20th November 2020

Some weeks ago, I bought a collection of Angola. I knew it has a lot of mint included and it was a little bit disorganised. However when I got to work on it today, I was pleasantly surprised. The collection was very comprehensive and offered up lots of stamps I did not have beforehand. The early Crown issues were mostly good quality which is hard to find. I now have a quandary because there was a lot of mint and unexpectedly some highly catalogued singles and sets. I am going to have to see what to do with the mint stock!   

19th November 2020

It was some time since I last bought recent USA material. So I asked my main USA supplier to prepare things for me. He is sending me stamps in several envelopes. To begin with I received early 2019 stamps and blocks, including the (very) high values. More to arrive soon.

17th November 2020

The latest Australian new issues to arrive consist of two sets. The Civil Aviation issue has two values plus a self-adhesive stamp and a mini sheet. Then there are two self-adhesive stamps for When We Connect.  

A duplicated lot of Finland came my way, covering the period 1901 to the 1920a. They have now been checked for watermarks, perfs etc and I have a few new items in my list. Notable were two perf 11 x 12.5 stamps from the 1881 arms type. 

I have just noticed that SG have made it a lot more complicated. Previously there were three sets of their type 19: no watermark, Swastika watermark and posthorn watermark. Now they list backwards, forwards, upright, upside down etc etc. I have no immediate plans to list my stamps like this, but if you collect them this new way, let me know and if there is sufficient interest, I may relent! 

It was time to sort out some Ceylon, from 1868-1935. Not many new items but good back-up stock. There was one particularly interesting item (SG 233i with space between T and A). 

Lastly I sorted quantities of Large and Small Queens of Canada. There are quite a few new items in my list now. There were a lot of excellent copies among these.

13th-15th November 2020

I have been working on Dominican Republic and have got as far as 1980. This is a very good collection/lot with handy duplication and a high degree of completeness. There are two more books to price up and I will get on with that shortly. 

11th November 2020

My New Zealand supplier has sent me more new issues. This time there is a set of 4 stamps and a mini sheet for Maori Language Week and a set of 6 stamps plus mini sheet for the Tokyo Olympic Games. That seems strange as the Games have been postponed until next year (hopefully!)

The latest Ross Dependency set came in too. It depicts the Seasons, so there are 4 stamps and a mini sheet.

9th November 2020

I added a small amount of QE2 Antigua. There were some gap-fillers and a lot of back-up copies. 

7th November 2020

I was able to add early Trinidad issues to stock today. There are several new items with variations in colour, perfs and watermark among the new stock.

With Finland, I added more Serpentine roulettes to my list. Some excellent copies among the range plus others missing teeth as usual.  

6th November 2020

My Parisian supplier sent me material from 2019-20 France. I have good demand for recent French issues. There were most commemorative stamps and mini sheets plus the stamps from the booklets. Most of the stamps are in my list and I will add the others soon.

1st November 2020

Not much work has gone on with Latin America in the last few weeks. So today I worked on an ex-dealer’s stock of Haiti. (Yes I know technically Haiti is French not Latin!) The stock was not complete of course but greatly improved my range with some duplication. There are stamp from the very first issue right through to the 1980s although it became more sparse the nearer it got to present day.

31st October 2020

It is some time since I had new stock of Finland, apart from new issues. Today, I finished work in breaking down a lovely collection of this popular country. It housed some of the earliest issues, including a big range of serpentine roulettes and continued right up to the 1970s. Most issues were
present and with one or two exceptions, the condition was excellent.

A friend is checking the serpentine roulettes for me as well as some of the Russian issues. They will be ready in a few days. All other items new to stock are already included in my Finland listing. There are several singles and sets going up on www.robstineextra.com

30th October 2020

New issues from Norway have arrived. There are four stamps on dogs, some Museums and Carl Nesjar.

29th October 2020

Progress has been slow this week due to my cataract operation. Hopefully all is well and I will be back to normal at the weekend.
I received a lovely lot from German supplier. He filled in odd gaps that had appeared in my (West) Germany stock plus brought me up to date with new issues. Several of these are since the SG and Michel listings. There were also a few items from Danzig, Memel and the Zones period.

24th October 2020

Over the last three days, I have been working on a fabulous collection of Ethiopia. Not the sort of material you see every day. In this collection, there was a reasonable range of early stamps, then from 1936-76 it was just about complete. I already had a half-decent stock of Ethiopia but thus has
transformed what I can offer.

I added some New Zealand Officials from 1907-1940 and now have a strong selection, including some perf differences.
The next area I turned my hand to was Hong Kong. This was part of a big Commonwealth purchase from a few weeks ago. It was largely complete from Qv to KG5, including many of the top values. I have added several items to www.robstineextra.com

22nd October 2020

The latest album to be broken down was of three Commonwealth areas: Bermuda, Caymans and Trin +Tob. Whoever the collector was, he concentrated on definitive issues with a few commemoratives
thrown in. There were several valuable QV items plus very good KE7 and KG5 periods. Quite good KG6 and QE2 ranges stopping in the early 1970s. A good number of varieties were included and all in excellent condition. You will see I have added to the range shown on www.robstineextra.com with
many better values.

20th October 2020

Today I finished working on a collection of France from the first Ceres issue to the early 1950s. It spurred me on to completely re-sort my stock of the early issues, the last part of which will be ready in the next few days. Most of the other stamps were already in stock, but those in this collection were of a superior standard and have deepened my stock. You will see I have added items to the range on www.robstineextra.com

18th October 2020

I sorted much of a stockbook that contained Portuguese Azores (including Angra, Horta and Ponta Delgada) with Madeira/Funchal. You will have to wait a short while for the earliest issues. There were lots of mid-period stamps with quite a few new items in stock.

16th October 2020

Some more Australian new issues came my way today. These included the Perth Stamp Show mini sheet, the water Tower art stamps, self-adhesive stamps and mini sheet. Additionally the latest AAT set was present . There are 4 stamps and a mini sheet for the RSV Nuyina.

15th October 2020

Tidying up today. I added some early issues in Cook Islands, Aitutaki and Penrhyn. These have been checked for watermark differences and include many better items.

I continued my revamping of my early French stock. This time, I have sorted the Napoleon III perforated issues, the Laureated set, perforated Ceres issues and the Bordeaux issues. There are new items to stock plus several high values, often in superb condition. 

13th October 2020

I finished work on more Portuguese Colonies. It was a bitty collection with items from most colonies. There were new items in most colonies but the best selection was Portuguese India. I have seven more books of Port Cols to work on, although I will put effort into other areas as well.

10th October 2020

I priced up a collection of Aitutaki today. There was a good selection of the earlies, although a friend is checking some of them for watermarks, shades etc before I add them to the list. The modern stamps and mini sheets covered the years 1972-86 and were almost complete.
In a spare moment, I googled Aitutaki and watched two videos of the atoll. It would be lovely to spend a couple of days there, although I do not think I would like to live there.