Used stamps exchanges.

Lately, I did a lot of exchanges. I usually send 110 stamps mostly from France (my country) and people seem happy with what they get as they usually send me a message to thank me.
I am not difficult, I just want to have recent stamps in good condition from the sender's country.

However, I am often disappointed by what I get.
I know the club's rules and I take them into account when I give a mark.
So even if I'm fed up with receiving always the same Dutch or German stamps, I give a good mark if the stamps are in good condition.
Recently, I got 100 very common low value Swiss stamps from someone living in Thailand, today it’s 50 German stamps (always the same ones) from someone in China.
That’s not what I expect from this club. I really feel frustration and I’m really wondering if it’s worth it doing exchanges to receive stamps that end up in the rubbish bin.

I can't understand why people are not able to send stamps from their own country (or at least neighbouring countries).
I think there should be a new rule: at least 75% of the stamps must come from the sender’s country.

@fairytale78 Instead of emails I added a message at the top of the page about the birthdays calendar.

@100clubmember, in the section "other" in the left menue you can chose for "birthdays calendar", there you can see who of your exchange partners allready did and add your own birthday date ...

how do you add your birthday to the list?

Thank you so much Danubius! I’ve added mine too. Would it be possible for you to send out an email to all to introduce the new feature?

Thanks! My birthday is there :)

The birthdays calendar is ready! Thank you @Koen for this idea!

imho, changes for "current year (last 0...3...5 yrs) stamps" as well as "sender's country official mail authority issues" rules looks better implemented at mint stamps club

Yes, I am all for the birthday card thingy! I would love to send and receive birthday cards with a lovely commemorative stamp. I've also joined Postcrossing to receive recent stamps. And I have a subscription to postcards from Timbuktu: https://www.postcardsfromtimbuktu.com/en-de. The last one is for a good cause besides my own stamp collection :).

As for me there is no need for additional clubs and options (at the moment :)!

@Danubius. Persoenlly I don't have a need for additional options/clubs to receive the most recent stamps. To receive a specific stamps only once would be dissapointing, they are so good to send along and make others happy. My opinion: don't change the concept.

As for the birthday calendar, I'm creative enough to come up with such an idea, but not technical enough to know how to. Maybe a calendar with the number of birthdays for each day as a link to a list of persons. Click a listed person to retrieve the address. If a member does not want to join this idea, simly do not fill in your birthday. A year of birth is not necessary of course.
Will be hard to get the card in time to the member since thay can travel between one day and one year...

Do you see a need for a club for newer stamps like from the current year? Or the last few years? Not to replace the current clubs. For example, do you want stamps from 2023? How do you get such stamps? I assume that you get some from the envelopes received trough this clubs.

A solution/club dedicated for new stamps would help?
1. Something similar with europapostcards.club as explained earlier based on a catalogue?
2. Or maybe instead of a postcard, use an envelope with an aditional number of stamps from the last 10 years?
3. Integrate this catalogue into the current clubs? (Just for the stamp you use on the cover)

The catalogue in the europapostcards.club works by selecting the stamp used to mail the postcard. In this way, you receive a specific stamp only once. When you request an address, you also select the stamp from the list. If it's not in the list, you added.

@GPKnl If we duplicate 100/50/25 clubs to only new stamps, what will remain for the current clubs?
There are two ways to block other members. Wen you request an address (with the cost of -1 slot for 90 days) and when you receive a lot of stamps (with no slot loss). In this way, you give each member a chance.

@Koen How do you see this birthday option work?

@volgodonets I notice that when you talk about the cancel option, you also talk about wish lists. You are wright, those two, the wish lists and the cancel option works very well together. There are other clubs/websites/groups that are based on wish lists. In other words, I ONLY want this stamps and NO other stamps, or you can cancel/skip and find another partner. It seems to me that you are more interested in the wish list then you are on the cancel option.

This club is based on randomly assigned partners. This random aspect does not work well with wishlists and therefore neither does with the cancel option.

It's a surprise. You don't know who, from where or what is sending you. You receive an address and only after that you can read something about that member. "Send stamps that you have. As much as possible take into account the preferences of your partner. These preferences are optional, not mandatory"

Initially there was no cancel option. Since there was no wishlists and you coud send 100 stamps that you had (no damaged, no duplicates), there was no need to cancel. But then some members started to treat their profile descriptions more like wishlists and gave low ratings if they did not received what they wanted. Other members trying to avoid low ratings, requested to cancel.

Such profile descriptions with wishlists were exceptions and I added the limited cancel option for those exceptions. This I think only made the problem worse. Because you could cancel, more members felt that they could add a wishlist and others could cancel if they didn't had what they wanted.

There is a "cost" when you cancel, by temporary losing one slot, because canceling should not be easy and should only be used as an exception. If we make caceling easy it will be like we allow wishlists.

A random system with a surprise element versus a system based on wishlists. I think those two are very different systems. I don't have anything against wishlists. There are other clubs that work on them. For this club I want to keep as much as possible the random and the surprise aspects.

@Koen, замечательная идея (add a birthday calendar to the clubs)!!! И добавить кнопку "Получить адрес для отправки поздравительной открытки"!

@100Clubmember I think that stamp issuers aim to sell more stamps to collectors, preferrably in a subscription, due to lack of need for sending mail. So more issues per year lately, but they go as mint stamps directly into collections. Often as sheets.

When I check the (physical) mailbox of the company I work for, I may find 5 envelopes per week. And with a little luck one actually carries a real stamp. My day is made when it also turns out to be a recent commemorative. It mat happen twice a year.
If only there would be a way to trigger companies to use real stamps again.

Or reintroduce sending birthday cards.

@Danubius perhaps we can all specify our birthday to our profiles, and add a birthday calendar to the clubs!

@GPKnl, на самом деле в клубе все участники для того, что бы получить нужные марки и отправить ненужные марки или дубликаты. Я не имею в виду тех, кто отправляет откровенный мусор, для них существует отрицательная оценка обмена.
Подскажите пожалуйста, как можно заблокировать участника до того, пока тебе не выпал его адрес? Где можно просмотреть желания всех участников? А если участник изменил свои желания, как узнать об этом? Когда тебе выпадает адрес, и ты отказываешься от него, участник попадает в твой стоп-лист автоматически, но при этом ты не сможешь 3 месяца делать обмен, ты наказан за отказ от адреса. Это есть проблема.
Как решит проблему клуба 100stamps создание нового клуба 'newstampsclub'? Вы думаете, в клубе 100stamps останутся те, кто "сбрасывает мусор", а в клуб 'newstampsclub' перейдут участники с "хорошими обменами"? Я в этом сильно сомневаюсь.

think the big problem here are:
- people with very demanding profiles
- people who dump unwanted stamps
(or worse when it is the same person....)

Both are wrong, imo the purpose of this club should be help eachother in a fun way to get some new or useful stamps for your collections.

@volgo there is a way to get new or better adresses: You can block people. When you become a clubsupporter the possibillities to block the picky ones or the dumpers are huge.
Works for me.

@Danubius
isn't it just possible to make a 'newstampsclub'?
-send only 25/50/100 (comm.) stamps after 2000.

@Danubius, мне кажется, что создание нового клуба не решит проблему клуба 100stamps. Почему нельзя снять ограничение с отказов от адреса? Если я не имею марок для выбранного клубом участника клуба, то я должен иметь возможность отказаться от этого адреса и получить новый адрес. С какой целью клуб наказывает (сокращает количество обменов) тех, у кого нет завышенных требований к желаемым маркам?

I understand that most members would preffer recent commemorative issues. I'm thinking about a new club similar to europapostcards.club for those that know this one.

You send a postcard and you select the stamp that you want to use. You select the country and the year of the stamp, then you select the stamp from the list. If the stamp is not in the list, you add it to the public catalogue. In this way you receive a stamp only once.

I know that this is expensive. People are sending less and less mail and not all are using real stamps for mailing them. Recent commemorative stamps are harder to get. This is a solution that I can see. Let me know if you think that this is realistic or not and if you would participate in such a club.

The simple approach for this idea is to receive any stamp once. A second variation of this idea would add a few more actions from the members. You view the recent stamps added to the catalogue and you vote "yes" or "no" for each stamp. Then you receive only the stamps that you selected.

Rules should be simple and achievable. A rule that is too restrictive would limit the number of people that could participate in this club. Probably the rule proposed is more suitable for direct swaps.

That's a real good question.
Countries are producing now-a-days more stamps than never before, where are they?

"Big market, big circulating volume, big offer."
And still not easy to get without buying mint. How many mail do you receive on a yearly basis, not counting in these stamp clubs? And how many of these carry a real stamp?

"Big market, big circulating volume, big offer."
And still not easy to get without buying mint. How many mail do you receive on a yearly basis, not counting in these stamp clubs? And how many of these carry a real stamp?

no need to argue... i was just trying to doubt in your proposal of the rule to send 75% of stamps from home country. For some (smaller ones aka Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Andorra,...) is that impossible. Yes, i can send Slovene stamps within exchanges, but you will receive same again and again. We have definitives, that are reprinted over and over. They come in different varieties (size, paper, SA and perforation) I once sent all 4 varieties of one stamp and got 3 stars, because i have sent multiplications of same stamp. Comemms are really hard to get. My personal collection is not even half of issued. and i seek them a lot... by that said, we cant compaare to someone like France or Germany or Spain. Big market, big circulating volume, big offer.

I received stamps from Krepki there were very interesting stamps not from Slovenia, I understand in France it is difficult to also renew the stamps to be sent .... but there was a beautiful one on the envelope

Krepki

My last message to you dates back to january 11th.

You already answered my message on January 18th ==> "Are you newbie?" Blablabla

So what's the point about picking again on me today, without reason, with your "you just cant understand, cant you? "

I was just giving my opinion and I was respectful.

@Natalia_Golubko, автор темы пишет не о выставляемых за обмен оценках, он огорчен, что не получает радости от обмена, потому что получил не те марки которые желал. И он прав, увлечение должно приносить удовольствие. Почему я больше года не делал обмены в клубе? Потому что многие члены клуба имеют очень высокие требования, и я не могу эти требования удовлетворить, нет у меня в обменном фонде такого количества марок после 2000 года. И в клубе стало много участников с высокими требованиями, некоторые члены клуба вообще пишут: "please check my Colnect to select stamps from to send" (цитата от @Koen). Клуб не дает нам выбора, он заставляет нас либо отправить марки в выпавший адрес, либо 3 месяца не делать обмен. Нет возможности выбрать участника клуба равного тебе по требованиям. Думаю, что такие условия отпугивают новых участников клуба, и появляется много не исполненных обменов. Проблема важная и ее надо решать.

@Ubozel

you just cant understand, cant you?
75% of Slovene stamps would mean, that i cant do a single exchange in this club...

volgodonets, лично у меня нет такого огромного количества обменного фонда, как у Вас. Благодаря своим знакомым я иногда покупаю киловары в западноевропейских магазинах, но там тоже присутствует большое количество СТО и общераспространённых дефинитивов. А во внутрироссийской переписке коммеморативные марки, как Вы знаете, встречаются, в основном, на филателистических отправлениях, так что удовлетворить многочисленные запросы членов клуба просто невозможно. Потому я посылаю то, что могу, невзирая на пожелания. По крайней мере, на конверте адресаты могут получить современные российские марки. За всё время в клубе я отклонила получателя всего пару-тройку раз, когда увидела, что он неадекватен в оценках получаемого.
Думаю, что Вы спокойно можете посылать свои марки членам клуба. Гашёные современные марки европейских, да и других мировых стран они легко могут купить у себя, в отличие от нас.

volgodonets, personally, I don't have such a huge amount of exchange stock as you do. Thanks to my friends I sometimes buy kilowars in western european shops, but they also contain a large number of STOs and common definitive stamps. And in internal russian mailing the commemorative stamps, as you know, are found mostly on philatelic items, so it is simply impossible to satisfy the numerous requests of the club members. So I send what I can, regardless of wishes. At least on the envelope the addressees can get modern russian stamps. For all my time in the club I have only rejected several recipients a couple or three times when I saw that they were inadequate in their evaluation of the swaps.
I think you can safely send your stamps to the club members. They can easily buy used modern stamps of the european and other world countries in contrast to us.

Решить эту проблему можно, если сделать возможным менять партнера без ограничения. Выпал тебе адрес человека, которому нужны марки, которых у тебя нет, откажись от этого адреса и получи другой адрес для обмена. Мне кажется странным наказывать (ограничивать количество обменов) человека, который менее требовательный к обмену. Если нет у меня 100 марок после 2000 года, то почему я не могу обмениваться марками до 2000 года с теми, кто хочет их получить? Для чего установлено ограничение количества обменов, если ты отказался от адреса? Пусть продвинутые коллекционеры выбирают себе продвинутых, а менее требовательные обмениваются с равными себе, тогда будет меньше разочарований и больше хороших обменов.

Не пользовался клубом 100stamps больше года. Уже забыл, почему я перестал использовать сервис 100stamps. Недавно получил письмо, с напоминанием, что я давно не посещал клуб. Решил возобновить обмены. Получил 10 адресов для обмена. У меня давно стоит коробка в которой хранятся примерно 100 000 - 200 000 марок для обмена. Но из этой коробки я не смог набрать даже 100 марок для обмена с учетом желания адресатов. Почти у всех адресатов требования: нет марки из СССР, нет марки Восточной Европы до 1990 года, нет марки Германии, и т.п. Все желают только марки после 2000 года. Имея такой большое количество марок для обмена, я не могу делать обмен. Изначально, 100stamps был сервисом для слепого обмена, и очень подходил начинающим филателистам. Я подумал, приходит в клуб начинающий филателист, вряд ли у него есть для обмена много марок. Когда он видит такие требования адресатов, он конечно не может набрать 100 марок, удовлетворяющие требованиям, и поэтому он не делает обмен. А начинающему филателисту вероятно нужны те марки, которых много у продвинутых филателистов. Но он не получит их, потому что обмена не будет, нет у него 100 марок Западной Европы (кроме Германии) после 2000 года. Конечно не приятно, если из присланных 100 марок, Вы можете включить в свою коллекцию только 1-5 марок, а остальные в коробку для обмена. А может (если Ваша коллекция настолько полная, что Вам нужны только марки после 2000 года) Вам нужно отказаться от слепого обмена и поменять место обмена? Если Вы продвинутый филателист, то пользуйтесь сервисом, где Вы сами выбираете марки для обмена. Думаю, все понимают о каком сервисе я пишу (не хочу делать рекламу :) ). Своими ограниченными требованиями (нет CTO, нет Германия, нет марки до 2000 года, нет марки Восточной Европы) Вы отпугиваете начинающих филателистов. Слепой обмен должен быть слепым обменом. На 100stamps было правило 3 Yes: 100 марок - Yes, все без дефектов - Yes, без повторов - Yes. Это правило еще действует?

@Ubozel
I tried my best :)

wuff67
Today I just received your stamps. THANK YOU so much, you made my day. That's the best stamps I received in a long time! :-)

Well spoken @krepki! Over the year, I might get about 10 postal pieces with German stamps (I live in Germany). I have my own company, so does my husband. We get a lot of mail. But most have a label or a print. Not a stamp. The times are a changing, my friend!

@Krepki
According to Colnect, 2,266 stamps have been issued in Slovenia since 1991. So I don't see why it's so difficult to find 75 stamps from your country.

Are you newbie? it is not the number issued, it is the number put in circulation that is problematic. Even I, as an active collector dont have used stamps of Slovenia - not even half of issued.

yes i can send you one definitive every time, again and again. I have plenty of those

I live in NL and have about 200-300 Dutch stamps from 2000+ available. I'll be out of business within 4 sendings. So that's a no go. It is not always easy to obtain new used stamps unless buying them. Many issues in a few year does not mean you can easily get them. It's a digital era unfortunately. I have more from NL, but before 2000. Less interesting I have the feeling.

Today I received an envelope from US. 10 stamps were interesting... to trade further. Nothing new for me. But the stamps on the envelope put a smile on my face. I'll sleep very well tonight.

I try to avoid sending the obvious and definitives. I cannot look into your collection to what you have and what not. And I wouldn't if I could ("please check my Colnect to select stamps from to send" I've seen in an profile).

There are other ways to get the stamps you want, like 1-on-1 trades privately or in trade-sites. I'm a member to one of those clubs, and with me a few other from this club. Works well, you could try it (not trying to lure members away from here).

Another example of disappointing exchange:
I just got today a letter from Latvia without a single stamp from this country, and with a lot of old low value very common stamps from Sweden, a lot of definitives and some CTOs, and the usual... german stamps. To top it all, 25% of the stamps had teeth problems.
Apparently, it's not the first time this partner gets bad marks for his lack of efforts.

No extra bonus, no written note (I noticed that people that don't bother to write a note are more likely to send poor quality stamps), and definitives on the enveloppe. Not a single effort, he just dumped on me his unwanted stamps.

Yes, I get a lot of the same stamps too. And I do not understand why equally seasoned collectors like myself pass them on. Since a couple of months, I stopped being very active in this club. Instead of asking for a new address as soon as my stamps arrived, I now only ask for a new address when I have interesting stuff to send (I am not always getting it right, sorry). The common stamps go to a local charity. They are not passed around to the next one. Slowly, the balance between lots sent and lots received equals out. In this way, participating in this club has become less expensive (not sending so much) and less frustrating.

Glad this discussion is happening (again). I've stopped participating in the 100 club because I was getting way too many stamps that I would not dare send to other members. (100 mint stamps from 80's Germany???)

Now, I concentrate on the 25 club. It's expensive for what it is but I usually get close to 25 good stamps. And it makes me happy to receive these letters in the mail. I have made so many new philatelist friends through these clubs, I would not want to change that !

I do block people who put zero effort, who dump stamps or who sends definitives. I also block people who give 4 to everybody, no matter what... I block grumpy negative and miserable people. If it's a new member, I give one chance to learn as I have learned myself through my first exchanges.

It's unfortunate that some people abuse this system.

it is a common thing, most members send at least some of the same e.g. germany stamps and those just circulate from a member to another... as mentioned earlier it is something that has to be accepted when doing a lot of exchanges here :D with each exchange you probably get like 10 new stamps for your collection and it can be worth it ^^ the other option is you have to do private exchanges only, that way you can arrange exchange for any particular country or topic stamps that you want -in this case though you have to offer the other person also what he is looking for ^^

Thanks for the answers.

Krepki
According to Colnect, 2,266 stamps have been issued in Slovenia since 1991. So I don't see why it's so difficult to find 75 stamps from your country.

GPKnl
I could give feedback (and I do, when I give a bad mark), but as I choose (up to now) not to repeat partners, it won't be of great use.
And I am likely to get the following answer: "I'm sending you what I have or what I received".
Anyway, with the current rules, anyone could send the 100 most common definitives" and get a 5 if the stamps are in good condition. That's not fair.

wuff67
OK, I would like to receive recent stamps but it's just a WISH, not an obligation.
If you send me Austrian stamps from the 80s or the 90s, I will be pleased.
Regarding Dutch stamps, more than 700 stamps were issued between 2000 and 2004, but it's always the same ones I keep on receiving.

I think that all the long time collectors have the problem of receiving always the "same"!
@ GPKnl: I'm doing like you since last year!
@Ubozel: I am a lucky guy and have a big stock of exchange material. But if you want me to send 100 stamps from Austria (from 2000 on; in your profile) I will also get a problem to respect your wishes.

At least you guys are getting stamps, for the last two months I've seen the 0 stamps coming to me and I'm way in the hole, all together over 4200 stamps, some of them should be going straight to you.
Hope everything gets better in this New Year.
Tony

i have made almost 800 exchanges in this club... Can you imagine me sending just Slovenia stamps? do you have any idea how many Slovene stamps is in circulation? I am receiving all sorts, mostly same, boring material. There are sunshines among us and there are rainy clouds. it is especially hard for me, because i am thematic collector, but im here to have fun, to mix my dobles and meet pleasant people.

I like the idea of only sending Dutch or stamps from our big neighbour Germany. Finally I can dump all my stamps.

Seriously:I do recognize your problem.
What helped for me is everytime I'm I bit disappointed I give feedback and explain why I'm not happy . Most of the time the next sending will be better.
Sometimes it's the same shit. (some people use this club for dumping stamps) Then there is always the option of blocking that member. No effort = block.
When you donate to this you get extra blockoptions. Helps for me, and I can send my good stamps to good members.