The Grumpy Old Men's Club

Definitely "THE" Friendliest Stamp Forum on the Internet Celebrates It's 3rd Birthday

There's more than one stamp forum on the internet, and more than one that touts itself as being the friendliest.

The Grumpy Old Men's Club (where you don't need to be grumpy, old or a man!) is, in my opinion, the only one that can lay claim to the title. Created in 2010, and told it would last a month by the owner of another forum, The GOMC recently celebrated it's 3rd birthday.

There's a distinct lack of rules and no overbearing admin or moderation. There's a genuine sense of a club atmosphere, as members suggest Ebay items for others, find items for others, and produce gems like this for members just for fun

If you think you'd like to join a diverse range of philatelists, collectors and beginners, where mutual respect is the order of the day, click here

I hope to see you there soon!

Ebay Realisations Are Hot

or, How to Be a Constant Underbidder!

I buy most of my Ebay items from the UK and US, so most items end in the wee small hours when beauty sleep is trying it's best to work it's magic.

I use Gavel Snipe to place my bids for me, and I've had a spectacularly unsuccessful week, with prices heading upwards for the Silver Jubilee material I'm constantly seeking.

Here's a few examples:

First, a cheap stamp. Straits Settlements Silver Jubilee 8c, SG257, with a clear strike of Changi, Proud D2, although no year is shown. I collect the postmarks of the small post offices of the Straits Settlements, and I have no Changi in the collection

The stamp has a CV of £3.25, and Proud rates the postmark as 40, or £4. The stamp sold at double CV, £6.50!

The Prince of Wales Camp Postmarks 1921-1922

The Future King Edward VIII on Tour

From 1919 to 1922, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII, embarked on a grand world tour. 

In 1921, the Eastern Tour commenced. The HMS Renown departed Portsmouth at sunset on October 26, with the Prince on the saluting deck. The ship called at Gibraltar, Malta, Port Said, Suez and Aden before arriving at Bombay on November 17. Four months later, on March 17, the Prince left India behind as the Renown sailed for Japan.

A commemorative postmark was used during the tour of the subcontinent, featuring the legend "H.R.H The Prince of Wales' Camp P.O." at the top, with the Prince of Wales feathers in the top centre, and seven bars on each side. The date and time are at the bottom centre, with a thick bar below

Although the postmark doesn't show a location, the tour itinerary makes it possible to ascertain where the postmark was used.

The itinerary was kindly provided by Kasinath Rajasekaran on the Global Philately Facebook Page, and reproduced here in full:

An Interesting Find on Ebay - Part 2

Is This a Wreck Cover?

I asked this question in my blog of 16 October . The item has arrived and I'm no closer to knowing the answer.

As I suspected, it is only a front, but it has a tantalising partial postmark on the remnant of flap attached. It's a partial "Liverpool" postmark in blue, which I would expect to be a "Liverpool Packet" postmark. However, there doesn't seem to be a matching date for that postmark, according to "Collect British Postmarks" (Stanley Gibbons, 8th Edition), bearing in mind that the Lochmaben sank in 1855.

Unless I can find a passenger manifest for the last voyage of the Lochmaben to see if Mrs. Hazelton was aboard, I will probably never know if this is a wreck cover!

Changes Afoot at Delcampe

A Business Responding to its Customers! - Whatever Next?

Delcampe has announced changes to it's fee structure, in a move to remove the hordes of minimum-value stamp listings caused by their no-listing-fee policy. 

They are introducing a fixed-fee charge for each item sold of €0.15, in addition to the monthly commission. I think this is a marvellous initiative. Do a search of any basic stamp on Delcampe and you will often find hundreds listed, at €0.05. While you can exclude them from your search, these listings are costing Delcampe money in bandwidth, and slow down searches due to overloaded servers.

Delcampe listings can be set to relist, for free, almost indefinitely. This is another area that they are looking into, along with the following:

• the possibility for a buyer to exclude the sales of a certain seller in a listing,
• automatic closure of sales which have not received any visits for a certain period of time,
• an automatic price reduction for items fulfilling certain conditions,
• the insertion of at least one picture,  
• changing unsold auctions to fixed price sales

Delcampe have created a Google doc for comments here. Why not express your opinion, as at least you know they are listening. I have suggested a minimum pixel size for pictures, to remove dross like this from their site (the seller, all of whose images are like this, had a starting bid of €2.00 on this)

I think Delcampe deserve the support of collectors the world over for responding to requests for change. 

Another global auction site would do well to respond to it's customers in a similar way!

(please note that I have no affiliation with Delcampe, other than previously selling on the site, and as a customer)

The Great St Helena Rip-Off

Beware Cancelled Remainders!

I scanned through over 2,500 St Helena items on Delcampe today, and one of my pet peeves re-surfaced. I made mention of this on my Facebook page, so my apologies for repeating myself!

These stamps from St Helena (1896 SG51 and SG52) have catalogue values of £30 and £60 respectively

However, the cancellations make them virtually worthless. The diamond grill in violet is a remainder cancellation done in 1904, and the stamps were cancelled solely for sale to collectors. This cancel was never postally used.

There are dozens of stamps with these cancellations for sale. Catalogue prices are being quoted, and hefty prices being asked. Do NOT pay high prices on Ebay, Delcampe or anywhere else for any stamp from St Helena with this cancellation!

Shameless Self-Promotion!

Falkland Islands Gems on Ebay

I'm breaking down a life-long collection of Falklands Islands and have a lot of Postal Stationery listed at the moment, like this

This is Higgins & Gage (H&G) 4, Queen Victoria reply card, overprinted Specimen, one of only 750 produced. Starting at 99p here

Over the next few days, I'll be listing a range of early Falklands stamps and more covers. Please drop in and add me to your favourite sellers if these items appeal to you!