Used stamps exchanges.

Hi all,
Due to the Coronavirus, getting your hands on good stamps to send around is getting increasingly difficult. At least here in Germany. Many of you who send me stamps, send older and rather common ones. When I pass them on, I automatically get a lower rating. Even if that person has send me a similar lot. I have therefore resorted to buying stamps on paper from dealers again. My latest 'find' was half a kilo of very recent Japanese stamps. Currently, Japan issues a lot of these beautiful series of small stamps. However, some on this site seem to think that they are not good enough and should not be send. Since when are these brand-new stamps not good enough? What am I to do? I am not allowed to send stamps from my native country as most of you don't want German stamps. And buying really good recent stamps on paper are costing me an arm and a leg. And are still not to the taste of quite a few here. I am open to your suggestions!
Jessica

I haven't sent out any self stick stamps as of yet for exchange because I get so few of them, There are no problems with putting a hinge on a stamp coated with talc, right after I coat the stamp I scrap the excessive powder off with old credit card.
Lets face it, here many problems now with newer issue stamps, the future of them remain to be seen. someday for common mail there will be codes on paper, I hear Germany is going to start, ant truth on that?

I think you should open a bussiness Natalia :).

Tony, american self-adhesive stamps are very well removed from the paper with liquid hydrocarbons. English and Brazilian self-adhesives are much worse removed. But even Spanish automatic stamps (ATM) can be removed without loss of quality. Jessica knows :)))

I usually don't send USA stamps for the very same reason, if someone ask for them I let them know that they will be on paper if they are recent stamps. I believe that some chemicals are a detriment
to the stamps that eventually will show up.

Also, you won't be able to use a hinge to mount your stamps if you use talc on the glue side.

@It is required to remove all stamps off paper, old and new
i think this is not true
i rather receive on paper than chemically treated stamp, that looses colour or has damaged surface
As I was doing research - beware - some USA products are banned in EU, because chemical substances...

It is required to remove all stamps off paper, old and new
I used two products to remove self-stick United States off Paper
One of them is Bestine (safest), suggest getting the 4oz can, apply on back of paper with small Brush, if glue remains coat back of stamp with ultra fine talc. Can get all the produts walmart on line
Other is Goof Off - Will damage the stamp face if not carful, cost 1/2 the price of Bestine - Harbor Freight has it in a 32 oz can, you will need a smaller can and a funnel, suggest using the 4 oz can ionce it's used up.

I am new to the exchange and have so far sent out four exchanges and anxiously waiting for something to come my way.
I am just getting back to my collection after almost 20 years, so my supply of recent material is almost non existent. I have tried my best to send stamps that match the profile, but some of them are so specific I have no chance of sending them something they'd prefer.
I would also like to note that including recent US and not on paper in your profile is just not feasible. Most of the new US cannot be removed or easily becomes damaged if you try.

I second Ziga's opinion that sometimes the postage is worth more than the stamps that you get, but at the same time there are some really dedicated collectors that go out of their way to send stamps that at least if not useful to you they'll be for someone else. Some members should edit their profile, I mean some of those profiles more that a hint are a request of what they want. These are blind trades and as long as you get stamps as stated in the rules there's no reason for you to be disappointed or give poor rating.
Tony

...and yes - i am open for private exchanges ;)

i was thinking the same - i am receiving common material that i have no need for and I give good grades, according to club rules. Because I dont need them, I send them forward and receive bad rating.
as Niceday said - it is blind exchange and just now I started to think, that this is not my thing anymore. just as: i have sent more than 500 letters in this club. shipping is 2€, so i "invested" a lot of money for which i could buy A LOT of missing stamps for me... but (and i am advanced collector) buying stamps is not my thing...
so i will keep sending letters with random stuff & i dont care what grades I get - real people (like you here on forum) will understand my efford to fulfil your wishes - but i cant all the time, since this club became - NO THIS, NO THAT, just BIG, recent, small countries and high value -> these people - go on Ebay! let us enjoy mailbox surprises!

In my opinion there is big misunderstanding what a BLIND exchange is for. It seems that some join the 100 club with expectations to top up their collections with missing stamps adding impossible requirements that cannot be fulfilled by many other members (e.g. limiting countries, high values, large commemorative etc). I don’t understand what large(?) commemorative means. In Japan most pretty current stamps are commemorative but not large. Different catalogues may define definitive/commemorative differently. So, is it fair to downrate any unfortunate sender who pulled out your name out of limited numbers of members but cannot meet requirements from your profile simply because he/she doesn’t have what is asked? I think that any respective collector whether amateur, beginner or advanced would try to meet individual requirements of the person if she/he can, I usually do. However, every serious collector knows that situation with postal stamps has changed in the modern IT world. It is not easy to get used stamps in general, unless start using auctions, e-bay etc and many lots passing through dealers hands anyway.
So blind exchange should be treated as a surprise - it may be pleasant and you can add few stamps to your collection or may not be on this occasion. However, if you received 100 stamps and it is within the club rules (no damaged stamps, used stumps, no doubles etc) then there is no ground to give a sender low scores.
I’d like to comment on how post office staff work based on my experience in the U.K. where only definitive stamps are available at the post office counter. This is because most of PO are now located in small private shops and perform a lot of other services like checking passport applications, processing different payments and many others things in addition to sending parcel, special delivery letters etc. If you need commemorative stamps you have to buy them on e-bay or order on-line from Royal Mail. According to current rules (as I’ve been told) they cannot even cancel stamps. You buy a definitive or Christmas stamps, stick it to a letter and drop it the post box. Stumps all cancelled centrally by machine hence a “lovely” wavy lines on many used stamps.

The point is that in Germany and Japan, there are no lazy postal officials and they also put occasional stamps on envelopes. E.g. this is not the case in Russia or China. Only the Kremlin, etc. stick there. Or they use a payroll machine because it's more convenient and lazy there. According to the Postal Act, occasional stamps must be affixed for shipments abroad, but in many countries they do not do so and break the law. That's why there are so many German and Japanese used stamps in circulation for philatelists.

Hi Camulus,
I am an advanced collector (39 years should qualify as that, I believe). However, I don't have complete sets of all summer and winter greeting, letterwriting week, etc. stamps from the last five years from Japan (and Japan is one of my favourite countries to collect, so I spend a bit of money on getting this country complete). That's the stamps this dicussion is talking about. Not about the definitive stamps that Japan issues every few years. In the last years, these definitives feautured a head, some animals and a few flowers.
When I buy stamps from one of the leading dealers in Europe (Dr Volker Behn) he qualifies these smaller Japanese greeting stamps as commemorative stamps too. The same with the booklet stamps of France. Which, by the way, I don't have complete sets of from the last couple of years either :). It might ofcourse be that I am not such an advanced collector as I think I am ...
Have a great day, Jessica

Hi,
the situation is the same for Japanese stamps as for German stamps. Such stamps is a lot and has a lot of them every advanced collector, are good only for beginners and children.

50X300, this is a listing that I'm running on TradeOnlyStamps.com and Colnect.com to get rid of thousands of small definitive stamps. Also as of late, I return as many small stamps as I get from
other members by carefully keeping track of what I receive.