My Modern Postal History Project
Well if you happened on this page, this is a casual "blog" that I am going to maintain that will describe
my experience in purchasing, sorting and selling about 500,000 covers. As is the custom of blogs and emails
these days, it reads most recent first. When I get time, I will be filling in more of the background. - Tom Droege
June 10th, 2015 -- Eqypt Registered with Postage Due.
I really do not have much to report this week. The students have been selecting and
posting lots on ebay. I have another student starting next week.
We did find 2 registered covers with postage due stamps applied to make up the correct
registered rate. This is a first for me. Maybe it is common, but I would think in this
period they would just add regular stamps as the postage due stamps at this time were
old. Any thoughts on this one?
To see the lots the students have put up.
This link should take you there
June 1st, 2015 -- Dinosaur FDC sells for $25!
We sold the dinosaur cover I found with my little brother. Thankfully, we sold it to
a non-stamp collector. I say that because in the first box we did find 2 more FDC's and
in the box after that we found another. Therefore, I feel no guilt about putting the
other covers up for sale at a more realistic price. There are a couple first class rate
usages and a nice registered use. One of the first class rate usages is
here at ebay.
The correspondence is ripe with non-philatelic first day usages created by accident. Here is
a nice example of a 1991 German issue.
We are still learning what will sell and are trying a number of different strategies, small lots,
large lots, single cover lots, selling prices at $1.95 to $100++.
This is what we pulled from the 60,000 German covers and will be looking for a buyer. I formed a
collection of the Famous Women series, Berlin Issues and Semi-Postals (Germany and Berlin).
It consists of 800 Famous Women's Issue on cover, includes over 100 Berlin issues (Michel Catalog approx. $1,500), Registered with only Famous Women definitives on them, V Label, High Values, Postage Due, with tabs, Express, AR, Missent, Printed Rate, used with Semi-Postals, 1st and 2nd day non philatelic usages.
500 Better Germany on cover. About 100 Express, AR, Printed Matter, Missent, "V", about 300 Semi-Postals, and more better Vending, tabs, postage due, missent, other auxiliary markings etc...
800 Better Berlin issues on cover. Including Registered, several different definitive series, semi-postals and commemoratives.
And finally, about 100 Mixed usages of all combinations. Berlin/GDR/East Germany/DDR etc...
To see the lots the students have put up.
This link should take you there
May 28, 2015 -- Germany is Sorted!
This week we finished sorting Germany, and I started the students on the rest of the countries.
I taught them how to select covers, describe them and post them on ebay. The worked through a couple
boxes each of Algeria, Egypt, Korea, and Morocco. They found this "Sea Mail" cover, though it still is mailed on
an airmail envelope, so I am not sure about that?
They found more early usages of the Morocco dinosaur
stamp and we put them up on ebay and they sold immediately to a Chinese collector -- we will be sending
that out registered.
This is what we pulled from the 60,000 German covers and will be looking for a buyer. I formed a
collection of the Famous Women series, Berlin Issues and Semi-Postals (Germany and Berlin).
It consists of 800 Famous Women's Issue on cover, includes over 100 Berlin issues (Michel Catalog approx. $1,500), Registered with only Famous Women definitives on them, V Label, High Values, Postage Due, with tabs, Express, AR, Missent, Printed Rate, used with Semi-Postals, 1st and 2nd day non philatelic usages.
500 Better Germany on cover. About 100 Express, AR, Printed Matter, Missent, "V", about 300 Semi-Postals, and more better Vending, tabs, postage due, missent, other auxiliary markings etc...
800 Better Berlin issues on cover. Including Registered, several different definitive series, semi-postals and commemoratives.
And finally, about 100 Mixed usages of all combinations. Berlin/GDR/East Germany/DDR etc...
The Dinosaur cover should sell today, though there are no bids yet, there have been 71 views and 3 watchers.
You can see the cover on ebay here.
To see the lots the students have put up.
This link should take you there
Morocco 655 Cetiosauras Mogrebiensis non philatelic registered cover used on first day of issue, Jan 18, 1988.
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May 22, 2015 -- Dinosaurs!
We are almost through Germany. 60,000 covers in 10 days -- more or less. I am in the Big Brother
program, so yesterday's activity with my "Little" was to sort stamps. Of the countries I have,
only one country, Morocco, issued a Dinosaur stamp (Indonesia has a 'baby dino' cartoon -- I am not
counting that) so the plan was to open a box of covers and look for the Dinosaur. Now my little brother
is a 6th grader, so he considers himself past the Dinosaur age, but no matter, that was the plan.
I had found the box of Morocco dated Jan 5-20, 1988, so when we got to our office, we had a snack
and opened the box. We each worked our piles, looking through the boring 'men' stamps, occasionally finding
a bird or rock or money stamp. We were having a moderate level of fun. Within 5 minutes, he was bored, but
I did not give in. We were there to find the Dinosaur and that was today's project. He relented a bit, and
we continued on. It was looking a bit desperate, but 90% through the box, I found in my pile, the first
dinosaur. I yelped with enthusiasm and told him, "I told you we would find a dinosaur". Then I found a second, and a third.
I told him the plan was that we were going to put them up on ebay and sell them and take the proceeds and
spend them on us (day at a water park etc...). He kept looking through his pile while I went to check on the
scanner in my office. While I was away, I heard his first, "I found one!", after which he found 2 more. So
out of the box we found 6 covers. We checked them out and found two used on the first day, one on the 2nd, and one
on the third.
Then we went into the scanning room, scanned the cover (and his face -- what kid doesn't want a scan of his face), and posted
them for sale on ebay. We also posted a Missent to Ireland (he started catching those as soon as we found the first one), and
two butterfly covers. You can see the cover on ebay here.
I am still trying to figure out what might sell on ebay. I put some India Refugee Relief covers, and some Algeria, Express,
Postage Due, Registered/AR, Birds, and Affranchissement Verifie covers up yesterday.
This link should take you there
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May 15, 2015 -- 1989 Germany, Egypt and Algeria.
We have made it up to 1989 Germany. I now have two students sorting covers. Now they
can stay ahead of me twice as fast. I have not introduced them to a stamp catalog yet. Maybe next week.
Thanks to some friends, I now have a German specialized catalog. Of course in German -- the students will love that!
All my questions so far have been answered except the one about the currency totalling number in the
selvedge. Is there a term for that? It is not a plate number, do they just refer to them as tabs?
I have included a scan of some of the interesting covers that I have found.
The famous German women series that I spoke of caused some interest from this newsletter and will close in a couple of days.
It is a great series, and I think the 1000 covers that I put up for sale will
give a great intro to the series. The 1000 cover Women's Definitive Series Lot can be found at this link.
I have also just put a number of smaller lots of Germany and Berlin, Postal History, Semi Postals, etc... up at ebay.
This link should take you there
While the students were sorting the Germany, I opened the Egypt (120,000 covers), and the Algeria (60,000 covers) and put together
some sampler lots with covers from each year. If you are interested, you can find them here,
Algeria Lot, and
Egypt Lot.
May 7, 2015 -- 1987 Germany.
Well, I can see that some people are actually reading this, because of the "Colbert Bump" effect.
The ebay lot that I referenced in the last email had a number of views.
Not only that but Lori answered my question about the "V" registry label as she replied "V Labels stand for WERTBRIEF. In other words value more than 40 Deutsche Marks. I have received numerous V Letters from auction houses in Germany." So many thanks Lori.
meanwhile... When I discovered that after sorting 12,000 covers, I had a bunch of the
Women's definitives, I decided to keep just the registered covers that only had Women's definitives
and put the rest up on ebay. It is a great series, and I think the 1000 covers that I put up for sale
gives you a great intro to the series. You can take a look at the 1000 cover Women's Definitive Series Lot here.
So for my alert readers (and those that get this far in the newsletter) two questions still.
- I know what the purpose of the 20,00 in the selvage on this stamp is. It is used to help calculate
the cost of a row, or partial sheet of stamps. Is there a term for this? It is similar to
a plate number, or a tab, but does it have a name?
- Does any one know of any errors or varieties in the
Germany Women's Definitive series?
Today I trained my first student in sorting covers. It went very well, I think my students are going to keep me very busy, as I think they can sort faster than I can post lots and keep up with my regular work. I think I will make them learn how to use a stamp catalogue, that should slow them down a bit.
Today we sorted most of 1987 Germany and found a number of non-philatelic first day of issue of the 1987 Historic Issue, and a number of early uses of the Women's definitive series. I hope to have some of that up for sale soon.
May 5, 2015 -- My Modern Postal History Project. Last Friday, 670 boxes of covers from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Germany arrived. We have started working the Germany section. We have
about 60,000 German covers from 1987-1992, spanning the unification period. I thought this might
be interesting for the Woman's definitive series, the Semi-Postals, and the Berlin issues. My plan is
to pull that material and sell the rest as we sort it. In doing so, I ran into a couple things, so I am
asking our alert readers (and those that get this far in the newsletter) two questions.
- There are a large number of attractive Registered covers, all with R labels, but so far out of about 8,000 covers
I have found three "V" labels. These are new to me. Can anyone tell me what these are?
- I know what the purpose of the 20,00 in the selvage on this stamp is. It is used to help calculate
the cost of a row, or partial sheet of stamps. However, is there a term for this. It is similar to
a plate number, or a tab, but does it have a name?
Today, I hired a student to help sort the covers, and I hope to hire a few more. I am working with the city
of Durham and their "Made in Durham" program to use this project as a way to give young people with little
job skills some experiences to help them in the work force.
If you are interested in purchasing any of this material, it will be sold on ebay. I have three lots
up there now, you can find them by searching for Germany Cover Lot. The 850 cover registered lot is for sale
here.
March, 2015 -- Modern Postal History of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Germany. Recently I wrote about my experiences working through a 30 year correspondence from Mexico to Finland. Well, I guess I couldn't get enough. I am acquiring the same correspondence for the countries listed above. Though I am not a collector of any of those countries, I enjoy the sort and search. I am combining this stamp project with another interest of mine, which is teaching job skills to under resourced high school kids.
We are talking 560 boxes of 800-1000 covers each. It spans the years 1972-2003. If my experience with Mexico is any indication, there should be mostly small covers, some business and large envelopes, mostly airmail with just a few surface rates, but many registered covers with some AR and auxilliary markings, mostly definitive, some postal stationery depending on the country, and lots of topical commemoratives.
I am in the process of getting it shipped to me from Finland and am starting to see if I can find anyone that would be interested in it. This was a big deal for the study of the Mexico Exporta issue, so I am wondering if there are aspects of this correspondence that would provide similar research or study results. If anyone has rate tables for these countries showing the airmail, surface and 1st class rates to Finland and the registered and AR fees, that would be extremely helpful.
My plan is to teach the students how to sort the covers, keeping some better items from each box to form a single country collection of the better items, while selling off the remainders as I go.
Click here to send a email to Tom Droege
or call 919-403-9459 and ask for Tom Droege.
This is an article I wrote about my experience with the Mexico portion of this correspondence.
My Jan 2015 Mexicana Article on the "Pen Friends" Finland Hoard
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