23rd February 2021

I have merged into stock a collection of Spain. The years covered were 1950-2007 and many gaps in my stock have been filled. The postmarks were quite nice as Spanish stamps can be heavily marked. Unfortunately, SG have decided to re-number at least 80 stamps in the late 2000s. I really do not like this because when I receive an order from a customer, how do I know if they want the old or new number? Then I have to spend literally hours making the changes and re-setting my stock. So I will see how many people use the new numbers and then I might re-number those stamps.

18th February 2021

My Canadian supplier has sent me the first new issues for 2021. There are twelve stamps depicting the various new year symbols plus a “mini” sheet. Then there are two stamps for Black History Month. Thank goodness they are not issuing new definitives this year as there is no change in the postal rate. SG always make such issues much more complicated than they need to!  

17th February 2021

I have re-worked my stock of the Chain-breakers of Yugoslavia. They are now listed with different perfs, papers and shades. Some people love sifting through issues like these. We found several stamps not listed in SG.

Continuing my work on GB, two more areas have been re-sorted. My range of Downey Heads has been re-assessed with some new items in stock. Then it was the turn of the Seahorses to be re-identified. Both these areas have been updated in my GB list.

16th February 2021

It has been a long time since I added anything to the Diary. I have not been completely idle! Firstly the orders have come in, thick and fast. Always good news. Then I embarked upon a sorting job with my Uruguay stock. I did not realise it would take so long, but at least it has now been completed.

So far my Uruguay goes up to 1972 although I know I have more stock to add when the time is right. This range is not as good as the Peru and Venezuela that I worked on recently, but it is a good base point. The coverage is quite good among definitives and commemoratives and there is considerable depth to the stock in places. 

Not many Latin American countries remain to be sorted, at least first time around. Once that is done I have 5 boxes of collections etc to merge into the main stock.

6th February 2021

My Swedish supplier has sent me a nice little selection of stamps. These were mostly gap-fillers from my wants list. Many were from recent years, although I must now give him a new list covering the 2010s. As usual the condition is impeccable. With Sweden, I have to try and keep stocks of singles, pairs and booklet panes. Luckily my supplier is well suited to this. 

2nd February 2021

I have added a few in these two areas: Maldive Islands from 1909-33 and Ceylon from 1883-1932.

My Canadian supplier has sent me various odds and ends to plug gaps in stock. There were a couple of KG6 items then fillers all the way to a year or two ago. 

1st February 2021

I have spent the last 3-4 days setting up a stock of Peru. Much of it is easy to sort but the definitive sets were made by different printers and these are listed separately. I have good quantities of many of these issues. This stock covers stamps from the early issues (just a few) through to the 1990s (where it peters out). 

I now have five Latin American countries where I need to set up the stock. Once that is done, I have a number of collections and stockbooks currently housing more material. It will be nice when this is all done!  

28th January 2021

My supplier in Prague has sent me all the issues for 2020. The designs and printing are of the usual high quality and I particularly like the bird issues. There are the usual range of art stamps plus three nice butterfly stamps.

27th January 2021

I am progressing well in renovating my GB stock. I have had some help with these, but I now have my King Edward VII issues fully organised. There are several new items listed and although some prices have gone up, many others have come down to take into account recent market values.  

26th January 2021

At long last, I have added the Wilding issues to my GB list! That has included watermark varieties and the graphites and phosphors. Recently I added the QE2 Castle stamps as well but I will not be doing Machins.

25th January 2021

A long gap since my last entry. All week I have been working on my Netherlands stock. Firstly my back up stock was in a mess and needed putting in order. Then I had three collections to merge into my existing stock. Two of the lots began with the first set and one of them went as far as 1999. That filled up most of my gaps in the main part of that range, including some Postage Dues and Court of Justice. After a long time in the doldrums, the stamps of the Netherlands have become more popular lately. I have seen a rise in popularity with Denmark and Switzerland too. 

18th January 2021

I sent an order to my contact in Germany for more stamps of Austria. He filled in most of the gaps in my stock and supplied me with all but two items of 2015. 

17th January 2021

It was time to put in some effort on my stock of Turkey. I worked on 4 different lots covering the period 1926-59. There are some more lots for this period and a lot more after that date. I will go back to these before too long. 

12th January 2021

Another batch of new issues from New Zealand. There are 4 stamps for Christmas 2020 plus 3 self-adhesive stamps and a mini sheet. New Zealand win the prize for the first issues of 2021 to reach me. These are the Year of the Ox stamps, of which there are four plus a mini sheet.

10th January 2021

It was time to work on my Greek stock. One collection started with Hermes Heads and went through to 1979. It was well-filled with some high values as well but filled a lot of gaps as Greece has been quite popular over the last few months. A second collection overed the years 1997-2009 including the majority of the mini sheets.  

5th January 2021

I have received the remaining issues for 2020 for Sweden. If you like dogs, there was set of five but the last two issues were the best. A composite picture for Christmas with animal cartoon figures was cute then there is a set of five Winter Animals which is right up my street. The only problem with recent Swedish stamps is that they are self-adhesive and you cannot soak them off paper but they are mainly lovely designs.

I then moved on to Portuguese Colonies. I had bought a stockbook which had selections of various colonies. For me, there were some new items to my stock including for Guinea, Zambezia, Congo and Nyassa.

I put away various USA stamps from the period 1920-45. Quite useful as my stock was getting thin due to my voracious customers!

3rd January 2021

I put away stamps from a collection of KG6 Commonwealth. It was a selection of colonies as opposed to a full range but a nice lot all the same. Hardly any new items for stock but good back up and good condition. 

2nd January 2021

I have added good numbers of British commemoratives from about 1995-2015. More to come.

1st January 2021

A Happy New Year to everyone! Let’s hope things take a turn for the better. Stamp collecting can provide us with many benefits. I find I can spend hours immersed in the stamps, enabling me to forget for a while all the covid problems.

It is many days since my last contribution to this diary. Of course, Christmas came along. I have spent all week working on a fabulous lot of Venezuela, from a thinnish selection of early issues, through an almost complete stock from the 1920a to the 1990s and on to 2001. It is by far my strongest Latin American country and has often proved popular.  

24th December 2020

I have just finished work on new stock of Norway. This was a fabulous lot stretching rom SG 1 to the year 2018. There was plenty of duplication throughout and the condition was very good. Several gaps in my stock have now been filled. You will have to wait a little while for the Posthorn issues of the nineteenth century as a friend is sorting those for me!