As I reread last year’s August newsletter I note my comments about our weather last year are almost identical to what I will say this year. We continue to have milder weather than in past years and have also had substantially more rain than in past years. We seem to have a positive trend in our weather patterns compared to other areas throughout our country. Having been in Texas for almost 8 years now after moving from the St Louis area I truly enjoy the weather here far more.

Our business sales have also made a solid improvement this summer after a slow start this year. One thing I have learned over the years is than we can not predict the peaks and valleys in our sales based on the time of year. Many years ago summer was always slow for stamp sales and winter was always good. That pattern has disappeared.

Watching our international trade policy changes I an concerned that US buyers at European stamp auctions may be charged the new 15% tariff on stamp auction purchases. That could a painful change for collectors and dealers. We’ll see.

It took us two months but we finally finished updating our German states listings on our web site. We have added many new items and many more images of better stamps. We also updated our listing for Saar issues.

I should remind our customers that we do fill want lists also. Collectors always have singles that they are either missing or wish to replace for better copies. We usually can supply singles from sets at prorated prices. You can send us want lists or add wants into the remarks section of online orders and we will do our best to supply them. We will also seek out difficult to find items for our advanced collectors.

Austria – Ferchenbauer Catalog

Ferchenbauer Handbook of Austria 1850-1918 – published in Austria in 2008 is the most complete catalog in the world of Austrian philately for the years covered. This handbook/catalog is published in four hardbound volumes and totals well over 2000 pages of information. This catalog includes everything philatelic pertaining to Austria during the years 1850-1918. It includes images of stamps and covers in the most accurate colors of any philatelic publication. One can identify shades accurately by comparing stamps to the handbook’s images!

Although in German, the catalog listings are easy to use because of the detailed descriptions and the clear images. (The Austria Philatelic Society (US) has translated a good portion of this catalog already.) This catalog is for more advanced collectors who are acquiring covers and cards, or collect the many varieties that exist among the early stamp issues

The Handbooks are available in the US only from our firm. The price is $400 Postpaid. (We no longer maintain a stock of these sets but can acquire them quickly for collectors who want them.)

AUSTRIA PHILATELIC SOCIETY (US)

We are in our 25th full year of the Austria stamp club. If you are a collector of Austrian stamps and covers we would like you to consider joining our group. We publish a quarterly bulletin in color and hold two club auctions a year. Our next auction will be included with the January bulletin. Our club auctions offer a wide variety of Austria related stamps and covers for very reasonable prices.

Dues are still only $16 a year for our US members and $23 a year for overseas members. You can join by sending us your check now. Dues for new members received from now through December will cover the 2025 membership year.

If you would like to see one of our club bulletins to help you decide , we will send you one.

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