I love this and thought it worth sharing. Andrew McGavin runs Universal Philatelic Auctions in the UK (www.upastampauctions.co.uk) and this is his latest email to customers. I'm sharing it with Andrew's permission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps you saw the news recently saying that Denmark is to cease all letter deliveries. Effectively stopping the issuing of stamps altogether. Iceland, of course, has already gone down that road. And I suppose, if one is being practical about it, the stock answer is obvious enough: You can’t stop progress. Fair enough. But then again… who's to say it’s progress? That, I think, is the more interesting question. Because historical things are rather nice to hold on to, aren’t they? And stamp collectors, if you ask me, are slightly unusual people (in the best possible sense), because they don’t merely look forwards like everyone else seems compelled to do nowadays. They look backwards as well. Back to what they knew. Back to what interested them as teenagers, or young adults. Some collect all the way through life, for 60 or 70 years, which is extraordinary when you think about it. Others stop after marriage, children, work, life, (the usual interruptions) and then return to it later, when the world has quietened down a bit and the old interests start to call again. And what always strikes me is this: Collectors know things. A phenomenal number of things. Odd things. Obscure things. Useful things. Sometimes completely unnecessary things. The sort of things no one would ever deliberately set out to learn, and yet through stamps they somehow do. The other day my wife asked me about Somalia. “Isn’t that Eritrea?” she said. And I found myself replying, “Well… yes, but not exactly,” because in stamp terms there are issues for Somalia and issues for Eritrea, and once you’ve spent enough years peering at bits of paper from around the world, your brain becomes cluttered with these distinctions whether you intended it or not.

Sometimes stamps take your breath away, or they do if you're a history nerd like me. Italy issued these beautiful multicoloured stamps in 1933, and this is the first time I've had them to sell. Compared to the monocolour issues being used by GB, US, Canada, Australia and almost every other country, these are true eye candy. This is yet another reason I sell worldwide stamps.

For many years, there's been a difference in opinion on how to describe stamps. It's pretty much a US versus the world thing, MUH (mint unhinged)/MNH (mint never hinged), MH (mint hinged)/Unused and so on. Occasionally you come across sellers that seem determined to muddy the waters, when all they should be trying to do is communicate the stamp's condition as clearly and succinctly as possible. This Hipstamp seller has reached new levels of making stuff up, and I haven't seen anyone else using most of these "abbreviations" all of which he crams into the title, not the description. I know him and he is a man who cannot be told, but I urge everyone else to use the KISS principle when selling. F-VFVVLHOG = Fine-Very Fine Very Very Lightly Hinged Original Gum (or to me, MLH) HOG = Hinged Original Gum (or to me, MH) UVLH = Used Very Lightly Hinged (or to me, Used) HNG = Hinged No Gum (or to me, MNG) HDG = Hinged Disturbed Gum (or to me, MH) Now, this guy is a professional, not a newbie, so I don't know if he's going out of his way to look clever or just being obtuse. Instead of focusing on the stamp, I found myself trying to decipher his new made-up descriptions. Please don't be like him!

I live in a small town 20kms from a large regional town. Our postman also collects the mail from the post boxes. We've had a once in a decade flood which has cut all roads (our little town is an island, but quite dry now), so no mail in or out for maybe another week. I'm still putting outgoing mail into the post box, which is well above the water line, and marking the sales as sent. I'm messaging buyers with details of the flooding and explaining that there will be at least a week's delay. Hopefully, they show a little compassion when it comes to leaving feedback!

It would be nice to think that stamp catalogues are comprehensive, but they're not. I've scanned a few minor Australian varieties to add to my store, and a few of them are unlisted in the Australian Commonwealth Specialised Catalogue. I've seen them before, and I know they're constant, yet I can't provide a catalogue number for them. The ACSC has always irked me for this, as page after page of content is dedicated to proofs and other items that 99% of collectors will never see, yet they can't find room for all known varieties.