Never say die - part 2

Kostadin comes from Bulgaria. He first contacted me in March of 2010, three months ago. He wanted initially to exchange either New Zealand or Japanese stamps for Bulgarian. However, even though he contacted me first, he insisted on me sending first because he claimed to have been cheated many times in the past. Okay, I thought, I will - just to show that there are still a few honest people in the world.                                                                                                                   

The two of us have had quite an interesting exchange of emails. We spoke of Kotooshu, the Bulgarian sumo wrestler who is doing quite well in Japan, and who shares my birthday. I asked Kostadin if he had featured on a Bulgarian stamps yet, but apparently you have to be a 'Hero of the Republic' before that can happen in his country.

I'm sure that we are going to exchange more stamps, now that a foundation of trust has been laid.

Never say die - part 1

There were two exchanges where I sent some stamps first and then waited for the return post. Just as I was about to write them off, both arrived in the mail on the same day. Maybe they had met up en route and gone off on a holiday together. In any case, after two months they turned up alive.

The first is from a Japanese gentleman by the tongue-twisting name of Toshikazu Yoshizato. All I know about him is that he lives in Kyoto, a city through which I have passed. His letter was on a template, so I guess that Toshi is an active collector.

I used the envelope as the header for this blog, but the stamps inside are just as nice. There were many that I did not have yet.

Surrealistic political sauce

No, I do not have this mini-sheet that features the late Frank Zappa. But I wouldn't be surprised if Krzysztof (Chris) Marciniak does. He is a fan of rock music in general and Zappa in particular. He recommends the albums: Bongo Fury, One Size Fits All, Zoot Allures, Joe's Garage and Sheikh Yerbouti. Chris shares "fathernity" with me. Our baby daughters do not cry, and leave us with plenty of opportunity to listen to music and collect stamps!

My second letter from Mr Prioytet Prioritaire in Poland. Note the cat stamp on the top right of the envelope. Now, I like cats too, but for the life of me I can't understand that so many countries put them on their stamps (and that includes NZ). Is it just me?

Chris's letters are always interesting to read. He includes a name/address sticker to place on the return envelope. That is a good idea for people like me who are concurrently exchanging many letters world-wide. It lets me know that I have yet to reply. I've asked Chris please to be patient (he has no choice).

As before, enclosed was a selection of stamps from small countries such San Marino, Latvia, Ireland, Israel (surprisingly attractive), Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Kuwait and the Dominican Republic, a recent favorite. Chris has been there on holiday and says that it has a "surrealistic political sauce". 

Sounds yummy!

Long lists and plain, unmarked envelopes

Behram Kabraji is from India. He contacted me about exchanging recent New Zealand stamps for Indian. He is also interested in stamps from Australia, Canada, Singapore, Great Britain, Mauritius and Hong Kong. His records for the stamps he owns appear to be very complete, and he has sent me various want lists covering different periods. He is on contact with other collectors also helping him with filling out his sets, many of which of which he only has the lowest value. You and me both!

Security might be a bit of an issue for him, as he suggests that I send my stamps between thin card in a plain envelope with very ordinary stamps used as postage.

One service Behram has already done for me is to inform me about the site: www.freestampcatalogue.com I am going there now to explore . . .

Long white clouds and rising sun

My wonderful sister-in-law collected some stamps for me from her workplace from colleagues, as I understand it. Rumi works at City Hall in Japan. My wife had spread the word through Mixi - a Japanese type of FaceBook - that I saved stamps, and her twin sister was the first to respond to the call. Rumi, thank you very, very much for this. I really appreciate your efforts. I look forward to meeting you and the rest of the family again after 5 years next September when we visit Japan.


There are almost 50 stamps here, selected to exclude the most common. I think what I will do is send a few packets of New Zealand stamps that Rumi's co-workers may take home to their their children or relatives that collect stamps. Perhaps we could get some more exchanges happening between the land of the long white cloud and the land of the rising sun.

Like a hacienda on fire

After initial hiccoughs concerning delayed envelopes and miss-addressed lots Luis and I are going well with our exchanges. This is the 3rd envelope that I've received from him.

For some reason, Luis has plenty of Japanese stamps to send. That makes me happy. He also has plenty of New Zealand stamps - 1500 to 1600 thanks to other collectors. He asks me what other countries I have stamps from.

I have every country (apart from rare ones). My problem is that I haven't sorted them out. That will take me years. You could call it my never-ending story. I'll get Luis to nominate a country or two, ad I'll see what I come up with.

New New Zealand

Just like the Boy Scouts, I prefer to be prepared. My aim is to have my New Zealand duplicates all sorted and counted and placed into lots ready to exchange with collectors overseas. The above lot represents the 50 NZ stamps I currently have the most duplicates of. This replaces the earlier selection of a few months back.

In addition to these I have a lesser number of duplicates of a greater number of issues - several hundred, in fact. But for the first exchange, especially if I am to be the one who sends first, the above are what I shall send first.

Thirty-three comes up trumps

I've dealt with Dean Brown before. He deals with stamps in bulk - is sorting his way through a 40 pound box - and does me the honour of sending large quantities of them my way. His rationale is to convert his duplicates into stamps that might attract his kids.

I hope he's not fighting a losing battle. His girls have reached the stage of being interested in boys ipods, cell phones and texting. They want to take a break from stamps collecting. As a father that makes you want to cry. Only one thing for it Dean, adopt me!

Just a comment or two about some of the stamps I received: one stamps from Holland was the one above (the picture is from the Internet). The stamps is a common one, overprinted with the Dutch word 'watersnood' meaning water need. It came out in 1953, the year that there was a breach of the dyke system and a huge flood in the country. The following year my mother immigrated to New Zealand where she met Dad, who had also immigrated a few years earlier from a different part of The Netherlands.

I was also very pleased with a selection of stamps from the Domincan Republic. I've been interested in them ever since I bought one featuring President Trujillo from a circuit book a few months ago. I don't know - they have that indefinable air of authenticity.

Keeping track

I need to use a system for keeping track of my exchanges. Suddenly, while writing this post, I wonder if I've responded to Rafak Dobrowolski's letter of a couple of weeks back. I was to send him 150 New Zealand stamps in exchange for the same number that he sent me from Poland. Rafak is also interested in stamps from Brunei, Timor, Myanmar, Taiwan and the Pacific Islands, so next time I'll see if I have duplicates from those places.

I've since learned that Rafak received the stamps I sent him, and that he likes them. There were floods in his part of the world which prevented him from replying earlier.

Everything under the sun

I'm up to the number 31 with my exchanges, but that lags the 49 or so emails I've exchanged with Kalkie, a 12-year old from Ireland. We talk about sports, travel, getting into the newspaper, family etc. Sometimes we even talk about stamps!

For our second trade I experienced a first: being sent a few stamps from my own country. I have since received a few from someone else - I forget who from. In the stamps above there are some from Ireland that feature birds which remind me in stye of the NZ bird stamps of several years back. I wonder, which country was first?

First class letter: first class stamps

Unexpectedly, a letter arrived out of the blue, the second packet for exchange from Thomas in Sweden. As like last time, the envelope was covered with stamps on the front and on the reverse (and a prioritaire first class sticker). It would have been fitting had there been 30, as the envelope is the 30th with stamps that I'm exchanging. In fact, there were 35 - and another block of 50 on the back!

Looking back, I realize that this is the second half of the original exchange. I'd sent double the number of NZ stamps (100) against the first batch of 50. Nevertheless, with Thomas's extra postage I feel that I'm in a position of obligation.

 

Thomas apologizes for sending more Swedish stamps. He doesn't need to. The stamps he encloses here include some of the best engraved stamps I've ever seen. Take a look at the 13 stamps below. What's the word for 'wunderbahr' in Swedish? 

Work gets in the way

'Nova Zealandia' looks so much more interesting than 'New Zealand', don't you think? That's how they write it in Portugal, the country that is actually exactly on the other side of my home city. Joao spelled it that way on the envelope he sent me with 50 Portuguese stamps.

As well as the 50 stamps, Joao also included three minisheets. He is interested in receiving NZ only, as another friend from Australia sends him stamps from that part of 'Downunder' from there.

Joao works several hundred kilometres away from home, so he is away for eight or nine days at a time. I would imagine that it is quite a thrill to open the mainbox on his return! I'll do my best to contribute my bit towards the excitement.

Non-smoking household

I had upped the 100 stamps Bruno and I had agreed to exchange at his suggestion by returning 200 (from various island nations: Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji etc). He would then send me the second hundred (as he had already sent me the first) and it would save me postage. That made eminent sense to me.

But then I started to get cold feet. I worried that my duplicates weren't up to his very high standards. I emailed Bruno to send me back fewer - say 80 or 70 - if he felt that there was an imbalance.

Sure enough, my friend found some fault or other with as many as half of the stamps that I'd sent. Some stamps were definitives instead of commemoratives and so on. How mortifying! But he let me get away with it, saying that he excused me as a beginner. 

But I think everything has evened out. In Bruno's second lot there were a number of more ordinary, common stamps - stamps from Holland and Germany that I remember being among the first I collected as a boy. That's okay. I expect a mixture of good and bad when exchanging duplicates.

One think stayed with me, however. Bruno warned me about storing stamps in a damp environment. 

"Take care because all your stamps are smelling humidity, you should keep them away from humide places." 

A vision of my friend sniffing the contents of my envelope comes unbidden to mind. Do my stamps smell like truffles? 

Myself, I have noticed a certain perfume about packets of stamps that arrive. And now I have an idea why some stamp lots offered for sale over the Internet are advertised as coming from a smoke-free home. In our household we don't use perfumes or scents, and we hardly even use soap (we have never used any on our baby). But no one smokes either, and my stamps don't reek of tobacco. That, at least, I can guarantee!  

New girlfriend

"It's a letter from my girlfriend," I joked to my wife as I brought in the mail. I'd been expecting stamps from Japan, as I'd agreed to exchange some with two people there. I had thought that both of them were male, but a pretty kitty on the cover proved me wrong about at least one.

 
Nagisa Okazoe is not obviously a woman's name. But later by email she confirmed that she was. Nagisa started collecting stamps 7 years ago. She likes those with Disney characters. As this is my 28th exchange, it would have been poetic if that was her age, but Nagisa is 22, just a year younger than my oldest daughter.

A few of the stamps she sent me featured anime characters, but I'm afraid that the ones I sent her did not. Nagisa had asked for New Zealand stamps, and as far as I know this country has never paid homage to Walt.

Spanish castle magic

Luis's excyhange from Spain is the 27th, but it is the first not to have any stamp on the envelope. There was also no letter inside, but the 60 Japanese stamps that he sent me more than made up for that.Actually, this is part two of a double-stamp-exchange. Earlier, Luis had muddled up a couple of envelopes, addressing both to me instead of one each to me and Mr. Yoon. "Just keep both of them," he wrote me. And so I did. And I also sent 120 NZ stamps in exchange.

However, I will include a few extra stamps in my next transaction with Luis, as I think that his Japanese stamps are so very fine. And he tells me that he has more . . .

Czech these out

In response to my request, for his second exchange with me (and my 26th altogether), my friend Vaclav sent me 100 Japanese stamps. He wrote for me to select those that I could use, and to send the rest back. Even though I have well over a thousand stamps from that country, 79 of Vaclav's stamps were new to me, so naturally I kept them!

I still owe Vaclav from the time before. He had most of the stamps I sent then, so this time I worked from his want list of recent New Zealand stamps (Vaclav collects NZ stamps after 1953 - the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II?). 

It's a pity that stamps are produced so quickly today. It took me ages to plough through NZ's recent decades. Really, there are too many. I personally will keep the later issues of this country, but I won't actively hunt after them. 1970 is my cut-off date.

As for Japanese stamps, though, the more the merrier. On the same day that Vacav's Japanese stamps arrived, I received another letter with more of the same!

Mad on Madagascar

The very first person to contact me through my Stamp Paradise ad was Linda Salzman from South Africa (actually she lives in Mozambique in a remote area, but her mail reaches her from S.A., taking up to two or three months!).

Linda and I became friends through a long exchange of emails. It took us an enjoyable age, deciding what to send one another. Linda sent me scans of her duplicates, and also of the varieties of earlier South African stamps, which was very educational, but after discovering that I actually had several envelopes full of stamps from that part of the world I chose mainly German stamps plus Mozambique and Madagascar.

Both of us prefer older stamps. Linda sent me her list of pre-1980 New Zealand stamps, and I was able to work through it and add 100 to that total. I look forward to further exchanges between the two of us.

Double dozen from Denmark

This is the letter I received from Andreas Andresen from Denmark. He contacted me quite a long time ago, but I had to put him on hold because other people were in my queue. But since Andreas was keen to have Japanese stamps, and because I had already sorted out that country, he jumped a few places.

According to his letter, Andreas has stamps from other Scandanavian countries, and also from the rest of Europe. I shall contact him again once I catch my breath after how many exchanges am I up to now? Twenty-four?

I've tried to properly display the above stamps to do them justice, but I wasn't successful. There were/are many good-looking stamps in the envelope, which raises my rating of the stamps from that part of the world.