We missed last week due to spring break -- our girls were home so i decided at the last minute to take a break as well and spend some quality gaming time. My MTG deck needed working on, and we got a new Pirate board game. Plus a trip to Durango for the best tacos this side of Pluto.
But now an early spring blizzard has us socked in again, with snow through Friday. Luckily we have a full fridge! And if we get really hungry there's always the herd of elk that moseys through every few days...
I have big tracts of new material to keep me busy, so this week sees:
WWII postal history and patriotica from the big collection just delivered.
German Offices and Colonies with used stamps and covers.
Another tranche of Zeppelins from the Karl Beuerle Estate featuring Bordpost usages from his as crew member, as well as 'normal' flown covers from his nephew's later additions.
And what else? TBD... still working on this sale!
The new auctions in Europe look bad (sparse for me, anyway) so I've moved my trip once again -- either April or almost certainly the Essen show which I've not visited since Covid (obviously). In the meantime I bought a very nice (and big!) propaganda card collection from one of my customer's who is exiting the hobby, so this week sees some really cool new additions in:
German Offices and Colonies with used stamps and lots o' covers.
WWII postal history and patriotica including yet again some extremely rare items (1924!) and later Reichsparteitag in top condition, plus others.
More Zeppelins from the Zeppelin on-board-Lead Engineer Karl Beuerle Estate featuring Bordpost usages as well as some non-crew mail from his nephew's later additions.
And what else? WWI Real Photos as well as patriotica and ship mail, including Austria, Infla and Empire. With all the new purchases my wallet is more than empty but the incoming inventory boxes are filling up! Have a look! I'm broke!
Whoops..missed last week -- too much computer work and I'm still behind...
Though I'm glad I didn't go to Germany as planned -- over the last 10 days we've had blizzards more days than not, and are supposed to get another foot or so today and tomorrow. I'd hate to leave my wife snowed in -- she just can't maneuver the bigger-is-not-better snowblower I regret buying.
At least my big box came in from Germany between storms (I had to rush out with the blower so FedEx could get up the driveway) so I have plenty to do. This was my big 'score' from my last trip -- a few hundred Colonies covers with quite a few registereds, some real secret 'ringers', and a rickshaw full of used picture postcards.
But the bigger deal is the Zeppelin collection I purchased (via auction) from the heir of the Oberingenieur Karl Beurle, a lead mechanic on the Zeppelin. A long-time airman, having survived serving in various WWI Zeppelin airships, Beurle flew with the Graf from the start (we have several pioneer usages as well!). The nephew took all of "Onkel Karl's" correspondence and added to it with many further flights right up to the Hindenburg crash. Most of Beurle's letters/cards go back to his hometown of Esslingen, either to immediate family or to the family of his friend Gottfried Braun. It is real Zeppelin history, like nothing we've purchased before, and quite likely won't again. I doubt many crew member's effects are still in family hands after roughly 100 years (we have two Feldposts from his 1917 WWI Zeppelin days!).
I just received the carton, but the first pieces of both the colonies and Zeppelins are up, and the rest will be spread out over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
This week's sale contains:
German Offices and Colonies with used stamps and many covers, especially China and the South Seas.
WWII postal history and patriotica including yet again some extremely rare items.
Zeppelins as noted above.
And what else? WWI, pioneer flight RPPCs, and a little Revolution -- but the big news are the areas mentioned. The first edition of the best haul I've had in a couple+ years!
Had to cancel my trip to Europe -- there's just too much snow coming in (another blizzard yesterday into today) and I don't want to risk getting stranded or missing a connection since the schedule would be tight. Plus, It's supposed to snow all next week and I don't like leaving the family alone like that... so I'll try next month.
This week's sale contains:
Many Zeppelins as well as more Austrian air mail from two nice collections I just received.
German Offices and Colonies with used stamps and covers.
WWII postal history and patriotica including some extremely rare items.
And what else? WWI + postwar cards and covers, plus quite a bit of se-tenants/zusammendruck.
Hello! Hope this finds you well. Nothing happening here -- sunny and for some reason an overflow of wild turkeys running around everywhere. And we had a neighbor less than a mile away who caught four grown mountain lions on their security camera, pacing in circles in the driveway. I won't be taking the trashcan down to the street late at night...
This week's sale contains:
Austrian air mail, particularly Zeppelins.
German Offices and Colonies with used stamps and covers.
WWII postal history and patriotica.
And what else? Some WWI and a load of SBZ - Soviet Zone stamps.
Beautiful and sunny here today. Hope you're having a nice day!
We just received another two shipments of Zeppelins which should be ready for next week... This week's sale contains:
An assortment of Empire, Weimar, and a few postwar stamps -- lots of rarer pieces with certs or expertized from an advanced collection of printing varieties.
German Offices and Colonies with almost all nicely used stamps and covers.
WWII postal history and patriotica.
And what else? Lots of Austria with the first part of a collection special cancels from the 1930s, WWI + Revolution and Freikorps, plus more...
We got our snowblower back from the shop so we're able to leave the house again! It wasn't happy about the 2-3 foot of white stuff, but with the better part of a day's work I got it sort-of clear, so all your packages from the last sale are out!
Planning our trip for next month -- I hope I make it because more snow is coming...
This week's sale contains:
Austria: more MNH (and a little used/hinged) KuK Empire material.
German Offices and Colonies with almost all nicely used stamps and some covers.
WWII postal history and patriotica.
And what else? WWI history, Weimar including Bavaria proofs, post-WWII rarities, rare Freikorps Feldpost...
Still haven't got our snowblower back and we've had about 3 feet of snow since Saturday, so orders may not go out until Friday, or Monday...
But it is beautiful here, and once I can leave the house I hope to visit the Wolf Creek slopes.
Some packages have arrived but most are still enroute -- nothing going over the pass right now anyway. Luckily I still have material from September as well. So this week sees:
Austria: the first portion of a really nice group of MNH pre-War material.
German Offices and Colonies with almost all nicely used stamps and some covers.
WWII postal history and patriotica.
And what else? WWI history, Feldpost and photos, Weimar Zusammendruck / se-tenants, etc. Some nice material!
Hope you had a Happy New Year. Happier than ours -- our boiler broke and we were living on wood-stove heat and no hot water for a week while waiting on the part to ship it since everything was closed for the holidays. Traveled back in time about 150 years actually boiled water on the wood stove (and electric range) to take baths!
In the meantime a blizzard hit with a foot and a half of snow. And thus, of course, the snowblower axle broke. It took four days for me to figure it out before I got it working, and then the next time I got it out the augur cable broke. So now its in the shop since everything is open again...Yay?
Mountain living ain't all sunshine and skiing... but it could always be worse.
Anyway, enough whinging. While we missed last week I'm really trying to get back to a weekly schedule, hoping for some new shipments as we are getting low on covers! We do have a fantastic group of Austrian Empire and 1st Republic MNH coming soon, though, so stay tuned if that's in your ballpark.
Today I have mostly WWII stuff... many inexpensive along with higher end and some collections.
Plus Weimar/Inflation-era with airmail, 1st and last day rates.
And WWI-era...
And what else? Airplane photos, various German stamps, and a 1500s illuminated manuscript page.
Hope you had a Merry Christmas, and I wish you a Happy New Year.
Like many of you, I'm sure, we've been preoccupied with the holidays. However, we're (hopefully) ready to resume our weekly, smaller sales. Thus, we managed to get some items entered for this go-round -- including some choice pieces from our September purchases that arrived recently.
Colonies covers and stamps -- with many Offices in Turkey covers.
WWI and interwar with Feldpost and postcards, esp. RPPCs (Sanke).
WWII with FP and a plethora of revenue/membership booklets, etc.
And what else? Some real ringers, such as a unique block of 6 of the 1M Dove 'Goldtaube' (BPP cert) and a Germany Inflation 151Y watermark quatrefoils on cover(!), also with BPP cert.
Ok, I took a three week break and not two. But I had a last-minute change of plans and got to use the ticket from my canceled October Ulm trip to go on an auction spree, as well as visiting the Christmas markets -- we went to several new locations (Christmas-wise) as well as a side-trip to our perennial favorite market in Wien.
And we (Christine accompanied me to help out) did have a successful trip this time -- between two overpriced auctions we got lucky and bought a huge collection of ca 500 Zeppelins. Hopefully FedEx 'Express' -- cough, cough -- won't take a month like last time and I'll have these in January. Also bought a great colonies cover lot plus other areas (though propaganda has nigh-on disappeared, however).
But we're back and before we pause again for Christmas I've posted our new sale with material we received from our September trip, so this week we have:
Flown Zeppelins -- mostly value lots under $100 but a few ringers as well.
Colonies covers and stamps -- with much DSWA Feldpost and other covers.
WWII with postal history and patriotica. A couple of rare cards along with bread-and-butter items.
WWI and interwar with Feldpost -- especially airmail, along with RPPCs (Sanke) etc.
And what else? You'll have to look...
Happy Thanksgiving (early) or Erntedankfest (late)! This is going to be a bigger '2-week' sale since we're off next week (family is here).
I've posted our new sale, and this week we have:
Colonies covers and stamps.
WWII with postal history and patriotica. Also, I bought a lovely Feldpost stamp collection with many of the better Inselpost pieces (and others) all expertized (the more expensive all have photo certs).
WWI with Feldpost -- especially pilots and air units, along with RPPCs (Sanke) etc.
And what else? A few Zeppelins, Inflation, 1918-9 revolution, Swiss semipostals, Empire-era, etc. Lots 'o stuff for the holiday.
It's quite cold here, already had a mini-blizzard, and Wolf Creek ski area has been open for a couple of weeks now! Looking forward to taking the family out after Thanksgiving.
I've posted our new sale, and this week we have:
More Colonies with covers along with Empire-era items.
WWII with Feldpost, postal history and patriotica.
Austria from WWI and the 1st republic with some imperfs/freaks as well as postal history.
And what else? Some Stadtpost groups, revenues, and some 16th-18th century maps, plus miscellaneous from around the various German-speaking areas.
Our newest weekly sale with:
German stamps with a lot of Colonies (including covers) and the two Empires.
Zeppelins, with some interesting WWI airship units as well as Austria and many German flights.
Quite a bit of WWII with postal history and patriotica.
And what else? Lots of WWI continuing on in to the immediate postwar years with several covers, some revenues/locals/essays, and a bit of other from the edges of the Empire.
