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.

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 . . .

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.

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.

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!