Been away for a while, but I'm glad to be back....(ebay user formerly known as spain_1850)

[rbpuzzles]

Hey hey, looks like the gang, for the most part, is all here again!

I've sort of been collecting off and on for the past 10 years or so, but recently decided for a change. Most of the old timers here may remember I was into Spanish stamps. Well, I have been slowly selling off items and reducing my Spanish collection and using those funds to get mew started in the fascinating world of Danish and Swedish stamps. I've been on a few buying "binges" (accumulating) while I get my feet wet in this new area. Mostly small-medium collections and lots, nothing too specialized yet. Now I have a pile of new stuff that I am currently sortingthrough. Also designing custom album pages for both of these countries using Album Easy software.

Nice to see so many familar faces here.

[antonius-ra]

Richard,  Good to see you!  Pretty slow around here really, it's far from the good ole days. As far as Sweden and Denmark go they have been over valued in Scott for a couple decades and the market is poor on them, especaily Sweden.  Don't pay to much for what you get.  In most cases you should be able to get most of the stamps for 10-15% of cat. if you look around and have patience.

[rbpuzzles]

Mitchell, thank you!

So far I've noticed everything you say to be pretty spot on. Mostly I've been trying to pick up lots and small collections, to get as much of the bulk out of the way as I can. The earlies seem to do better when they have a really nice postmark on them, at least for Sweden. Nice, well cenetered, early Denmark seems to do better as well. But most set's and singles are pretty cheap. This is one of the reasons I chose these areas to collect. I'm also wanting to get more involved in the bi-colored issues of Denmark and the ring types of Sweden. There is just an amazing amount of varieties, and color variations, not to mention all the postmarks. It t was actually the postmarks that initially sparked my interest in both areas. Well, that and all the nicely engraved issues from Sweden, especially from Slania.

[billsey]

I've been active with Denmark and Norway recently and I agree with Mitch, except for the stuff I need, which is inevitably priced too high and faulty to boot. 🙂

I've created my pages for Denmark, expanding enough to cover printings on the early issues and thick/inverted frames on the bicolors. Missing both printings of the 2RBS and a couple of the perf 12½ Emblems along with a handful of others to 1940. I've created pages for the numeral in rings cancels on the 1864 4sk and have about 10% of them, plus pages for vending machine se-tenents, tet-beche pairs with and without gutters and booklet panes.

For Norway I started with a collection I bought in a Schaubek hingeless album that was quite specialized and I'm collecting to the album instead of my usual process of creating my own pages. It's sometimes difficult to figure out what exactly the varieties are that have spaces in the album, since it doesn't seem to match either the specialized catalog for Norway or Facit... I assume it's Michel, but I don't have those volumes handy. I do have some of the handbooks that cover printings of the posthorn issues, so eventually I'll be able to puzzle them out.

[rbpuzzles]

That's pretty much how I am wanting to create my pages. The The early imperf Danish issues, I'm ony going to make pages to include color and shade variations. The bi-colors will include the frame variations, wmk variations & colors and shades (at least the obvoius ones). I will also be including spaces for both mint and used, starting with the bi-colors. I'm kind of going by the Facit catalog as far as variations go, but also taking into account Scott Classic Specialized, and is badly lacking. Everything later for Denmark will be mint and used as well. I haven't figured out a cutoff yet, maybe 1995 or 2000.

Sweden will be a little different. The early coat of Arms issues will just include shades. The 1855 issues will just include a single space for each since I'll probably never be able to afford more than 1 of each. My ring types will include color variations only, but starting with these they will be mint and used, like Denmark. Then it gets complicated with all the booklets, booklet singles, booklet paris, coils, souvenir sheets, etc....  I am still mulling over how I want to proceed with all this. I still want o have spaces for both mint and used singles, but not sure how much else I want to include. And with well over 2000 different stamps somewhere around the year 2000, that would make one humongous stamp album, especially with mint and used of everything.

Then there is the fun stuff like perfins, and town cancels, which I also intend to pursue. Maybe even get into plating the Danish Bi-colors......but wh knows I may not live long enough to see all this accomplished.

Right now i am selling Spanish items and using that money to fund these new collections. One thing I discovered.............you only need to sell a handful of better Spanish items, and you can buy a whole lot of Swedish and Danish items, which is nice.

[billsey]

If you have access to inDesign (I'm using CS4 and several versions don't like each other) I can send you the sources for my pages. I suggest increasing your specialization for the early imperfs since so many can be found cheaply. Other than the 2RBS and the 16sk it's pretty easy to get each printing and shade figured out. Facit is quite good at showing the differences between printings.

[sheryll*net]

Richard - Welcome back! Glad all is well.

If you don't mind my asking, how do you feel when you sell off a Spain item?

I recall you sold some of your nicer stuff some years ago but regretted it.

At present I am not acquiring New Hebrides material because of the cost and it being hard to find. I have instead been dabbling in easily available and cheap US oddities, and other areas which come from ideas for displays. Also, I have started selliing on eBay - mainly my husband's stuff. He does the stamps and books, and I do mostly covers (with his write-ups).

Have you seen my eUSC history write-up on webpages or as an exhibit at the NTSS show?

At the end of the webpages there is a "Where are they now?" page which gives the latest update on the "gang."

I have added you in. I hope others will drop in in due course.

I send out emails prior to each monthly meeting. If you are not getting them, please message me your preferred email address and I'll get you on the list. 🙂

Oh, the eUSC is also on Facebook! : )

Sheryll

[antonius-ra]

Bill,   I have Michel Scandinavia.  If you would like some pages copied, let me know

[rbpuzzles]

Hi Sheryll, and thank you!

When I first started selling off my Spanish collection I had mixed feelings about letting certain items go, almost like giving up a favorite pet. Even to the point of having sellers remorse not long afterward.

When I was really heavy into colelcting Spanish, I wanted literally everything related to Spanish stamps. Perfins, cancels, revenues, Civil War, stampless, whatever, I wanted it all. then I came to the realizatin I was really spreading my limited funds too thinly between Spanish and other side collections I also wanted to pursue. I decided enough was enough, some things got to go. So i decided I'd just start chippig away at the outermost rings of my collections, getting rid of things like duplicates, and really minor side collections. I intend to trim the fat, so to speak. Some of the items I'm selling I've had for well over 25 years...time to let someone else enjoy them.

When I get down to the one area I really might wanto continue with, it'll be a hard decision to make.

I had not seen the eUSC history page previously, but I have now. Pretty neat. It's hard to believe ithas come this far with all the modifications, and additins to it.

I wouldn't be getting the meeting emails right now because I have a totally new email address. Not too long ago my computer took literally stopped working which turned out to be the hard drive going bad. i lost a lot of information, including access to my main email address for some reason. i had to literally start over from scratch. I did have a backup on an external hard drive, but it was a bit old and I still was only able to restore a portion of my files.

I will message you my new email address shortly.

[billsey]

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@antonius-ra wrote:

Bill,   I have Michel Scandinavia.  If you would like some pages copied, let me know

 

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Thanks Mitch, Sheryll already showed me the relevant pages. The album is not based on Michel, Facit or Norgeskatalogen, unless on an older version that has a different level of specialization. There are shades shown for some of the early sets (plus a few blank places I'm filling with my own thoughts) and once you get into the posthorns there are places for the different printers and plates, but not for flyspecks, even 'major' flyspecks. There are places for singles from booklets, but not for booklet panes. I like the quality of the album overall, I'd just like it better if I didn't have to guess as much as to what goes where.

One thing I've chosen to do myself deals with the first issue. There aren't shades listed for the issue or print runs, but there are three extra places to put examples. I have an eleven bar circle cancel in the main position plus a ten bar cancel, a ring & numeral cancel and a CDS cancel to cover the three extras. I could ahve done a fat leg variety, but there weren't any more major varieties to find, so I stuck with cancels (the ten bar is the toughest I have). If I ever luck into a pen cancel or the fat leg I can always put two extra mounts on that page. 

[abt1950]

So good to see you back.

I'm not surprised that you didn't get the emails.  When I first put the list together to restart things , there were a lot of emails that bounced.  yours must have been one of them.  Since then, Sheryll cleaned the list up and has been holding down the fort for awhile.  Glad to know that you'll be on the list again.

So you're doing Sweden (and Denmark) now?  The mega I go on so many Swedish stamps are gorgeous.  it's almost a shame to collect them used.  Obviously an excuse to double collect.

Anne in NJ

[rbpuzzles]

Thanks Anne! Nice to see another familiar face.

Yes, that was my though exactly about colelcting Sweden. I actually fell in love with the earlies, especially the postmarks, and was only going to collect them. Then I saw so many nicely engraved issues in the modern ones, well , that gave me an excuse to extend the collection to about the year 2000.

And yes Denmark as well. At some point I may extend to DWI and maybe even Iceland, but not for a while.

How is your Egypt collection coming?

[antonius-ra]

Bill,  I also have Stanley Gibbons Scandinavia.  It appears to have more information on reprints and different perfs than Michel.  It is also understandable.

If you like some copies, let me know.

[abt1950]

Egypt isn't going at all.  I've pretty much gotten what I'm going to get without major expenditures.  I still want to make album pages, but the thrill is gone.  Luxembourg is the same.  I can't bear to part with them yet, however.

So I'm looking around for other countries.. Malta,  Austria, Iceland, and Greece are potential areas.  Maybe even Sweden, since I bought a collection years ago.  But I haven't looked at it in years.  Whoever put it together glued both the top and bottom of the mounts to the album page!?!   I'm not buying anything right now (except an occasional lot of kiloware).  

My stamp desk is currently under a closet's full of clothing and other stuff from a closet.   We needed access to the pipes buried in th closet.  Nothing happens until after the desk is excavated.

anne in Nj

[billsey]

I haven't started yet, but Greece looks like it could be quite fun. 🙂