In just about a week and a half, you’ll be able to download updated pages for The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album! I’ve been busy correcting little mistakes here and there, and I think everything is just about ready to go.
If all goes according to plan, I’ll be issuing Philosateleian Post’s new Yosemite Grant stamp on the first Monday in June. First day covers are ready to go in the mail, and I have to say, the stamp looks more like a real stamp than any others I’ve ever designed. Or maybe Yosemite is just so beautiful it would make any stamp look good.
“Real life” has prevented me from adding a lot of new content to Philosateleia, but I have posted a brief writeup about Cambridge, New Zealand. A collector friend, Demetrios, recently sent a stamp picturing a sunset near that town for my landscape stamps collection.
Antique stamp perforator sales and prices realized
About a month and a half ago I wrote how I’m looking for an antique stamp perforator with which I can perforate my local post stamps—preferably a tabletop model simply because those are small enough to ship. I’m still looking.
Stamp perforators—and I’m referring to machines that make perforations between stamps, not machines that punch initials—are not especially common, but I’ve seen a couple listed for sale online since beginning my search. To try to help other local post operators or artistamp creators who may also be looking for a perforator, I plan to update this blog post whenever I spot one that is either too far away or too expensive for me to buy. I’ll also add prices realized so we have an idea of how much a perforator should cost us!
The following table contains a list of perforators, when they sold, and either how much they sold for or (for those that are still on sale) links where you can get details.
Hot on the heels of James F.’s generous contribution to help with Philosateleia’s operating expenses comes another gift, this time from longtime supporter Vivian B. These gifts go toward keeping Philosateleia online, and will help greatly through the remainder of 2014 and even into 2015.
We’ll get back to regular programming soon, but I did want to applaud the folks who help. It means a lot to me, and I thank you.
As you probably know, I operate Philosateleia as something of a labor of love. I would like to think that my website and free stamp album pages are my way of “giving back” to the stamp collecting world because stamp collecting is a hobby from which I’ve learned a great deal. I consider the relatively low expenses associated with running a website like this fair payment for what I’ve gained.
That’s not to say that I object to the support of collectors who find Philosateleia helpful, and with that in mind, I want to publicly thank James F. James recently sent a very generous donation that will pay this website’s hosting bills for most of the rest of 2014, and for that I say, thank you.
I’ve added James’ name to the list of Philosateleia’s supporters. If you have a moment, please leave a “thank you” of your own in the comments section for James, as well as Suzanne M. and David H., both of whom sent gifts earlier this year.
I wrote earlier in the week about my inverted Spider-Man APC label. Spider-Man appears upside down in relation to the printed USPS logo, which shouldn’t have been printed on the label at all.
Now I have what I like to call claustrophobic Spider-Man. The overly wide bar code almost gives our superhero the appearance of being jammed in between a couple of walls!
Spider-Man APC error label
Again, I don’t think this is what was supposed to happen. It seems more likely that a narrow bar code should have been printed, and that the sale date and other information shouldn’t be plastered all over the top of Spider-Man. It will be interesting to see what other “varieties” of this label appear.
