is this working. just click the image am trying something new stay with me!!

Hello, and this by popular Request, the 1st class stamps from the Curious Customs issue. The left stamp shows an image to represent the World Gurning Championships in Egremont. (a village in the English Lake District) If I was to write the following without this introduction I am pretty sure you would say I am making this up for a story. But this is for real. From the Royal Mail Presentation Pack material, believe it or not!

"At Egremont Crab Fair (founded in 1276) on the third Saturday in September there are deliberately revived traditional games that were common at such events in the past. Gurning (or girning) was a widespread dialect word from the same roots as grinning, originally signifying snaring or baring of teeth in rage. However, when it was adopted as an entertainment or competition at fairs gurning took on the meaning of pulling funny faces or ugly faces, with the contestant's face usually framed by a large horse collar" To really appreciate this check out the internet for some samples of the competition. You might not sleep well if you do it in the evening so I recommend it as a morning activity!

The things you learn from philately eh!

The right hand stamp depicts the burning of a full sized replica of a galley ( as in ship) in Lerwick, Shetland. Shetland people celebrating their viking heritage. A far more ordinary thing to do, burn something you spent weeks building,to ashes!

Enjoy your philately.

Michael cddstamps.com

Hello, How about these two from the recent Royal Mail new issue, Curious Customs.

Cannot see the point of the issue myself, but since someone kindly sent a letter to me from the UK and were thoughtful enough to put this pair on I thought I would share with you.

I mean, how many people know of the custom "Burning the Clocks in Brighton", or even the "Padstow Obby Oss". Lost for words to say anything else polite about the issue. :-)

Enjoy your stamps and if you are really quick you might find these in the online shop along with other rare postally used new issues!

Michael cddstamps.com

Hello. Started working on North Borneo, the 1901 - 1905 issue with British Protectorate overprint. Eyes going crazy checking the perforations.

And then took a break as had another idea. Hope you like this new logo design.

How can I make the image an active link. I thought I knew but it does not work. This Link Does And suppose I am in Facebook for example and want to make the image with an active link? Can anyone tell me how to do that?

North Borneo images once I get them scanned. Still doing cataloguing checks. I think you might like some of them/

Michael cddstamps.com

Hello and welcome to another weekend. We just finished watching the tropical storm Bailu go through. So much rain, flooding everywhere. But dry on the 4th floor!! Hope every one in China is safe as it there now.

We just listed over 400 Zimbabwe to the store. Hope you find something to fill a few gaps in your collection. We think you will.

Please enjoy looking. We look forward to welcoming you in the store.

Have a great weekend Michael cddstamps.com the store

Welcome to the weekend. I hope it is a good one for everyone. I will be working on stamps, loading more stock to our cddstamps online store. We are in the middle of a typhoon so no going out for me.

Now back to those GB stamps I showed last week. What was wrong with that listing? well how about these few tips for anyone thinking of buying stamps on the cheap.

1) you cannot see all of each of the stamps ( 8 of them I think) so you have no idea of the quality, rust, missing perfs, tears, you name it, it could be there. In fact you can see some creases and the perfs and pretty dirty.

2) the description was totally incomplete. Very amateurish seller to do that don't you think?

3) you can see that some edges look to have rust / toning so there is a good chance that it will spread to the other stamps since they are packed touching each other

4) the stamps are pretty basic actually and for this quality I would suggest they should be put in the garbage but if you want these for your collection you can get better quality probably at the same or close to same price you would pay for these. These are spacefillers in some language but there really is no such thing as a spacefiller for something that is of such little value and easily and cheaply purchased, even if the cat value for the higher values is a bit pricey. That is just the cat value for perfect condition stamps and that is often a high side number, perhaps.

5) would you check the postage / shipping costs before placing a bid / buying as a buy now offer? You must do that. I saw a listing yesterday where the seller was charging USD $3 for shipping the first stamp and then 50c for each additional stamp. Theseller was set up to make money on shipping while the price of the stamps was a give away. Buyer beware of course but it pays to know these things.

In this day and age there are so many sellers accessible to us all. By way of example, on one philatelic portal there are currently 968 sellers. Yes 968, that was not a typo. Ok not all have vast stocks or what you might be collecting but there is a good chance there are anywhere between 50 and 100 of the stamp you want.

Don't believe me? Well the top stamp in the image is SG 511 / Scott 588 there are over 80 for sale starting at 49c on one portal I know and while most have a parcel cancel which is very common with this issue there are some better copies available. There is also some absolute rubbish for sale. Makes you wonder if the seller knows anything about philately, doesn't it! Yours below for USD $2. (excluding shipping of course!) Wow! Do be careful!!

Have a great weekend and when you want stamps accurately and completely described, well packed, mint especially as we put in Hawid black strip mounts, scanned images of face and reverse on more expensive stamps, and reasonable shipping costs then please give us one chance to help you with your collection.

Michael cddstamps.com

Hello, hope you like this one. A very nice copy of SG 215 (Scott 172) you can find it here along with lots more new listings we just placed in the cddstamps online store.

This is the real stamp, not some "representative image: We saw that for some stamps that were for sale. All book quality images. Quite disgraceful if you ask me.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your philately.

Michael cddstamps.com and online store here

Hello, yes I am back from travels. And what was one of the first things I saw, well these for sale on some auction site. Absolutely disgraceful that a large dealer - maybe that is being too kind to them - has the audacity to be offering this for sale. What is wrong with it? Well how long have you got?

I think it is time for me to do a little competition.

Some, ok lets say 50, free stamps from Australia to whoever gets the most points describing "what is wrong with this junk". Just email me at cddstamps@gmail.com I will wait a few days and then either publish a winner or winners if I like the responses and tell you what is wrong with this and why you should never bid on junk like this. I know it sold and I feel for the buyer, probably a new collector. I will explain more in time

I read recently an article included a piece about how collectors are losing faith with some stamp dealers, I wont bore you with more details now, but just say here is one very good reason why that is happening.

It shouldn't be that way and it is not that way at cddstamps I can assure you.

Have a great philatelic weekend Michael www.cddstamps.com