Shall I take a long break?

I have been maintaining this blog since June 2007. It hasn't been really long, and I do enjoy posting images of philatelic material in the blog to be shared, and at the same time, of course I put my emotion and thoughts in the blog. Sometimes, I do feel lost blogging on philately. Perhaps I have reached the stage of saturation on philately bloging..... I really need a looooooooooooooong break.

Trains on Stamps - Malaysia

I went through my Malaysia stamp albums to look for stamps with train motif. To my surprise, quite a few stamps of Malaysia contain images of trains.........

World Cup Fever

Have you got World Cup fever? Have you not been concentrating on your work due to chasing the World Cup matches? Well, football is never my cup of tea nor I collect football stamps. However, a Portuguese friend sent me an adhesive stamp from Portugal with the football shape, and I guess it should be a stamp issued to commemorate the World Cup 2010. I'm pretty sure that there are many postal authorities around the world has issued World Cup 2010 stamps (time to make profit out of stamp collectors), and I also believe that many stamp collectors (particularly on theme of football) will be busy to buy/exchange World Cup 2010 stamps. If you are a football fan and at the same a football stamp collector, then you must be overdosed by football matches and stamps at this moment..... hehehehehe.... By the way, thank god Pos Malaysia does not issue World Cup 2010 stamp.....

Personalised Stamp - New Format

I've finally made my personalised stamp - 1-Malaysia new format. So, this new format personalised stamp has the personal photo as part of the stamp. It cost RM19 to make one sheet containing 20 stamps (denomination 30s). Have you got your personalised stamp done? Click here to see previous format of 1-Malaysia personalised stamp.

Tiger Stamps - Watermark and Perforation Varities

The tiger stamps issued on February 23, 2010 have varieties of watermark and perforation. A complete collection for all the watermark and perforation varieties consists of six stamps.




50s Siberian/Korean Tiger
- P13.5; wmk sideway up
- P13.5; wmk sideway down

50s Malayan Tiger
- P13.5; wmk sideway up
- P13.5; wmk sideway down
- P13.5 but P14 at right; wmk sideway up
- P13.5 but P14 at right; wmk sideway down

Spider Stamps - Watermark and Perforation Varieties

The spider stamps below were issued on December 7, 2009. Four different spider species are depicted in the stamp set: 30s Gasteracantha arcuata, 30s Thiania bhamoensis, 50s Argiope versicolor and RM1 Nephila maculata. A complete collection for all the normal copies and varieties (watermark and perforation) consists of 12 stamps. Have you got all of them?




30s Gasteracantha arcuata
- P13.5; wmk upright
- P13.5 but P14 at top; wmk upright
- P13.5; wmk inverted
- P13.5 but P14 at top; wmk inverted

30s Thiania bhamoensis
- P13.5; wmk upright
- P13.5 but P14 at top; wmk upright
- P13.5; wmk inverted
- P13.5 but P14 at top; wmk inverted

50s Argiope versicolor
- P13.5; wmk upright
- P13.5 but P14 at top; wmk upright

RM1 Nephila maculata
- P13.5; wmk upright
- P13.5 but P14 at top; wmk upright

A Cover from Croatia

Lukac; date: May 17, 2010

Preference of Collecting

Whenever talking about collecting stamps, many stamp collectors think that first day covers (FDCs) are nice to collect and are very much valuable compared to stamps. In other words, for them it is better to own a FDC than a set of stamps. You may notice that many stamp collectors are very proud to show off their FDCs. Some collectors even go extreme to collect all kinds of special FDCs such as stamp exhibition covers, first flight covers, joint issue covers (stamps from both the countries in a cover with special postmark) etc.

Well, I am a bit weird as I don't fancy FDCs..... to a certain extend I "hate" FDCs. I don't like special first day postmark on stamps (well, an exception for my maxicards only). I just "hate" special first day postmark on stamps. Eventhough the cover itself is a plain cover (not an official cover from postal authority), it will get into my nerve to see the stamps on the cover cancelled by special first day postmark. I do receive this type of covers from time to time from many countries, and I don't show them in my blog. Well, having said that, I do collect FDCs of Malaysia (only for Malaysia), and I only buy Malaysia FDCs from post offices not from dealers. My Malaysia FDC collection has never been complete (I have many missing ones), and I have no intention to complete it..... because I don't really fancy FDCs.

I do fancy a lot on ordinary covers with beautiful stamps. I feel good to receive a simple cover with nice stamps and clear ordinary postmark. I like only cover with stamps within the period of use. It is definitely awful to have a cover postmarked in 2010 but with stamps from 1990s or earlier.

I think I grumble alot on stamp collecting......... well, different people have different taste. I collect things that make me feel good, after all this is my own collection that I have to live with. I see my collection everyday, if I don't feel good on it then I will have sore eyes.... hehehehehehe