New Weeda Bidboard up

Beverly Fox, at Weeda Stamps, Ltd., has a weekly online bidboard of about 150 items that's posted on her site every Saturday. I've sold stamps through Weeda, and bought stamps from Weeda. In fact, I'm still working through one lot I received from Beverly about three weeks ago. The bidding is simple: each item has a minimum bid of $10. You can register online, and begin bidding as soon as your registration is approved. She does the best of just about anyone at illustrating most lots. I've been disappointed with lots from Weeda exactly twice in seven years, and both times it was because I hoped the items for sale were different than what was advertised. Stop by her site, check out her bidboard, and tell her I sent you. It won't change the price of anything, but it'll make both of us happy!

Blog slogging

The world is a crazy place. According to the calendar, it's spring. According to the inch of new snow on top of my car this morning, it's still winter. This is Colorado, and that's not terribly unusual. As one wit quipped, this is the only state where you can truly experience four seasons, sometimes in the same afternoon.

The weather isn't fun for me, because I have osteoarthritis in half or more of my joints. This kind of weather makes me reach for the pain reliever - often. Working on stamps - and now on my stamp blog - helps take my mind off my problems, and makes me focus on what I'm doing.

I'm still working on the box I bought from Shayne. It's been a VERY good box for my collection. I was missing about 14 of the Silver Wedding Anniversary low-values. All the ones I was missing were in the box, sometimes in both mint and used copies. There was a complete, lightly-hinged mint set from Bermuda (Scott 175-91, the 1962-65 definitives), and a fine used copy of Scott #58, the 3d violet and yellow on chalky paper, also from Bermuda. I now have both the first and second definitive sets of Bermuda complete. I now need about half of the decimal conversion (surcharged) issue, the $3 Chalice cup flower definitive, and three of the Bermudas Fauna series. I have about half the commemoratives through about 1985, and maybe 20% of the ones after that. I like the stamps of Bermuda - it's a fun country to collect!

How about this? This was in there, too. Gorgeous stamp, isn't it? Near-perfect centering, beautiful color, four margins (barely)...





Unfortunately, it's an excellent reproduction of the redrawn die, which was never issued in black. It's probably a forgery or a piece from a stamp exhibit sheet. I have an Australian sheet like that, here:




The real stamps would be worth $4000. The sheet was sent to me by a friend in Australia I'd been stationed with at Tan Son Nhut AB, Vietnam, in 1970-71, and cost my friend less than $4. This sheet is probably about the closest I'll ever get to the real things... But miracles do happen, and there's always hope. That's one reason why I love "mystery boxes", "old dealer's stock", and "unsorted mission mixture". I've found good, high-value stamps in almost all of them at one time or another, and that's always exciting. The thrill of the search is often more enjoyable than the actual find, but a a true 'find' now and then adds spice to the search!

One step forward, two steps back

I've been trying to create a spreadsheet-based inventory of my collection, and a separate one to inventory what I have for trade. I have tons of stamps left over from when I tried to make a living as a dealer (I had enough material, it just wasn't what people wanted, and was too cheap to make a living on the tiny profit margin I had). I want to put them all into an Excel spreadsheet, and forward a CD with the data on it to my trading partners.

Excel doesn't like several thousand entries, each with calculations and each affecting a final sum. My last attempt at saving my spreadsheet took almost an hour. I tried to do it in Quattro Pro, but that didn't work very well, either. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open... I've already broken the spreadsheet down into three pages, because I have more than 75,000 DIFFERENT duplicate stamps for trade.

Another hoard to sort through...

I just got back home about an hour ago after visiting my favorite Colorado Springs stamp dealer, Shayne Clinard. Shayne bought out another friend of mine, Santos Alvarado, and moved into Santos' old shop near downtown Colorado Springs. He has some true bargains now and then, and today I picked up one.

Shayne buys stamps some way I haven't figured out yet, but he must get a good deal. He sells better material on eBay, and offers the "leavings" to local buyers. The box I bought today contained a stock sheet virtually covered with the low values of the Silver Wedding Anniversary issue of George VI, a half-dozen pages from an old approval book (Latvia, Lithuania, Fiume, Hungary, Bavaria, Poland), about 20 French covers from the late 1960's, about a dozen complete sets from various countries, including several George VI Coronation issues, and around 150 glassines with sets, singles, and accumulations from some 50 countries, and a handful of loose stamps on and off paper. There are also about 30 dealer's stock sheets with South Africa stamps, mostly from the 30's through the 50's, and back of the book (LOTS of setenant pairs!). There are also two White Ace album pages with the American Stamp Dealer's Association show labels for 1949 through 1952 (4 sets of 4 stamps each). Unfortunately, they're stuck down to the album page.

As I get some of this sorted down, I'll be adding the stamps I don't need to my trade lists. There are several stamps here worth more than a few dollars, and several complete sets I know are duplicates. There were three complete sets of Montenegro 45-56, mint hinged (2003 Scott - $3.25). I haven't checked them yet to see if the perf 11.5 varieties are included, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I hope to have a blogroll up later this evening, and a link to my stamp trading list.

Welcome to "Heavily Cancelled"

Welcome aboard. This is my blog that is targeted solely toward postage stamps, stamp collecting, exchanging stamps, and buying and selling stamps. At the moment, I don't know anyone else who is specifically blogging about stamps. If I find someone else, I'll add them to a blogroll on the left. If YOU, the readers of this blog, know of anyone who has a weblog about postage stamps, please let me know, and send me the URL of their weblog.

I will try to find a few links to non-blogging websites as well as bloggers. I'll be posting some links to such well-known stamp sites as Linn's Stamp News, Joe Luft's link pages, the Stamp Trading List, and many more, just as soon as I can find the time. I'll also post some links to my favorite sources of stamps and stamp collecting, as well.

Please don't hesitate to email me about anything that appears on these pages.