Hopefully the hottest part of this year is behind us. The June-August heat and lack of rain really dried up this part of Texas. Most lawns were allowed to turn brown and many gardens were flattened by the heat. We were fortunate to have our entire property surrounded by huge trees which lowered the ground temperature and kept our plants healthy. My summer outside project was to construct raised garden beds – our predecessors had a large parking area in the back yard for a recreation vehicle which is perfect for the garden. My gardener is a super worker and he already constructed the garden and we have planted a variety of late summer/ fall plants. Gardening is really enjoyable when you have someone to do the heavy work!
Last month we announced the mailing of our revised price list for Germany semi-postals but in fact mailed out our revised price list for German areas part C – German areas from Estonia through Marienwerder. This month we will actually mail the semi-postal price list. Next month we are updating our Austria price list for the Austrian offices, and occupations. We have a lot of seldom seen varieties added to this list.
We have joined the Texas Stamp Dealers Association and have decided to do a few shows next year in Dallas and Oklahoma City which are reasonably close to Wichita Falls. We will get to see some of our Texas customers and hopefully meet some new ones.
We are still organizing the Austria estate collection we bought last year. I suspect it will take another year to fully organize the estate and be able to offer all of the item for sale. There are huge quantities of Scott listed stamps and covers and equally large quantities of specialized material requiring extensive identification. Needlesstosay we are not seeking to buy more Austria stamps for a long while.
We are in need of good collections of German states, German colonies, German post WWII locals, and German private post stamps.

AUCTION
BUYING AND SELLING

We have not mentioned auction results in a long while. Over the past year both European auctions and US auctions have had similar results but I would give the US auctions a higher rating on auctioning collections and European auction do better on single items and sets.
Auction results vary significantly from auction house to auction house. In the US the best results for selling collections are achieved by Rasdale Stamp Auctions in Chicago and do as slightly lesser extent at Kelleher Stamp Auctions in Danbury CT. Rasdale Auctions just completed an auction in mid August. Just about all of their collection listings sold and most sold at or about the lot estimates. Naturally I watch the auctions most closely for the Austria and German area lots but also look over results in other areas. Rasdale lists individual lots and collections but their specialty has always been collections.
All US auctions do well with US collections but Rasdale does best overall for all countries. Their business practices are also very efficient and fair – they treat their clients exceptionally well – both buyers and sellers.
For better singles and sets, Cherrystone Auctions in New York City is my favorite for both buying and consigning. Paul
Buchsbayew, owner, provides first class service and does a superior job of describing his lot listings. The only negative about Cherrystone is that they specialize in advanced material and individual lots and have little interest in most Scott listed
“regular” stamps.
For individual items, especially advanced material, European auction have more extensive offerings and more buyers and sellers. Also there are more reputable stamp auction houses than can be found in the US. For US customers though buying and selling in Europe is a more complex, time consuming, and expensive process than in the US. Fortunately in recent years the bigger auction houses have permitted payment by credit card which greatly eases and expedites payment for auction lots. Consignment procedures are another story – for another time.
Most of the bigger European auction houses do very well with both individual lots and collections – they have offerings in both categories. The auction houses I like best are Heinrich Kohler in Wiesbaden, HBA in Hamburg, Wurttembergisches in Stuttgart, and Rapp AG in Switzerland.
If you have questions about buying or selling at auction please ask us and we will do our best to provide you answers.
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