Considering a DDR collection

Dave, I am sure Pete 
brightonpete - will give you his opinion as he collects +++ DDR - I even gave him all my DDR stamps as I do not collect them....a matter of choice LOL

René

I'm just a newbie to East Germany (aka DDR) and it would be possible to get a complete basic collection. They issued quite a few stamps with reduced print numbers. Usually one stamp in a series had fewer printed. Plus, they created a plethora of varieties. I'm sure they realized the value of collectors in the 50's and exploited them to shore up their coffers.

All are within my meagre budget, but there are a few items that just aren't worth it to me. Those I'll leave out.


Talking of Trabant's, the photo that has stuck in my head after the wall came down was of a Trabant that had been tossed in a dumpster! Good place for them! But ya, I'd like to get one! Very basic, cheaply made 2-stroke engine! Of course if I bought one, it would have been converted to electric!

They also have a number of same same issues! I have to watch it, as some look alike!

I kinda like them too!

B35a is the souvenir sheet I was looking at. Gray Portraits... the translation of the words on the sheet is...


Nothing about a portrait!

The bottom dropped out of the DDR market last decade. I don't think I've seen prices this low in the US (non-scientific, just my limited observation) since the late 1980s when the market for just about everything took a plunge. So, in my opinion, now is a good time to start. For the cost of 90% complete DDR collection (including quality album) at the turn of the century, I could probably buy at least 2, maybe 3 equivalent DDR collections today. That's how bad it is. The market is saturated with intermediate-advanced DDR collections (and we're not talking about CTO lots).

I admit, I used to shun DDR and had mostly the basic CTOs that were forced on me in bulk lot purchases. But when the bottom dropped out last decade, I went full fledge into building up my DDR collection because even the premium items were falling in price. I found it surprisingly enjoyable, despites decades of indoctrination from DDR being "bad-mouthed" by local dealers/collectors.

My suggestion (in terms of convenience, but your collecting interest may dictate otherwise) is to forget the CTOs/used and focus on collecting mint (never hinged as much as possible). For a basic collection, the only premium items are generally some of the pre-1956 issues and BOB. There's only a handful of post-1955 issues with significant premium. By foregoing used stamps, you don't have to worry about genuine period of use cancels for some of the early issues and BOB stamps -- a few of those will sell for several-fold greater than the mint. You need to do your research before going after those used stamps. Also, short set CTOs are common; but equivalent full mint sets are not hard to come by at all. If you aren't careful, you'll be inundated with lots of duplicate CTOs in search of the missing stamp in the set. You won't have that problem when collecting mint. But of course, if you like used/CTO, then by all means collect what you like!!! Just my opinion.

Finally, beware of fake Mao stamps. I've seen them in collections, or even mixed in with what appears to be a genuine set. Case in point, I've actually got a forgery, but not the entire set of forgeries! Check every single stamp in the Mao set.  Also confirm the watermarks on the early issues that come with different watermarks.  It's not unusual to find stamps in those sets misIDed/swapped.

The Mao set is Scott #82-84(27Jun1951). I don't know why Scott doesn't put a warning about forgeries. The forgeries are not rare. I was warned about them by a dealer. Michel does explain how to quickly ID the forgery (genuine are perf 13½, while forgeries are perf 14).  For some reason, Scott has it listed as perf 13.

If you want to get deeper into DDR, you almost certainly have to get Michel Germany Specialized Volume 2 (I don't have the most recent, and assume DDR is still in volume 2?). You'll find all sorts of minor varieties listed, as well as lots of good info. But it is in German.

The government began selling CTOs as early as 1949 and didn't stop until a few months before reunification. So basically, almost all the stamps exist as CTOs, but not some of the 1990 stamps. The majority of the CTOs I tend to see dominate the late 1950s through the 1980s (large quantities). The irritation is always the withholding of certain singles from the CTO set. The stamp with the catalog "mark-up" is not always the high denomination stamp in the set. There are several examples where the low or middle denomination is the "limited-distribution" stamp. So be prepared for a few headaches if you go the used/CTO route.

Hey, Mike, (mikeclevenger) I'd be interested in those DDR. Postage might be a problem, but let me know!

Ok, Germany experts. I request an explanation of terms. I know the following:
DDR: East Germany/German Democratic Republic
Deutschland Bundespost: West Germany
Deutschland: post-unification? After the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Deutsche Post: ?
Deutsche Reich: ?

I’m sure there’s more. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

This DDR thread spurred me to print the Steiner pages from 1949 to 1960 and finally start organizing the many years accumulation of DDR stamps that I have. It was an easy slide over since I had been working on German stamps anyway.

I would concur. When I lived in the former DDR, most of the stamp club members were pretty advanced in age with little prospect to transmit their collection as very few youngsters seem to be taking on the hobby. During Communist times, collectors would have easy access to issues from Warsaw Pact countries, but little else, so now that these collectors are passing on, their stamps need to find a place to go...

In the XIXth century, before the unification of Germany, we should speak about German states, like in Italy about the Old Italian States. The biggest of those states should be Prussia, followed by Saxony and others. Many states were more closed to town rather. Before the unification, the Nord-Deuthscher post bezirk (something like) was created, something like a German states postal union, and with the reunification of Germany into the first Deutsch Reich the story begin.
(Please correct me if i'm wrong...)

But even earlier, at the beginning of XIX century when stamps still didn't exist, Prussia was one of the first countries who understood the importance of having an efficient postal administration, and the first postal treaties with surrounding countries for the dispatching of the correspondence was just made by Prussia (followed by France and England).

I may be wrong with some of my sentences, but time ago i pointed out the importance of the german language. I still believe that most of the XIX-XXth century turn around Germany.

A great question. There are several such themes that led to world-wide joint issues, often related to UN subsidiary organizations, in which every member state was likely to participate. I have a pretty full collection of the "Fight against Malaria" issues of 1962 and the "World Refugee Year" in 1960. I am always on the look-out for UPU jubilee issues (1949 and 1974) and, or greatest interest to me, the "Year of the Quiet Sun" issues from 1957-58 and the International Geophysical Year. For many countries which had rather modest stamp outputs (in terms of the number of new issues) at that time (late 1950's to early 1970's), those joint issues are often quite noticeable. I wonder if this was done as a fund-raising scheme for member countries to pitch in to pay for the construction of the building?

angore: Germany gets confusing to me real fast. I've avoided a collection of such for a long time because of that. However, maturity and my recent desire to focus my collecting efforts a bit more on particular stamp issuing entities has put DDR in a light that is intriguing. I like that there's a definite beginning and end. And I do not mind the CTOs one bit.

From Germany I used to collect those stamps only,what were valid for postage in my home-town Essen.
i.e. Prussia,North-German Confederation,Deutsches Reich,Common Occupation issues after WW II and Federal Republic.
Plus all (West-) Berlin,except the 1948 overprints,DDR (GDR) DM-issues and the few issues of the French Zone,what were also
valid for postage in the whole FRG.
However I always had liked the stamps of "the other Germany".
So after having returned from South-America,I treated myself with buying a DDR-collection.It is,apart from the service-stamps complete,Other than intended before,I left the binders intact,because,made in the GDR,they represent some of the history of "the other german state".
I am glad that I bought that collection,as it gives me much pleasure to have a close look to the stamps.