03-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

I have ordered 2 kilos of Great Britain mission mixture kiloware. Why? Good question! Well, although I need more kiloware like I need a hole in the head, I have made up some excuses to justify my purchase.

First of all, it is more recent than the mix I have, and I need recent Machins and GB stamps. Second, it was a very good bargain- the kind you can't pass up, and two of my favorite things are stamps and bargains. So if you put those two things together, well, it's hopeless- I can't resist. And lastly, it's being shipped via surface mail (aka, a slow-moving turtle), so I have 4-8 weeks to try to catch up with sorting and/or soaking the kiloware I have here already. HA! Let's see, 30 lbs. of kilware in 4 weeks, that 7.5 lbs. a week, hmmm, I could quit my job and sleep only 3 hours a night...that might do it.

Well, realistically, I'll probably soak all the other on-paper stamps EXCEPT the Machin mixture. I will then continue to work on sorting the Machins I have here until my new mixture arrives. I may need to find a more efficient soaking technique than my one bowl and my stack of Desert Magic drying books.
Anyone out there have any tips on safely soaking larger quantities of stamps at a time? Do you have experience with large quantities of kiloware? I'd love to hear your tips and stories if you do. : )
When I get the new mix, I'll put up a picture and let you know what I think of it. It is supposed to be completely unpicked and untouched.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition

2006-03-20T11:10:00.000-05:00

I am making plans to attend Washington 2006, and have been wondering how many of you are doing the same. This Exhibition is taking place from May 27th through June 3rd this year in Washington, DC-- but I'm sure most of you already know that. There will be around 3800 frames of exhibits, so even if one is not interested in shopping at the bourse there will be plenty to see and learn about, and admission is free.

I am hoping to take my whole family, because my teenagers want to see the Smithsonian Institution, and my daughter is actually interested in the Philatelic Exhibition as well. However, it is pretty expensive to stay in a hotel in DC proper, so I will be staying about 40 minutes away.

Anyone else who is considering visiting this Exhibition and is wondering what their family might do if they are not interested in stamps need not worry. The Smithsonian Institution's museums can keep people of all interests occupied for a long time. They are definitely worth a visit, and admission there is also free, although you will need to pay to park in DC.
Here are some of the Smithsonian exhibits that will be open during the same dates as the Philatelic Exhibition:
--"Legendary Coins and Currency", at the Castle on Jefferson Avenue
--"BIG/small" at the African Art Museum
-- "Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life along the North Pacific Coast", at the American Indian Museum
--"War Letters: Lost and Found", at the Postal Museum

This is the link to information about the Philatelic Exhibition. Their website includes all the information you need to plan a trip, including directions, accommodations, lists of participating dealers, floor plans, and more.

Please let me know if you are planning on attending. Perhaps we can arrange a meet-up?

Suzi

It finally worked....

2006-03-20T06:43:00.000-05:00

Here is the cover and postcard that I have wanted to post here for so long.
To find out more about Pabay Island, check out the links on the right. There's some interesting information there.

Suzi

Publishing problems

2006-03-15T17:49:00.000-05:00

Since March 15th I have been trying to publish pictures of the Pabay Island postcard and cover and it just won't work. I have temporarily given up and will move on to other things. Perhaps I will be able to post pictures at a later time today when the server is less busy.

I will post more later.

British Locals

2006-03-14T09:42:00.000-05:00

I received last Friday, from a stamp friend and a reader of this blog named Jeff, a lovely cover enclosing some very useful information. Jeff sent me a cover posted from Pabay Island, and included inside this cover a beautiful postcard of the island, an article about the postal history of Pabay, and information about the stamps of Pabay. You can find out all about Pabay Island from the links on the right, where I have added both Jeff's website and his blog. I will try to remember to scan a pic of the cover as well as the postcard when I am at home and have a scanner. (at work now...)

Jeff has an interest in British local stamps, and I would love to be able to send him some, but alas-- I think the only one I have is on the cover which he posted to me. So, if anyone has any used British locals that you'd be willing to trade, let me know. I can either put you in touch with Jeff, or I will trade for them myself as I'd like to send him something to thank him for his kindness.

Jeff also sent me a copy of the most recent (I think) British Philatelic Bulletin, which was kind enough to review this blog in a not unfavorable light. I have received several emails advising me that this blog was mentioned in the Bulletin, and I thank you all, as I would have had no inkling of this fact if all of you hadn't been kind enough to pass this on.
I must also thank the writers/editors of the British Philatelic Bulletin. I appreciate the mention. It has encouraged me greatly.

Suzi

Interesting cancellations

2006-03-11T17:21:00.000-05:00

Today I have more pictorial postmarks to show you.
A friend in Malaysia sent me some pix of interesting cancellations in response to my earlier discussion. Here are two which I found quite striking:

In looking through my huge boxes of Machins on paper, I found many interesting advertising slogans. The first ones that caught my eye intrigued me because USA entities are doing the advertising:

Diamond Walnuts, in California; and the state of Washington advertising their apples. It had never occurred to me that US companies might be placing advertisements on slogan cancellations in other countries. How interesting!

I searched further and realized that there are many interesting pictorial cancels in this mix, and many are advertising slogans. These are not quite as nicely struck as the little castle (Tower of London?) I found earlier but nice cancels nonetheless.
I think I will research this further and form a collection of these, with a special section for the US companies.

If anyone knows a good source of information in the area of modern British slogan cancels, please let me know. I will share your information if you like. I tried to do a quick Google on the topic without much luck. I haven't had a chance yet to devote a lot of time to searching so if anyone can help let me know.

Thanks.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Trading

2006-03-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

Today I received a comment from http://www.blogger.com/profile/9416399 in Malaysia, who has linked to this blog. I took a look at http://www.blogger.com/profile/9416399 blog, and she has created what is basically a simple trading page.

Using a blog in this manner is innovative. She is scanning items available for trade and inviting other collectors to email offers of what they have available in exchange. A neat and tidy way to post your trade items, and the blog format allows regular updates and the ability to post the details of successful trades if desired.

I have been wondering how everyone else keeps track of their trades. I am looking for a better system. My problem is knowing what I have already sent to someone. I just do not have the time to deal in want lists on a regular basis. Lately, I have been laying out the stamps out on a stock sheet and scanning the sheet as a record of what I have sent, so that if I trade with that partner again, I can take a look at the scans. I have been printing out the pages and putting the whole thing in a manila folder with the trader's name, address, collecting interests, wants, etc.

Recently, I began trading with a collector who exchanges only with others who can send scans of stamps. From those scans he selects only the ones he wants- sort of an approval via email. He then sends scans back to me, and I select the stamps I want. We are trading on a one to one basis, and it is a simple matter to just open Photoshop and circle or mark which ones I am interested in. I like this method of trading. Although it is more time consuming, it ensures that each person gets what they want in a trade. Also, the email correspondence is very enjoyable.

Tell us what YOU do for trading. How do you track your trades? Keep records of trading partners? Let's discuss this topic and share ideas.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Stamps of days gone by, wantlists, and rambling

2006-03-08T09:28:00.000-05:00

I just heard the bell of our break cart tinkling, which means I have a few moments to spend with all of you. Trying to make good on my promise to keep up with this blog more frequently, I am typing with my right eye closed currently. I have also been using the writer's trick of carrying a small notebook around into which I can jot thoughts about what I'd like to write about here, as such thoughts invariably occur when one is as far away from a computer as possible.

Today I am thinking about my poor orphaned stamps that my ex-husband took in our divorce. He swore up and down that he wanted to continue collecting and couldn't bear to have me take all of the stamp collections, especially the ones we had worked on together. So I divided up the stamps, keeping the collections that he gave me and trying my best to retain the ones I had worked on since childhood. Now today, many years later, he has not worked on those collections one little bit, and the stamps are still in the boxes, albums and stockbooks where I left them, with a hefty layer of dust added on top of them. But he will not give them to me, and I am afraid that if I try to buy them from him I could never afford his price; after all, the more you want something, the more value it has, and that is the way he thinks. I am consider asking anyway, though.

He has my complete collection of partially plated Canadian Map Stamps (Scott #s 85 & 86), along with all the research tools to go along with them, and many stamps I was still working on plating. I had most of the major re-entries, and was considering making a competitive exhibit of them. There were around 500 map stamps the last I remember counting. I truly enjoyed learning about them and plating them. And that is just a little bit of what he has.

Anyway, sorry to whine to you all. I will stop now.

I am also pondering what to work on next. I think I need to sort the recent GB I have around, and finish soaking the last of it this week. I am probably getting the most caught up on my Australia and Great Britain collections, but still have a LOOOONG way to go. I may be forced to make want lists, one of my most HATED philatelic activities. I try to avoid want lists as much as possible.

Never did get to do much identifying of the classic stuff I was stripping out of the International Junior album, just a little bit. A lot of them are in a pile needing soaking, also, as I simply used my scissors to cut out the ones that were stuck to the page and started filling a box with them.
I found a lot of Iran, even a few with catalog values of a few dollars, but most very common, as you would expect from such an album. If anyone reading this is interested in some rather common but older stamps, give me a yell and I'll let you know if I have the countries you are interested in. Some countries only are represented by a few stamps, though. Or if you want me to write more about them....well, I may do that anyway, as I had some questions in mind as I was trying to identify those Iran stamps.

Well, time to get back to work. Sorry for rambling on this morning.

Rambling on and on,

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Gibbons Elizabethan Catalog

2006-03-07T12:16:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note for now---does anyone know anything about the Stanley Gibbons Elizabethan Catalog? I was on the Gibbons website, and I cannot find an entry for this catalogue.
I have a copy of the 1984 edition which I picked up used at a bourse a few years ago, and have been thinking that it would be nice to have a newer edition. It seems perhaps as if this catalogue is no longer published, which would be a shame. It is quite a useful addition to a philatelic library. I think I even remember one of you folks mentioning that it wasn't around anymore.

If anyone has any idea what the last year that the Elizabethan Catalogue was updated is, I'd love to know.

Oh! Almost forgot-- Thanks to Sheryl who responded to my request about trading philatelic literature. I am sending her a copy of the Boggs Canada Book, a booklet about Australia Postage Dues, and a very old copy of Australian Stamp News in exchange for some Gibbons Specialized catalogs and a Canada Unitrade catalog. I appreciate the trade very much.

I will try to discuss literature a bit more later--I have some interesting books of clippings that I picked up at an auction some time ago (as part of a literature and supplies lot) and I'm trying to decide what to do with them, and what I can do that is legal as far as sharing the info.

Building my philatelic library,

Suzi

Interesting cancel in my Machin mix

2006-03-05T16:30:00.000-05:00

I was looking through one of my huge boxes of on-paper Machins /Christmas stuff, and I found an interesting and really cute cancel. Actually, it is only PART of a cancel, and I am wondering if anyone can tell me what the remainder of the cancellation was. It appears to be a slogan, but the only part that I have is the adorable little castle or gatehouse graphic that is nicely struck on a 16p Machin.
If you can tell me what the whole cancellation says, I will send you some of my Machin mixture, say around 1/4 lb. And I'll take it from the boxes that are upstairs which I haven't picked through at all yet.

This is not a new mix for the most part, and therefore not a new cancel. It could go back as far as the 1980s sometime, as some of the date stamps in that mix are from that period. Many are also from the 1990s.

Does anyone else here collect cancellations? There are some interesting ones in that mixture, especially if you are looking for slogans. Do you have a funny or interesting cancellation that you'd like to share? Or a puzzling one? Send a picture and I'll post it in a future article.

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Eye problems--more later

2006-03-03T15:19:00.000-05:00

I really am not trying to ignore this blog, but I have been having severe uveitis flare-ups in my right eye in the last month and it is pretty bad at the moment. This is keeping me away from my computer, as my eye is in severe pain and also I can't see out of it.
However, I plan on dictating some stuff to my daughter and making her type it up for me this weekend. HA- that's what teenagers are for right? To help us old folks out!!

Suzi

PS- Dreya will also be helping me to strip some classic stamps out of an old International Junior Album and attempting to ID some of them. Most of these stamps are countries that I do NOT collect, so I am planning on trading them. If you'd like to see some of this material, let me know. I can post it here if there is interest...could be a good way to start some trades. : )

Used King George VI items

2006-02-20T13:54:00.002-05:00

Today I am going to ask you all for used King George VI items in trade. I am looking for postally used. I am trying to fill a Stanley Gibbons KGVI album, one of those lovely red ones with the gold lettering. I have a fair start on it, having purchased some Commonwealth collections some time ago that I was able to get some material from.

However, a lot of the KGVI material which I did acquire was mint hinged, and I would greatly prefer postally used items. I did hinge them carefully into my album, but would LOVE to replace those items with used stamps. I particularly enjoy this album because it is so attractive, with nicely laid out pages that have glassine interleaving in between.

Does anyone out there have used KGVI items? Especially from the smaller countries? If you do, let me know, I'd love to trade with you.

Here is an example of some items that I need in used condition, so if you have anything similar please let me know. I know it's not a great scan, but hopefully this will give you an idea of the kinds of items that I am referring to. : ) Thanks! ~~Suzi~~ suziboyer@hotmail.com

Items received today

2006-02-09T17:02:00.000-05:00

Today I received some wonderful items from stamp friends. Michael at http://www.cddstamps.com/ sent me a lovely selection of used Australia commemoratives, including some of the higher values which I needed to fill some holes in my album. Thank you so much Michael!
I also received some beautiful stamps from a friend in Malaysia. He sent a selection of used Japan for my daughter, Dreya, as well as some souvenir sheets and stamps for me. Some of those souvenir sheets and stamps are related to the Chinese New Year and zodiac, while others are beautiful sheets depicting scenes from Hong Kong along with stamps showing Machin heads. Thank you Aghixrk Hans!!!

My scans show one set from the many stamps that Michael sent, as well as one of the souvenir sheets from Aghixrk Hans. I chose to scan the Year of the Cock, as that is my birth year (1969).

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

My daughter is 16 today

2006-02-06T09:46:00.000-05:00

Well, I know this had nothing to do directly with stamps---BUT I am proud to say that even though she is a teenager with her own interests, my daughter Dreya is a stamp collector at heart and still works regularly on her collection of used Japan as well as her several topical collections that she has for fun. Dreya was at her first stamp show as a baby and has been attending local bourses with me ever since. : )

She just soaked a bunch of Japan stamps recently and was busy mounting them last weekend.

The fact that I have 3 birthdays in my family in the next 6 weeks or so is why I have not had as much time as I'd like to update this blog. My Hubby's birthday is next on Feb. 28, and then my son turn 14 on March 11.

By the way---I tried to order a radio for Dreya for her birthday, via Amazon.com and have been very disappointed with the entire process. The affiliate is actually a company called Beach Audio. But I placed an order from them on Jan. 22nd, and they never bothered to tell me that the radio was backordered until I finally inquired as to WHERE my radio was and why I never received a tracking number for shipment. Of course, they took my money immediately, without bothering to let me know that they had NO idea when or if this item would be in stock. I am now trying to contact them further to get my card recredited so I can take Dreya shopping locally to get her a stereo. : (

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Example of a variety I found

2006-01-29T12:44:00.000-05:00

Using my Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Specialized Catalog, I identified this stamp as Head A, catalog number U14, the 4d bright vermilion.

The variety shown here is, I believe, a minor constant sheet flaw showing a retouch in the neck. If I have identified it correctly, that means this stamp is from Cylinder 10, Row 15, and is stamp #5 in that row. This is an example of the type of detail you can get utilizing the Gibbons Specialized catalog.

You probably can't tell very well, but the first image shows that the retouch is at Thirkell position E3-4, abbreviated as Th.E3-4 in the catalog. This image also shows how I use the position finder.

When I am in the mood to look for varieties, or do a bit of flyspecking, I always have plenty of Machins and Wildings to keep me occupied. But sometimes, I also just like to do general collecting stuff. But more about that later.

Happy stamping!

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Thirkell position finder- sorry about delay

2006-01-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't had time to update this lately. My kids have been ill, and my teenage daughter is, in addition, having some "teenage" issues that we have to deal with, so things have been busy in our household.

I have had several inquiries about what a Thirkell Position Finder is and what it is used for . It is a tool created by Stanley Gibbons-quite a simple tool, but the attraction of it is that it corresponds with their Great Britain Specialized Catalogs (or at least the editions of them that I have in my philatelic library). The Position Finder makes it easier to pinpoint various flaws as described in these catalogs, since the catalogs reference the exact positions of those flaws as viewed in the finder.
Here is a link to the finder on the Gibbons site: http://www.stanleygibbons.com/shop/index.asp?page=results&keyword=thirkell

It is just a simple grid with letters and numbers denoting the rows and columns, printed on clear plastic. You place it over the stamp, similar to how you would use a clear perforation gauge, except that you must line the stamp up to the upper left corner on the gauge. A typical position reference reads Th.A2-A5 , for example. I think that many people probably don't even know what these notations refer to in those catalogs, as it doesn't seem to be made very clear.
I learned about this tool when I was a member of the Great Britain Correspondence Club. I have found it very helpful in my quest to learn more about printing flaws, retouches, etc. If you aren't at first sure what a retouch looks like on an actual stamp (catalog pix just don't do look quite the same), as I was when I started getting interested in such topics years ago, it is helpful to have the confirmation of knowing that what you are seeing is in the exact spot that the catalog editors have referenced. Therefore you know that you are most likely on the right track!

I have been sorting my pre-decimal Machins lately. I will try to post some of the varieties I find here , if anyone is interested. I haven't gotten far enough to sort for varieties yet. I have been sorting based on 2nd and 3rd level Deegam catalog information, so have been lately looking for various booklet position, direction and type of printing, etc.

Does anyone out there own one of the UV lamps which has both long and short wave bulbs on the same lamp? I am wondering if these work well, and also where a good place to obtain one would be, as prices seem to vary wildly when I search for these. Is the difference in quality, or just pricing variations? I am wondering. I think this might be helpful to me in trying to see the tagging varieties. You can see the printed tags by tilting the stamps until the glare shows you the dull tagging stripes, but that doesn't help in trying to identify which type of tag is actually there, as it is often necessary to see the color of the fluorescence or phosphorence. To that end, I guess I would need a lamp that is good enough to show these variances. If anyone out there is looking at tagging on used Machins, and can recommend a lamp, please let me know.

Obsessed with Machins lately,

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Machins airmail rate stamps

2006-01-11T07:55:00.000-05:00

Where are all the airmail rate Machins- especially the airmail postcard rate?? I have not yet found any postally used copies of these stamps.

I have been discussing trading Machins with a collector in Malaysia, and it seems that he cannot find used examples of these stamps either. It seems I am not the only one having difficulties. If you have any of these for sale or trade, please contact me.

Also, if someone in the UK would like to help out and mail me some letters & postcards franked with airmail rate Machins, let me know what you would like in exchange. I will pay for your trouble, or trade something if I have anything you can use. Just email me and I'm sure we can work something out. : )

I am still hopelessly behing in sorting Machins, but I did receive my Thirkell position finder from a wonderfully helpful collector friend in the UK. Thanks Geoff!!! Now I can look for varieties amone my Machins. Does anyone else here use the Thirkell position finder and the Gibbons GB Specialized catalogue to check their Machins for varieties or am I the only nut?
For me this is great fun.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Kiloware, Machins, & album pages

2006-01-07T15:18:00.000-05:00

I keep finding all sorts of kiloware around here in my library. I just soaked some random worldwide stuff. I also have a pile of older stamps that need to be soaked off of album pages- they are a mishmosh of worldwide stuff form 2 old International Junior albums. Problem is, I don't know too much about the material that isn't British Commonwealth, so I keep putting off identifying it. Oh well, someday I'll get to it.

I am planning on sorting some Machins this weekend. I need to sort them by denomination/colour before I can start looking for varieties. A friend from the UK is sending me a new Thirkell Position Finder so that I can utilize my Gibbons Specialized albums to look for varieties. I can't wait until it gets here- the last one got lost when I moved and I haven't been able to find another one in this country, so have been without it for a while.

I also have been corresponding more with the collector who had emailed me some pix of his Machin collection. I am hoping we can do some trading, but I need to organize my Machins a bit more first, so that is my weekend project. I can start by mounting what I have in the Machin pages I downloaded from www.stampalbums.com. If you have never visited stampalbums.com, and you mount your stamps on album pages that you make yourself, you may want to take a look at this site. I love it! It has tons of great album pages for just about anything you can think of, and you can download all that you want for $19.95/year. It is updated pretty regularly, so you can keep those albums pretty up to date, also. You can't beat the price! I don't usually promote stuff, but this is just too useful not too mention. I would never, ever be able to afford to buy pre-printed albums for all the countries I download from stampalbums.com. This site has made my collecting more enjoyable and allowed me to expand my interests.

Suzi

Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T14:26:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all had a grand time celebrating the start of 2006, the Year of the Dog. I have decided that I am interested in the various Chinses zodiac stamps that have been popping up in recent years- if you have any to trade or sell, let me know. I would prefer used copies.
Today I am trying to catch up with some trades, as well as soaking some kiloware I acquired recently.
While putting together my trades, I decided that I need to find more New Zealand kiloware. I am looking for New Zealand over the last 20 years or so. I am lacking in a lot of that more recent material. If anyone has a source for recent on-paper NZ, please let me know. Of if you have some NZ you'd like to trade, let's see what we can work out- let me know what you could use in exchange.

Has anyone here ever soaked modern Singapore stamps? I think these must be the toughest to soak that I have encountered yet. Any advice would be appreciated. They are starting to irk me. I received some in trade from a trading partner in Malaysia, but I just can't seem to soak them, and I have even been making the water hotter and hotter.

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Philatelic Literature & Catalogs

2005-12-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

I have acquired over the years a sampling of philatelic literature, not all of which I need or use very often. Would anyone be interested in trading literature?
I have available:
- 1 hardback copy of: "The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Canada" by Winthrop S. Boggs,
- 1 large softcover copy of "The Philatelic Exhibitor's Handbook" by Randy L. Neil
- 1 softcover booklet, "Jamaica: A Review of the Nation's Postal History and Postage", 1964, by Alfred N. Johnson and published by the APS.

I also probably have other literature I don't need, just need to clean out the library some more. If anyone is interested in this type of trade, let me know what you have in exchange. I'm looking for other philatelic literature or catalogs, especially Gibbons. Or if you want to know what else I might have that I don't need, let me know. I know there's more lurking around here.

~~Suzi~~
suziboyer@gmail.com

Machins again

2005-12-27T19:17:00.000-05:00

Here is a scan of the Machins mixture that I mentioned earlier. I can trade this mix for similar mixtures from countries that I collect, including Great Britain from a different time period.
Although I don't see any in this handful I grabbed, there are a few Wildings in here and the very occasional foreign definitive.
Are there any other Machin collectors out there? I did receive a very nice email from a collector in Malaysia who sent me scans of his Machin collection to get my opinion of it. I haven't had time to study them very closely as of yet, but it seems to be a very nice start on a specialized Machin collection.

Suzi

suziboyer@hotmail.com

More Italian Priority Stamps

2005-12-27T12:18:00.000-05:00

I have had today further correspondence from Francesco in Italy, the gentleman who is looking for Italian Priority Courier stamps used outside of Italy.
He will be sending me some covers with Italian Priority stamps on them, and when they arrive I will place them all in a larger envelope and return them so that he may add those covers to his collection. He has kindly offered to trade stamps in exchange for my assistance.

If anyone else is interested in assisting Francesco, or has any Italian Priority Courier stamps used outside of Italy to trade, you can contact Francesco at: morris1971@hotmail.com.

Also, Francesco has a very nice Italian Philately website at: www.philweb.it It has plenty of information, so take a look!

And finally, Happy New Year!
Enjoy that extra leap second this year; hug your family a little longer. : )

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Friend looking for Italian Priority Courier stamps

2005-12-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

I received an interesting email a few days past from a collector in Italy. He is looking for Italian Priority courier stamps, which are apparently not too difficult to acquire domestically used in Italy. BUT, this collector has added a new and interesting twist by trying to collect these stamps used non-domestically.
He proposed an interesting trade to me, asking if he could mail a cover to me in the US with some of these Italian Priority, and then I would return the cover to him so he could have a cover used in the US.
If anyone else has any Italian Priority stamps used outside of Italy, or is interested in participating in a similar trade, please let me know and I will pass the information.
If he gives me permission, I will put the gentleman's name and email here, also; I'm just waiting to hear back from him. :)

Here is a picture of some Italian Priority stamps:

Happy Yule!

2005-12-22T09:40:00.000-05:00

Happy and Blessed Yule to all who celebrated these past few days, and Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all!

I'm still looking for people to trade holiday stamps with, if anyone is interested.

Today I went to the USPS website again to try to answer a question for somebody, and I noticed that they are selling gift cards from popular retailers. Actually, you can order a gift card, choose a greeting card and a stamp, add a photo to the card if you wish, and have the Postal Service deliver your gift for you. All of this is done online. What does everyone think about this service? Has anyone actually used this service? I am curious about how popular this will be. It is interesting to me to see how the USPS is expanding its consumer services.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

2006 Stamps on USPS website

2005-12-20T12:19:00.000-05:00

I just noticed that the USPS published information and art for some of the 2006 stamp issues on its website, http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2005/sr05_056.htm. This was just published yesterday.
This articles include details and pictures of new defintives in the Scenic American Landscapes series, new priority mail stamps, and many others.

Being an organic gardener interested in original, native crops, my favorite stamps pictured here are of course the "Crops of the Americas" stamps. They feature the "Three Sisters", corn, squash, and beans, as well as chili peppers and sunflowers.

Which is your favorite?

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Machins and more Machins

2005-12-19T09:48:00.000-05:00

I didn't get enough time for stamps this weekend, as it was spend mainly holiday shopping. BUT as I was poking around in my attic running some wiring to put lights in our bedroom closet(the rest of the weekend project, LOL), I found 1 large crate of Machins and Great Britain on paper, and 3 smaller crates of the same mixture. They are all in good shape as they have been stored in closed plastic crates of the type often used for shipping; they're still just as they came to me years ago, in normal condition for a mission mix type kiloware. It was sold to me in sealed unpicked packages, and I have already gone through the box or so of it that I DIDN'T put into storage and found plenty of nice cancels, some perfins, and many interesting varieties.

There are a LOT of stamps here, about 25-30 pounds. This is a mixture that includes mainly Machins from the 70s to late 80s, I believe. It also contains a bit of Great Britain Christmas, the occasional other Great Britain stamp, and maybe 5-10% Wildings and earlier definitives.
Anyone want to trade something for some of this kiloware? I can make up 1/4 pound packages.
I never picked through any of these crates yet as I was saving them for a "rainy day" so to speak. If you're interested, let me know. I would love some definitives from other countries, especially Australia, Canada, and any British Commonwealth countries....OR...let me know what you do have to offer? I'm very flexible.

I admit to having a Machin obsession. I have been accumulating these tiny portraits for many years, and am trying to accumulate more Wildings and KGVI definitives also. I like to dig through my Gibbons specialized catalogs and look for varieties. I need to organize them more, but I have enough that just soaking them all would take years, so I figured I'd see who else was interested. : )

If someone exprresses an interest I will throw a handful of this mix in my scanner and post a pic when I get a chance. Just let me know if you want to see it.

Only 2 more days until Yule!!! Get your Yule logs ready :)
Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Holiday stamps trade

2005-12-16T11:33:00.000-05:00

Since it is so close to the holidays, if anyone is interested in trading holiday stamps with me, let me know. I have US holiday stamps as well as some other countries.
I will send you some if you send me some from your country, used please, on or off paper is fine.

I think some of my favorite holiday stamps are issued by Great Britain. They have beautiful designs for their holiday stamps. I have quite a few British stamps I can trade if anyone is interested.
I will make up a packet or 2 of 50 different holiday stamps to trade. Let me know if you are interested- email me at suziboyer@gmail.com.

~~Suzi~~

Snow and ice today

2005-12-15T18:59:00.000-05:00

The snow and freezing rain we are getting right now has forced me indoors and given me some time to make this entry.
I am mounting Australia currently, working on material from the late 80s into the early 90s. I am using pages from stampalbums.com, although the beginning part of my album I had just used blank pages as stampalbums.com didn't exist when I started the collection. I like the Harco pages, and still use them for additional mounting.

I had an idea to scan some of my album pages, thereby showing some of the stamps I am missing to complete sets. I though perhaps someone may be able to offer some of those stamps in trade. If you think this is a good idea let me know.

Only 6 more day until Solstice!!! Get your Yule logs ready. : )
~~Suzi~~

Welcome and Happy Stamping

2005-12-09T16:03:00.000-05:00

I am hoping to keep this blog updated with what I am doing philatelically. I would like to invite others to share information about their collections and studies, also.

I am a British Commonwealth collector, but I must admit I am not one of those people who keeps up with every new issue. I just don't have the time. I am a compulsive kiloware buyer, when I have the money, and am always looking for good kiloware sources that have recent material.

Currently, I am accumulating Machins, and mounting GB, Canada, and Australia. I hope to begin mounting New Zealand soon, as well as some Australian states material.

What are you doing with your collections at the moment?