Used stamps exchanges.

Hi together!
Please have a look at DE-937.
Lots of common definitives, CTO's and christmas stamps.
I can not use one single stamp for my collections.
According to my philosophy of rating, I gave five stars, because there was only one damaged stamp in this letter.
What dou you think?
How would you have rated?

The rules are simple because those are rules that most people can agree on. The rest relays on common sense. If those simple rules are met, then it should be at least 3 stars (neutral).

The explanations given alongside with the rating, and this discussions, can help members get a general feeling on what the collectors on this clubs aspects, better than what more detailed rules could do.

This community is what it is because of what each member makes of it. Good or bad. It is not so much shaped by rules but by the expectations and the input of everyone.

I'm happy to see this clubs growing into a community of collectors from all over the world. Exchanging stamps while meeting new people, enjoying a surprise in the mail box, having a learning experience on so many levels. Experienced and beginners alongside. All ages from kids to seniors. Fathers and sons.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I signed up.
My first thought was of the “chain letter” stamp exchanges that used to go around. I never liked the idea of those. But this is nothing like that.
I have found I really enjoy this as opposed to trying to line up individual exchanges through postings on websites. There is a lot of fun going to the mail, never knowing what might come!
I don’t know even 1 other collector in “real life”, so it is fun for me to obverse and participate what goes on here.
Thank you very much to the admin for setting this up.

hello stamp 79 :)
thanks for your comments, I think we should take this chat to continue, I like the "tone" or "volumen" or comments here. I think good ones are writting.

Hello francescpf,
great post. The reason I joined this club was to do exactly as you, to meet new collectors (online) even though we may never meet in reality. I also like to get new stamps from all over. I realize some will be not so good and some will be excellent. I am ahead so far with all excellent trades. As for teaching your son about stamp collecting, I think it's an excellent idea. Today it's hard to get kids interested in this hobby. For a beginner, just about any type of stamp is welcome, even CTOs. The CTO stamp can still teach the collector about just about anything, geography, customs, wildlife etc.
If I ever get your name as a trading partner, I will send you a very nice group of stamps. Maybe a little of everything.
I know we are a little off topic with this post but I just wanted to respond to the last post. Maybe someone will start another topic of this nature. Happy stamping.

hello Ethan :)
I like your question. And I like the direction Wolf's chat is taking :)
I think this forum is becoming very interesting with serious qustions to talk about (write)
For me Ethan, this club has two meanings:

1. For me = it allows me just to exchange and have new stamps, Im not looking here my hunting to be found, for this, I buy in auctions (at a very cheap rate by the way...), most of stamps I send to all of you (me and my son), come from auctions. I also enjoy just exchanging and meeting new people here. Im not at facebook, twiter or any social network, but here, Im finding nice people. Educated and cultured ones. I dont mind if you send me any type of stamps, as long as they are not damaged, not 100% definitives and you behave as a good exchange stamp partner, Im happy.

2.- For my son nachopl == this club allows him to be introduced in philately, in the stamps exchanging, and therefore, he is also being introduced into international relationships, very important for his education. I prepare with him stamps to be sent and help him to classify stamps he receives, so he develpes many skills, learns about geography, learns about international relationships and also "commercE". And... he is very HAPPY every time he has envelopes for him and/or y ou give him 5 star. This is like another school subject for him, like extra activity. Im very happy too as a father, that he is able to do this type of activity, under parental control, only at 6 years old.

What is your initial perception to join this club?

Just for fun? [ you would not stay long, after completed a few exchange, you will become inactive ]
Widen your collection? [ always use up all the limit in exchange ]
know more people have the same hobby? [ if just only putting stamps into the envelope, no word enclosed, impossible ]
clear your junk collection to get something better? [ hmmm, you will regret in long term and I hope not so ]

All member are from different background, different level of collecting stamps, not match in both expectation is the challenge of the club. If we just ignore of their feeling, the quality of the stamps swap definitely will deteriorate and good member will start leaving and each swap will become meaningless.

Just imagine, if you giving away your good collection and later you are receiving mostly in your not wish list, the sad and unhappy sure will affect your emotion for the coming stamp exchange, the bad emotion will spread to the whole community. (If you can do at that way why I can’t)

Why people not willing to get definitive stamp? It is too common and perhaps for the same material, he /she have many hundreds of it. If giving away the definitive stamp is just to meet the amount of your sending, it is in high possibility to disappoint the receiver. We collect stamp is not collect how much pieces you have but the value and its variety. If you are sending a definitive stamp to me whereby I do not have the type of it, I definitely will be very glad and appreciate to you. However, this will be hardly happened especially in my focus country collection.

In some cases, the collector might not recognize it is a definitive stamp for a foreign stamp. As a sharing knowledge, avoid the misunderstanding and at the same time, improve the exchange value, should the club having a definitive stamp library and let the member to vote which material should not include in the exchange? It is just my opinion.

ctrl + end does not take me from top to bottom but it will take me from last entry back to the top.

In no case! Reading down up is very inconvenient.
Down the page quickly - [Ctrl] + [End] :)

you are right, last comment should be on top
give a time, Danubius will read t and Im sure he will agree :)

After scrolling down to the bottom of this thread I had a thought. I have one every now and then. Is there any way these threads can be set up so the first thing we see when we open them is the "last" comment instead of having to scroll all the way to the bottom? Most are OK but this one has been going for quite some time and is getting very long. I usually check the discussions each time I log in here, and enjoy reading and sometimes making a comment myself. (sometimes way too long)

Just went to the link and I have to agree with the rating. She seems to have a fairly good grasp on the English language so that should not be an excuse. If all the stamps (even thought they are all small common defs) were different and no damaged then she would be entitled to a 5. I also checked her profile and she has sent 3 lots and the best rating she got was a 3. So it appears this is the type of material she sends to everyone. Too bad as this type of mail club is great if all participants stick to the rules. I have sent a bunch of lots and received all 5s so far and all the lots I have received I have given 5s. all excellent stamps.

What do you think?

http://100stamps.club/stamps/CN-155#form

Thks Wolf x 5 stars to my son :)

Dear Wolfgang! I think that any knowledge is useful :)
You can evaluate such letters any way you want. Because only negative feedback can affect on letter's receiving (but I'm not sure that it's the case).
edvasc wrote good advices from the beggining of the club.

i would grade it 4...
it is all good, rules wise, but it hurts me, when I send 100+ commemoratives, all different (i usually send more than 100, if some damage was not detected), respecting senders wishes, and then getting 4!
I just cant understand some peoople - what you send is what you get!
In most cases - some here are so sweet we could marry them and some are just to ... you know ;)

@wuf67:
hello Wolf :)
I just wonder if anyone else would like to discuss other letters,maybe this forum may develop more interesting comments. I think you started an interesting and "healthy" discussion, so maybe we could continue.
You have some stamps from me and my son as a friendly gift :)

@francescpf:
It was only a suggestion, because (at first) I really was not sure how to rate this letter. I just wanted to have some feedback.

One note!
I also requested the sender per email to participate in this discussion. His statement would be interesting.

By the way.... Would we have some more Examples to show what is fair/unfair ratings??
Maybe some of us could here refresh some exchanges to discuss

Hello Wolf :)
I never studied Latín.
This is why I needed help from our common friend :)

My dear Natalia!
Lovely to read a Latin "old saw".
Once in school I have had Latin for about five years. At that time I hated it, but now I think that Latin may be useful.

hello Gerard :)
you are right but... its first sendings by user Munich
If we are so hard with beginners... they will leave, and we all need, or will have benefits, as bigger as this club can grow.
If this was his 20th sending envelope, maybe I could also rate 3... well, I think I would rate 5 :), but I understand you say 3 star rate.
At least, this chat started by Wolf, has brought the best from many of us here. :)
Bravo Wolf :)
By the way Gerard... we have bought some stamps from an auction... we are thinking about you. I will continue by private email :):)

I think a 3 would be fair enough. It's neutral. And I should explain him the reason why.
We are all collectors, more or less advanced, who would like receive such a lot?
And I wonder: would the sender be pleased when he receives this?
When I sent my first lots I didn't send definitives, Back than I tried to look at peoples wishes, trying to avoid sending stamps that are too common. Even though you are new here you can think and figure out that this is not what people want to receive.

bom dia Eduardo :)
qué "image" gostou ?? :)
nâo entendi :)
obrigado !!

Hello!

I would have rated "3", because as all of you say, it follows the club rules. But the lot has nothing special, nor a "surprise" I suppose.

In the beggining of the club, the rating got decided a follows:

"Initial ratings were "positive" "neutral" "negative" plus a star if there was a surprise included. When the rates were changed it was decided to be 3 = neutral, 4 = positive, 5 = positive + star (surprise or extra items). Neutral (3) would be "followed the rules", 100 used good condition stamps, Positive (4) would be "tried to fulfill the profile requests".

I still rate this way, and sometimes I have to explain to some members why! But now I question, is it like this that we shall still rate, or not? So, when the lot fulfills our preferences and there is a plus, the surprise gift, how will we rate it? 6*? 7*?

P.S. And I'm a bitten one! :-) (nice image Francescpf, I agree 100% with it)

Thouroghly enjoyed this discussion. I have found mostly good people in this club. Let's keep it that way.

But getting back to DE937, I agree that now, we should give 5 star, but, explaining to new member what people do expect. He is fullfilling conditions, but, expectations of some members are others.
We should also prevent him that some members will bite him.
If I receive this from a regular member, I will rate 4 or 5 star.

Aaaaahhhh ;);)

Francesc, es una expresión en Latin que significa:
''The law is harsh but it is the law" :)

Que es eso Natalia???

Dura Lex Sed Lex????

No, Wolfgang, I am equitable :O)
"DURA LEX, SED LEX"

Long life 99stamps.club ;):);):)

Natalia, you are really tough and strict :):)

The main rules of the club are: 100 used unique undamaged stamps.
Let us calculate: 25+27+14+11+10+12=99 stamps (from the photo).
The main rules are not respected (less than 100 undamaged stamps), therefore it can not be a positive feedback (4-5), but only neutral (3, if you like the stamps or the cover) or negative.
IMHO (in my humble opinion).

Not very much I guess. Only thing you can do is the next time his name comes up on your list of traders, you can skip him/her and go to next name. Names do repeat. I have only sent out 13 trades so far and two of those are to the same person (even though the ID is different - same address.) And dgdecker is correct. With no preference 100 random picks from your dupes of used/mint/small/large/cto cover all rules, as long as there is no damage.

So.... what to do when you send 100 used, unrepeated, good condition stamps plus gift and your Exchange partner rates you 1 or 2 star?

I would give a 5 in this case. The rules of club have been respected in my opinion. I did not see anything in your profile that you did not want défiantes, Christmas and no CTO. You do have a bit of a long list of exclusions.
I have an exchange on the way to you. I can tell you now there are definatives in that mixture. I have a very limited supply of stamps to exchange. I do not send CTO as most people do not want. I have been collecting mint stamps for years so my duplicates of used is limited. I try my best respect a persons request but to me it is 100 used undamaged stamps that is the criteria required. I make no distinction between definatives, Christmas, or other issues. I do not have the time nor inclination to look through catalogs to determine if a stamp is a definatives or not.
David

As I have received more letters in the club I have made sure to increase the quality of what I send. to reflect what I have been receiving. There has been some variety in what I have gotten, there have been a couple of letters where I have not been able to make sure of much, but there have been some where I have been really surprised how many nice stamps I got. Lots of my extra stamps will be going to the recycling I guess, far too common or not good enough quality to send. But I agree that we need to give new people the benefit of the doubt, and perhaps a little friendly guidance. Has to be a balance, if people just keep sending common stamps, most people will stop using the club, and if we are going to be too harsh on people, they will drop out as well.

Danubius!
What is your opinion?
What would be your rating in this case?

Hi, francescpf has it right on, we would have to give a 5 rating simply because all the club rules were followed. Simple as that. But if the sender is not told what he did wrong (and technically he did nothing wrong) then he might keep sending this type of material. I would be happy to get the machins and I could have used the first 4 stamps in the fourth row and I have been collecting for many years.
I have many thousands of stamps to send as trades, but I usually send Canada if there is no preference. I just love to get the profile that says "send stamps from your country" That covers me all the way. Here in Canada we have a lot of small definitives but they are not boring one color queen heads. We have sets on various topics each year. I will send these in my sendings and I hope to get nothing but 5s on all my trades as all rules are met.
For the collector who only wants "medium size, socked on the nose cancels from eastern Norway that were postmarked between 9am and 3pm on tuesdays" there is not a lot I can do for him so guess what he gets - Canada big and small. And I just might throw in a CTO from South America to further make his/her day. Happy stamping.

Hallo Wolf :)
You have been a good and polite one. A real gentleman and good Exchange partner.
We must prevent Munich about the wolves when he is sending 1 definitive next time :):):)

What I mean is not "loo" but "look" :)

Hola francescpf!
That's what I already did. I explained that the stamp-quality was ok. And I also told this member, that these were lots of definitives and CTO'S and maybe he should a bit loo at his partners profile for the future.
De nada.

hello Wolf :)
I would also have rated 5 star this time because this is a new member. He sent undamaged stamps, used ones, unrepeated ones, so he fullfilled basic conditions. If we hit with 1-2 star to new members, this community will not grow. He sent lots of definitives, it is true, but it seems a nice small collection of definitives. They are also part of our collections.
Im sure this member because he is a new one, is not so introduced to what people expect, but he fullfilled basic conditions.
We have other members in this club who do specialise in 1-2 star ratings, dont worry :) they can do this job for us :):)
In this case I would also have rated 5 star but would send an email to explain, about what others expect in club. Philately is like golf, it is like an sport practised by gentlemen and gentlewomen. We are supposed to have some education and politeness. Some are the exception, but they are very few :)
So... if this member is always sending this type of stamps, he finally would deserve 3 star because of basic contents of stamps, but not 1-2 star because he is fullfilling conditions of club.
I always do the same like you Wolf. 5 star always, unless somebody deserves 1-2 star.

But its our duty to help new members in club. The more we are, the better for us. In souvenirsheets or papermoney clubs, you can very hardly obtain addresses to send because we are very few there. So my message is that lets help the new ones, 5 stars always cheer you up :)

3 :)

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