Category: Collecting

The Stamp Collector (Final Part)

  • December 23, 2017

This series turned out longer and more work than anticipated but as we all know, all good things must come to an end.

The largest portion of my stamp ‘collection’ is still affixed to the hundreds of postcards I have stored together in a box. From all over the world and spanning over twenty years, these contain a fascinating selection of stamps and cancellations.

The New Zealand stamps on the postcards sent by Bernard were quite special and varied, but I also like the mini airmail stamp attached to the Swiss stamp and the (very unique!) Death Valley cancellation.

There’s those Star Wars stamps attached to a postcard I sent from Hawaii a decade ago. There’s the only postcard I ever received from Italy (and boring at that) followed by an example of my creative stamping from England.

Those were both from Oz last year, and you may have seen these on your cards? Australia seems to have doubled down on large and lavish animal stamps these past years, and I always seek them out to include them on postcards.

In fact I’ve got no problem whatsoever eating up large portions of the back of a postcard with lovely stamps…. like this:

Which is another specimen I sent KLS last year. I’ve done the above several times over the years, but this one may be my masterpiece!

One thing I’ve learned doing research for this series is that while collectors prefer stamps to be as pristine as possible, there are certain stamps that are more collectible if they had been used for postage. This is why I particularly like the ones attached to my postcards, since they were used to mail stuff to me!

In a few days I’m off to Australia again. This time, when you get your postcards, spare a moment to appreciate the stamps. It’s likely I put as much thought into them as I did the card itself or even what I wrote on it.

I hope you found this series interesting. I ended up much farther down the rabbit hole than I ever expected, and at times even I couldn’t see light, but I’m glad I’m out now and can move on with the usual topics 🙂

  • Posted in Art
  • Robert

2017 In Games

  • December 19, 2017

You know you’ve been waiting for it, and here it is: the annual summary of my game purchases!

I won’t dance around the facts: 2017 was a ‘down year’ for game spending. I bought only 40 games in 2017, spending a total of $1291. This is the smallest amount of total purchases since 2012, and the smallest amount spend since 1994! Results like this threaten an existential crisis: am I still a gamer?

Of course I am! And we’ll get to that in a little bit, but first here are the pie charts everyone loves. First the games purchased; % by system:

And next the % breakdown by dollars spent:

(Yes I know the fonts are illegibly tiny; click on each for a bigger version.)

The pertinent points:
– I bought games for a few ‘dead systems’ this year: the DS, PSP and NES
– While I still bought Vita games, I bought less than half last year (10 vs 28). This is unsurprising; Sony declared this a ‘legacy system’ a couple of years ago now…
– The Nintendo Switch enter the charts! I bought one game….. but don’t have a Switch yet 😉

As far as overall gaming comments I don’t feel like I’m playing less than ever. I still play Puzzle & Dragons (and am coming up on 1700 consecutive days of logging in) and still enjoy it, and I still have a backlog of (good!) Vita RPGs that are unopened and should last me for years. But I have been playing less console gaming, and certainly spending less on consoles overall. The switch appeals to me for this reason, since I envisage myself more likely to play the games on the system in portable mode than on the TV.

On to my top games of the year, as usual sorted by system. Given the scant purchases for some systems I’ll only tackle the three major ones this time:

Toukiden 2 (PS Vita)

This is a Monster Hunter clone set in feudal Japan with crazy bosses and an emphasis on over-the-top attacks and destructible body parts (on the beasts). It’s an improvement on the already-great Vita original and I played it to death for a couple of months back in late Spring this year. In my opinion, one of the all-time best Vita games.

Monster Hunter Stories (3DS)

This is a pokemon-like game set in the MH world that was much, much better than I thought it would be. I played it like a fiend, only putting it down about 120 hours later. It had fantastic graphics and a great story but above all the gameplay loop was loads of fun and as a (insane) MH fan the appeal of the world was top-notch. Recommended.

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Wii U)

You know how you’ve read/seen countless times that this game is one of (if not THE) best ever made and it’s so good it’s better than real life? Yep, it’s all true. This is the definition of a magnum opus, and a game that will be spoken about for generations to come. Easily the game of the year for me, and worth buying a Wii U/Switch just to play. (This is also likely the last Wii U game I will ever buy, and it’s certainly a worthy title for the system to retire on.)

I’m doing this a little early this year, especially since I have a inkling what’s under the tree for me and specifically that one of those ‘whats’ may even give Zelda a run for it’s money in the masterpiece stakes. Oh well, you’ll have to wait until this time next year to find out 🙂

The Stamp Collector (Part Four)

  • December 3, 2017

It’s somewhat unsatisfying that my blog in recent months has become a “look at this thing I own” catalogue, but this has been one of the busiest semesters in recent memory and I seem to always lack the time I wish I had to spend on other diversions. Given I started this series (and enjoy it!) I’d like to finish it before Christmas.

Therefore, another installment of my stamp collection, this time ‘miscellaneous’. Here are the bits and pieces (including loose stamps) that didn’t fit easily into the other posts, including those yet to be made…

Another item I no doubt picked up on one of my annual trips to the south. Once again we see Christmas Island, and an animal. It’s exotic isn’t it? I read recently that stamps from places like this are ‘worth’ more if actually used for postage, rather than sold as collectibles like this. Doubly so if they went through other post offices on the way and received additional cancellations, as was once done.

I also read that first-day-covers are essentially worthless; a product of the 1960s/70s/80s mostly that has little interest to anyone today. This explains why I often find them for sale for a song 🙂

These were both purchased in Brighton a couple of years ago, for next to nothing, and mostly for their kitsch value. I’m sure on a postcard somewhere I have stamps of Will and Kate’s wedding, and I’ll look forward to an Ozling sending me a postcard with a ‘Wedding of Harry and Meghan’ stamp. I do like the metallic ink on the Charles & Diana envelope…

I’m not sure where these came from. I think they’re too recent to be stamps I collected myself (why doesn’t Australia put the year on stamps?!?) but I don’t know who gave them to me or when. Maybe I soaked them off letters after I got to the US? I also have this little batch:

But they were obtained as freebies at the Smithsonian. Except the bottom one of course, which was on a letter sent by Sue. It’s a lovely stamp, but the cost of international postage from Australia – it’s closer to $3 today – is notable. A significant portion of my annual ‘Australia trip budget’ is stamp costs!

This is actually how I buy most stamps when I’m in Oz. Almost every post office has a ‘stamp collecting’ section where they sell stamps packaged like the above. I suppose the sheets like this are for the collectors, but I open them and use them. In the last few years I’ve made extra effort to make sure the postcards I send have different (and attractive) stamps on them – I wonder do you even look at the stamps?

More random Australian stamps in my collection, this time packaged carefully in a little display folder. These are particularly pretty. I should have put them on cards!

Australian/Korean stamps issued simultaneously in each country and sold together as a set. I think I bought these because I liked the Korean stamps. Note only the Korean ones show the date.

This is a collectors stamp set issued by Australia a couple of years back (this is one of two sheets). You’ll note that the Doctors themselves are not actually stamps. They are in fact stickers! They would have looked sublime on postcards I suppose, but it’s a bit of a con that Aus Post charged $12 for this set when the actual stamps (the globe showing Australia) are so generic and boring.

This is more interesting. It’s a two-sheet set of ‘Mythical Creatures’ stamps issued by Australia a few years back that was packaged with 3D glasses since one of the sets is printed in 3D. I bought this in a post office for some piddling amount, and have always wondered if the 3D versions are acceptable to be used as postage. There’s nothing about not using them on the folder, so I assume the answer is yes, but I also wonder if they’d give the computerized scanning machines a bit of trouble?

Of course the USA isn’t immune to licensed stamps, and famously many years back the above sheet was printed. I bought a bunch of these and used the hell out of them, and it is very likely you’ll have a postcard or two in your drawers sent by me featuring one of the above. The postal service went a bit crazy promoting these, and even repainted some post boxes to look like R2D2! We can only hope they do it again and I can put a Porg stamp on your next postcard…

There’s also the above, which is a massive (20 or so) stamp set commemorating the Harry Potter series. It’s pretty and very nicely presented and overall one of the better licensed stamp products I’ve seen. This was difficult to find when it came out, and I drove around to a few post offices since I wanted to buy one for Florence in time for her Birthday or Christmas or something like that. I wonder if she used the stamps or still has it?

I’m sure I have more of the above around. A few years ago I actually framed some stamps and hung them on a wall, and I know they’re up in the attic or something today. I’m sure you’ll get to see them yourself during an installment of the very overdue and long-planned ‘Stuff I found in my attic’ series coming in 201X…