I've been to Short Halls, New Jersey, many times, but have you ever been to Peterson N.J. ?
There's never a good time to visit Peterson!
Tom....whenever I go to the Clifton stamp show, I always make the wrong turn , when I exit route 80, and I end up in Peterson....
Was thinking about your rant, Tom, and I have had many of the same experiences.
However, I have come to see opportunity in many of the examples you give. The impact of inaccurate listings is that fewer potential buyers will see them come up on their searches, just as you have experienced. That can be a Good Thing for an aspiring buyer in terms of price discovery.
When I encounter insufficient or inaccurate descriptions, before I go on, I look at the the seller's other items, to see if there are goodies in there to cherry pick. It happens often enough for me that it's become a useful strategy. It's a pattern to be exploited.
I wonder if it is not uncommon for a totally uninformed seller (such as a descendent of a deceased collector) to attempt to disperse material that the surviving family is cleaning out. (Based on some of the Stamp Room images we've seen on this Discussion Board, it's not hard to put yourself in the shoes of that person and identify with the family's sentiment: Just get RID of it!). And, in the demographic of an aging hobby, it's something to be more and more vigilant for as time passes.
So, I'm kind of resigned to doing very general searches, and wading through 10s of thousands of items, usually finding nothing.
My search for Chester County DPO covers is:
(pennsylvania,pa,penn,penna) cover
Then, I order it by "newly listed", and go down to where I left off last time. For those dealer bulk listings, they're often grouped together, so I can just hit "page down" in rapid succession to skip over them. I have a few favorite sellers, and I'll go to their listings and employ the same strategy. It's a "brute force" strategy, but often I'll find something really interesting that I didn't know I was interested in - like that "Hot Air" postcard from 1910 that I snagged for $1.50.
I'm getting practiced at scanning listing images. FDCs jump out easily, they're all outside my range of interest: pre-1916. Any kind of ceremonial cover, or philatelic items, or 'late-model' items also are easily scanned without really focusing on them. Do I miss stuff? Probably. But, with practice, I presume I'm getting better at not missing stuff...
For some of my searches, I put in HUGE "minus clauses". Like this one:
-(mint,revenue,revenues,unused,specimen,trial,block,MLH,MNH,MNG,MH,OG,hinged,proof,gum,FDC,commemorative)
Your mileage may vary.
What drives me nuts?
The word 'rare'. I is used all too often and too loosely.
IMHO
Chimo
Bujutsu
What drives me nutz in most general internet posts are misspellings and poor grammar. OK, I've made mistakes myself, and I give a big pass to anyone who has English as second language (it is a completely confusing language) but gee whiz everyone else please be clear in what you say.
On the stamp side, as soon as I see "rare" I walk (figuratively!) away.
Disgruntled old English major,
Geoff
Nothing drives me NUTZ, I get from there to here and back by walking.
"...internet posts are misspellings and poor grammar..."
Jings!.....Crivvens!.....Help Ma Boab!
What drives me Nutz!
Nit picking, intolerance, arrogance, barking dogs, smart alecs, plonkers, bad drivers, bad manners, Multi national companies, poor customer service, grocery shopping, politicians of all parties, bad dog owners, and most of all:-
ME!!!
" bad dog owners"
sheepshanks:- there are no bad dogs just bad dog owners!
Yep I forgot these horrible computerised telephone answering systems. (especially as I have a phone that does not connect with these systems and no I wasn't a chum of Alexander Graham Bell!!)
I also forgot a host of other things that drive me nutz. Its just I cannot remember them.
""Are you ready to take the Regimental Oath? Do you promise to be a brave soldier, never turn your back on the enemy, always be polite to a lady and respect the chastity of a woman?....Yes?....Have we got nothing in common?".....Major Denis Bloodnok"
High on the annoyance scale.
" ... Like I said, I could care less, ya know !..."
This is what drives me nuts:
"FREE*"
"and most of all:-
ME!!!"
"When the previous owner of a cover writes information on the front of the cover. What really irks me is when that information is incorrect.At Wits End"
Finding a nice cover in a cover box , and seeing that the stamp has been pealed off...
Well, I collect singles. I prefer them to be used and very lightly cancelled.
What drives me NUTZ is when the USPS destroys a gem with a glob of ink as a cancellation.
The 2017 Christmas season was a case in point. Their fancy holiday cancellation ruined all stamps it cancelled.
Undetectable watermarks. You know it's there, but all the Ronsonol in the world won't tell you which one it is.
And...
Multiple hinge remnants. I know they were somebody else's stamps before they were mine, but why in the world would anybody overlay 4, 6, or even more hinges on top of one another?! Even as a 10 year old, I knew better then to do that!
WB
'multiple hinge remainders'
This is a continuing work in progress in my 60 year old collection. Many sections were filled many, many, (again many) years ago from other collections and trades. Years ago I was not so fastidious in cleaning my used stamps. As I upgrade and/or re-arrange I must constantly remove multiple layers of hinges, including the ancient style of gummed papers and significant original paper adhesions. I can quickly fill up an ashtray sized bowl with excess paper.
I find the same issues when I trade, transfer in collection purchases, and even when I buy from dealers. Some dealers will not deal with the extra labor of removing papers & hinges. I therefore only deal with those that readily accept returns of uncovered flaws.
On another level I find it soothing to upgrade, clean the stamps within my collection.
The problem I've found is that on very old stamps, the hinges won't soak off properly.
I don't know why that is. Is there a way to remove them besides soaking in warm water ?
Seller: "Ohhh, I can't find that item you just purchased. I've provided a refund."
...sigh...
I wanna say, "Um, then WHY have you had it listed for the last YEAR!?!?!"
" ... WHY have you had it listed for the last YEAR!?!?!" ..."
I'd guess he did not know it was missing til you ordered it.
or, possibly he sold it for cash and hoped it would never sell and make him liable for a slling fee ?
Tightly curled hinges. Drives me Nutz!
Geoff
Tightly curled hinges ? ME TOO !
Nicaragua through 1940: an endless series of overprints including dates, 'Rosello', 'Habilalto', 'Correos'. They overlap and intersect with numerous forms of 'Official' & 'Aereo'. Oh yeah throw in a series of watermark/no watermark sets that have been endlessly reprinted including sideways watermarks. But in the end it is the challenge and 'nuts' that I love this hobby for.
I got it!
What REALLY drives me nutz?
A: Marks on philatelic items applied by previous owners.
To wit:
I think there are TWO on this item:
- the black "HNO" in the lower left
- the purple "O'SHAUGHNESSY...SAN FRANCISCO" stamp in the middle.
By the way, this is a Civil War cover, postmarked Richmond, VA to a female addressee in Macon, GA, franked with CSA #5. Could have been a soldier's letter, I guess... But, at any rate, the San Francisco address is not at all (I think, obviously) connected to the postal history of this item.
Anyway, WHAT is it about collectors that they need to mark their property, like a polecat marks its territory by urinating all over the place?!?!?! I guess some of us human beens feel a driving need to leave a personal legacy...(sigh)...
All it says is, "Mr. Philatelic High-Hat collected me."
It's like carving your initials into a living tree, to me.
Sorry, this is not an "ad hominem attack" on anyone in particular.
Just a rant.
That's all.
-Paul
To your point, Paul! Here is a postcard with a very rare Pago Pago, Samoa US possession cancel. Postcard collectors who don't give a hoot about the reverse side of their cards customarily stamp their name on that side pretty much like in your pole cat illustration.
In the early 20th century postcard collecting frenzy I'm sure most cards from Samoa went right from the printer to dealers in the USA. It's relatively easy to find unused cards, or ones used between two USA collectors, but the real deal is scarce!
And one Mary Pillot was no doubt one of those who had no idea that the reverse was much more valuable than the pretty picture side!
Very cool card, Tom!
Do you think it was your standard vacation postcard sent back to a friend/relative?
Or something else?
So, you could send a postcard halfway around the world in 1906...for 1c???
Amazing.
Was that because Samoa was an American possession then, and thus rated just like a State?
Anything in a fairly rare 'genuine' postal usage REALLY grabs me!
-Paul
Yes, the one cent rate is due to their territory status. I don't think there was much of a tourist trade, and since the card is addressed to a "Miss" it was probably mailed by a sailor. I have also seen cards of this era with US Navy ship postmarks.
USS Maine cancel (thanks to the idiot with the red ball point pen!)
I recently was able to purchase my second Pago Pago card on eBay. Note that a well known dealer has this same stamp with this cancel on a small bit of paper and wants $75 for it. I found this through my eBay search agent in the post card category. Somehow I won it for the opening bid of $7.50
Interesting that the first one you show, and the last one were printed by the same company, in 1905 - one in English the other in German(?).
Have you tried to leach out the red ink with fingernail polish remover?
VERY nice collection there. Are you working on covering all the US possessions of that era? For one thing, the immediate post-Spanish-American War period was probably the greatest 'colonial expansionist' era in the history of US foreign policy, only a decade before the US became profoundly isolationist. I would expect it to be a rich, yet sparse collecting area!
I was recently reading a history of Pan Am Airways in the South Pacific, and it implied that the ability of nations to claim landing rights near any given landmass in the South Pacific seemed to be based primarily on presence, within the constraints of international decorum. It's kind of amazing that claims to territory in the 20th century still reflected what was customary 300 years earlier!
"Have you tried to leach out the red ink with fingernail polish remover? "
I am driven NUTZ by a number of things.
This one has been top of my list for many years.
Selling label cut-outs as something they are NOT !
I have 'told' many sellers about it, including a top Canadian Auction House and one of the most popular GB dealers. Both knew exactly what they were.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1940-1d-black-reprinted-colour-trial-proofs-with-gum/312071837443?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
I just finished mining for covers on eBay, in pursuit of more New Jersey towns to add to my collection. Some of the sellers just drive me bonkers! Some of them don't know what they are selling, and today it is so easy to just Google something and then sound halfway intelligent! And some just think they need to fill out that title line with babble to fill it up! Things that drive me nutz include:
Misspellings! Sometimes I'll get a little excited to think that there's a town I either don't own, or have never heard of... instead, I open up the listing and find a careless misspelling of a very common town... Just today.... Passiao (Passiac), Rapway (Rahway).. I've eBay messaged this guy and he's still relisted it a few times the way he had it... my new favorite Short Halls (Short Hills). Another one I saw recently was Deer Lodge, NJ... which was actually Deer Lodge, NM or New Mexico! The seller thanked me for point that one out. I only correct the sellers to get that entry from screwing up my searches!
Listings that start out "SMALL TOWN COVER" Um, Newark, New Jersey is not a small town! It's the largest city in the state and one of the most common postmarks. Learn some geography! Or at least look it up.
Listings that say "TO" New Jersey... I don't care where they are mailed to, unless there is a receiving postmark and most of them don't have that. So my searches include probably 25% of covers mailed in other states... where I don't need that postmark... to friggin Newark, New Jersey. Come on guys!
Listings that say "Ad Cover" or "Advertising Cover"... and turn out to have a printed return address... that's called a "Corner Card" NOT an ad cover. Nothing like trying to make something seem more valuable than it is!
Arbitrary pricing.. Dealers who must have a spinning wheel to decide the price of each item. Same dealer will have two similar covers from the same town. One is a dollar and the other is ten dollars. How the heck did he figure that one?
And finally.. Same Sucky Items Listed Over and Over.. Seriously! I wade through this muck every week. The same crummy covers that are listed over and over. There is one postcard that has literally been on eBay for more than 7 years! Picture this.. you know the luggage carousel at the airport? You are waiting for your luggage to appear and there's this one red suitcase nobody has claimed that just rides round and round? Over and over? That's just like these eBay lots. NOBODY wants that silly cover! Tear it up and throw it away!
So those are my peeves of the day. I feel much better now!
So what drives you nutz??
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
I've been to Short Halls, New Jersey, many times, but have you ever been to Peterson N.J. ?
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
There's never a good time to visit Peterson!
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Tom....whenever I go to the Clifton stamp show, I always make the wrong turn , when I exit route 80, and I end up in Peterson....
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Was thinking about your rant, Tom, and I have had many of the same experiences.
However, I have come to see opportunity in many of the examples you give. The impact of inaccurate listings is that fewer potential buyers will see them come up on their searches, just as you have experienced. That can be a Good Thing for an aspiring buyer in terms of price discovery.
When I encounter insufficient or inaccurate descriptions, before I go on, I look at the the seller's other items, to see if there are goodies in there to cherry pick. It happens often enough for me that it's become a useful strategy. It's a pattern to be exploited.
I wonder if it is not uncommon for a totally uninformed seller (such as a descendent of a deceased collector) to attempt to disperse material that the surviving family is cleaning out. (Based on some of the Stamp Room images we've seen on this Discussion Board, it's not hard to put yourself in the shoes of that person and identify with the family's sentiment: Just get RID of it!). And, in the demographic of an aging hobby, it's something to be more and more vigilant for as time passes.
So, I'm kind of resigned to doing very general searches, and wading through 10s of thousands of items, usually finding nothing.
My search for Chester County DPO covers is:
(pennsylvania,pa,penn,penna) cover
Then, I order it by "newly listed", and go down to where I left off last time. For those dealer bulk listings, they're often grouped together, so I can just hit "page down" in rapid succession to skip over them. I have a few favorite sellers, and I'll go to their listings and employ the same strategy. It's a "brute force" strategy, but often I'll find something really interesting that I didn't know I was interested in - like that "Hot Air" postcard from 1910 that I snagged for $1.50.
I'm getting practiced at scanning listing images. FDCs jump out easily, they're all outside my range of interest: pre-1916. Any kind of ceremonial cover, or philatelic items, or 'late-model' items also are easily scanned without really focusing on them. Do I miss stuff? Probably. But, with practice, I presume I'm getting better at not missing stuff...
For some of my searches, I put in HUGE "minus clauses". Like this one:
-(mint,revenue,revenues,unused,specimen,trial,block,MLH,MNH,MNG,MH,OG,hinged,proof,gum,FDC,commemorative)
Your mileage may vary.
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
What drives me nuts?
The word 'rare'. I is used all too often and too loosely.
IMHO
Chimo
Bujutsu
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
What drives me nutz in most general internet posts are misspellings and poor grammar. OK, I've made mistakes myself, and I give a big pass to anyone who has English as second language (it is a completely confusing language) but gee whiz everyone else please be clear in what you say.
On the stamp side, as soon as I see "rare" I walk (figuratively!) away.
Disgruntled old English major,
Geoff
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Nothing drives me NUTZ, I get from there to here and back by walking.
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
"...internet posts are misspellings and poor grammar..."
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Jings!.....Crivvens!.....Help Ma Boab!
What drives me Nutz!
Nit picking, intolerance, arrogance, barking dogs, smart alecs, plonkers, bad drivers, bad manners, Multi national companies, poor customer service, grocery shopping, politicians of all parties, bad dog owners, and most of all:-
ME!!!
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
" bad dog owners"
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
sheepshanks:- there are no bad dogs just bad dog owners!
Yep I forgot these horrible computerised telephone answering systems. (especially as I have a phone that does not connect with these systems and no I wasn't a chum of Alexander Graham Bell!!)
I also forgot a host of other things that drive me nutz. Its just I cannot remember them.
""Are you ready to take the Regimental Oath? Do you promise to be a brave soldier, never turn your back on the enemy, always be polite to a lady and respect the chastity of a woman?....Yes?....Have we got nothing in common?".....Major Denis Bloodnok"
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
High on the annoyance scale.
" ... Like I said, I could care less, ya know !..."
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
This is what drives me nuts:
"FREE*"
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
"and most of all:-
ME!!!"
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
"When the previous owner of a cover writes information on the front of the cover. What really irks me is when that information is incorrect.At Wits End"
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Finding a nice cover in a cover box , and seeing that the stamp has been pealed off...
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Well, I collect singles. I prefer them to be used and very lightly cancelled.
What drives me NUTZ is when the USPS destroys a gem with a glob of ink as a cancellation.
The 2017 Christmas season was a case in point. Their fancy holiday cancellation ruined all stamps it cancelled.
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Undetectable watermarks. You know it's there, but all the Ronsonol in the world won't tell you which one it is.
And...
Multiple hinge remnants. I know they were somebody else's stamps before they were mine, but why in the world would anybody overlay 4, 6, or even more hinges on top of one another?! Even as a 10 year old, I knew better then to do that!
WB
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
'multiple hinge remainders'
This is a continuing work in progress in my 60 year old collection. Many sections were filled many, many, (again many) years ago from other collections and trades. Years ago I was not so fastidious in cleaning my used stamps. As I upgrade and/or re-arrange I must constantly remove multiple layers of hinges, including the ancient style of gummed papers and significant original paper adhesions. I can quickly fill up an ashtray sized bowl with excess paper.
I find the same issues when I trade, transfer in collection purchases, and even when I buy from dealers. Some dealers will not deal with the extra labor of removing papers & hinges. I therefore only deal with those that readily accept returns of uncovered flaws.
On another level I find it soothing to upgrade, clean the stamps within my collection.
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
The problem I've found is that on very old stamps, the hinges won't soak off properly.
I don't know why that is. Is there a way to remove them besides soaking in warm water ?
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Seller: "Ohhh, I can't find that item you just purchased. I've provided a refund."
...sigh...
I wanna say, "Um, then WHY have you had it listed for the last YEAR!?!?!"
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
" ... WHY have you had it listed for the last YEAR!?!?!" ..."
I'd guess he did not know it was missing til you ordered it.
or, possibly he sold it for cash and hoped it would never sell and make him liable for a slling fee ?
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Tightly curled hinges. Drives me Nutz!
Geoff
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Tightly curled hinges ? ME TOO !
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Nicaragua through 1940: an endless series of overprints including dates, 'Rosello', 'Habilalto', 'Correos'. They overlap and intersect with numerous forms of 'Official' & 'Aereo'. Oh yeah throw in a series of watermark/no watermark sets that have been endlessly reprinted including sideways watermarks. But in the end it is the challenge and 'nuts' that I love this hobby for.
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
I got it!
What REALLY drives me nutz?
A: Marks on philatelic items applied by previous owners.
To wit:
I think there are TWO on this item:
- the black "HNO" in the lower left
- the purple "O'SHAUGHNESSY...SAN FRANCISCO" stamp in the middle.
By the way, this is a Civil War cover, postmarked Richmond, VA to a female addressee in Macon, GA, franked with CSA #5. Could have been a soldier's letter, I guess... But, at any rate, the San Francisco address is not at all (I think, obviously) connected to the postal history of this item.
Anyway, WHAT is it about collectors that they need to mark their property, like a polecat marks its territory by urinating all over the place?!?!?! I guess some of us human beens feel a driving need to leave a personal legacy...(sigh)...
All it says is, "Mr. Philatelic High-Hat collected me."
It's like carving your initials into a living tree, to me.
Sorry, this is not an "ad hominem attack" on anyone in particular.
Just a rant.
That's all.
-Paul
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
To your point, Paul! Here is a postcard with a very rare Pago Pago, Samoa US possession cancel. Postcard collectors who don't give a hoot about the reverse side of their cards customarily stamp their name on that side pretty much like in your pole cat illustration.
In the early 20th century postcard collecting frenzy I'm sure most cards from Samoa went right from the printer to dealers in the USA. It's relatively easy to find unused cards, or ones used between two USA collectors, but the real deal is scarce!
And one Mary Pillot was no doubt one of those who had no idea that the reverse was much more valuable than the pretty picture side!
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Very cool card, Tom!
Do you think it was your standard vacation postcard sent back to a friend/relative?
Or something else?
So, you could send a postcard halfway around the world in 1906...for 1c???
Amazing.
Was that because Samoa was an American possession then, and thus rated just like a State?
Anything in a fairly rare 'genuine' postal usage REALLY grabs me!
-Paul
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Yes, the one cent rate is due to their territory status. I don't think there was much of a tourist trade, and since the card is addressed to a "Miss" it was probably mailed by a sailor. I have also seen cards of this era with US Navy ship postmarks.
USS Maine cancel (thanks to the idiot with the red ball point pen!)
I recently was able to purchase my second Pago Pago card on eBay. Note that a well known dealer has this same stamp with this cancel on a small bit of paper and wants $75 for it. I found this through my eBay search agent in the post card category. Somehow I won it for the opening bid of $7.50
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
Interesting that the first one you show, and the last one were printed by the same company, in 1905 - one in English the other in German(?).
Have you tried to leach out the red ink with fingernail polish remover?
VERY nice collection there. Are you working on covering all the US possessions of that era? For one thing, the immediate post-Spanish-American War period was probably the greatest 'colonial expansionist' era in the history of US foreign policy, only a decade before the US became profoundly isolationist. I would expect it to be a rich, yet sparse collecting area!
I was recently reading a history of Pan Am Airways in the South Pacific, and it implied that the ability of nations to claim landing rights near any given landmass in the South Pacific seemed to be based primarily on presence, within the constraints of international decorum. It's kind of amazing that claims to territory in the 20th century still reflected what was customary 300 years earlier!
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
"Have you tried to leach out the red ink with fingernail polish remover? "
re: What Just Drives You Nutz!?
I am driven NUTZ by a number of things.
This one has been top of my list for many years.
Selling label cut-outs as something they are NOT !
I have 'told' many sellers about it, including a top Canadian Auction House and one of the most popular GB dealers. Both knew exactly what they were.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1940-1d-black-reprinted-colour-trial-proofs-with-gum/312071837443?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649