| I collect stamps, since I was about seven or eight years old. In the sixties, stamp collecting was very common among the boys. Some petrol stations had small envelopes with some stamps as promotional gifts, mostly very colorfull big stamps of strange countries, far away from here. At the kiosk, we could buy surprise envelopes, which often among other things contented stamps. The small envelope costs 20 Pfennig, the big one 30 Pfennig. I had 20 Pfennig for pocket money each week! The main resource to get stamps, were of course the letters, my parents got. We lived far away from most relatives, and phone was expensive, so it was absolutely common to keep contact by at least weekly letters or postcards. Golden times for stamp collectors! Of course I told my aunts and uncles about my hobby, so that some of them collected the stamps of their letters for me. Allthoug my father did not collect, he helped me and teached me to collect systematically and in good order. We spent a lot of hours together with stamps, album and MICHEL catalogue (of course an old one from my grandfather). My father is very interested in history, and he felt the stamps as an opportunity, to develop my interest in historical subjects. So he ordered several times stamps at a charity sale for me, especially stamps of the German empire. At the high school I had a period of lower philatelistic interest, but at least I kept all stamps, my parents received. When I joined the army, the interest grew again. I earned my own money and spent a pretty part of it at the stamp dealers. After my grandfather had died, I got a lot of his stamps, so that I was able to continue or to start several collections of European countries. I had good luck with some fine exchange partners, especially in Scandinavia and Austria, who helped me, to complete and continue my collections. Since the nineties of the last century, Germany as well as several other countries used to issue allways more and bigger and more expensive stamps. Big stamps mostly had at least a part of a wave- or advertising cancellation, so that most real used stamps were no good exchange material. The design of the stamps became modern, often crazy and ugly. So I used the opportunity to limit my collections, when in several European countries the currency was changed to Euro. I decided to collect stamps of the Euro countries only untill Dec. 31. 2001 and all other countries untill Dec. 31.2000. I collect used stamps in normal quality. I prefer real used stamps, even if the condition is not as good as C.T.O.s. I try to give stamps in good condition and expect, that my exchange partners do the same. If you dont need a stamp which I sent you, either because you already got it, ore because of the quality ore any other reason, you may return it with the next letter, latest within four weeks. Unfortutately I am no longer able to start a new exchange. I am still glad about any gap, I may close in my collections. But I can not be sure, that I am able to answer to my partners. So I still buy some stamps. The Lists are still for information, I do not want to delete them. |
| My wantlists |
| S t a m p s |
| My exchange partners |