Zeitgeist

After a successful first exchange, Carlos sent me a second letter. The first time, he sent me Brazilian stamps for New Zealand. This time, knowing my preference for older stamps, he enclosed a selection of older Italian, Danish and Canadian.

The deal that Carlos proposed was 200 for 100. Writing this post reminds me that I have yet to fulfill my end of the bargain. A stamp blog is indeed a boon to those of of us who are not entirely organized. 

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!

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.

The Birdman of Seville

When someone who calls himself 'John Smith' contacts you from out of the blue, you don'tat first know whether to trust him. It's almost too common a name. This man, though, is definitely not ordinary. He and his wife are English, but they retired to sunny Spain, a land where the people take their holidays seriously. John managed to send me a dual selection of Italian and British stamps before Easter, but it may be that he has to wait until after then before mine reach him.

'D' stands for Dodo. The creature no longer exists, but if there are stamps of it then John is your man. He collects stamps that feature birds from at least two countries: New Zealand and Japan. Originally, John emailed me asking if I'd mind looking at his 'wants lists' to see if I had what he needed. I agreed, but John's needs are quite specific, and it's often only booklets or minisheets that fit his bill. As it turned out, I could only help him with 3 stamps (an official kiwi, a Japanese cormorant and one other) so I had to supply the balance as NZ commemoratives.

Italy and Great Britain produce stamps with quite a different feel to them. The UK ones were quite happy to line up and pose, but the Italian ones were all over the place!