TradeOnlyStamps Salvo!

In this Saturday's biweekly TradeOnlyStamps (TOS) email newsletter #855 (screenshot - top photo), I found five possible trades I'd like to make. I thought it would be neat to keep track of all five, what I sent, what I received (in photo form), just to give an idea of the efficacy of these trades. I've blogged about TOS before and it works just about as well, and maybe better as the other stamp exchange schemes I blogged before. I titled this post a salvo because when we used to play the game 'Battleship' years ago, one variation of game-play was to call five shots in a row and see where they fell, before the next player took a turn. I sent each packet upon receipt of a confirmatory email message from each trader.

The five traders were:

• Charles Reid from New Westminster, BC. Charles wanted 50 1980's US in exchange for the same number of Canada or worldwide. I got out my US catalogue to make sure the doubles I was sending Charles were indeed released in that decade! Sent: May 29, 2023. Received: June 12, 2023. Charles sent a nice selection of worldwide including sports, Philippines and Papua New Guinea iin half of a manila stock page. I immediately took up Charles' offer to continue exchanging!

Cristian Dinca from Bucharest, Romania. Cristian had a wide variety of wants, including Central and South America, the Middle East, Eurasia and Jamaica. I was able to put together a nice selection of all of these. Fortunately, Cristian expected up to 30% definitives. What is a stamp collection with no definitives? It's not realistic nor representative of a country's philatelic prodigiousness. Sent: May 29. 2023. Received: TBA (Checked with Cristian in mid-September: sent but not received.) Cristian kindly offered to send a replacement pack, and here are his photos of his first attempt:

and second attempt:

• Avi Krauz from Israel. Proposing 100 small Canada for 100 small Israel, I knew I had lots of Canadian definitives from all eras, and gathering that many was no problem - accomplished from 1970's to 1990's. Didn't even dip into the earlier Queen Elizabeth or KGVI! Sent: May 29, 2023. Received: June 19, 2023. Avi placed a nice selection of stamps on the envelope, including one showing Adam, Eve, the snake and that famous fruit they shared! 

• Jean-Francois Wodarka from Canada. Proposal was 100-200 worldwide for same, depending on catalogue value. I selected 100 worldwide large. Sent: June 2, 2023. Received: June 16, 2023. J-F's exchange contained 100 stamps sorted by country, sets or pairs, and damaged (*) with a nice Carmichael P-value stamp on the envelope.

• A.S. Banga from Australia. Interested in a variety of topicals ranging from butterflies to basketball and COVID to dinosaurs, I was sure I could find 100 to send. In exchange, naval ships and aircraft and maybe more were proposed. Sent: June 6, 2023. Received: July 13, 2023. This trade was a bit disappointing. A.S. returned 50 of my stamps, saying they were from countries he had a direct connection to, like Russia and Bulgaria. He sent 50 Japan, suggesting further trades and requesting 2000-2023 Canada and Western Europe. Not what he originally advertised and I will not be taking him up on his offer, since he didn't return what he said he would.

Bonus trade! A few days before this salvo, I received an offer from Carmen Scicluna of Malta to trade 100 worldwide for 100 Malta. Carmen's envelope was sent May 24 and arrived June 7. What an awesome collection of statuary and other Malta issues, including a masked COVID theme!

*I have encountered this before when collectors return stamps they deem damaged. Upon inspecting those that J-F designated, I found no rips or tears, just some minor discolouration perhaps due to cancellation, and a few missing perfs. As an aside, this type of return is disappointing. Another collector must have sent me these stamps, and I must have accepted them. I do not inspect each stamp with a magnifying glass, and I guess my acceptance of slight imperfection is more yielding than some collectors. I do wish that these 'damaged' stamps would find their way somewhere other than back to me. Returning them does not come across as very gentlemanly. End of rant!