A Seventh Fellow Traveler on the Journey...

...joins my collection of Travelers. This is Number Seven. Part of a MaxSold auction lot (vendor photo at top). It's a 1971 edition, excellent shape, not too swaybacked, pages not yellowed, maybe 100 stamps stuck in. Also in the lot were the Canada Post millennium souvenir, intact, and two baggies of WW on- and off-paper. My winning bid was $16.

This is my second spare Traveler. I've acquired four over the last three years, each for less than $10. As I start the latest, annual round (3.0) of my Long & Noble Crusade to albumize acquired stamps, I'm in good shape and ready to expand as needed to Travelers 6 and 7.

The Deerly Departed

While going through my MaxSold finds, I came across this 1963 Costa Rican white-tailed deer stamp with a notable cancel ' 19 FEB...' - my Dad's birthday. As the person who 'worked stamps' with me and my siblings many years ago, this was a full circle moment.

MaxBoxes!

A MaxSold auction this week included two views of stamp collecting items on a dining room table. Both the table and the stamp collecting items were up for bids. Though the bidding went higher than my initial maximum (doesn't it always?) I was eventually the successful high bidder - the albums and Canada Post books in the top photo for $30, the miscellaneous hoard below for $42, both before taxes and fees. What I was really interested in was the Canada Post Collector Packs. There were more pictures posted on the MaxSold website that led me to believe these were intact, unopened and therefore usable as postage!

As Canada Post continues hiking postage rates, stamp collectors like me who rely on exchanges, circuits and mailing stamps all over the world face increased costs to participate in this hobby: $1.24 within Canada, $1.75 to the U.S. $3.65 International. But what if I could buy mint postage at a reduced rate and use it at face value? When bidding, I hoped to #$%^ that the packs were full, since their contents were not visible. Well, examining the packs upon pick-up (in two boxes and feeling like 30 pounds' total weight !) showed me that they were indeed full!

I formulated a total of mint postage obtained in these two lots, and it was three times the bid price! This mint postage will fund well over 150 mailings to other collectors.

The albums are lightly used, nothing valuable observed so far, and I may consider switching my current paperback US (lacking some spots for early issues) and paperback Canada (lacking some spots and information on some issues) to these H.E. Harris dust-covered binder albums. The miscellaneous envelopes will be a fun sort over the long winter months. Two full packets of usable stamp hinges will save me $15 all on their own!

These appear to have belonged to someone who started collecting earlier in life, then returned to the hobby perhaps upon retirement. I will give these items a good home in my retirement, and share them with others if I can't! This collection will live on. I'd like to thank Joan for curating this collection all these years!