Jules.
I stopped buying Kiloware as nearly every bag was as your description.
I now buy only collections, that are within my budget, and there are sufficient scans to show the quality. One has to be careful to look for hints of foxing, tears etc.
The one thing I have noticed is not the reused postage but actual brand spanking new forgeries of GB 1st Class stamps.
I know Ian, I have done better with small collection lots as the ones you describe.
It just makes little sense that a person will buy a kiloware , go through the effort of soaking and sorting only to sell the good stamps as a collection at a lower price.
Maybe if one could get a hold of a charity instead of a dealer selling stamps from charities things will look way better.
One of the problems with charities is that they are used by some collectors to dump their unwanted common on paper stamps so you can get bags full without even half a dozen "good" used stamps.
There was one guy I knew in Britain who had a website , something like "Fundraising for stamps". He had instructions on the site of which stamps are more valuable and how they should be cropped from the cover. He had good material - always 100% recent - up to 3 years old issues and commemoratives only. Few damaged stamps too. But he closed shop , retired I think and it is unclear where his sources take their stamps now.
Modern kiloware is plum pitiful - expensive, picked over and mostly duplicated definitives. Ugh! I’ve given up on it with one exception - Japan. It’s just one more good excuse to set collection cutoff dates or (better yet in my humble opinion) start concentrating on classics and give up on chasing after the bazillion philatelic ‘confections’ that modern postal administrations crank out. However, that is only my opinion. If you LOVE modern stuff go for it. Do what makes YOU happy.
It makes me wonder if in the future the true rarities from our current decades will be genuine postally used examples. Picture future postal historians certifying ‘genuinely postally used during the great 2020 Pandemic.”
"Picture future postal historians certifying ‘genuinely postally used during the great 2020 Pandemic"
I have never heard of anyone being caught or charged for using forgeries or reused stamps.
Another person I regularly deal with is using spliced stamps. Cutting two used stamps in half and then splicing the halves that have no visible cancellation on them!
This is such a bizarre practices , as apart from the risks of being caught in your country you know with 100% certainty that whoever tries to soak your postage will realize what you've done :-)
At the end it all provides some amusement, rather than frustration.
"It’s just one more good excuse to set collection cutoff dates or (better yet in my humble opinion) start concentrating on classics and give up on chasing after the bazillion philatelic ‘confections’ that modern postal administrations crank out."
I wonder if a collection could be built of forged GB Machins. I guess they would have to be postally used examples.
"I wonder if a collection could be built of forged GB Machins."
This site has a number of posts regarding GB forgeries.
https://blog.norphil.co.uk/search?q=forgeries
I didn't realize there were so many.
The easiest way to identify the modern forgeries is the elliptical perf. The forgeries have a more rectangular elliptical perf.
"....The package arrives. First thing noticeable is the reused machine postage...."
And the first thing that strikes my mind is that the person who reuses postage to cheat the post office will just as easily cheat you. Second, since you as the buyer often pay a postage charge, you are being cheated. There are several members on whose lots
".... It makes me wonder if in the future the true rarities from our current decades will be genuine postally used examples. Picture future postal historians certifying ‘genuinely postally used during the great 2020 Pandemic ....".”
This has already been happening, especially with "Express Mail" type issues which are used for but a limited time, have limited application, and on envelopes that are too often opened using the tab that; when pulled across the top of the envelope, rips any stamp attached, asunder..
I have been mailing birthday and X-ass presents using what ever high ticket stamps are current and available. Recently I sought the current $26.35 stamp at several local post offices and finally in February managed to force a clerk to open the binder that they store sheets stamps in.Lo and behold, there were two, one of which I used that day from Homosassa Springs, Florida to Mesquite, Texas, and I might add, upon arrival, carefully trimmed out and returned to be placed in my album.
How will I authenticate its having been genuinely used, the skeptic may wonder. The simple answer to that is that the camera gadget on you phone can be used for more than surfing for porn.
HUZZAR
"....I wonder if a collection could be built of forged GB Machins. I guess they would have to be postally used examples ...."
Now as to forgeries and collecting them. I have several pages full of forged Machins and welcome more. Some are on paper, others not, but carefully identified. and some are just mounted and shown as reference examples. All things postal are collectable.
I like to leave positive feedback and it haunts me if I have to leave anything else , but what do you do in this case?
A kiloware lot showing a single picture of a bag with very recent attractive stamps on paper on top. The rest of the contents hardly visible. Description says - stamps mostly on paper; the assumption being is that the quality I see is consistent through the lot.
The package arrives. First thing noticeable is the reused machine postage. Then it turns out, stamps are mostly off paper; not bad as you get more stamps instead of paper, but the majority are either faulty or useless. A couple of pieces blew me away. A whole sheet of good stamps with tape all over them; a $8 Canadian grizzly stamp with 25% of it torn off and so on and so on.
I'm thinking, if the quality was there, I do not care about the reused postage; not the first time I see that. On the other hand, if I had a nice commemorative issue on the package, I might have been more lenient about the contents.
But the way things stand , I left a neutral which should count as a negative.
re: Positive Feedback ?
Jules.
I stopped buying Kiloware as nearly every bag was as your description.
I now buy only collections, that are within my budget, and there are sufficient scans to show the quality. One has to be careful to look for hints of foxing, tears etc.
The one thing I have noticed is not the reused postage but actual brand spanking new forgeries of GB 1st Class stamps.
re: Positive Feedback ?
I know Ian, I have done better with small collection lots as the ones you describe.
It just makes little sense that a person will buy a kiloware , go through the effort of soaking and sorting only to sell the good stamps as a collection at a lower price.
Maybe if one could get a hold of a charity instead of a dealer selling stamps from charities things will look way better.
re: Positive Feedback ?
One of the problems with charities is that they are used by some collectors to dump their unwanted common on paper stamps so you can get bags full without even half a dozen "good" used stamps.
re: Positive Feedback ?
There was one guy I knew in Britain who had a website , something like "Fundraising for stamps". He had instructions on the site of which stamps are more valuable and how they should be cropped from the cover. He had good material - always 100% recent - up to 3 years old issues and commemoratives only. Few damaged stamps too. But he closed shop , retired I think and it is unclear where his sources take their stamps now.
re: Positive Feedback ?
Modern kiloware is plum pitiful - expensive, picked over and mostly duplicated definitives. Ugh! I’ve given up on it with one exception - Japan. It’s just one more good excuse to set collection cutoff dates or (better yet in my humble opinion) start concentrating on classics and give up on chasing after the bazillion philatelic ‘confections’ that modern postal administrations crank out. However, that is only my opinion. If you LOVE modern stuff go for it. Do what makes YOU happy.
It makes me wonder if in the future the true rarities from our current decades will be genuine postally used examples. Picture future postal historians certifying ‘genuinely postally used during the great 2020 Pandemic.”
re: Positive Feedback ?
"Picture future postal historians certifying ‘genuinely postally used during the great 2020 Pandemic"
re: Positive Feedback ?
I have never heard of anyone being caught or charged for using forgeries or reused stamps.
Another person I regularly deal with is using spliced stamps. Cutting two used stamps in half and then splicing the halves that have no visible cancellation on them!
This is such a bizarre practices , as apart from the risks of being caught in your country you know with 100% certainty that whoever tries to soak your postage will realize what you've done :-)
At the end it all provides some amusement, rather than frustration.
"It’s just one more good excuse to set collection cutoff dates or (better yet in my humble opinion) start concentrating on classics and give up on chasing after the bazillion philatelic ‘confections’ that modern postal administrations crank out."
re: Positive Feedback ?
I wonder if a collection could be built of forged GB Machins. I guess they would have to be postally used examples.
re: Positive Feedback ?
"I wonder if a collection could be built of forged GB Machins."
re: Positive Feedback ?
This site has a number of posts regarding GB forgeries.
https://blog.norphil.co.uk/search?q=forgeries
re: Positive Feedback ?
I didn't realize there were so many.
re: Positive Feedback ?
"....The package arrives. First thing noticeable is the reused machine postage...."
And the first thing that strikes my mind is that the person who reuses postage to cheat the post office will just as easily cheat you. Second, since you as the buyer often pay a postage charge, you are being cheated. There are several members on whose lots
".... It makes me wonder if in the future the true rarities from our current decades will be genuine postally used examples. Picture future postal historians certifying ‘genuinely postally used during the great 2020 Pandemic ....".”
This has already been happening, especially with "Express Mail" type issues which are used for but a limited time, have limited application, and on envelopes that are too often opened using the tab that; when pulled across the top of the envelope, rips any stamp attached, asunder..
I have been mailing birthday and X-ass presents using what ever high ticket stamps are current and available. Recently I sought the current $26.35 stamp at several local post offices and finally in February managed to force a clerk to open the binder that they store sheets stamps in.Lo and behold, there were two, one of which I used that day from Homosassa Springs, Florida to Mesquite, Texas, and I might add, upon arrival, carefully trimmed out and returned to be placed in my album.
How will I authenticate its having been genuinely used, the skeptic may wonder. The simple answer to that is that the camera gadget on you phone can be used for more than surfing for porn.
HUZZAR
"....I wonder if a collection could be built of forged GB Machins. I guess they would have to be postally used examples ...."
Now as to forgeries and collecting them. I have several pages full of forged Machins and welcome more. Some are on paper, others not, but carefully identified. and some are just mounted and shown as reference examples. All things postal are collectable.