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November 2016
Gibbons “Part One” released.
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For me the “event” of this month was the arrival of an air freight copy of the new 2017 Stanley Gibbons “Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps 1840-1970” catalogue. The 119th Edition in fact. I get a tad jaded with many things in this business, but am NOT jaded about receiving this monster each year! This volume is universally known to old-timers and the trade as the “Gibbons Part One” - as once, the other Volumes were numbered, and were “Americas” and “Asia” etc. It is the absolute “Bible” globally for British Commonwealth stamps. Forget Scott etc - they are meaningless for Commonwealth. |
New 2017 Gibbons “Part 1” Catalogue.
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The average collector buys
a new major catalogue only once every few years, as they are
expensive. For many dealers and collectors, being a few years out of
date is no big deal. THIS is definitely the year to update, if you have
not done so for a while! Lots of changes and updates in here. |
Colourful and vibrant SG.
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Lots of constant plate flaws, and booklets are now listed. And lots of inverted watermarks - for the UK all inverted and sideways watermarks are now listed for the FIRST time in here. Find just a really medium one from a country like Australia or UK, and the entire book will be readily paid for MANY times! Often stamps cat 10p each used are cat many £1,000s each with inverted watermark. |
“Man With Tail” Flaw ever popular.
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Throughout the book there are new and improved illustrations, helpful new notes on subjects as diverse as the early lithographs of British Guiana, and the 1962 Emancipation overprints of Tonga. There are several new watermark varieties, newly listed plate flaws and ‘used abroads’ and many stamps, previously listed without a price, are now given a valuation, for the first time. Major plate flaws are being added and priced all the time, as is shown in the page close up nearby. New varieties appear for this first time in this edition, some of which I suggested, such as the 1929 3d Airmail “Long Wing To Plane”. At £250 mint and £150 used, find just one of EITHER, in a junk lot or club circuit book, and this catalogue is easily paid for - INSTANTLY! Did you know the “Top Hat” flaw on the 6d Kookaburra is now cat £1,300 mint - up from £550 only 2 years before? A scarce and very popular flaw, and very seldom offered. Buy off someone foolishly using last year’s cat, or better still, the year before, and YOU win by £750! |
”Top
Hat” to £1,300 from £550.
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Or the “Man with Tail” on 1937 2d NSW is now £700 mint and £140 used. I found 2 used copies recently in a kid's collection - those 2 alone will literally pay for this catalogue. A very, very, popular variety, as it is VERY easy to spot with the naked eye - see photo nearby. |
Ever seen “Green Mist Retouch”?
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Were you aware a ½d Orange Kangaroo Coil Block of 4 is now Cat in SG at £950 mint? Or the “Green Mist Retouch” on the 1/- Lyrebird is up both mint and used to £4,250/£3000 etc. “Knowledge Is Power” - as I have typed here 1000 times! Did you know the 1941 1/- Lyrebird with inverted watermark is Cat £5,000 mint, and £4,000 used - but just 10p in normal used etc? And the equally common 4d green Koala with inverted watermark is exactly the same figure. Check your duplicates! Many are still out there to be found. Material from other Commonwealth countries is where this huge book comes into its own. Where else would you look up prices for KGVI Ceylon, or KEVII Bahamas, or a 1940 Pitcairn stamp booklet? They are ALL very valuable, as I will show you below, and all might be easily overlooked if you do not own this new book. |
Found in junk lot this week - $350
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The Ceylon 3¢ KGVI MUH pair shown nearby, I found in a junk lot last week, not noted as being other than a $5 pair of the lowest value of a definitive set, as it appeared to be. I listed it on my Rarity Page today for $A350, and it will sell fast, as it is cat £550. If you looked this up in the "Stamps Of The World" you'd only see 2 cheap stamps. It does not have a plate variety, design flaw, or printing flaw of any kind, or a watermark error or omission etc, or any kind of shade variety. So WHY it is listed in SG at £550 you may be asking yourself? Well unless you own this new "2017 Part 1" catalogue you will never know! There are legions of things listing in the “Part 1” that you will never, ever recognise as being of any value unless you own it. The Bahamas 6d brown KEVII illustrated nearby is a point of example. Most of us would not look twice at it on a page of Bahamas, this being a lower face value of minimal value. |
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It is in fact SG 66a King Edward VII, the “Deformed E” variety with a neat cds “NASSAU – AUG 09” and is cat £300. A sharp eyed Stampboards member fond it un-noted in a general collection and sold it to me, and it too is listed on my Rarity Page for $A275. There are many HUNDREDS of such small, but constant, flaws listed in this catalogue. Again I point out the screamingly obvious, that a single find of just ONE stamp like this, just ONCE in your lifetime, pays for this catalogue several times over. It is as simple as that. They VERY often are catalogued at £100s, if not £1,000s apiece, and many are overlooked by owners. |
Cat £300 - how good are YOUR eyes?
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Then there are the things that you see at times that look a bit interesting, but you have no idea of value. The Pitcairn Island stamp booklet illustrated nearby is a case in point. If you found one of these in an old lot, it is self-evident it has some good value - but WHAT value? WHERE do you look these weird things up - in the SG “Part 1” of course! For many years in the early 1980s, I ran facing full page ads in “Stamp News” and headed them as “The Pitcairn King”. I had more Pitcairn Island stamp material than anyone on earth. I handled all the rarities - but NEVER this booklet, of which only a few exist globally. I bought my first one in 35 years of dealing this month. It is Pitcairn Island 1940 KGVI 4/8d, SG #SB1, with black on deep green cover. Original 17mm staple intact, containing the original 1940 KGVI Definitive set of 8 to 2/6d (SG #1-8) with waxed interleaving between each stamp ‘pane’. |
Sold via a rowed longboat!
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The Pitcairn Island Postmaster Roy Clark offered these to the 2 or 3 times a year cruise boats that would anchor in deep water offshore, as souvenirs to bored tourists - so most were lost over time as they were very fragile and later tossed away in the ensuing 75 years. Issued during WW2, they got no philatelic publicity, only 500 were made, and totally sold out before WW2 ended. Remote Pitcairn Island (pop 60!) had no harbour, so a longboat was rowed out selling souvenirs - mostly large, hand painted soap tree leaves etc, or stamp FDC. These 2 books sold for $A6,500 apiece 9 years back at Spink USA – tinyurl.com/PitBks In the new cat, it is SG SB1, Cat £3,250 and my price is half that, so a nice book to stumble across! |
500 made, but only a few survive.
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Collectors are famously tight fisted with catalogues, but a strong and profitable SG catalogue division is ESSENTIAL for a strong and balanced world stamp market. Many totally forget that, so do your bit, and add to their sales volume. I have a “Free Global Freight” special promo on these catalogues this month! A great effort from editor Hugh Jefferies MBE and his Catalogue team - how they get the vast swag of SG Catalogues out each year, sure beats me! A never ending process, and juggling, logging, and tracking all the New Issues etc, must be an absolute nightmare. |
Australia Post parcels a nightmare.
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Australia Post’s barely functioning parcel sorting system is getting WORSE this year - if indeed that was possible. The IKEA kit form White Elephant machinery, purchased and approved by Ahmed “Chainsaw” Fahour, is an ongoing $500 million national disaster, and total disgrace. New equipment takes time to bed in - we all accept that, but this mad Dutch made Meccano Set, with all kinds of after-market software bolted on, that does not “talk” to each other, has been installed for a year or two now, but gets WORSE not better. A Boy Scout troop could I feel get these to work better than the AP techies have. Australia Post have just ONE core purpose in life - TO DELIVER MAIL. As speedily and cost efficiently as possible. A VERY simple Mission Statement. They have recorded a massive FAIL score in the past couple of years under the Fahour Regime, on both counts. They posted their first EVER loss recently. As a business that sends and receives a heap of mail, I am here to advise that Australia Post has totally lost the plot - during the past 18 months in particular. Near every mailing is now some kind of weird lottery. It gets very depressing, and it is getting WORSE. Buyers get annoyed at the SENDERS, and abuse us. |
16,000 kms: and still not delivered.
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Letters and parcels can often take SIX weeks to arrive domestically. Even within the same state. Things I mail even to the next suburb from me are going to WA and QLD and Darwin, and the PO of course is not accountable. They just yawn, mouth pre-worded excuses, and crank up the rates even more, and hand out bigger than ever obscene bonuses. No compensation is generally paid to users for these self-inflicted PO messes, and the HOURS of wasted time that businesses now need to expend each month - the constant emailing, and speaking to understandably annoyed buyers, and chasing up this inefficient Post Office is also not compensated in any way. |
Zimbabwe Efficiency at Norway Prices.
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We are getting Zimbabwe Level speed and efficiency of service, but are being charged Scandinavian level fees to get it. Things must change, and the mail users are the ones who can do that. The system is broken and has been for years. Contact the Communications Minster - this Fahour CEO is central to ALL the hair-brained policies and decisions. On the AP website there is a video of parcel mail zipping around a huge centre, in huge clear Perspex type tubes with conveyor belts in them. All with laser beam type scanners shooting beams onto all sides, searching for the tracking labels, and the postcode. Not a human being in sight. THAT is the issue. Once that scanning is done, the parcels allegedly are all sorted and sent on their way. And a box addressed to “2068” will go to ANY other 4 numeral destination the laser beams might “see” first on a box. My sender PO Box 4007 address sticker might get read as to Hamilton QLD, even if real address was to 5047 Adelaide etc. Humans are smarter than machines. So a parcel marked “Dandenong Vic 3175” does not get sent to Western Australia or Darwin by humans. Not even once usually, and certainly not repeatedly, as we see time and time again now. Machines do not care. They do not have a BRAIN. I heard this week Fahour is keen to privatise Australia Post - the same way Telstra and Medicare Private were spun off. The CEOs, AP big shots, and all their lawyer and banker and stockbroker mates in such floats often end up with $20 million or so in “success” bonuses and/or share placements and/or bonus shares etc, and ex Banker Fahour will be licking his chops at the thought of that. |
Postage Rates near doubled overnight.
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Our cash strapped Government, run by another ex-Banker, will sadly salivate at any opportunity that gives them a short, sharp, $50 BILLION cash injection to our massive deficit. A deficit that is spiralling out of control now the mining boom has ended, and Government is hamstrung in the Senate to pass any meaningful fund raising measures. |
Post Office to be sold off?
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Until 1975 The Postmasters General Department (“PMG”) ran both mail and phone services nationally. Then it was split into Telstra and Australia Post - we had the 2 x 10c stamps shown nearby issued to celebrate this, on July 1, 1975. The NEXT MONTH all hell broke loose, and a local letter near doubled from 10¢ to 18¢ in August 1975, and the ubiquitous 18¢ Wildflower was rush issued to cope. The Telstra spin off was massively profitable to Government. ‘T1’ raised $14 BILLION and the far larger ‘T2’ and ‘T3’ share offerings raised far more. In ‘T1’ in 1997, the Federal Government sold one third of its shares in Telstra for A$A14 Billion and publicly listed the company on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 1999, a further 16% of Telstra shares were sold to the public, leaving the Australian government with 51% ownership. In 2006, ‘T3’ was announced by the government and was the largest of the three public releases, reducing the government's ownership of Telstra to 17%. Selling off Australia Post is short sighted of course, but today Governments focus only on each elected term, and almost never for the future, or the long term good of the country. $50 Billion or whatever cash inflow in THIS Parliament is all that is focused on - forget about the long term harm a Post Office majority owned by DHL, or Japan Post, or Fedex, or China etc will cause. “Selling off the Farm” leaves nothing for future generations, but no-one seems to take that view. Fahour has VERY quietly hived off the leasehold of all the capital city GPOs. Did you know that, or read about it in the Media? Of course not - a one-off cash hit made the overall AP losses in there look less worse, but they are Blue Chip assets gone forever, that can NEVER be sold again. Sad. |
The “AMAZZN” Ahmed
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Fahour pockets $4 or $5 MILLION a year to “manage” this loss making disaster (10 times what USA Postmaster General is paid), and recently purchased a new Maserati. I know many will think I am making this next bit up, but I swear it is true. “The Australian Financial Review” reported our Lebanese Muslim Post Supremo bought a new Maserati with part of his obscene wage, and adorned it with personalised number plates of “AMAZZN”. |
Fahour the “AMAZZN” Maserati Revhead.
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I am not kidding. The carton nearby from the “AFR” lampoons those childish yobbo plates, and highlights what this man has done to rural Australia. Marginalising and closing down lots of Post Offices, that in rural Communities are often really the central social hub of the area, for all kind of things – banking, billpay, passports, mail etc. Australia’s highest-paid public servant, Ahmed Fahour, also plans to spend $4.5 million - the value of a most sizeable prestige home anywhere in this country - just on extending his massive mansion in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn. This to me has overtones of - “Nero Fiddles, Whilst Rome Burns.” Fahour bought the “Invergowrie” Manor three years ago for just over $A20 million, reported the Domain property tracking website. A few year’s pay, bonuses, and the inevitable massive payout when he is sacked/flicked or AP is floated off, will have paid for it pretty much it seems. Nice work if you can get it. As well as a new pool and landscaped garden, the Australia Post CEO has applied to expand the internal area of the colonial gothic-style riverside homestead, which was built in 1846 for James Palmer, the first Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Council. $4½ MILLION buys a few nice upgrades. It reminds me of that alleged Queen Marie Antoinette phrase - “Let Them Eat Cake” when the poor people of France complained the cost of bread was getting too expensive. We can all learn from history, and Mr Fahour might do well to read up on what happened to Marie Antoinette! |
Massive
AP salary buys Mansion.
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WE are all paying for this mansion of course. Mr Fahour this year succeeded in hoodwinking the Government to approve the cost of a normal first class letter to more than DOUBLE, from 70c to $1.50 from January 4 this year, and obfuscated the media so cunningly, that it was barely reported, as the entire country is on holiday at that time. |
Things have NEVER been worse.
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I am a large sender and receiver of letters and parcels domestically, and have been for my 35 years as a dealer. I am speaking below from long experience. Things have NEVER been as bad as they are now in Australia Post re massive delays, lost mail and inexplicable diverting of parcel post. We do not see this on the TV News, or in the daily papers, as the average person is unaware of what a mess they are now in. Please forward a link to this article to anyone in the media you can think of tinyurl.com/Glen11-16 : it is NOT too late to turn this mess around. Ten or 20 years ago, I’d happily mail or order a carton with no tracking, and be 99.99% sure it would be there next day, to/from anywhere in a 100km radius. And only a day or so later to/from Melbourne or Brisbane or Adelaide etc. You could bet the house of it - a fast, efficient, and very affordable system. They all arrived. Maybe one parcel a decade might go AWOL. An amazing record, and AP should be proud they ONCE did a good job. Yes it is pretty hard to lose a CARTON I agree, and so it always was. They all arrived. Mostly within a week. NOW a box mailed 50 miles away is likely to detour via a mail centre 3000 miles away. In recent years all that efficient service system has charged. Sadly. A bunch of fat cats at AP, paid wages in the Bill Gates league, have dragged the service standard back to levels never seen before. And yet doubled or trebled the cost to users - and somehow arrogantly think and pray we will not notice. Australia Post keeps hiking up parcel and International rates a couple of times EACH year, I kid you not. WAY in advance of the CPI and Inflation rate. If a private company doled out price rises on this consistent scale, the ACCC would be fining them! Did you know it costs $A2.95 to send a POSTCARD to Europe of the Americas from October 3? They tell no-one. |
Chullora Mail Centre Bottleneck
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Why? As AP do NOT need any Government approval for parcel and overseas mail price hikes, and hence charge whatever juicy figure comes into their head, when they need some more money for machines that do not work, or to pay vast sums of money in wages and bonuses to Top Brass who do not work either. All these price hikes are bad enough, but some geniuses in there, drawing mega million salaries, have also now decided that humans handling parcels are not really necessary, in this Brave New Fantasy World they live in. They found MACHINES that allegedly do it just as well, and with almost no “staff costs”. Well no wages are paid, but these shiny new machines cost $A500 MILLION it is reported. They seem to have overlooked that. That is a lot of wage hours of once very efficient sorters. |
Machines demand no holiday pay.
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Do these monsters work? NO. I often have Registered parcels across Sydney taking up to 2 or 3 weeks. I am not kidding. They get to the massive Chullora Mail Centre, and then sit there for a week, or two weeks at times. How do I know this? As I send nearly everything tracked mail. The Post Office’s own tracking data shows me that my box often arrives at Chullora on October 1, and then does not emerge for a week or two. It is like a bad Monty Python script, but is happening more and more. A parcel post “Black Hole”. The AP “Unhelp” line cannot tell me WHY they sit around for a week or so at Chullora. |
5 weeks in limbo : and counting.
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The Fats Cats at Australia Post appear to have decided all capital cities will “centralise” parcel mail - a disaster in practice of course, but a genius move on the whiteboard in the Boardroom. “No Staff Needed”. Time to have another cigar and Port and celebrate “Genius Mail Management 2016”. The online parcel tracking shown nearby, sent to a client within NSW, is a typical example as you can clearly see, and it is very common these days - very sadly. Almost normal. If it did not involve $500 of stamps, it would be something I’d laugh about. Zimbabwe service levels - for $25. I mailed a small box on Monday September 12 to a stampboards member in NSW. The red mail van collected it at 5.15pm and as you can see it was scanned through the massive Chullora Mail centre at 9.13 pm on same day, September 12. The address and postcode was VERY clearly written. My client is in Northern NSW and this box has driven past his door FOUR times already on PO trucks. |
Vanished into “Parcel Black Hole”.
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He did not get it after 2 weeks so phoned. Many $100s of albums and stamps, and was sent Registered - do check the PO website and see for yourself WHEN it ever arrived - the tracking number is 499778492016. $100 is the MAXIMUM compensation payable to either of us, if it has vanished entirely, or got wet, or damaged, on all this mad national travel. His order was $500, so WHO wears the loss? We both wasted much time on email over this. You are helpless, as these pieces just vanish into a huge faceless AP Black Hole. He phoned me, annoyed of course, and all I could do was assure him the box was mailed Registered. He phoned the PO “Unhelp Line” on September 27, a fortnight after my mailing, and of course they can do nothing. As you can see from the tracking shown nearby, the box went to Queensland, then to Winnellie Mail Centre in DARWIN NT! Then it for some reason goes from Darwin to Queensland, and back to Chullora in Sydney on September 27. Then a week later it arrives back in Darwin - 4,000 kms again by road, on October 6, and 4,000 kms more road travel later and it is BACK in Sydney on October 11. |
Parcel has done this FOUR times: so far.
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It is around 4,000 Kms by shortest road method from Sydney to Darwin, and is 44 hours of driving each trip, I kid you not - look it up on the Google map shown nearby! This box so far has made that trip FOUR times, or 16,000 kms, and we still have no idea where it is now. Take a look yourself, I am not making this up! - 499778492016 I am typing this on October 15, near 5 weeks since mailing the box, and have no idea WHERE the Magic Parcel will turn up next. Australia Post does not know or care, and so far they have sent a $25 paid parcel some 16,000 Kms that I know about. The actual COST to these idiots to do that, is probably 5 times what I paid them in postage. And they wonder WHY they are losing money??!! |
Five Weeks to travel the country.
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My poor client is still sitting in NSW having been charged for the goods FIVE weeks back, and neither of us have the slightest clue WHERE the box is now, and where it is headed next week, or next month. These people are accountable to no-one. They shrug it off as “bad luck buddy” and will hike the rates even further in a few months, with zero Government approval being needed. This madness did not used to happen, and now it happens all the time, and it MUST stop. All readers can do their bit to get this AP Lebanese rev-head kicked out the door, and some experienced managers appointed, that have actually worked in the Postal Service in the past. Years overdue sadly, but “better late than never”. Fahour seems universally REVILED by all I speak to. Post Offices, drivers, staffers and mail users etc. People at dinner parties even. Have never heard a single positive or friendly thing said about him, and you CANNOT head any large Corporation, if all those working in it despise you, and this gentleman seems to have achieved that distinction sadly. HE thinks he is: “AMAZZN”. Minister for Communication and Arts is Senator Mitch Fifield – minister@communications.gov.au and senator.fifield@aph.gov.au – contact him. Seeing the Senate is now controlled by a rag-tag bunch of non-mainstream Senators like Derryn Hinch, Pauline Hanson and Nick Xenophon and The Greens etc, also send emails to them suggesting this Fahour should be drop kicked back to where he came from, and a REAL CEO appointed, which might just get some action. Had I PAID for NT shipping for a box this size, the cost would be about $75 each way = $300 so far. Money AP have cost themselves of course due to incompetence. I highlighted one case recently here that crossed the Nullabor 5 times. The framed glass, signed Don Bradman photo contents got smashed and cut up during all that madness … and PO refused to pay even one cent in compensation. |
Like a Monty Python Script!
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And these geniuses at Australia Post wonder WHY they lose money? So to cover their own shortcomings, they crank up rates to customers to cover THEIR defective sorting machinery, AND give themselves millions in bonuses as well for new Maserati’s and $20m mansions. It is like a bad movie script. Sometimes things just vanish for 6 weeks with nothing to show buyer or seller what is going on. They are the worst ones. Totally vanished from sight. Pay $4 for Registered Fee, and huge parcel cost on top of that, and get near zero service. Buyer gets annoyed, and sender wastes hours checking the tracking. That Rego $100 max for $4 is a compensation level unchanged for OVER 50 YEARS of course, since BEFORE Decimal currency in 1966, where £50 compo became $100 max. Despite the cost of registered fee being cranked up 20 fold since then. Maximum needs to be lifted to $1,000, or a more sensible $2000. You need to PROVE the loss of course, so can’t make fake claims. |
Unchanged Compo for 50+ years.
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The photo nearby is of a 24¢ Registered pre-paid envelope from stock, that shows the very top £50 or $100 compensation payable, for loss or damage by the PO, all in the small type on face. Indeed even in the pre-Decimal era, the exact same £50 ($100) figure was payable - OVER HALF A CENTURY back. I offer “all risk” Marine Transit insurance for more valuable goods now, as in the event of any claim, is far quicker than dealing with Australia Post. For the cost of a Pizza, a $1,000 sending is fully covered for loss or damage, and is VERY cheap peace of mind. When parcels travel by road 16,000 kms as per above, a WISE move. |
Mint stamps & water don’t mix!
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Oddly many folks decline to do that, and WHEN the goods arrive soaked, having been somewhere wet in transit (never wise for mint stamps!) damaged, bent in two, or lost entirely etc, it suddenly becomes MY problem to sort and replace it free - trust me, that is the response near every time. WRONG. It is like booking a flight with an airline or a rental car and declining up front, the small cost insurance cover they all offer. Decline that, and later tell Qantas you missing the plane is their fault, or telling Avis you hitting the power pole or a BMW is their fault, and let me know how you fare! Registered mail DOES eventually arrive domestically, no argument there, but packets getting wet or damp in transit is of zero concern to Australia Post. A MUH 5/- CofA Roo is $1,000 retail, and a no gum one is $50 as “VFU” - and that is exactly what you have if it gets wet, and sticks to the stockcard. Transit Insurance for your pricier stamp purchases is just that. It gives peace of mind for a really tiny cost. It really should NOT be necessary, and decades back it really was not needed locally, but in 2016 it IS wise, until enough folks lobby AP to raise the $100 Reg’d compo to $1,000 or $2,000. Go for it! |
“STAMPEX ADELAIDE” 2016
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I flew down to Adelaide during October for the Annual STAMPEX show
there. Great exhibits as always, and a wide selection of dealers, both
local and interstate were in attendance, and all I spoke to were happy
with the results of the 3 day event.
Shown nearby is a photo I took of the Juzwin Brothers at left, Tony Shields at centre reverse, (all from Melbourne) and John Pearson from Pittwater Stamps in Sydney at right, who had QUITE a drive, to get his usual mountain of stock across to South Australia! |
Melbourne
and Sydney Dealers at STAMPEX.
The
show is held in a very central city location – the Torrens Parade Ground Drill
Hall, with lovely solid Jarrah Floors, right opposite the Adelaide Oval, and
Festival Theatre. Has easy free parking right out the front which is a pleasant
surprise from some interstate venues these days. Admission is free, which is
always a large plus.
South Australia had the entire state totally without power for a day or two, the
week before, due to cyclonic storms that totally destroyed the power network.
And created heavy flooding in many parts of the state for days thereafter.
SA state totally without power.
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STAMPEX President Martin Walker lives out in Gawler, and that was badly affected by rising river levels. He told me he had a knock on door from emergency Servies at 3am or whatever a couple of days before the show warning he might need to be evacuated from his home. He was madly tidying up final detail on STAMPEX, coping with a very sick pet, and completing his SA Revenues exhibit - which got the top award I understand. He was also badly short staffed at work, so was a mad week for him and many others down there it seems. Great to see things all went off without a hitch. Bumped into Tim R, an old client of mine from Mildura, who had been enticed by Stamboards members, especially Rod Perry, to try his hand at competitive exhibiting for the first time. His Commercial used 1960s Definitives on cover and parcel pieces etc, wowed the Judges, and he was only 3 points short of a debut Gold Medal. New exhibitors like that are the future of the hobby and he is now inspired to add to the exhibit and try his luck at the huge Melbourne 2017. President of that show Gary Brown told me in Adelaide that all dealer stands for the 2017 show had already sold out so it will be a boomer of an Exhibition, that seems certain. Details on APF website. |
Ozzie Show – NZ Sheets overprinted!
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A curious sidebar to STAMPEX was in the official show souvenirs. I supported the show as a Patron, both personally and on behalf of stampboards.com and the special numbered “STAMPEX 2016” Mini Sheets for the show were of a NEW ZEALAND recent set, and not an Australian one. Has never occurred before, as far as I know. The Patron packs had a bunch of quite superb material - numbered postcard sets, MUH overprinted Cinderella sheet of 10, a special numbered and overprinted cover with special ‘P’ stamps. Also a special Mint-marked PNC with Mint Certificate saying only 50 were done. The whole lot for a fairly modest price, and a good cause, so contact me if you seek them. An enjoyable show, and one I enjoy attending, and look forward to the next one! Onward to “MELBOURNE 2017” which will be here before we know it! |
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I am a Dealer Member in Good
Standing Of:
Full Time Stamp Dealer in Australia for over 35+ years.
Life Member - American Stamp Dealers' Association. (New York)
Also Member of: Philatelic Traders' Society.
(London)
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GLEN $TEPHEN$ Full Time Stamp Dealer in Australia for 35+ years.
Life Member - American Stamp Dealers' Association. (ASDA - New York) Also Member - Philatelic Traders' Society
(PTS London) and many other philatelic bodies.
ALL Postage + Insurance is extra. Visa/BankCard/MasterCard/Amex all OK, at NO fee, even for "Lay-Bys"! All lots offered are subject to my usual Conditions of Sale, copy upon request .Sydney's
"Lothlórien", 4 The Tor Walk, CASTLECRAG (Sydney), N.S.W. 2068 AustraliaPO Box 4007, Castlecrag. NSW. 2068 E-Mail:
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