kiwisteven wrote:

I have listed a number of 1974 Commonwelath Games lots tonight . lot 490017161 and following which you can take a look at.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

akaroa - 2012-07-01 22:36:00

Question: What was the first NZ maxi-card set?

akaroa - 2012-07-02 22:01:00

akaroa wrote:

Question: What was the first NZ maxi-card set?

NZ Lakes 1972

paulmc - 2012-07-02 23:32:00

paulmc wrote:

NZ Lakes 1972

OK. Maybe my question is the wrong one. I thought that the 1960 set of Manuka, Kaka, Kowhai stamp cards are called 'maxi cards'. I'm wondering if this 1960 set is the earliest, or how early they go.

akaroa - 2012-07-03 21:15:00

I can't recall any 1960 stamp cards. Can you post a photo or link to a photo? Where are all the other collectors/dealers? I'm sure someone will know.

paulmc - 2012-07-03 23:58:00

akaroa wrote:

OK. Maybe my question is the wrong one. I thought that the 1960 set of Manuka, Kaka, Kowhai stamp cards are called 'maxi cards'. I'm wondering if this 1960 set is the earliest, or how early they go.

Depends on one's definition of "maxi cards". I understand the true ones have to have a similar, but not identical, design to the issued stamp. If so, there's Health and Royal Visit ones from the early 50's, and I'm sure I have had one from the Dunedin Exhibition in 1925.

dunedinstamps - 2012-07-04 10:15:00

akaroa wrote:

OK. Maybe my question is the wrong one. I thought that the 1960 set of Manuka, Kaka, Kowhai stamp cards are called 'maxi cards'. I'm wondering if this 1960 set is the earliest, or how early they go.

Yes these cards are an important part of a 1960 definitive collection, … and not expensive. That is a change.

The 1960 pictorials is a great starting point for a new collector of whatever age. 90% of material is reasonably priced and there is the full gamut of collecting available … perfs, watermarks, counter coils, vending coils, booklets, plate errors, plate blocks [only 1 hard one], different papers, postal stationery, postal history, missing colours
It has it all.

warm3 - 2012-07-04 12:17:00

warm3 wrote:

plate blocks [only 1 hard one]

Hi warm3, what one is that ??
I have a heap of 1960 stuff collected over the years but am well out of touch with value, scarcity etc.
Guess it will be one of the £1 ones ??
Cheers

smyrnia - 2012-07-04 12:31:00

This message was deleted.

donaldo - 2012-07-04 16:45:00

My money is on the 4d Hibiscus Chalk surfaced paper ,plate# 2333
Cat at $15,000.00 printed in 1965.

rebel58 - 2012-07-04 17:44:00

Thaks for that info folks.
Will have to go and have a look at my collection later on.
Any more 1960 gems to look for ??
Cheers

smyrnia - 2012-07-04 18:28:00

dunedinstamps wrote:

Depends on one's definition of "maxi cards". I understand the true ones have to have a similar, but not identical, design to the issued stamp. If so, there's Health and Royal Visit ones from the early 50's, and I'm sure I have had one from the Dunedin Exhibition in 1925.

Thank you for this. And I've enjoyed all the other comments too. Collecting is quite obviously a road without an end.

akaroa - 2012-07-04 21:29:00

rebel58 wrote:

My money is on the 4d Hibiscus Chalk surfaced paper ,plate# 2333
Cat at $15,000.00 printed in 1965.

Yes, this is the hard one. I will never own one.
The 9d 14A15 is the next hardest. Every so often one comes up in auction. I believe that there were 93 or 96 sheets printed. So it is interesting to wonder how many survived.
I do treasure my plate block strip with the imprint as well at the top. There cannot be many intact strips left.
It is a shame that the selvedge is smaller on the hard plate than on the common one. It would have been any easy method to find the 14A15 plate/imprint if it were the other way around.
As I have mentioned the 1960 pictorials offer something to all levels of collecting. They do not cost as much as the 1898 or 1935 pictorials but just as much enjoyment.
Why not start collecting them now ??

warm3 - 2012-07-05 13:16:00

smyrnia wrote:

Thaks for that info folks.
Will have to go and have a look at my collection later on.
Any more 1960 gems to look for ??
Cheers

It is interesting getting all the listings in CP for the varieties [all still available except for the 4d chalky] … the thrill of the chase etc…
… completing the listings for the counter coils with errors and all the different leader/tails is very satisfying
… It is hard to get all the missing colours since in this issue they are not really a missing colour in the old sense of the words where a sheet was not printed in a certain colour but rather an ambient loss of pressure during the printing process and a strip or two on the sheet missed the colour with perhaps a partial missing colour on the strip either side.

As I say the 1960 is the easy way to 'old style' collecting and available to all.

warm3 - 2012-07-05 13:25:00

i am one of the lucky few who have a mint 4d purangi 1965 chalky paper
picked up from stirling & co in 66, along with the 6d pikiarero chalky 1966
and 6d no watermark 1960 (all mint)

and i think the price is in the $1000. + now days

gandalff4 - 2012-07-05 13:42:00

this years Stamp Camp at Waddington (inland from Christchurch) is going well.
I've been out to the camp twice this week and the youngsters plus various attached adults are enjoying themselves at the St Johns retreat, training camp at Waddington. Great facilities, plenty of hot food and bright sunshine and no rain. I was involved in judging the competition entries on friday and the youngsters displays were all very good being better many times than some adult entries I judged at a adult club just last month. The youngsters don't make spelling mistakes (spell checkers) like the adults and their grammar is also better. Hats off to the PYC who are organising the camp with camp leader Geoff Tyson and help from Suz, Karen, Tim, Libby and not forgetting Trevor doing all the great cooking.

kiwisteven - 2012-07-07 05:11:00

Stamp fair today (Saturday) in Christchurch at 67 Mandeville st, Riccarton from 9am to 12 noon. free admission, easy car parking and lots of stamps. what more could a collector want?

kiwisteven - 2012-07-07 05:13:00

This message was deleted.

skilling-stamps - 2012-07-07 07:10:00

warm3 wrote:

It is interesting getting all the listings in CP for the varieties [all still available except for the 4d chalky] … the thrill of the chase etc…
… completing the listings for the counter coils with errors and all the different leader/tails is very satisfying
… It is hard to get all the missing colours since in this issue they are not really a missing colour in the old sense of the words where a sheet was not printed in a certain colour but rather an ambient loss of pressure during the printing process and a strip or two on the sheet missed the colour with perhaps a partial missing colour on the strip either side.

As I say the 1960 is the easy way to 'old style' collecting and available to all.

Back in 1963, I popped into the local Post Office that I haunted, and the post-mistress produced a batch of 5d stamps that "looked different" and so she had been saving them for me. They were all missing the yellow colour! There were 4 rows left - the whole sheet had been affected, but the rest had been sold as postage. I sold a number to Campbell Paterson at the time, and received the equivalent (in today's money) of $15,000 - not bad for a 15 year old.

dunedinstamps - 2012-07-07 12:34:00

dunedinstamps wrote:

Back in 1963, I popped into the local Post Office that I haunted, and the post-mistress produced a batch of 5d stamps that "looked different" and so she had been saving them for me. They were all missing the yellow colour! There were 4 rows left - the whole sheet had been affected, but the rest had been sold as postage. I sold a number to Campbell Paterson at the time, and received the equivalent (in today's money) of $15,000 - not bad for a 15 year old.

Another satisfied 1960 pictorial collector.

… and so started the successful career of a most helpful stamp dealer. thanks Don

Edited by warm3 at 2:25 pm, Sat 7 Jul

warm3 - 2012-07-07 14:24:00

warm3 wrote:

Another satisfied 1960 pictorial collector.

… and so started the successful career of a most helpful stamp dealer. thanks Don

"Phlatelly (sic) will get you everywhere" Thanks Tony. Yes, I had a great collection of 1960 Pictorials - by the time I was 20. Came in useful when I was able to identify 3 mint 4d "Chalkys" in a kiddies collection earlier this year - a VERY happy vendor. First ones I've found in 40+ years.

dunedinstamps - 2012-07-07 15:26:00

I can't get into variations and flaws at all - they just don't excite me. Neither can I get excited about postmarks.

akaroa - 2012-07-08 16:24:00

akaroa wrote:

I can't get into variations and flaws at all - they just don't excite me. Neither can I get excited about postmarks.

I find that there is a lot of excitement in looking for and then hopefully finding the flaws and varieties. Much patience is needed. If you just keep 1 of each type then buy a collection and move on. The items do not have to be expensive.

warm3 - 2012-07-08 19:34:00

I just did a search on 'labels' (cinderellas). There is only one bid on one label. It is dead out there, folks.

akaroa - 2012-07-09 18:09:00

akaroa wrote:

I just did a search on 'labels' (cinderellas). There is only one bid on one label. It is dead out there, folks.

I've had a quick look and its as you say but not exactly correct with the implications you draw. Apart from the big lot of cinderellas recently listed from a Katikati vendor most of the rest are listed with "Buy now" prices as they are fairly modern items with consistent selling prices. I know that 95% of those lots listed by Stampking for instance sell by buy now and that in the last week he has sold about 30-40 of his Cinderella lots. Those listed by the Katikati seller are all items which have been offered many times over(Mostly by other sellers) as are the lots offered from Bruce Henderson from Auckland. I'm sure a fresh lot of different cinderellas (especially something older) would attract a lot of bids but in the meantime what is listed will tick over mostly at their buy now prices.

kiwisteven - 2012-07-09 22:43:00

kiwisteven wrote:

I've had a quick look and its as you say but not exactly correct with the implications you draw. Apart from the big lot of cinderellas recently listed from a Katikati vendor most of the rest are listed with "Buy now" prices as they are fairly modern items with consistent selling prices. I know that 95% of those lots listed by Stampking for instance sell by buy now and that in the last week he has sold about 30-40 of his Cinderella lots. Those listed by the Katikati seller are all items which have been offered many times over(Mostly by other sellers) as are the lots offered from Bruce Henderson from Auckland. I'm sure a fresh lot of different cinderellas (especially something older) would attract a lot of bids but in the meantime what is listed will tick over mostly at their buy now prices.

OK. Buy-nows. 30-40 sold is actually impressive. Speaking of Katikati, I'm after the sheet of Katikati mural poster stamps. And speaking of older cinderellas, I haven't seen any League of Nations cinderellas come up. In fact very few United Nations stamps come up. Mustnt be too many collectors of UN out there.

akaroa - 2012-07-10 21:14:00

akaroa wrote:

OK. Buy-nows. 30-40 sold is actually impressive. Speaking of Katikati, I'm after the sheet of Katikati mural poster stamps. And speaking of older cinderellas, I haven't seen any League of Nations cinderellas come up. In fact very few United Nations stamps come up. Mustnt be too many collectors of UN out there.

United Nations stamps are really hard to sell. So hard that I don't bother trying. They do have some nice thematic sets and I have a stock of UN but don't expect me to list any on trademe any day soon.
Perhaps the next hardest place to sell is the Tokelau Islands. their stamp issues have been abused for so long with the plethora of irrelevant issues and/or poor designs so very few people collect them.

kiwisteven - 2012-07-10 22:32:00

This message was deleted.

donaldo - 2012-07-11 21:08:00

I've never bothered with 'cals' as I don't like them.
I believe they are only valid for postage in NZ.
The market's probably 'dead' because it's 'flooded' with them.
Similar to what happened with the 70s and 80s decimals.

phil.s - 2012-07-12 15:13:00

The member deleted this message.

donaldo - 2012-07-12 16:48:00

phil.s wrote:

I've never bothered with 'cals' as I don't like them.
I believe they are only valid for postage in NZ.
The market's probably 'dead' because it's 'flooded' with them.
Similar to what happened with the 70s and 80s decimals.

I like the war related cals (poster stamps or labels), and then historic such as prohibition, anti-vietnam, anti-nuclear.

akaroa - 2012-07-12 21:20:00

Is TM #492261185 a rare example of a cover with pencil mark on the back of the stamp??

warm3 - 2012-07-13 01:39:00

phil.s wrote:

I've never bothered with 'cals' as I don't like them.
I believe they are only valid for postage in NZ.
The market's probably 'dead' because it's 'flooded' with them.
Similar to what happened with the 70s and 80s decimals.

I personally go out of my way to get genuine covers that use CALs to Aus and elsewhere OS. Must be genuinely rare.

warm3 - 2012-07-13 01:40:00

donaldo wrote:

well talking about postage--over 90% OF MY CUSTOMER INWARD MAIL is being sent to my freepost address with NO STAMPS--so i take it they don't have any decimal stamps to use as postage!!!??

You have kinda shot yourself in the foot using Freepost then?

rebel58 - 2012-07-13 20:02:00

phil.s wrote:

I've never bothered with 'cals' as I don't like them.
I believe they are only valid for postage in NZ.
The market's probably 'dead' because it's 'flooded' with them.
Similar to what happened with the 70s and 80s decimals.

I guess the real 'collecting' in CALs is trying to get them in the year of issue. The PO does an excellent job in producing the yearly pack at issue price. This allows us to fill the gaps of ones that we could not get. No other modern issue has as much collecting available to them. If your a topical collector any CAL on your topic would be highly desirable. The numbers available are very small. Say 1000 on issues plus say 3000 packs [a round figure - has anybody a more accurate figure, aside from the PO]. Not all of the originals will have survived. By comparison most red and blue boys will have survived and there is still only a mintage of about 5% of these for the CALs. Far less than other current issues for legitimate NZ Post issues. I guess we need a greater listing by the catalog/album producers, but then the dealers do not want to stock these new issues for a doubtful buying public and we are going round in circles. Surely if a collector buys a current pack instead of a similar value of current issues he would have more 'collecting' for his/her $$.

Edited by warm3 at 9:46 pm, Fri 13 Jul

warm3 - 2012-07-13 21:42:00

This message was deleted.

lawrencek1 - 2012-07-14 11:05:00

hi guys, hoping you can help - I have an old estate stamp collection with all sorts, but in particular an old cash book with English Revenue stamps going back to the mid-late 1800s, plus pages & pages of Austrian, Belgium, German, USA, all sorts and all probably more than 100 years old... Ive taken scans of a couple of pages, can I upload images here for someone to see & advise on, and if so how please... many thanks for your advice in advance :)

bayloft - 2012-07-15 16:20:00

bayloft wrote:

hi guys, hoping you can help - I have an old estate stamp collection with all sorts, but in particular an old cash book with English Revenue stamps going back to the mid-late 1800s, plus pages & pages of Austrian, Belgium, German, USA, all sorts and all probably more than 100 years old... Ive taken scans of a couple of pages, can I upload images here for someone to see & advise on, and if so how please... many thanks for your advice in advance :)

There are many how to upload images instructions elsewhere on trademe and you can follow these to upload them to your images files and then simply give the file number in this newsgroup and I and others can take a look and then advise accordingly. You do have to learn how to upload an image and here isn't the forum to learn how to do it.

kiwisteven - 2012-07-15 22:56:00

This message was deleted.

donaldo - 2012-07-16 12:54:00

Bonjour collectors,

Tonight's meeting (Monday 16th July) of the West Auckland Stamp Club features FRENCH RAILWAYS, presented by Roger Marshall. This should be a fascinating insight at classic France.

The evening of LUNDY ISLAND, announced for last meeting, was postponed, as so many of our regulars sent in apologies for illness and could not make it. So it was agreed that we will now hold the Lundy evening on 17th September 2012. Please alter your calendar.

Hope you can make it tonight. Our usual venue: 39 Batkin Road, Avondale, from 7.30 p.m. Please bring a plate.

spameater - 2012-07-16 16:37:00

Hi Stamp People - I have been helpfully redirected here with my query:
One for stamp collectors...i have recently aquired one of those old 70s/80s stamp album books that is probably a third to half full of old world stamps including heaps of NZ ones. The book itself is pretty tatty but most of the stamps inside are still ok. What is the best way to go about selling this? As i see it, i have three options:
Sell the stamps individually (eek, the time)
Sell the book as a whole with a photo of each page (eek, the fees)
Or sell it per page? This last seems the best option to me, any advice greatly appreciated.

greenworxnz - 2012-07-18 17:04:00

I would put up the best sets or individuals as stand alone, and I would either bundle the rest into several 'lots', or, if the old country collections are good enough, I'd put some of those pages up separately. It won't go for much - be prepared for that.

And I've just put up a set of 'cinderellas' (mainly U.S.) using that strategy... BTW, that is me doing blatant advertising.

Edited by akaroa at 8:56 pm, Wed 18 Jul

akaroa - 2012-07-18 20:54:00

Stamp Fair Saturday morning at The philatelic Centre, Mandeville st, Riccarton. 9am to midday. Free admission. I'll be there. Will you?

kiwisteven - 2012-07-20 18:33:00

kiwisteven wrote:

Stamp Fair Saturday morning at The philatelic Centre, Mandeville st, Riccarton. 9am to midday. Free admission. I'll be there. Will you?

Yes I will.

rebel58 - 2012-07-20 18:36:00

kiwisteven wrote:

Stamp Fair Saturday morning at The philatelic Centre, Mandeville st, Riccarton. 9am to midday. Free admission. I'll be there. Will you?

Me too.

twg1935 - 2012-07-20 18:40:00

Me three!

paulmc - 2012-07-20 23:28:00

Currently there are bids on 479 stamp items out of 12,923 listed. That's bids on 3.7% of stamp auctions.

akaroa - 2012-07-21 00:31:00

Update on sales stats: Currently there are bids on 479 stamp items out of 12,923 listed. That's bids on 3.7% of stamp auctions. What sells:
* NZ stamps have 8,238 auctions with 300 bids: 3.6% have bids
* NZ mint-decimal: 1,982 auctions with 34 bids (1.7% have bids)
* NZ decimal FDC: 1,487 auctions with 20 bids (1.2% have bids)
* NZ used pre-decimal: 1,452 auctions with 106 bids (8.3%)
* NZ mint pre-decimal: 996 auctions with 50 bids (5%)
* NZ collections: 346 auctions with 26 bids (13.3%)
* Great Britain: 938 auctions with 40 bids (4.3%)
* USA: 150 auctions with 8 bids (5.3%)
* Australia: 796 auctions with 16 bids (2%)
* Pacific islands: 452 auctions with 25 bids (5.5%)
* 'Other' category: 954 auctions with 58 bids (6.1%)
* Search on the word 'collection': 61 bids
* Search on the word 'lot': 125 bids
* Search on the word 'cinderella': 3 bids

Edited by akaroa at 10:59 am, Sat 21 Jul

akaroa - 2012-07-21 10:58:00

akaroa wrote:

Currently there are bids on 479 stamp items out of 12,923 listed. That's bids on 3.7% of stamp auctions.

Interesting Stats. I have checked and i currently have 298 stamp lots listed for sale and already 49 of these have bids on them which is nearly 15% of my total so far and hopefully this percentage will increase by the time these come up for sale. Checking my official Trademe sell thru rate, Trademe tells me that I average a 24.2% sell through rate.
Some traders obviously list a lot of rubbish which won't sell or they have silly reserve prices on their lots.

kiwisteven - 2012-07-21 17:50:00

akaroa wrote:

Currently there are bids on 479 stamp items out of 12,923 listed. That's bids on 3.7% of stamp auctions.

You do have to remember that these figures are skewed because they don't take into account any of the "Buy Now" sales. for some sellers these may account for most of their sales. I know some sellers who sell over 90% of their lots by the "Buy Now" method.

This helps prove the old adage that there are lies, Damned lies and statistics!

kiwisteven - 2012-07-21 17:57:00