Spring has finally arrived in our area. The weather has been gorgeous for over a week! Everything has turned green and the flowers have been planted.

This year has been unusual for us in that our sales have been almost double their usual volume so far for the year. We have been busy! Perhaps the extended winter weather that just about everyone has experienced has kept collectors working on their stamps. Whatever the reason, we are appreciative.
We are still working hard on revising our web site but are not yet ready to go live with it. We are not going to switch to the new programing until we are sure it works better for the customer than the current system. We are hoping now to upload the new system well before the end of May – we’ll see!
This month we are updating two lists – Germany Part 1 and DDR. We are going to have four parts to our Germany proper list when we finish updating them. We just keep getting more and more varieties and the three part lists are each too long. Our 4 part list will have many more items than our current lists. To avoid confusion, we hope, we are going to number the new four part list Part A,B,C,D. The current Part 1 will be divided into two lists – Part a and B. It will take until the end of the year before Germany Part 2 and Part 3 are replaced so they will be remain valid until you get the new Parts C and D.

Next month we will update our German colonies list Part 2. We will also try to publish our Germany Part B list.

MICHEL DEUTSCHLAND SPEZIAL 2014 – VOL I

The vast majority of pages in the new catalog exactly match last year’s edition.

There are no changes of any kind until you reach page 389 upon which Michel added a table listing margin variations of the 1920 Bavarian set overprinted Deutsches Reich. Then there are a few small price changes among the Germany inflation issues and the catalog resumes reprinting all of last year pages through the German colonies listings.
There are a few price changes scattered throughout the WWI occupation and plebiscite issues.
The Belgium WWI section has been expanded and includes many new items and price changes.
1-9** 330 Euro to 360 Euro
9DD** 1000 Euro to 1500 Euro
* 400 Euro to 600 Euro
Romania
P6-7 U 200 Euro to 240 Euro
Allenstein
1-14 U 50 Euro to 65 Euro
Östliches Oberschlesien
1A-7A **700 Euro to 1400 Euro
* 170 Euro to 305 Euro
1B-7B** 340 Euro to 500 Euro
* 80 Euro to 130 Euro
Belgium Military post section has been expanded with a lot of new perforation varieties.
Price changes are scattered throughout the WWII occupations – most are very modest increases. Michel also added mint hinged prices for most WWII issues.
There are some expansions of listings in the world War II area – Lithuania, Montenegro and Serbia – mostly adding new varieties to the listings.
Bottom line is that German states and Germany are unchanged this year but there are quite a few changes in the WWI and WWII occupations, but even there most prices remain unchanged.

SCOTT 2014 VOLUME I

Catalog prices for the Austrian and German areas have been 99.99% unchanged for the 2010 through the new 2014 catalogs.
This year I found almost no price changes of any kind for the Austrian and German areas. There were two early issues that increase by a few dollars and the newspaper stamps showed some price decreases. That was it.
I paid $105 delivered for my copy – that’s up $10 from last year. If you have a 2010 or later version of Scott Volume I the only conceivable reason to buy a new catalog is get the numbers for the new issues.

MICHEL DEUTSCHLAND SPEZIAL 2014 – VOL II

The new Michel Germany Part II Specialized catalog is now available.
This year’s version of Volume II is largely unchanged from the past several issues. Most major catalog number prices remain unchanged.. There are changes in prices for the color and plate varieties scattered throughout the catalog.
968a ** 50 to 80 Euro
916b** 5000 to 6000 Euro
935d** from 1400 to 1600 Euro
A few 5-10% increases among the Soviet zone issues.
DDR Official 29y-33y ** from 2200 to 1400 Euro.
There are close to zero price changes for Bundesrepublik, Berlin and DDR issues.
I know I sound like a broken record, but unless you have an ancient catalog, there is little reason to buy this year’s volume II.

2014 Catalogs

Please remember that we no longer stock Scott or Michel catalogs. They are getting so expensive that we can’t afford to end up with unsold copies at the end of the year. Also – it is cheaper for you to buy the catalogs direct from stamp collecting supply dealers who buy in larger quantities and at a discount.
For Michel catalogs, we highly recommend Werner Zielniewicz, Frankenweg 61, 45665 Recklinghausen, Germany. The easiest and fastest way for you to order from Werner is via his web site at www.wernerziel.de. (His English is excellent and you can pay via US personal checks or PayPal.) (I receive new catalogs faster from Werner than from Scott Publishing!)