Cinderella Stamps Forum Homepage
Forum Home Forum Home > Cinderella Stamps > Cinderella Stamps
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - What to do when you have all but the rarest stamps
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

What to do when you have all but the rarest stamps
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123>
Author
Message
  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
Colin View Drop Down
Unhinged
Unhinged
Avatar

Joined: 29 March 2010
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 2500 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: What to do when you have all but the rarest stamps
    Posted: 12 May 2011 at 21:16
I spotted on another forum a rather interesting request - what do you do when you have collected all but the very rarest (Discworld in this instance) stamps?
 
The best response (in my opinion) was 'sell your collection and start again!'
 
So here is an idea.  Why not join the Cinderella Stamp Collectors club (or any other philatelic organisation) and write a feature telling them how much fun it has been to create your collection, illustrating it with your favourite examples. 
 
Or send articles or letters to magazines or websites drawing attention to your situation - you never know, someone else might have those 'missing' stamps and simply not want them.  Many collectors of the original DW stamps bought them because of the book not because of any long-term philatelic interest, I bet there are still unopened original LBEs out there.
 
And don't forget that the original Blue Triangle sports that every Discworld collector lusts after were being distributed for quite a while before anyone knew that they existed - so there is still a very good chance that there are more out there than originally thought.
 
And it gives me an idea... why not collectively lobby the people who market the DW brand to restore the original idea behind the Blue Triangle stamp - that it was to be a very, very limited edition reward to be presented by Terry to members of his DW community who had 'done good' by raising funds, awareness, or simply helping other fans without the expectation of reward. 
 
Why not create a special  reward stamp again? - for those collectors who have occupied their spare time; without the assistance or encouragement of the retailers; producing lists of rarities, collating figures on production, listing the various sizes of mount required for each stamp... recognising their efforts before they get bored and move on.  Something really special.
 
And if they won't do it there then perhaps we should consider creating a reward stamp here for the forum member (or members) here who best raise awareness of our hobby through publicising cinderella stamps, helping other collectors or simply bringing the most new members to the forum?
 
Any thoughts?
 
 
My Etsy shop - FarFetchedPhilately - Check regularly for updates and special offers...




https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FarFetchedPhilately

.
Back to Top
Quilpusha View Drop Down
Special
Special
Avatar

Joined: 10 February 2011
Location: Middle Cornwall
Status: Offline
Points: 413 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Quilpusha Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 May 2011 at 23:05
.
 
 
 . . . that sounds utopian in part Colin.
 
Whilst I am all for your several plans and ideas, I am also aware that the British as a nation tend to be a tad reserved, even private in their outlook. At worst we might ever be referred to as apathetic. Together those failings - if that is what they are - prevent much of what you say ever being enacted.
 
As for those rarities like the Blue Triangle 'sport', I was as you know, very active in the Discworld stamp forum from almost day one. I knew of at least one 'BT sport' that was never declared by it's owner because of a desire not to disqualify themselves from a chance of getting another. You know the kind of thing, "you've already got one, give someone else a chance." Rarities were created by 'gifts' to people who visited the shop.
But I think that the worst excesses were as a result of the realisation of the potential earning power of the stamps. Today, IMHO, Discworld stamps do not 'happen' as they use to, guided by the motto, "in the beginning was the word."
 
Back to Top
Murgatroyd View Drop Down
Special
Special
Avatar

Joined: 30 March 2010
Location: London UK
Status: Offline
Points: 554 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Murgatroyd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 May 2011 at 23:19
Well, I posted the message on the Cunning Artificers forum board... here it is :

"How do you keep up your interest in your collection when you have obtained all but the very rarest stamps? 
My wants list has now been reduced to the same list of totally unobtainable stamps and sheets that so many collectors are missing. 
OK, so there are new items coming out every year, and it's fun to get those sports, but I miss the thrill of checking through the Trading pages, and rummaging around on e-bay for affordable deals and missing items. It's very rare that I see anything I want there these days, and when I do it's out of my price range... I can't afford a single sheet for £500, even though I'd love to own it. I guess I could start collecting proof sheets, or FDC's or Consulate covers... but I'm not really that keen on them. 
I've tried producing helpful lists and charts, and I've got my collection all catalogued, but you can only play with that sort of thing for a while before that too gets a bit old.
On the very few occasions I do find something that I still need, it usually turns out that it's too expensive. It occurs to me that many of the rest of you must be in the same position... Yes, there's always the pride of ownership of the items that I already have, but the endorphins only seem to kick in when I'm in the process of getting something new.
I'm curious as to what other members of the forum do when they reach the same stage. Buy a few more LBE's? "

And whilst the amusing suggestion that I should sell my collection and start again may be tactically sound, I find myself disinclined to follow it. One possible reason is that the prices for all but the very rarest stamps seem to be falling, and I might very well find myself selling out for less than I originally paid for the collection. the second reason is that I'm now so close to my original goal that it seems silly to give up now. 

My goal was to obtain a specimen  of each Discworld Stamp, and it's Sport, where one existed, and a  Sheet of each stamp that had been made available by the sheet. I also applied these criteria to the many "Stickers, Labels, and Emporium Cinderella stamps".
Just to give you some idea of how close I have come to achieving my goal I have 525 stamps and sports, all but 37 of those issued. Of those 37 stamps I regard 8 as possible to obtain, and 29 as either impossible, or beyond my means, (financially speaking). There are also another 7 stamps that I only have on sheets, or that have distinctive back prints. I would like to get a second specimen of these stamps for display purposes.
Of the stickers, labels, and other emporium cinderellas I have 112 in hand, with a further 22 to find... again I've classified these into 13 "Possibles" and 9 "Impossibles", with another couple of items that I only have on sheets, that I'd like to find single specimens of.
I've done slightly better with the sheets, (Or at least, the ones that have actually been available for purchase), I have 174 sheets on hand, with a couple on the way, and about 16 sheets to go, 8 "Possibles" and 8 "Impossibles". Of course that doesn't include all the other sheets that have never actually been on sale, but have been awarded as prizes in competitions, limited edition LBE's, or put up for auction at one time or another. 

I've also devoted a fair amount of time creating various lists of stamp related ephemera. "The Rarest of the rare", the "Discworld Stamp Mounts" list, my "Sheet checklist" which contains the positions of all the sports on the sheets, and my "Stamp Checklist"... The last of which caused some controversy because I flew in the face of tradition and listed the stamps by denomination and type, rather than by release date. This list has formed my personal catalogue for my collection. Because I only started collecting in November 2009, it made more sense to me to group like with like, rather to slavishly adhere to the established dogma which dictated that all stamps should be catalogued be their release dates, along with their "Stanley Howler" numbers. As a new collector it made more sense to me to catalogue my stamps without having to worry about when any particular issue was released. 

Just for the record, all the information contained in my lists was in the public domain. I didn't actually create anything new, merely organised data in such a way that it would help me keep track of things without having to dig the facts that I was looking for out of larger and more comprehensive listings, Like Martin's Spreadsheet, or Steve's Stamp Catalogue, both of which are awe inspiring documents, the like of which I couldn't hold a candle to.

Colin's kind suggestion that I, and other collectors in my position, should lobby or try and contact some of those individuals who bought some of the earliest examples of the Discworld stamps, sheets, and LBE's in the hope of obtaining some of the items missing from my collection is an excellent one, and it's something that I'll look into. However it's fair to say that some of those people are unfamiliar with the differences between a very rare stamp, and a relatively common example... I recently rushed into a deal with one of the early collectors for a "One Bird with Horizontal Wings, Year 1 TOA sport", only to find on delivery that it was only a regular Wincanton perforated Falling man sport. I was a bit gutted, but such is life.

Colin's other suggestion about a special "Reward" stamp or stamps is another great idea, I can think of several worthy individuals who totally deserve such a stamp, (though I hardly feel that I myself would qualify for such an award).

I have also started collecting other Cinderella stamps, Colin's beautiful exhibits, Steve Tandy's Welsh Postal oddities, Hilary's Pharos stamps and sheets, and some of Strappers excellent stamps. I also collect Thai stamps and mini sheets, and the beautiful Goldfoil stamps produced here, and I've had a recent dalliance with some UK "Childrens entertainment and literature" releases, like the AA Milne pack and the Gerry Anderson issues. Finally I collect "Pirate" stamps from all around the world. 

My collecting habit was formed back in the early days of the "Role Playing Games" hobby. I collected the little lead figures of wizards, warriors, and all the fabulous monsters, Dragons, and even pieces of 25 mm scale scenery. I have several filing cabinets full of Ral Partha and Grenadier figures and boxed sets, some of which are very sought after these days. 

You'd have thought that would be enough to be going on with wouldn't you? But I still hang around waiting for the postman when I've got an emporium order on it's way, and I have to pay a small fortune for registered post because the Thai post routinely fail to deliver anything that doesn't have to be signed for. 
"I've got twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a Post Office, and it's shut." The Raggedy Doctor.
Back to Top
Colin View Drop Down
Unhinged
Unhinged
Avatar

Joined: 29 March 2010
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 2500 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Colin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 May 2011 at 00:07
And it's a great thread Charles because so many collectors are faced with the same problem!  I hope you don't mind me pinching the crux of it.
 
Go back to the earliest days of the DW forum - when EVERYONE there was a new collector and  contact the ones who are no longer around.    There must be hundreds.  Not all of them will have sold their collections - many will still be convinced that their stamps will be mega-valuable one day (and a quick glance at eBay would put that in perspective) and of those there are bound to be some who would sell to one of the keenest newer collectors rather than plod through online auctions, and those who would probably be quite happy with the cash alternative and would sell to pretty much anyone, anywhere but have never ben presented with the opportunity. 
 
With your inherent charm and the knowledge you have built up while collecting you would be in a very good position to open up a discussion. You could divert anyone who had something worth selling but was asking too much for it, to our forum where we could all take pity on them - but in a nice way - and tell them what a stamp was really worth.
 
Of course that method just gives you access to the previous DW forum members. There are also lots of Terry Pratchett fans who at the time the first stamps came out were visitors to the shop for sculpture, the books, and stuff such as Clarecraft figures - why not join the Facebook and other collector pages for these and enquire who might have bought the odd bag of stamps out of curiosity?
 
And there are other sources too - I made and dropped all over the place (several on my visits to Wincanton) various copies - hardback, softback and US versions too - of Going Postal with some rare stamps stuck inside. I even tore up a whole vertical sheet of the 2005 Hogswatch stamps to make one book extra Christmassy one year and boy do I regret that now!  Some have joined BT triangles in, some have handcut stamps in, some are a mixture of laernu and DW. they all have to be out there somewhere and the stamps were intentionally only ever lightly stuck in.
 
OK you might find people who don't know what they have or might assume something is more valuable than it is - but everyone has a digi camera or camera phone these days and they can even post the pics here if they want a second opinion.
 
Don't give it up, if you've tried digging deep, and tried digging hard, try digging somewhere else  :-)
 
My Etsy shop - FarFetchedPhilately - Check regularly for updates and special offers...




https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FarFetchedPhilately

.
Back to Top
Guests View Drop Down
Guest Group
Guest Group
Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 May 2011 at 01:39
I like the idea of a reward stamp but how do you prove who was responsible for bringing in new members or gaining forum visibility?   But a great idea in principle.
Back to Top
Keith View Drop Down
Mint
Mint
Avatar

Joined: 30 March 2010
Location: Derbyshire, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 1119 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Keith Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 May 2011 at 10:59
My answer to the original question is to put aside the collection and start a new one

So I have collections of various cinderellas, France, Machin definitives, Germania definitives of Germany, Ireland, Russia, GB overprints for use abroad and British North Africa. Alll collected one at a time and each stopped when I was only left with the impossible ones. Except for Discworld of course which I gave up when the stamps became too boring to spend money on.

Keith
Back to Top
Steve View Drop Down
Unhinged
Unhinged
Avatar

Joined: 26 March 2010
Location: Wrexham
Status: Offline
Points: 3917 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Steve Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 May 2011 at 11:48
What do you do?

Firstly there's always new items. Then there's shades and variations to collect; and paper and gum variations. Check out all those spares you must have. Then you can reorganise or rehouse your collection for the umteenth time. Then there's piles of related material in various guises to add. And items from the cover exchange. And Postmarks and cancellations used.
Collecting just the stamps can be a bit one dimensional, getting the sheets adds a dimension, but with a bit of imagination and creativity you can make it multidemsional. Study the background to the stamps, how they were created, designed and printed, and how they relate to the stories of TP.
The Discworld Stamp Collector on FaceBook Have a look!
Back to Top
Kelshandra View Drop Down
Registered
Registered


Joined: 23 November 2010
Status: Offline
Points: 41 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kelshandra Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 May 2011 at 21:42
I ended up arbitrarily calling my collection complete at the 5 year mark (when I realised that the new stamps just didn't grab my attention anyway).  There are many stamps I'll never get on the secondary market since the early really rare things still hold their value a bit more than later stamps.

I'll probably thin down the collection if I ever get around to it (going back to just stamps and perhaps LBE- selling the FDC and other miscellaneous bits and bobs) and make presentation/yearbook albums for the stamps.  Perhaps I'll cheat a bit and print a copy of anything that I'll never see (like a blue triangle sport).

At the end of the day, all a special reward stamp would do would make another stamp of middling rarity for collectors to do something for to get.  The cynic in me says that all it will ensure is people doing just enough to get sufficient 'points' to get the stamp and then move on to get the next thing.  Or buying one off someone else- at the end of the day, the only way to have a complete collection is to have enough money to be able to throw at it.  I am never going to be one of those people!
Back to Top
Murgatroyd View Drop Down
Special
Special
Avatar

Joined: 30 March 2010
Location: London UK
Status: Offline
Points: 554 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Murgatroyd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 May 2011 at 12:40
Grumble Grumble..... Missed out on a TOA 2 Birds horizontal wings sport... the bidding finished at about 02.30 in the morning here in Thailand, and I didn't want to wake my wife and daughter by having my alarm go off to wake me up. So I put in a bid for £82.99 before I went to bed, instead of doing it at the very last moment as I usually do. This allowed somebody else to bid all the way up to it on separate bids. I'd have won it if I'd waited  and got up for it. It was listed as a normal TOA Falling man and I hoped that no one else had spotted that it was the very rare 2 birds sport. Fat chance. Grumble grumble.
"I've got twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a Post Office, and it's shut." The Raggedy Doctor.
Back to Top
Mark View Drop Down
Registered
Registered
Avatar

Joined: 19 April 2010
Location: Surrey
Status: Offline
Points: 11 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 May 2011 at 21:42
I thought thie was a great topic also which hit so many familiar notes...
Here was my reply...
Originally posted by Mark Mark wrote:

Originally posted by Murgatroyd Murgatroyd wrote:

I'm curious as to what other members of the forum do when they reach the same stage. Buy a few more LBE's?
Oooops we don't seem to have one to buy at the moment... and I'm still waiting for my last order... Whats to do?
I think I' get that feeling the same as you -
I did start buying FDCs/Con Envelopes and proofs (as stated on my trades list for the exact reasons above you're facing)
I can only justify so much cash for an item - be it from 41 or on ebay...
I missed out on so many things from the early days and even now when things get withdrawn from the shop.
I have to pick and choose what to get :(
I took the option of filling out my collection on the affordable items -
Stamp Sheets are mainly out of my league - The ones I own are mainly GCTS or journal offers.
I find the trade lists are pretty static, or as you say, everyone is looking for the same rare stuff...
Even when I find something I need, I have nothing to offer  :roll:
(Don't get me wrong I've had some good trades also - but getting harder all the time) 
- I know some members will take LBEs or Cash - but again it's a price thing...
Cheers
Mark
:D
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.07
Copyright ©2001-2024 Web Wiz Ltd.