bobstew617
Member
Posts: 376
What I collect: Switzerland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Channel Islands, Hong Kong (British Admin), PNG, others...
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Post by bobstew617 on Jul 25, 2021 15:57:15 GMT
And, as promised here is the envelope from Greece and the MT. ATHOS sets I purchased BOB
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cursus
Member
Posts: 1,771
What I collect: Catalan Cinderellas. Used Switzerland, UK, Scandinavia, Germany & Austria. Postal History of Barcelona & Estonia. Catalonia pictorial postmarks.
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Post by cursus on Jul 26, 2021 6:47:29 GMT
Not much stamping, being on holidays in Switzerland. But, as I'd read about Saturday's Bürkliplatz fleamarket, I managed to visit downtown Zurich last Saturday. Located (unlike most fleamarkets around Europe) in the centre of the town, were lake Zurich meets Limmat river. there are a lot of stalls selling a wide range of items. Among them, there one selling stamps and coins. I wasn't hopping for any real bargain, as prices in Switzerland are high compared to other continentall Europe ones (except for Italy!). In addition, my German command is very poor. So, barganning was out of question. But, you never know what can you run into... There were two boxes with "foreigh" and "Switzerland" items priced at 3 CHF (Swiss francs) each. There were some German cinderellas and Swiss militar stamps. I know, that some of the later can comand high prices; but not being an expert, I passed. A t the end, I didn't buy anything. I'm not carrying much cash when I travel. In addition, in most continental Europe, we've been "spoiled" by the euro and I don't like to pay exchange expenses when in France, Germany, Austria... you can pay using the same coins used to buy your bread at the corner's bakery at home. Anyway, I'll be on the watch. You never know. Some days ago, in Basel, I ran into this nice postbox It shows the famous "Basel taube" cantonal stamp.
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,266
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Jul 26, 2021 11:36:48 GMT
Lovely post box Joan cursus . It has been a weekend of mixed fortunes in my Stamp world. 4 successful small sales on eBay packed and posted 😃. .But a frantic and frustrated 48 hours turning my office upsides down, inside out and bookshelves re arranged.😖 I completely lost an auction catalogue for Valentines cards from 2005 which had ( after 2 years repeat listing) finally found a buyer. Sold on Friday , I know I had it in my hands 5 days ago, so I started looking , several hours wasted on Saturday and Sunday with no success. Today I had to apologise and refund the buyer. Just an hour later whilst dumping a pile of newspapers and magazines from my garage for the recycling collection ……..you know what turns up !!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRR! I now have to contact the buyer again and re arrange a refund of the refund
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JeffS
Member
Posts: 2,604
What I collect: Oranges Philately, US Slogan Cancels, Cape of Good Hope Triangulars, and Texas poster stamps and cinderellas
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Post by JeffS on Jul 26, 2021 12:02:20 GMT
vikingeck - I find comfort at your expense in knowing I’m not the only one.
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radiocruncher
Member
Posts: 317
What I collect: GB especially Wildings and Machins. Early Germany to 1945
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Post by radiocruncher on Jul 26, 2021 20:48:25 GMT
Lovely post box Joan cursus . It has been a weekend of mixed fortunes in my Stamp world. 4 successful small sales on eBay packed and posted 😃. .But a frantic and frustrated 48 hours turning my office upsides down, inside out and bookshelves re arranged.😖 I completely lost an auction catalogue for Valentines cards from 2005 which had ( after 2 years repeat listing) finally found a buyer. Sold on Friday , I know I had it in my hands 5 days ago, so I started looking , several hours wasted on Saturday and Sunday with no success. Today I had to apologise and refund the buyer. Just an hour later whilst dumping a pile of newspapers and magazines from my garage for the recycling collection ……..you know what turns up !!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRR! I now have to contact the buyer again and re arrange a refund of the refund Sod’s law strikes again vikingeck . I had a friend here just before the 1st lockdown last year asking me if I could replace the screen in his phone. He bought a screen and dropped it around. I didn’t have the right screwdrivers so had to order some. Enter lockdown and we didn’t see each other for a year. Last week he said could he have the screen back as he was going to replace it. I can’t find it anywhere. I’ve turned the place upside down. All I remember is putting it somewhere safe. I’m sure it will turn up when I buy him another one.
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stanley64
Member
Posts: 1,825
What I collect: Canada, USA, Netherlands, Portugal & Colonies, Antarctic Territories and anything that catches my eye...
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Post by stanley64 on Jul 27, 2021 8:11:32 GMT
When in doubt or need a break - kick the sand, Local beach - Foz do Arelho
With warmer weather and summer in full swing, it is time to get out of the proverbial 'stamp cave' and stretch the legs a bit :-) Will catch you all on the flip side...
Happy collecting!
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Jul 27, 2021 11:44:05 GMT
So I am finally getting back to stamping. With that auction win from Nordfrim of the NZ QEII 1953 definitives, which are very nice, I might add... I purchased a couple of their thematic packages of aircraft stamps. I just opened up the smaller of the two, only to find every stamp EVERY STAMP is CTO! Wow, none postally used whatsoever. I imagine the larger packet is also completely CTO as well!
I won't buy any more packets from Nordfrim if all they sell are CTO!
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radiocruncher
Member
Posts: 317
What I collect: GB especially Wildings and Machins. Early Germany to 1945
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Post by radiocruncher on Jul 28, 2021 7:54:57 GMT
So I am finally getting back to stamping. With that auction win from Nordfrim of the NZ QEII 1953 definitives, which are very nice, I might add... I purchased a couple of their thematic packages of aircraft stamps. I just opened up the smaller of the two, only to find every stamp EVERY STAMP is CTO! Wow, none postally used whatsoever. I imagine the larger packet is also completely CTO as well!
I won't buy any more packets from Nordfrim if all they sell are CTO! I am a bit confused as to what is CTO. I have 2 stock books here that I got as part of an auction lot. They have clearly never been used as most have gum. The postmarks look like they have been printed as they are perfect. Also the postmark is identical on multiples of the same stamp. Are they fakes I wonder. I will pop a few pics on later
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,266
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Jul 28, 2021 8:39:15 GMT
Probably not “ fakes” as such.
Some collectors want mint , some want used or “neatly cancelled”
In the distant past the only way to get cancelled was in the Mail. Then collectors bought stamps , stuck them on envelopes and got obliging postal clerks to “cancel them by favour”. Sometimes theywent in the mail, some times they were just handed back. As first day covers grew in popularity and production in creased, many authorities cancelled the stamps but they never went through the Mail . It was possible to buy sets of stamps and have them Cancelled to Order Hence CTO.
Finally to make things easier many authorities actually printed a cancel on sheets of stamps . Pre cancelled to order for the collector market.
The purist collector of used stamps will seek out items which have a genuine date of use postmark from the mail.
Many GB “used” in today’s market have been soaked off unwanted First day covers, and do not have a date or have apart cancel reading part of the text which indicates it was previously on a FDC. Some collectors see these as less desirable used. then there are the CTOs with postal bureau cancels as a third and lower category.
At the bottom level come the stamps, often Eastern Europe or Gulf states with a printed cancel, purely philatelic labels, but not necessarily “fakes” .
As a final confusion to the general collector there are multitudes of Local issues from uninhabited islands or issues with no postal validity such as the Scottish islands of Davaar, Sanda Stroma , Eyn Hallow , Berneray etc as a moneymaker by the late Clive Feigenbaum . These and similar from ISO in Sweden are CTO Cinderellas not stamps.
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Jul 28, 2021 10:55:17 GMT
Also, a fair number of Cancelled-To-Order stamps were dumped by postal admin's to stamp dealers at a cut-rate price just to get rid of them. One of the bug-a-boo's for collectors, such as myself.
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tobben63
Member
Stamp eat sleep repeat
Posts: 1,866
What I collect: I collect to much, world wide!
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Post by tobben63 on Jul 28, 2021 14:03:30 GMT
So I am finally getting back to stamping. With that auction win from Nordfrim of the NZ QEII 1953 definitives, which are very nice, I might add... I purchased a couple of their thematic packages of aircraft stamps. I just opened up the smaller of the two, only to find every stamp EVERY STAMP is CTO! Wow, none postally used whatsoever. I imagine the larger packet is also completely CTO as well!
I won't buy any more packets from Nordfrim if all they sell are CTO! I had to look into this and navigated to aircraft packages at Nordfrim. I really cant see why you are surprised when open the package. The image of all three packages show clearly that the stamps are CTO (perfect corner cancels) and from countries that are famous for CTO. And the price was low I think. I have done this myself, just bought something without look closely what I'm baying. Image form the advertised package (the smalest one)
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brightonpete
Departed
Rest in Peace
On a hike at Goodrich-Loomis
Posts: 5,110
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Post by brightonpete on Jul 28, 2021 14:06:47 GMT
Of course they are, but I was looking at the subject matter, thinking some, SOME would be postally used. That's why it was relatively cheap. But then used are cheap anyway.
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WERT
Departed
Rest in Peace
Posts: 1,062
What I collect: Canada and Provinces
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Post by WERT on Jul 28, 2021 14:15:04 GMT
I understand brightonpete what you are saying...I collect mint and used also..Because if you and me and every collector just collected MINT stamps, we would all have the exact same collection..How boring would that be...There are cancelled stamps out there that can be worth more than mint stamps...Just saying. Robert
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WERT
Departed
Rest in Peace
Posts: 1,062
What I collect: Canada and Provinces
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Post by WERT on Jul 28, 2021 16:03:54 GMT
Here is a picture of 3 of them...
Also showing the signed portraits/pictures by Artist Paul Rankin. Just nice to have.
Robert
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radiocruncher
Member
Posts: 317
What I collect: GB especially Wildings and Machins. Early Germany to 1945
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Post by radiocruncher on Jul 29, 2021 9:03:44 GMT
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radiocruncher
Member
Posts: 317
What I collect: GB especially Wildings and Machins. Early Germany to 1945
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Post by radiocruncher on Jul 29, 2021 9:06:03 GMT
Probably not “ fakes” as such. Some collectors want mint , some want used or “neatly cancelled” In the distant past the only way to get cancelled was in the Mail. Then collectors bought stamps , stuck them on envelopes and got obliging postal clerks to “cancel them by favour”. Sometimes theywent in the mail, some times they were just handed back. As first day covers grew in popularity and production in creased, many authorities cancelled the stamps but they never went through the Mail . It was possible to buy sets of stamps and have them Cancelled to Order Hence CTO. Finally to make things easier many authorities actually printed a cancel on sheets of stamps . Pre cancelled to order for the collector market. The purist collector of used stamps will seek out items which have a genuine date of use postmark from the mail. Many GB “used” in today’s market have been soaked off unwanted First day covers, and do not have a date or have apart cancel reading part of the text which indicates it was previously on a FDC. Some collectors see these as less desirable used. then there are the CTOs with postal bureau cancels as a third and lower category. At the bottom level come the stamps, often Eastern Europe or Gulf states with a printed cancel, purely philatelic labels, but not necessarily “fakes” . As a final confusion to the general collector there are multitudes of Local issues from uninhabited islands or issues with no postal validity such as the Scottish islands of Davaar, Sanda Stroma , Eyn Hallow , Berneray etc as a moneymaker by the late Clive Feigenbaum . These and similar from ISO in Sweden are CTO Cinderellas not stamps. Thanks for this very informative reply which has certainly opened my eyes as to the types of stamps being sold. These came in 2 stock books as part of an auction lot so cost very little in all.
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tobben63
Member
Stamp eat sleep repeat
Posts: 1,866
What I collect: I collect to much, world wide!
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Post by tobben63 on Jul 29, 2021 9:14:08 GMT
I do collect used stamps. But in my collection there are also CTO stamps! DDR and Hungary are to my opinion hard to get complete without accepting CTO. This said I do not put to much effort into these countries, and their likes.
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hdm1950
Member
Posts: 1,604
What I collect: I collect world wide up to 1965 with several specialty albums added due to volume of material I have acquired. At this point I am focused on Canada and British America. I am always on the lookout for stamps and covers with postmarks from communities in Queens County, Nova Scotia. I do list various goods including stamps occasionally on eBay as hdm50
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Post by hdm1950 on Jul 29, 2021 11:57:07 GMT
At the bottom level come the stamps, often Eastern Europe or Gulf states with a printed cancel, purely philatelic labels, but not necessarily “fakes” Sadly in the early 1960’s as I entered my teens I was buying stamps from an approval company that I learned later in life were CTO’s. Most of my paper route money went to them. As a you mentioned the bulk of them are Eastern European countries. I have hundreds of them. Adding insult to injury was that often they were short sets missing 1 or 2 high values. Alas at least they are pretty to look at.
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator
Posts: 5,654
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Jul 31, 2021 11:07:32 GMT
On Travel for the Past Week London, Edinburgh, and Today AberdeenGreetings, all! As I write this, it is the first break I have had in nearly a week with a good enough internet connection to access The Forum using my laptop. There was some sort of issue with the hotel WiFi in Edinburgh that caused the security software on my laptop to block the connection. Anyway, that's in the past as we now make our way from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, where we will meet up with Alex ( vikingeck). I will do a better write-up at some point about our travels. There has been a bit of stamp time: - Last Saturday: Returned to the Charing Cross Collectors' Market in London, and of course, bought a few new things
- Also last Saturday: Went back to Stanley Gibbons to exchange a misidentified Hong Kong stamp I had previously purchased
- Edinburgh: Attempted to contact a major dealer in town, whose website said he was accepting appointments arranged by email, but in the end, he never responded to my email, so I contented myself mainly with taking photos of postboxes, which I may turn into a TSF Newsletter article at some point
But the best news is that today I will get to meet Alex in person, which I am really looking forward to. It will be fun to do stamp activities with a fellow collector in person for a change. It's been too long since the last time for a real get-together. I know I have missed some things going on here on the site over the past week or so, and for that I apologize. The Scotland trip will continue through this coming week, so depending on internet connections, my participation may still be sporadic. We have been having an excellent trip so far, and I hope that our general good luck with things will continue. Stay stampy, all!
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,642
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
Member is Online
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Post by stainlessb on Jul 31, 2021 17:06:21 GMT
preparing for another "heat wave" though this looks to be not as bad, so I've been prepping some mailings to a couple of forum members which IF I can remember to take to work with me, will get posted on Monday. Other wise a low key day. I going to play a few hours of music with friends after lunch and then maybe this afternoon, get back to pages for France Red Cross booklets.
I do not lack for stamp things to do... just sometimes the motivation to get going!
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cursus
Member
Posts: 1,771
What I collect: Catalan Cinderellas. Used Switzerland, UK, Scandinavia, Germany & Austria. Postal History of Barcelona & Estonia. Catalonia pictorial postmarks.
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Post by cursus on Aug 2, 2021 5:39:38 GMT
After nearly two weeks wandering around Europe, yesterday I went to the Plaça Reial stamp market in Barcelona. After a night of storms, the air was fresh which is most unusual for Barcelona on early August. Some tourists on the streets, but not too many to annoy... There were fewer stalls than usual, due to summer season, but I found someone carrying stamps and cinderellas. Nothing interesting on the former but I managed to find 5 cindies. It tourned that the seller had just bought a stockbook of cinderellas, but he wasn't about bringing them to the market, as he's mainly a coin dealer. I offered him a price ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 € each. He was satisffied (I, actually, paid 0.1 €, but I was the only taker!) and he told me that next Sunday he'll bring more material.
As I'm nearly the only (silly?) chap on the market regularly buying cinderellas, I'm able to set a price. Off course, I'm ready to pay more, for interesting items. We'll see ...
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Londonbus1
Moderator
Cinderella Stamp Club Member 3059
Posts: 4,876
What I collect: Cinderellas and some Ephemera from Great Britain, France and Israel plus a few beautiful bits from elsewhere !! Topical interests include Flags & Judaica, the latter with an emphasis on the Jewish National Fund.
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Post by Londonbus1 on Aug 2, 2021 8:01:15 GMT
cursus....Sounds like a good plan ! I wish I could be there to see those Cindies with you ! Hope your trip was a good one.
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cursus
Member
Posts: 1,771
What I collect: Catalan Cinderellas. Used Switzerland, UK, Scandinavia, Germany & Austria. Postal History of Barcelona & Estonia. Catalonia pictorial postmarks.
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Post by cursus on Aug 2, 2021 11:58:03 GMT
Hi Michael: the trip was ok. For me it's always ok in Central Europe. No troubles, just the high prices. The other questions: safety (on street or food), driving, borders, police...No problem. In my view, this is the safest part of the world.
As for the cinderellas, if I find anything that might remotely be of any interest for you, I'll buy it, and it will find its way to Israel.
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radiocruncher
Member
Posts: 317
What I collect: GB especially Wildings and Machins. Early Germany to 1945
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Post by radiocruncher on Aug 2, 2021 12:24:35 GMT
Well I certainly don’t seem to have slowed up yet. I spent last week going through lots of stamps on paper searching for some swaps for a lady in India which I’ve now posted off. It will be interesting to see what I get back. I’ve just started going through my GB collection and trying to make one album out of 4 but I just can’t make my mind up which album to settle on.
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Mr. H
Member
Member - APS #129381
Posts: 935
What I collect: US, Netherlands, Whatever suits my fancy.
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Post by Mr. H on Aug 2, 2021 19:00:30 GMT
Haven't really done any work with the stamps lately, unless you count trying to clean up the stamp room. I was using the guest bedroom (my daughter's room) as a 'staging' area and when she came for a visit I just piled it up in the stamp room, so now I need to get everything back in order before I can actually do something.
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,642
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
Member is Online
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Post by stainlessb on Aug 2, 2021 19:07:55 GMT
Remembered to bring a couple of stamp lots to work to get out in todays post, which has only taken me several weeks to finally get done. I find my stamp motivation right now waning a bit, perhaps because of all the task outside I know will soon be upon me- garden, general yard work, some brick work, and some things I no longer use (haven't touched in some time) and should gather up, inventory and make someone a great deal, an other stuff which needs to go to the thrift stores or maybe the dumps!
Like many of us.... to much stuff!
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,266
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Aug 2, 2021 19:11:38 GMT
Haven't really done any work with the stamps lately, unless you count trying to clean up the stamp room. I was using the guest bedroom (my daughter's room) as a 'staging' area and when she came for a visit I just piled it up in the stamp room, so now I need to get everything back in order before I can actually do something. Yeah I know . I had house guests in the spare bedroom/ stamp room , which I carefully tidied before the visit. ………I now need 24 hours to recreate my normal chaos in which stuff gets done and …. …………………like in the Bermuda Triangle, stuff gets lost, 🤣🤣🤣🤣 then I’ll have a cousin and her husband overnighting in 3 weeks so that means a tidy away again!
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renden
Member
Posts: 8,711
What I collect: World W collector with ++ interests in BNA (Canada etc) and USA
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Post by renden on Aug 2, 2021 19:15:24 GMT
Haven't really done any work with the stamps lately, unless you count trying to clean up the stamp room. I was using the guest bedroom (my daughter's room) as a 'staging' area and when she came for a visit I just piled it up in the stamp room, so now I need to get everything back in order before I can actually do something. Yeah I know . I had house guests in the spare bedroom/ stamp room , which I carefully tidied before the visit. ………I now need 24 hours to recreate my normal chaos in which stuff gets done and …. …………………like in the Bermuda Triangle, stuff gets lost, 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Alex, I heard your guests were quite happy with their visit - Great !! René
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator
Posts: 5,654
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Aug 2, 2021 21:07:22 GMT
vikingeck said: renden said: Alex, we can't thank you enough for the excellent hospitality during our visit.... You did a marvelous job on the tidy-up. The place looked perfect. I had a very good night's sleep in your guest bed, too, but I did feel a bit bad knowing that we had disturbed the mystique of the 'Bermuda Triangle' of your stamp room! I will make a separate post in another thread, but I just want to thank you publicly here in response to your post, and let everyone else know that you were the consummate host, and that we had a wonderful time during our 24 hours in your care. Great touring, great food and drink, great conversation.... it has truly been the highlight of our trip! We have had a good, first full day in Inverness, which included our trip to the Culloden Battlefield, where we learned a lot of the history of the Jacobite Rising (1745-46).
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Post by mdroth on Aug 3, 2021 1:10:52 GMT
My recent stamp activity has included packing everything up - and then a few days later - unpacking everything! A great oppty to (not pack/unpack!) and really take a look at all the things I haven't seen in years!
Found a few old (very old!) photo album pages w/USPS postcards (maximum cards?) that are now (grr!) permanently (!?) affixed. Anybody have any suggestions for removing postcards from photo album (sticky ones!) pages??
Last (surprise) development:
Completed the change of address stuff w/USPS - clicked something (wrong?) obviously - and now I get - daily - an email from the USPS - with scans/pictures of EACH piece of mail I will receive the next day. (!!!!) (Talk about a monumental waste of time?!) I assume that no human is involved with this - but still - esp for an org that is losing billions each year - is this really necessary???
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