Latest Newsletter off the Kiwi Stamp Circuit

• Stamp Hinge Survey
• Postage Stamps and PODS
• 1997 ACS Stamp Catalogues.
• Mailbox Comments.
• Membership - new & left.
• Missilanious News.

Christmas greetings to all our members.

Thankyou again for all your support during another extremely busy but very enjoyable year.

It seems only last month that I was writing my Free Post Day newsletter, since then it has been "non-stop", with members phoning and visiting, circuit boxes going out and coming back by the dozen; ~ now letters and cards are appearing from all parts of the globe and I have only just started the Christmas newsletter.

Most days of the week we send a circuit box to some part of New Zealand, but last month we set a new record. On one day we posted 30 circuit boxes (over 500 books) to members ~ and 8 boxes arrived back in. The only other time we reached that total, was on Day-One back in 1991, when we re-opened the circuit and with Mike Duggan's help, posted boxes to everywhere in the country

May we wish all our members a very Happy Christmas and New Year, with lots of fun and food among friends and for those who have also been very busy, time to stop, relax and catch up on their stamps. Now that the election is behind us and a government is in place, we can all "go to sleep for a while" ~ or is it only the politicians that do that, now they have been sworn in, warmed their seats and collected their first pay cheques?

The weather forecasters are promising "a fine summer" so let's hope the water will be warm.

One of our members (who wishes to remain anonymous), could not believe her own eyes when she was soaking a bag of stamps recently. As she peeled the stamps off the paper, she thought she spotted one of this year's Health Stamps that seemed to be the "missing Teddy Bear" variety. To her amazement she discovered there were not one but a dozen at least. She carefully dried them and flattened them, put them all away in her album, next to the normal one with the red and white striped Teddy Bear that she had soaked off a letter from her Bank the day before, and sat back with a cuppa and a bikkie, dreaming of what she might do with her philatelic windfall ~ she could even afford to pay someone to come in and lick her stamp hinges ~ what a life lay ahead!

We are still very envious, some of us had to pay hundreds of dollars for our Teddy-bears!

We will refrain from commenting on the sordid saga of this bungled issue from NZPost, enough has been said in the press. From a philatelists point of view, it has heightened interest in NZ stamps amongst overseas collectors and provided much discussion and amusement to kiwi collectors.

To remove the recent NZ self-adhesive stamps from paper, put them into nearly boiling water and leave to soak for at least an hour. Then keep the stamp flat and try to peal the paper off the stamp (rather than the other way around as you do for ordinary stamps).

The Australians who make our self-adhesives actually suggest "place in water and boil for an hour"!

Whilst we were overseas, we visited many stamps shops and fairs in Canada, Britain and Europe as part our continuing quest for the perfect stamp hinge. We sent 3 of the folded brands we brought back, to members of last years testing panel for their opinions. To help comparison, I included a brand that rated very well last year, making a total of 4 in this years test.

Although opinions varied, all 4 brands met with general approval, the Davo and the Unisafe hinges came out best. We will continue to stock Davo hinges, however because of the lower price and the quality control problems experienced recently with Davo hinges in NZ (I have rejected and returned 2 of the last 4 shipments as they were already clumping together in the packets on arrival), we have added Unisafe hinges to the stock list as our preferred brand of pre-folded hinge for 1997.

Phoenix is still our preferred brand of un-folded hinges, we found none better in Europe or America.

Due to the strength of the NZ dollar we have been able to import these at an even better price this year.

A summary of our members opinions is included below

In response to members frequent complaints about always receiving $3 butterflies on their parcels whenever they come from Mr Lazy in Sodsville, we have been putting recent commemoratives at face value, with the PODs, in book 20 of circuit boxes.

We have been delighted with the thanks from country members.

As these stamps are intended primarily for members to buy and use with the POD on their parcels to the next member, so we would appreciate it if members would buy mainly for this purpose.
It takes Jan considerable time to prepare each book, and she has been rather discouraged to find one or two members "stripping" this book of stamps. In future we will be adding a few cents to the face value of these stamps, but we hope members will still use them on their parcels.

New Zealand members may be interested to know that across the Tasman the wheel has turned full circle. Registration has been re-introduced in Oz and we are continuing to receive circuit books with lovely stamps (plus electronic bar-code stickers) from members there, much appreciated for my own Australian collection.

Canadians are also able to send us registered mail using stamps and electronic barracuda stickers.
However our Canadian members seem to find it harder to put interesting stamps on their mail (hint, hint!).

Members please excuse the barracuda but when I ran Microsoft's Spellchecker thru the newsletter, it baulked at barcode and offered barracuda instead ~ who am I to questions the vagaries of North American spelling!

Apologies to the members who receive parcels from us with franked stamps on ~ one of our members sometimes get these for us "at a price we cannot refuse" ~ we try to use them on parcels to members who don't seem to mind too much and it does help club finances..

Check your mail for these recent NZ stamps

1996 Seashore ~ make sure you get all 10 stamps with the self adhesive "perfs" from the booklet issued mid-year as well as the 10 with regular perfs issued last February.

1996 Olympic Gold ~ there are actually 6 different arrangements of the ferns in the square borders of this 40c round stamp.

1996 Cinema Issue ~ try to get each one postally used with the unscratched tab still attached ~ even if it means buying a set and posting them to yourself (providing you can trust your postie not to "have a go")

Stamps that may be worth buying

1996 NZ Racehorses ~ if you see the miniature sheet with all 6 different stamps, beg, buy or pinch it! This was only issued in the back of the $13.40 booklet and we haven't seen many around.

1994 NZ Year Album ~ if you have one, hold onto it, many people didn't buy one and now some dealers are offering a good price for it.

Many of the colonial issues from King George VI reign are showing significant price rises in recent catalogues. There are some bargain buys in circuit books that were mounted a couple of years ago, especially those priced by members using older catalogues. You can still pick up whole collections cheaply from auctions ~ but check the condition, many of the mint ones are now showing a lot of rust.

Items probably worth selling

Hong Kong ~ these are all fetching silly prices at present, none of the catalogues can keep up! Although the peak of the market may not have been reached, you can still sell at a good profit, especially the earlier ones.

Stamps that seem not worth selling or keeping ~ use them.

In the 1970's and 80's, collectors and dealers stored away 1000's of sets of NZ's commemoratives issues. Although the threat of privatisation of NZPost and hopefully with it the fear of demonetisation of early decimal issues may have passed for the present, the damage has been done. Collectors have been off-loading these stamps onto the market in such quantities that prices have collapsed as dealers have become aware of the extent of the hoarding. Catalogue prices seem to remain inflated, but that is only because dealers have large stocks and still hope there are some suckers out there ~ but few people are paying those prices. As well, many of the issues from the early 70's are now beginning to develop rust and are becoming valueless. Our advice is, use them for the purpose they were intended, put them on your letters!

Have you some gaps in your New Zealand Year Book collection?

We have recently been given a set of year books to sell on behalf of an estate. They are all in perfect condition, so if you have any gaps and would like to buy any at the price offered, please get in touch.

Year	1984	1986	1987	1989	1990	1991	1992
Quantity	1	3	3	2	1	1	1

For Sale Stanley Gibbons British Commonwealth 1992 (the last single volume version) $25 Stamps of the World 1992 (2 volume set) well used, but still in good condition $20 each or $30 pair

ring, email or write KSC ~ only 1 of each, first in gets them ~ prices all plus p&p

We have welcomed 25 new members recently

• Mrs M Phillips Mangonui
• Miss A Harris Warkworth
• Mr R Codling Waiheke Is
• Mr F Conroy Waiheke Is
• Mrs G Verrall Waiheke Is
• Mr J Lawrence Mairangi Bay
• Mr A Jenkin Castor Bay
• Mrs A & Mr R Bennett Glenfield
• Mrs W Lochman Massey
• Mr C Sayegh Remuera
• Mr M Hirano Glendowie
• Mr P Eliassen Pakuranga
• Mrs E Blake Manurewa
• Mrs A Hall Waiuku
• Mr B Griffiths Hamilton
• Mr R Willmott Hamilton
• Mr P Wilson Cambridge
• Mr N Bissett Whangamata
• Mr R McNeil Raglan
• Mrs B Souster Wellington
• Mr C Phillips Christchurch
• Mr B York Christchurch
• Mr D Gregg Dunsandel
• Mr D Dueck Alberta, Canada
• Mr K Leephakpreeda Bangkok, Thailand
  

:   If you are connected to the Internet, please Email us your address.
At least 10% of our members now have an Internet connection and this is
proving to be a great help keeping track of where circuit boxes are ~ 
especially for making inquires when one goes "missing".
We would encourage members who are able, to send "advice slip details"
by Email rather than NZpost ~ it is quicker and cheaper (then you only post
in the slip if you need to send us a payment).

Best wishes for 1997        Dave Jan Ian