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| Hobby Herald - Volume 2, 2010 |
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Hobby Herald | |
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CSE - Our club web site.
Did you see it? You can visit every page free. You can buy, and exchange as normal and Free. Because the site costs money advertisers must pay a low fee. But even this is free to paid members. We have stamps from many persons already and the choice is growing and on members pages we force sellers to reduce their prices - just look and compare with others! I think no pages will be hidden as originally planned. We need to be open. Whatever you want, if it is not on show just ask and we do our best to find a source of supply for you, and at good prices of course. Single stamps, collections, groups, sets, whole Countries, only mint or used, covers and FDC, mini sheets, the list can be endless. As I said - did you see our web site? When? www.cse-world.eu Stamps and Money There are many hidden treasures out there among collectors and dealers stamps. YES. Many philatelic items have come my way that are of more value than the original owners knew. It could be watermark varieties, perforation varieties, scarce printings, mis-printed, colour shifts and even missing colours. Only 2-3 weeks ago my last discovery was a whole batch (more than 1!) of stamps showing missing colours and the stamps were almost free. This is a true ongoing story. Q. - So how was it done? A. - EASY! Very easy actually. The very BEST help has always been a Stamp Catalogue. Old or new, it usually does not matter. A new catalogue has updated prices. The info is the same. Anyway. I had to learn what a watermark was and how to find one. The catalogue (not the simplified ones) told me what watermarks were known to exist, so that was a great start for me. The holes around most stamps are called perforations, and help us to seperate out just one stamp from a sheet. Over the years new perforations were used. The catalogue again helped me with this. In fact a stamp catalogue would seem to be the KEY to everything. Reprint variations, colours missing/moved, even different stamp papers used and the list goes on.....and on.... Stamps that look the same could actually be different and will have different catalogue values. So could be very valuable. Duplicates can be valuable, you must learn to examine each one carefully as I always did. That is a BEST TIP. Summary. A stamp catalogue is very very important and I always value 'it' more than the stamps. I have found so many valuable stamps over the years that were missed by collectors and dealers alike, and I have sold many of those stamps for amounts of money that together now total over thousands of euro's. AND I still find more valueable stamps among duplicates. New or old, get a catalogue, learn to use it. Read everything. What you cannot understand you must ask us. CSE - we will help free where we can. Stamp terms There are many and varied terms for stamps. Postally used = used, gu = good used, fu = fine used, vfu = very fine used. From looking badly used - up to very very crisp looking round cancel (often called a 'steel' cancel, because it was). Rubber cancelations - (usually greater diameter than steel) in use and with age the rubber expands and often cannot make nice pretty crisp cancels. Machine cancels are usually clean and neat. CTO meaning 'cancelled to order' usually applies to stamps that are per-cancelled especially for collectors and often very cheap. Normally the postally used stamps are then more expensive if you can find them or course. CTO is both a good method and a bad method. Unused stamp terms. M = mint, um = unmounted mint, mm = mounted mint, mnh = mint never hinged, pog = part original gum, and probably many others.... Perforations Perforations are the little holes around the stamps. They help us to separate just one stamp from a sheet. Over time many different perfs' were used. Often some stamp issues had more than one perf' size. This made the stamps a different stamp issue even when they looked the same. The holes can be measured by the use of a 'perforation gauge' quite easily. P15x14 is such a measure and found on many English stamps. What does is mean. The 15 is the hole sizes across the top (and bottom) and the 14 is hole sizes along the sides. I believe this is accepted as the normal method, top/bottom first and sides second. 15 top - 14 sides. p15x14 thus. P15 - Suggests 15 top and 15 sides. All sides p15 thus. CSE should be able to obtain some perforation gauges but you need to ask first. They should be reasonably cheap. Watermarks Watermarks are designs that are impressed into the paper when it is being made. Stamps often used such papers. A few sheets loaded wrongly (sideways, inverted whatever) into the stamp printer will produce watermark errors and of course are more valuable. Watermarks are best viewed from the back of the stamp, but what you see is backwards (!) ie. a mirror image. Some watermarks are easy to see and others are virtually impossible. Over the 50 years I have collected stamps there have been dozens of methods for watermark detections. There is no secret perfect method that works with every stamp. Watermark detectors are available but not cheap. A catalogue will indicate if your stamp can have any different watermarks or if there were watermark errors. Catalogs Catalogues are now available through our club web site CSE. In short, a 'cat' can tell you what a 'set' is, issue dates, colours used and many many other bits of information. Including an indication of the value of your stamp if it is in perfect condition. They usually show you a photo (in colour now) of each stamp, then at least you know what the missing stamps look like. Cat's can be with simple details or with very detailed information. If errors, varieties and the like are not for you then simplified cat's are best. You will of course risk missing any of those potentially valuable stamps that can be among your duplicates. Because they are all very expensive I try to buy new ones every three years or so. There are some that I need to buy every year. If you are part of a local group then share the cost or take turns to buy new ones. A range of cat's are soon available from CSE accessories pages. Ask if you don't see yours there. If you have never used a catalogue, I can suggest that you first get an old one cheap somewhere. That at least will help you learn the basics involved. The difference between old and new is usually the stamp valuations. The stamp info should be the same unless there was an info update. Stamp Catalogue values When a shop gets too many items they start to produce a thicker and much bigger list and yes, its a catalogue now. What you see is really only 'selling' prices. Most stamp traders try to sell below those cat. prices. A stamp issued for normal letter rate, will be printed in tens of millions so have very little value because there are so so many. A stamp issued only for a one kilo letter will be printed only in ten of hundreds probably. So is not so easy to find and therefore its value will get higher and higher. One we call 'common' or low value, and the other we call 'high' value. There could be other values in between. This is only a simple explaination for such a complicated pricing structure, just for the idea. But basically any stamp in good condition offered at below cat. value can be a bargain. |
Editorial CSE Website. At last our own club site. Like the 'chain' system which brought you the worlds first ever multiple chain "marathon" we plan to bring you more and more benefits. For instance a 'members' area where offers should be at about wholesale prices from advertisers. This is unique (we believe) to a collectors site. But you should get the idea, that we are trying to make things better and cheaper for all members. Buying stamps from the 'members' pages can give you your stamps cheaper and save you more than the 10 euro per year! Many many more nice idea's are to come along to CSE. But if they do not work out at least you can gain from those we have already. The members wholesale prices are to help you all. We aim to be the first site to bring you everything and hopefully cheaper. You can help yourselves and help your club by regular CSE visits, checking out the box adverts (we get click income!) and using the classified adverts to buy and exchange.  Marathon chains See the latest news about the ongoing marathon stamp chains on the website. Click on Chains to find it further down on the page. Marathon members: keep reporting the arrival and sending on of your packet of stamps. New CSE World pages Accessories will be a new page. CSE has found a wholesaler that will provide accessories to all our members that need something. You can of course always make your order direct to the wholesaler, but orders sent via us at CSE, should get you a discount off the price. If you do not find what you need on the accessories page then just ask and we get you a quote. Of course definite orders will have to be pre-payed. Also, heavy items should go direct to you. The whole website is open to everyone to view and interact with. Stamp Storage Tins, boxes and in envelopes is not the best method, but is the cheapest. The old method (still used) is to attach stamps to an album page with stamp hinges and now a days with plastic protective mounts (Hawid ect.) that remain on the page but allow easy stamp removal. My preferred method now is the use of stock pages (or books) with see through strips on, allowing me to slip a stamp in or out. A4 paged stock books allows one to see what you have and spaces for the ones missing. For me they are perfect stamp storage. There is a vast range of stock book producers and prices. They come in smaller sizes than A4 also. A small range is soon offered on our club accessories pages. Tweezers with points damage stamps. There is a large range of stamps-only tweezers, and the new type with bent ends are for stock books, because the straight types will tear/damage the strips on your stock pages. (believe me!) 
More stamp stories in the next issue of Hobby Herald. Keep looking out for it! Sudoku  Solution somewhere on this website |
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