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Post by tonyvella on Aug 3, 2020 1:12:49 GMT
During all my stamp collecting years I got into the habit of collecting world-wide up to the year 2000. At a point I decided to cut down my collecting down to and including 1950. This decision left me with hundreds of w-w stamps between 1950 and 2000 that have no interest for me. I therefore decided to swap these stamps for pre-1950 stamps - any quantity, any country, any condition, any cat. value - and offered this swap to all the collectors whom I knew personally or through stamp forums.
A lesson I learnt through this process is that almost one and all were more than willing to receive gratis from me stamps I no longer needed but I NEVER received a single stamp in exchange. This kind of people I now avoid like the plague.
Example: I send 25 modern Spanish stamps asking the person to send me whatever he/she considered equivalent to what I sent: any country, any value, any condition. Yet, I NEVER received a single stamp in exchange; most of the time not even an email acknowledging receipt. This being one of the reasons I quit collecting and participating in stamp forums.
I recently started collecting again (only pre-1950) wondering if after all these years the same philosophy is still practiced and decided to pose this question on this forum. I should very much appreciate any comments, reasons, gossip, what-have-you to this personally held opinion.
You learn something new every day.
I thank one and all in advance for any, if any, replies.
Sincerely, Tony V.
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darkormex
Member 
Swinging through Switzerland and getting tied up in Thailand
Posts: 2,197 
What I collect: The World...just printing and mounting as I go...call me crazy!
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Post by darkormex on Aug 3, 2020 1:52:04 GMT
Personally, I would rather not do swaps. The number one reason for me is that even though I have large numbers of duplicate stamps for some countries, I don't have them organized sufficiently that I can keep good record of what I am sending and receiving. Perhaps it is also a mindset thing with me too. I am slowly trying to rectify this by organizing my collection on Colnect with the eventual idea that I start selling/swapping in earnest but this will be a long process.
The times that I have swapped, I have not had any real bad experiences but I can see them happening.
I would rather simply pay for what I want and have the transaction completed or, like here on TSF, give stamps away with the idea that I might in the future be the beneficiary of a giveaway myself.
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khj
Member
Posts: 1,524
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Post by khj on Aug 3, 2020 1:52:17 GMT
Sorry so many promising trades didn't pan out for you Tony. I had wondered why you had "disappeared" for a spell last decade.
Things do get in the way of planned activities. But to have that happen again and again, I would certainly consider unusual. I am notoriously slow in getting with people, which is why I almost never participate in swaps. If I do, I always insist that I send first, because I know from experience that things interrupt my schedule and I don't want to be the unresponsive end of what you just described.
I don't think it is unreasonable to ask the other person to mail their stamps to you first. It may rub some people the wrong way, but there are plenty of other willing traders.
I'd consider, but because of international shipping, it's not economical for me to mail out just 25 stamps. It would have to be in the 100s++ to make it cost effective.
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darkormex
Member
Swinging through Switzerland and getting tied up in Thailand
Posts: 2,197
What I collect: The World...just printing and mounting as I go...call me crazy!
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Post by darkormex on Aug 3, 2020 1:58:33 GMT
I have to agree with what khj said as well. I find my life is full of deadlines...work, home, personal...that I don't like the idea of having one more person that I know I have to get back to at some point. The few times I have done one to one swaps in the past, it has ended up feeling like one more burden and sometimes I would procrastinate. When that happened, I would complete my swap and ask to stop. I simply try to stay out of them. Also, yes, you should take steps to make sure the other party reciprocated. Also, a general apology to the ether and to anybody who felt that I did not complete swaps to in the past! |
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Post by tonyvella on Aug 3, 2020 10:36:19 GMT
Thank you one and all for your replies and opinions. I started collecting again from scratch as I had given all my w-w collections away a number of years ago. The only collection I did not give away - I'm afraid I got greedy - was my Indian Feudatory States on piece; that I sold. Lots has happened since then: I got two more Uni degrees and a second heart attack. I am now 76 years old and as the second heart attack made a mess of my memory, right in the middle of writing "Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre" and studying Classical Latin I abandoned my studies and went back to something requiring less memory: stamp-collecting. I still have a lot of 1951 to 2000 stamps which I have no use for and which I shall probably send to our Hospital for Sick Kids; at least the kiddies will have some fun with the "little pictures".
Again, thank you and mind as you go,these are dangerous days we are going through.
Sincerely, Tony V.
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philatelia
Member
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,655
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Aug 3, 2020 22:37:48 GMT
My first question after reading your posts, Tony, tonyvella would be where did you get the trading contacts? I've had terrible luck with Stampboards - too many "stamp hoovers" seem to populate that forum probably due to all of the giveaways. I have had excellent luck with trading contacts made here on the Stamp Forum, Stamporama, Trade Only Stamps, StampBears and on Colnect. Those are either small enough to weed out shysters or they have feedback systems that allow you to pick and choose who you wish to trade with. FYI - I just recently ran the same exact trade offer on several sites and while the Stamp Community has the most members - it yielded ZERO trade responses. The others previously listed all generated many solid trade offers. I also wonder how many of these trades were sent to countries that are currently having postal service shutdowns due to the pandemic. Even when everything is running well, Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, parts of Asia and other geographic regions are notorious for lost mail. Some of your trades may never have arrived. And two month delays are not unheard of right now - if this was all very recent, wait a bit longer and you might be pleasantly surprised. Did you discuss the trade expectations via email before sending? Touching bases and saying hello can be extremely helpful. Also - did you post an ad or did you respond to ads posted by others? Is it possible your ad was worded so that there might have been misunderstandings? Trading in some parts of the world raises the question that the trade parameters might have been lost in translation. The very poor responses leads me to believe that something was wrong with either one of the above issues or something else. I do a lot of trading and I've never experienced anything so awful. There has to be a reason. Most collectors are honest - the bad apples are really NOT the majority. If you have better material to trade, Colnect is excellent. If you trade with people who have many positive ratings, you should get much better results. And - the folks here are the BEST! I might be able to offer to trade with you, too. Send me a message if interested, eh? Only about 5% of my duplicates are classics before 1940, but I have 2000 of them listed on Colnect. |
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Post by katie333 on Aug 4, 2020 0:31:49 GMT
I do a lot of trading, I'd say about 80% are successful. In those that aren't, I figure if someone was so desperate for free stamps, then they can keep them.  I generally only trade for better once I have had one or more success with a particular person. Definitely agree with philatelia that certain sites are better than others, and that certain countries have unreliable postal service, even more so right now. It is definitely effort to trade, especially by wantlist, but I do suffer from box-lot addiction so I always have hoards to trade to make up for some of the costs of the lots. |
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philatelia
Member
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,655
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Aug 4, 2020 10:43:07 GMT
LoL Katie katie333 - I have a similar addiction - mine is buying collections. Isn’t it fun getting a big ole lot? |
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,551
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Aug 4, 2020 11:04:52 GMT
Terri philatelia, if still on line I have sent you a PM need your help please. Alex |
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ausbrasilien
Member
Inactive
Posts: 103
What I collect: German Area
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Post by ausbrasilien on Oct 20, 2020 16:47:26 GMT
May I add a question here?
I love to study Germania stamps cancelations. Most of them are inexpensive stamps. I only pay attention to German and, often, against my will to Brazilian stamps. That meaning that I never opened a catalogue to know about the values of the foreign stamps that come in lots that I buy. I just leave them asside, never organized them. How do I approach someone and ask about exchanging aleatory stamps for germania canceled stamps? Would be better to offer brazilian stamps in exchange (As i live in Brazil)?
I haven't swaped stamps since I was at school, however, I see so many people doing it in the forums, I am really interested in seeing how it works, but, at the same time, afraid of making mistakes that might spoil the fun of it...
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I generally only trade for better once I have had one or more success with a particular person. 
