June was an exceptionally hot month – we hit or exceeded 100 degrees twelve times in June and the rest of the month was in the high 90’s. My vegetable garden has been producing since early June. We have had no rain so my water bill is up there also!

Three month ago we decided it was time to stop mailing monthly price lists and to apply the saved preparation time for the lists to updating our web site offerings. We expected to hear from some disappointed customers but so far have not had one complaint. We will mail a few price lists each year but far fewer than we have done in the past. Most of our customers either order directly from our web site or send us want lists.

Our Treasure Boxes

Last month we reminded our customers that we sell these boxes and received a flood of orders – so we are reminding you again. We have been offering these boxes for about 11 years – almost every customer who has tried one box has ordered another. We have quite a supply of treasure box material – excess stock, areas we don’t normally stock, and just plain stamps we don’t have time to examine. We always insure that there are stamps of value included in the boxes but otherwise don’t check anything. There of course will be a lot German and Austrian related stamps and covers in the lots but there can be almost anything philatelic. These lots are designed for collectors who like to search through lots of philatelic items. Each $175 lot is different from the others and each will fill a medium priority box.

We have been selling a lot of our treasure boxes because the large volume of stamps and covers gives collectors a lot of pleasure searching through the pile. We have assembled more boxes and are ready to mail!

SCOTT 2023 STAMP CATALOG VOL 3

The new 2023 catalog is a reprint of the 2022 catalog with Germany listings of new issues for 2021 added.. This trend continues – few German areas have received any changes in the last 7-8 years.

As in most recent years I would recommend that you continue to use your current version of Vol 3 if it was issued during the past ten years. Scott is just not posting many changes to listings or prices.

Expertizing your stamps

For many years we have advocated the Bund Philatelistischer Prüfer (BPP) Guild as the best expertizers for German area stamps. Over the past several years I and several of our customers have had serious problems with their service.

The quality and reliability of their examinations has not been questioned but their business practices are not always the best.

The most serious problem I have had occurred when a very substantial shipment – valued over $10,000 was lost in the mail from the expertizer to me. The expertizer returned the shipment via registered mail but failed to insure the shipment. (European posts will insure registered mail to the US). The shipment was lost in the mail and the BPP does not cover any of the loss, The BPP expertizer did not even provide a copy of the invoice which was enclosed in the shipment. The bottom line is the risk of loss resides 100% on the sender in shipping stamps both to and from the BPP expertizers.

Several of my customers also suffered loss of mail both to and from Europe. The most common complaints were lack of communication with the expertizers and lengthy turn around times for examination – up to 8 months in several cases. In my experience some expertizers returned the stamps consistently with two weeks and some consistently in 3-4 months.

In recent months I have had dealings with the Philatelic Foundation and find them to be very credible in their examinations, fairly prompt, and their shipments are fully insured! The APS expertization service is another alternative but not a favorite of mine for German or Austrian stamps but reasonably credible.

Frankly, my bottom line is to have stamps examined with minimum risk of loss. I will still send lesser items to BPP examiners but not really valuable ones.

R Schneider Stamps
PO BOX 978
Iowa Park TX 76367

Office (618) 975 2099
FAX: (940) 213 3596

Email:
RSchneiderstamps@gmail.com

Website:

RSchneiderstamps.com