tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:16:47 +0000http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/index.htmthe lanai guyBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-8845498588411861341Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:31:00 +00002008-01-28T15:34:55.905-05:00For a fleeting moment I thought about re-naming this blog the 'Dead Letter Office' due to lapses in service, but I have to realize that even the Pony Express had troubles getting their messages across the Great American Desert. Even so my only defense is that I've been so busy mulling over the messages in the back of the post office that I haven't had time to deliver them. It's a matter of http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2008/01/late-deliveries-accepted.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-8396461729515763842Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:36:00 +00002007-10-01T08:22:49.098-04:00SG, Ltd. Stanley Gibbons in London has vacancies in their Stand offices, and how many collectors have drempt of a life where you're paid to handle stamps? Looks like they want a Commonwealth and a GB person as well as a buyer/valuer/describer for auction work. Nice work if you can get it. For more: Gibbons P&J Philatelic Another stamp outfit is making noise in New York. The offices of P&J http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/10/all-work-and-play.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-802618671329185781Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:41:00 +00002007-09-27T08:55:25.872-04:00For all my talk yesterday about the nature of "what's new" here's a tidbit that I overlooked. Ducks The Federal Duck Stamp turns 75 with the 2008/09 issue and to mark the event they are holding the judging of entries for the 75th anniversary issue down in Florida, at the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island during "Ding" Darling Days, Oct. 8-14. (Jay Norwood "Ding" http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/theyre-all-quacks.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-164051518709728842Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:56:00 +00002007-09-26T10:35:40.415-04:00Buzzzing StampUniverse This is the day of the week known as hump-day and a time to look back and plan ahead. And ask the question "So, what's new?" And the answer, in the universe of stamps is "not much, and you?" because the stamp universe has defined and closed in on itself, like the world of antiques. They don't make them like they used to anymore and they stopped making collectible stamps http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/w-da-buzzz.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-5726046051014351802Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:49:00 +00002007-09-25T09:03:53.872-04:00 St. Rowlands School of Hinge Sticking The answer to yesterday's stamp question: Q: What part of the "Inverted Jenny" is upside-down? The frame or the vignette? A: The central blue vignette. The red frame was printed first on the white paper, so that the sheets were turned around and incorrectly fed into the press for the second printing of the blue Jenny biplane. Today's New Stamp Question http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/short-sweet.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-7117636761579421399Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:36:00 +00002007-09-24T08:47:53.477-04:00Mitä kuuluu? The weekend was sunny, blue, breezy, and warm in Vermont, but it's just a last tease before the cold, wet days of stick season. I spent much of the evenings watching DVD's from Netflix, and yes, one of them has a stamp collecting angle, if you'll just follow my drift. The movie was "Mother of Mine," a 2005 telling of a Finnish boy evacuated from Suomi to Sweden during World War Twohttp://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/mit-kuuluu.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-1337430061354235556Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:46:00 +00002007-09-20T18:46:52.005-04:00Construction Zone The roar of 'dozers and the smell of dirt is upon me as I scrape away the old website and install something new. Bear with me. I started this week by taking stock and drawing up some ideas. (I wound up with more questions than solutions.) Then I began culling away some old files and streamlining the all-important but here to fore hidden inner workings. (I'll admit that at http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/silent-stamp-swap.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-1658461845626499018Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:25:00 +00002007-09-19T08:45:27.890-04:00Strange but true. Yesterday I was thinking about sorting. What's the most efficient way to separate a pile of stamps into its constituent parts? It's something we all do, and most of us enjoy it because it's somewhat like panning for gold. But there are techniques because no two bags of stamps are the same. It's an art without any hard and fast rules, and like art the time needed for sorting http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/sort-of-stamps.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-7639032687497858914Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:32:00 +00002007-09-18T08:31:10.055-04:00Stamp collectors are a primitive lot. We haven't changed in a million years. We are non-conformist, individualists, in the best hunter-gatherer tradition. Each philatelist seeks his own grail, where stamps and postal history are but sign posts on the road to complete his quest. (Is it the same with other collectors?) Wikipedia says: "Individualists promote the exercise of individual goals and http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/primitive-quest.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-5331966413891726344Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:35:00 +00002007-09-17T09:28:48.214-04:00Many years ago, around 1840 or so, a learned and stout gentleman was walking in the morning air outside of London. As usual he was lost in his thoughts, preoccupied with his troubles. He was headmaster of his own public school in the country, a known up-and-comer. He turned the bend and saw a young woman standing at her front door awaiting the morning mail. The postman turned onto her path, http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/apocryphal-or-not.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-3280859520017801893Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:27:00 +00002007-09-14T15:53:15.476-04:00Food 4 Thght - The Best Stamp City? My internal clock, could use a stamp show about every two weeks. I appreciate browsing and seeing what other collectors are looking for, but one of the disadvantages of living in an unpopulated area, like I do, is that there aren't a lot of nearby stamp shows to take advantage of. Yea, there's Web auctions, e-mail for philatelic friends, and the post office http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/09/best-stamp-city.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-8633818187393098744Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:44:00 +00002007-08-23T11:53:54.082-04:00GS Housecleaning I) GS Meta Thursday is the end of the week and a day to look ahead. Let’s start with in house topics at Glassine Surfer. This GS has drifted away from philatelic research stories. After mulling it all over, I don't know if I'm up to digesting philatelic research and recasting the stories. I’m more passionate about the people and stories of stamps. I'll leave the facts and http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/th-maybe-so.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-6228432239621513785Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:09:00 +00002007-08-22T14:44:22.247-04:00I'm starting to feel like a desert wanderer coming back home. What I see seems familiar. What I see seems new. It's the same, but my point-of-view is not. And it looks like the frogs in the pan are gently simmering on low heat. APS had to raise annual dues to forty-five dollars. As membership dwindles, the cost of operation refuses to improve and demand for member benefits isn't attracting the http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/all-web-aps.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-6113750074559993536Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:15:00 +00002007-08-21T11:16:14.876-04:00OK stampers listen up. Today we’re going to talk about something you’d rather not: clutter and chaos. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> It’s a well known fact that each of you has a closet or attic stuffed with envelopes, and boxes of god-knows-what. You haven’t opened them in the last four years so it’s a toss up as to what’s exactly in those boxes. But it is high time that we http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/fourteen-per-cent-solution.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-6895052318589147418Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:41:00 +00002007-08-20T21:08:26.734-04:00Over the weekend I was downtown enjoying the sun and the breeze. I met someone for lunch and in the course of the next four hours stamp collecting never came up. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> That's not surprising because 99% of the breathing public hasn't a clue what we do and every year fewer and fewer people actually use stamps. I thought it over and it seems to me that the http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/public-arcana.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-4787741427092349079Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:29:00 +00002007-08-16T12:52:52.105-04:00Thursday is the end of the week here and a day to cleanup and look ahead in the belief that there really is no time like the present to start. Let’s start with in house topics at Glassine Surfer. I) GS Meta a) Stamp Questions. Even a small website like this runs gets stacks of questions. Most of them are about the value of stamps, which I have answered online. But I answer other questions all http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/gs-day.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-4720904519023820735Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:11:00 +00002007-08-15T12:13:04.714-04:00One of my many changes in the last couple of years has been my switch from packrat to practical traveler. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> I used to save everything that may have been useful sometime in the future. It was handy to have lots of things around to use in a pinch. Things like old bookcases, old margarine containers, or stacks of books on curious topics. <!--[if !http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/practical-philatelist.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-3348603303422515884Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:15:00 +00002007-08-14T12:05:29.298-04:00This is a philately people blog. It’s about you and your stories from the philatelic world, sort of a social stamp blog --- which harkens back to the old days when this site had a chat room called the “Sociable Stamp Society.” In fact, I’ll be changing the name of this column to the “Sociable Stamp Society” because nothing makes more sense than clarity. All around, we know that person-to-personhttp://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/sociable-stamp-society.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-4173529461198045235Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:25:00 +00002007-08-13T08:39:38.180-04:00I’m back. Mike Mills, the Glassine Surfer, is back.I was away for much too long, and it feels good to be here. It feels great to be back where I belong. About two years ago, I gave up writing my ‘Glassine Surfer’ column for the APS magazine and I stopped contributing my USA column to ‘Gibbons Stamp Monthly.’ I stopped updating the website and I dropped out of most stamp activities. I actually http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2007/08/here-and-there-and-back-again.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-112353383271624013Mon, 08 Aug 2005 20:42:00 +00002005-08-08T16:43:52.723-04:00Bellefonte YMCA’s Stamp Camp USA Postage stamps, with their colorful images and real-life stories, have fascinated millions since they first appeared more than 150 years ago. To introduce a new generation to the pleasures of stamp collecting, the American Philatelic Society and the Bellefonte Family YMCA teamed up during the week of July 11 to present Stamp Camp USA. Each camper received a http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2005/08/kids-stamps-at-aps.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-112306114292354806Wed, 03 Aug 2005 09:25:00 +00002005-08-03T09:09:49.426-04:00 Stamp Talk at StampShow Mark your calendar. Nancy Clark's popular "APS Stamp Talk" radio show on wsradio.com will present a special live program on Stampshow 2005 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, August 6 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, and from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., PDT. Nancy will interview stamp designer Chris Calle and Luff award winners and present a "State of the http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2005/08/stamps-19.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-112254685325624618Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:33:00 +00002005-07-28T07:57:08.033-04:00Royal Mail argues for 48p stamp Royal Mail lost more than £200m last year on post that weighed under 100g, the company's regulatory accounts showed yesterday. This is the category of mail that is regulated by the government-appointed regulator, Postcomm, and represents the organisation's monopoly area, which is about to be removed completely. Chairman Allan Leighton said that the figures http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2005/07/stamp-collecting-909.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-112216531766833090Mon, 25 Jul 2005 17:33:00 +00002005-07-25T13:27:27.246-04:00 Yukon stamp investment falls flat A get rich quick scheme involving gold rush commemorative stamps has turned into a bust for speculators. Nearly a decade ago, a post office error fueled speculation that postage stamps issued in Dawson City would become collectors items. ... Yukon Stamp Collecting for Beginners The basic rule of stamp collecting is to enjoy what you're collecting and take good http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2005/07/stamp-collecting-09.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-112039425563329145Sun, 03 Jul 2005 12:34:00 +00002005-07-03T11:39:58.373-04:00Fourth of July Singapore Philatelic Exhibition As part of the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, several cultural activities are planned. One of these events is taking place at the Singapore Philatelic Museum. These stamps connect with people of all ages world-wide. Will this ex be at Washington '06?)... Olympics wsRadio.com Internet radio helps APS bring stamp collecting to PC's and laptops http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2005/07/fourth-of-july.htmthe lanai guytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3212673.post-111564609107788084Fri, 01 Jul 2005 13:41:00 +00002005-07-01T17:38:06.130-04:00Mexican stamps cause controversy Gibbons reports that Mexico's stamps of cartoon figures of the 1940's has brought calls for the end of sales for rascist depictions. ... Mexican stamp Rate up 1c for Canadian Provinces The US is set for an increase, so why not our northern cousins? ... Canada rates Please, Mr. Postman John Lennon's schoolboy stamp collection is sold by estate. Who would have http://www.glassinesurfer.com/news/2005/07/hinge-tong.htmthe lanai guy