Catch 22 (and what a catch!)

I was a little apprehensive concerning my 22nd exchange. I had agreed to return 500-odd stamps for approximately the same number. Would I be able to rustle up that quantity on my side? I determined not to let myself loose on the parcel that Dean Brown sent me until I had at least reciprocated in kind.

Dean had originally contacted me on behalf of his kids. He has a forty pound box filled with all sorts of stuff - donated, and broken down collections - that he keeps for a kids' stamp club. He is interested in exchanging the stuff they aren't interested in for pretty stamps, anime, and topical along the lines of monkeys, frogs etc.

Much of the first lot I received is British Commonwealth, but with decent dollops of worldwide New Foundland, Nauru, Bermuda, Barbados, Latin America, China, old Canada, USA, Spain . . . Too much and too many to describe (I'd rather be sorting and identifying if the truth be known (what country might HRVATSKA be? Thanks to Armin I now know that it refers to Croatia).

Dean asked for nothing of his lot to be returned, but for me to pass along anything that I didn't need. I won't pass on his philosophy though; I would rather adopt it. He wish is for the exchanging business to be fun - i.e. not a business - and for everyone concerned to end up happy. He wrote:

I want you to be more than happy with the stamps I send you. If you are not "PLEASE LET ME KNOW". I want you to feel you are getting a far or great trade with me. 

Isn't that a refreshing attitude? Dean isn't interested in tallying up exact numbers or quantifying the price. If he sends $100 worth, and I send $50, then the next time it may be $50 for $100. I am hopeful that we will continue trading, and that the never-ending box never runs dry! 

Finally, Dean joked about the Boss, A.K.A the wife, being a bit disgruntled with his hobby. But I know she supports him as she is the one that goes to post the mail. Good on both of the Browns for encouraging stamp collecting in the younger generation. I tip my hat off for you guys.

Twenty-one/twelve

Several times I've been surprised in the course of collecting and exchanging stamps online. I don't know why, but I tend to assume that other collectors will be male. More than once I've discovered that not to be the case, and I've had to make hasty revisions to this blog! Along the same lines, I've been pleasantly surprised to learn that two or three of the people that have contacted me are children, which means that there is hope for philately to continue as a hobby. 

            

Armin is  twelve, and his letter was the start of my twenty-first exchange. Armin is helped by his father - also a collector. Armin and I exchanged 60 stamps from Germany and New Zealand.           

German in the Ukraine

Sometimes you've got to be a little trusting. It can't be easy for people to write emails in English if it isn't their first language. They may come across as demanding, impatient, impolite or dominating only because they haven't the right phrases or words. I always write back whenever anyone contacts me asking to exchange stamps. If they respond, that generally means that they are genuine.

My 20th trade is the first time I've ever corresponded with anyone in the Ukraine. I couldn't even tell you where exactly that country lies on the map. It feels 'cool' to receive a letter from there. In her letter - yes, another woman - Maryna Davydova sent a mix of stamps from various countries. I learned that she is a language teacher, the same as me. She teaches German.

Some of them I already have (the French and German) but I really like the North Vietnamese stamps, and also those from Poland. 

WOL to WOL carpet of Polish stamps

This is/has been the 19th exchange of stamps for me online. It was with another woman, Marian Dabrowski from Poland. I see that she comes from a place called WOLOMIN, whose first three letters are the same as those of my name: William Otte Lucas.

At first when Marian contacted me I said that I could not, as I had agreed to exchange with too many other people. But then she wrote back, "too bad, because I am looking for stamps from the region". That made me feel bad, so I changed my mind. I guess the lesson is not to give up immediately, and that continued communication pays off.

 
In the envelope I discovered a postcard that seems to commemorate a military event from WWI. There was also a mini-sheet/block of a single stamp. Also included was a very neatly written letter. I wish that I could write so well.

I'm surprised how many collectors are women. I'd always thought that philately was something that mainly men were attracted to. Anyway, Marian sent me some very attractive stamps from Poland. Almost too attractive, actually. I believe that they are cancelled to order, because they still have the adhesive gum on the back. 

Vote for Guglielmo!

With her first email Micol intrigued me. She spoke of a system of sending and then having returned the stamps the other person already has along with the stamps being exchanged. She also spoke of trialing a system where stamps are scanned on a grid so that the other person can select exactly what she or he (it is important to know for sure) would like.                                                                                                         

We spoke - or wrote - in terms of swapping Italian for New Zealand or Japanese stamps. When I learned that Micol had a grand total of 21 Kiwi stamps, but 450 Japanese, I opted to send the NZ ones first. Even if I sent the 50 most common stamps she would receive at least 29 new! But I decided to send 71. She was guaranteed to be satisfied. Next time we'll try the grid approach.

"Don't worry that I enclose the stamps in a political pamphlet," Micol explained. "It is just for protection. I'm not voting for him." I'm not either. I returned the Kiwi stamps in the same piece of cardboard.
We learned we have language in common. Micol has to translate from Italian into English. Since she has to do it every day it naturally makes her "soooo bored". I sympathize with her. But Micol was kind enough to translate my name, William, into Italian. Guglielmo. Please vote for me!

Brasil or Brazil?

Most of the people active on Stamp Paradise seem to live in Europe, so when a man from Brasil (or Brazil?) asked me if I wanted to exchange stamps I agreed.

Before long I received my first letter - I believe - from the South American continent. Amazingly, in size Brasil is as large as the whole of the USA (minus Alaska). But here stamps are generally very small. Carlos Zeitune would have been aware of this, because from the start his ofer was to send 100 Brazilian for 70 large commemoratives.

See how, apart from the older bunch in the middle, the more recent stamps are quite 'European': monotonous, a lot of white, not very imaginative. But that is only one person's opinion. Shoot me down in flames if you disagree.

Dutch eel

Bertus Beelen comes from Eelde, a place in the Netherlands I'd never heard of, even though my parents are Dutch, and I have visited the country twice, once to cycle around it. Bertus, the 14th equal person to send me used postage stamps, informed me that Eelde was a little town a few kilometres south of Groningen, but that it had its own airport.

Through a mixture of Dutch and English (we could have used just English, as Bertus is fluent in it, but I wanted to try out the language I learned as a kid) we agreed to exchange 50 commemoratives from our respective countries. I wondered what they would look like . . .

Modern European postage stamps - also Australia, USA, Brazil - to seem to be converging to a common form. They have informal subjects (cartoons!?), using a lot of white as background and around the  edges. It's hard to tell at a glance which countries they might be from.

I prefer the older kind. They had/have more personality, dignity etc. And because they didn't come out so often it was possible to collect all of them.

I'm going to have to think about specializing . . .

In perfect condition from Espana

Inma has very neat writing, and she doesn't waste words (I think 'Inma' is a female name). Anyway, Inma sent me approximately 50 Spanish stamps to exchange for the same number of New Zealand stamps. She said that she didn't have many from my country, so I included some extra common definitives to boost her total.

She said that some of the stamps had the older currency, pesetas, but that now Spain uses the euro. I wonder in which year the switch occurred. New Zealand switched over to decimal currency in 1967.

Inma hoped that her stamps would reach me in perfect condition, and I am happy to report that, as you can see above, they have.

Four in one day

After the Easter break during which no mail was delivered - which almost drove me crazy - four letters from fellow philatelists arrived all on the one day, a record. So, in short order, the exchange tally has leapt from 14 to 17. I'll describe Bruno's first, since of all the stamps I've received to date, I like them the most (which is not to take anything away from any of my previous swappers). It's just that French and Italian stamps are consistently stylish.

A peek inside the packet was enough to be able to tell.

I arranged the stamps roughly on the kitchen table (taking care not to spill my cup of coffee) before zooming in for a closer look. These are what you call stamps.

Bruno was pleased that I like them, and he suggested I send 200 to save having to send 100 twice. I made up that number from countries in the Pacific and Caribbean, which I hope will be to his liking too.

(100 and) Thirteen - lucky for some!

Andras Csapo visited my blog after I sent him the link, asking whether I could feature his stamps.

"I would be pleased if you did so," Andras replied, "I . . . found there the letter and name of John Smith - I exchanged stamps with him in February."

The two share an interest in birds on stamps. Andras asked me for a selection of such stamps

 and also those that feature sports from anywhere in the world.  I chose a few from countries that sounded quite exotic to Andras - New Zealand, Japan, Kiribati, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Fiji - and they looked quite attractive, if I say so myself. 

The Hungarian stamps that my friend sent me first, a generous 113 instead of 100, live up to what I remembered from my boyhood, when I first started collecting. Then, Hungary and Poland had the largest, most colorful images. I know now that Hungary at least still does. 

I arranged them on the coffee table (photograph to come) and they easily covered more than half of it. I looked up some of them in my 1987 Stanley Gibbons catalogue, but they weren't easy to find. Up to 1985 the country has put out 3669 stamps (not counting the postage dues etc). Amazing! They must be a great letter-writing nation.

Many things in common (maybe 12?)

Chris (Krzysztof Marciniak from Poland) and I have much in common. We exchanged several emails exploring our many commonalities long before we spoke of commemoratives or exchanged residential addresses. 

Though we both have children in their twenties, we've each recently been blessed with a baby daughter (with a second wife). Concerning his latest addition - lately philately? - Chris wrote: "She's very wise and allows me to cope with philately". I'm not sure what he means by that, but it sounds good.

discovered that, as well as being doting dads, we both share a love for rock music - "Doors, Hendrix, U2 OK, but Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Frank Zappa . . . Himalayas of music!". We both gave up chess decades ago, but I'm trying to talk my new friend into the online version. He tried to sell me on the idea of skiing and fishing, but they are not really my thing.

But enough of gossip. Let's go onto what we're here for - stamps. These are the ones that Chris sent me:

Our exchange, after we finally swapped addresses, was of stamps from smaller countries.  I returned some from Fiji, Kiribati, the Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea and a few others. 

Mr Yoon misses out

Luis Salvador Sanchez Fernandez seems to be having as much trouble trying to keep his stamps exchanges sorted as I am. He had agreed to send me 60 Japanese Prefecture stamps for 60 New Zealand, but there was a bit of a muddle. My address was accidentally added to the envelope of 60 Spanish stamps meant for a Jake Yoon.

In the follow-up email Luis apologized for that. He suggested that I return the stamps along with the NZ ones I was to send him (he posted the Japanese stamps the next day) or, if I liked them, I could keep both lots. 

(Luis must have lots of Spanish stamps to trade. Make a note of that, all Spanish stamps collectors.) 

I did like them, so I have agreed to post off 120 Kiwi stamps for him. But I had better send of a photo first. I learned that Luis already has about 500 NZ stamps.

Ex the Czech Republic

I'm going to have to make it up to Vaclav Trpalek. He sent me 50 used stamps from Greece and Cyprus. In exchange I sent him 50 from New Zealand based upon my 'core New Zealand' set. I sent him this link for him to preview what I was sending. But his return email to say that he already had those stamps arrived too late.

But all is not lost. There other more recent stamps that I added to make up the numbers, and I also used about 6 stamps for postage. I can compensate the next time that we trade when I shall probably request stamps from the Czech Republic. I've suggested that he sends me a list of the NZ stamps he already has. (And if you need a 'Kiwi core' maybe contact Vaclav.)

As we say in NZ, Vaclav, I owe you one. The next round's on me!

Above are shown the 31 stamps that I have from the Czech Republic.

Finland pre-1980

My nineth trade comes from a man who is not interested in anything from the nineties onward (yes I know that I promised I wasn't going to make so much ado about numerical coincidences anymore). 

Jarmo Lahti from Finland shares my preference for older stamps, sending me 50 older larger Finnish commemoratives that did not overlap much with the stamps from Finland that two previous collectors have sent me. I agreed to send him the same number - from the same period - of larger New Zealand stamps.

But I've a question. When people ask for the larger stamps, I guess they mean commemoratives. But what if, as in the case of many NZ issues, the definitives are 'large' in size? Do I use my rule of thumb, or do I play each case by ear?

Caution advised

Several people warned me not to be too trusting when I started to exchange stamps. 'If the other person contacts you, he should send the stamps first', I was repeatedly advised. That sounded like good advice. It may not have been applied by the next person I was contacted by.

I don't know much about Uwe Jarstof. Not yet. All I know is that he lives in Germany, and he agreed to send me 50 German stamps as an initial trade. He has had some bad experiences with exchanging, so he insisted on this initial limit to the number of stamps. Later, when we know each other, we may exchange more.

This has been my eighth exchange. So far so good, touch wood.

From the Heart of a Scandinavian Winter

Fresh from the Scandinavian snow, hot out of the oven arrived a packet of stamps from Thomas Cohn, Sjobo, Sweden. The envelope that he sent me - the seventh so far - holds the record for the greatest number of postage stamps on its outside. On the front there are 14, and on the back there's a block of 5 by 10 (minus one). 

Thomas also writes the most formal-looking letter, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was a lawyer or judge. But at heart he's a regular guy. He bakes bread at home to keep the house warm, and then grumbles a little about the number of dirty dishes he creates!

Thomas is human in other ways too. He has a weak spot for older stamps with readable cancellations (as do I) and he is not a stickler for counting the exact number of stamps "Counting swapped stamps is not one of my strong sides". He is keen on collecting stamps, stationery and FDCs form the whole world "no lists, undamaged material only".