Hi, thank you for watching! Please let me know what you think about the video. And about precancels: do you collect them? Do you like or maybe dislike them? Or maybe you have not seen them before. Let me know in the comments!
@@chrislovesstamps Hi Chris, I was born in Aschendorf/Ems, a small town near the Dutch border in Niedersachsen. Since almost 30 years in live in an much smaller town called Güby, which is between Eckernförde and Schleswig in Schleswig-Holstein. Nice to know you're feeling well again. Best regards, Wolfgang
@@wolfgangmeyer9918 Hi Wolfgang. I looked up Güby, it is way high in the north. Still not too far away from me. Niedersachsen definitely is closer to me though ;-) Thanks for your kind words!
WOW. Chris I love the way you have organized the collection so far. The inclusion of the maps is great. When the postal strike here in Canada is over I will send you a bunch of US pre-cancels. I also like this format of videos.
Hi Daniel. I love the maps too, gives it so much perspective. I heard something about the postal strike, how long has it been going? Would love to receive some precancels by the way. And thanks for commenting on the format of the video, it is tricky to change things because people are used to a certain format.
OMG!!! CHRIS!!! YOU ARE AWESOME, MAN! TRULY! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING MY CHANNEL AS WELL AS OTHER PHILATELIC CHANNELS! You really got me emotional, my man! And what a pleasure seeing your passion for stamps ALIVE AND WELL! (What you did with the US stamps album is BRILLIANT!). Now, the prices for stamps, FDCs, postal history items on eBay are way too high! Beside buying from the President of my philatelic club, I do buy quite a lot on Delcampe. I don't know what else to tell you except that you sure made my day, Chris!! ❤
Hi Laurent. We need to support eachother. Not all viewers know of other creators and I see 'my' viewers not as exclusively 'my' viewers only. They are subscribed to multiple stamp channels. I am a strong believer in supporting stamp channels and especially those just starting out as it can be very intimidating. I have not tried Delcampe, I have with Hipstamp. Mostly I buy on the 'local' Dutch version of eBay.
I didn't pay much attention to precancels of any type, except Canadian, until I purchased a $25 bag of stamps on paper at a local stamp show. It took me about 3 weeks to soak them off. I ended up with a lot of Newfoundland stamps and a lot of US Precancels. I've sorted my precancels by Scott # then by city. I also kept ones that were different, for example N.Y. or New York, inverted, sideways left and right, different font of the overprint, basically whatever was different. I now have 10 stock pages of my 'uniques' and several glassines with the extras. You can really go down a deep rabbit hole collecting these particular stamps.
Hi Garry. Ow, the Canadian precancels look interesting too. I have looked at them briefly months ago. Aren't they with 4 digit numbers representing a post office? There is indeed so much variety like you mentioned. And indeed, you can really go deep. The more I read about them, the more I realise what I don't know and that I actually only just 'touched' on them. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Wow - I love that use of state maps with the precancels. I LOVE precancels - the are a ton of fun and especially interesting when you find a hometown precancel. Precancels are also interesting in that they are a snapshot of mail commerce in the early 20th century - quite a few of the smaller towns are no longer active and may not even have post offices any more. Glad you are enjoying your precancels Chris! US stamps were often not soaked very well by the original collectors so I will often re-soak stamps to remove old hinges and improve the condition of the stamp. The nice thing about the Vario pages is that you can put a placeholder stamp in there and then swap it out with a nicer copy when you get one :)
Hi. Good tips about the precancels soaking. I have thought about soaking any used stamp I receive. Would you think that is a good idea and if so, I pressume with lukewarm water? The maps certainly give it an extra dimension. By the warm, do you use any special equipment to dry the stamps, or just between paper towels and some heavy books? I have soaked and dried stamps before, I just want to see if there are better methods or techniques. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@chrislovesstamps I know some collectors that will soak all used if there is still glue or hinge remnants; I just soak used that still have envelope paper, tons of hinges or remaining glue like the one you showed. I use warm water and then place face down on newsprint or a paper towel, then when the stamps are 99% dry I will put them into a book and they finish drying perfectly flat. Some people will also add a tiny amount of dish washing liquid to help remove any oils, dirt and grime. It is very satisfying if you start with a small pile of old US and they clean up well 😀
@@chrislovesstamps Some stamps curl a lot during that last bit of drying, so I find it helpful to press them in a book for the last little bit of drying. If I put in a stockbook too soon the damp will warp the pages of the stock book lol
Really enjoyed seeing your USA precancels. I have some in my USA envelope, and only last week I bought a stockbook of used USA stamps, so I will sort through all my USA collection as I am now curious about what I have! Thanks for the video. :)
Hi Chris, I joined Foxridge Philately - thanks for the hint. I absolutely LOVE the way you arranged and did your album with the state maps! Excellent! It gave me an idea for my thematic collection. I am going to make family pages for the birds and arrange within the families. Thanks for the idea! I am so glad you kept this remnant of your collection. At least you have something to help you get back into the hobby. I do not collect the US (apart from some theme stamps) and I also don't collect pre-cancels. I am still focused on the stamps themselves, and not so much postal history and cancellations. Thanks for a great video! I love your structure and format of the video with different camera views even more. As soon as I can afford more than one camera/cell phone I am going to steal the idea from you! 🙃🙂 I am so glad you are back!!!!
Hi Charnie. Thank you for subscribing to Foxridge Philately (Jeff). The album is still in its early stages, but I also love to see a map of the state next to the stamps. That is a wonderful idea for your thematic collection. Please let me/us know the progress, would love to see that in a video. The remnant is indeed helping me a lot. I only just yesterday bought some new stamps, so I definitely took my time buying new ones after I restarted. The precancels are for me a bit different than what I used to collect. It is almost more of a geography thing than anything else. And I look up towns, dive into its history and see of there is interesting stories. Which I hope to tell one day in a video. But that will take a lot of research/planning and probably editing and recording also. Thank you for the compliment on the camera angles/views. Takes some time to set up and edit, but I think this is the way I'd like to go. Even if that means less episodes. I only use cell phones and laptop camera, which is not too great. The main camera is an upgrade to what I had before episode 44, and I am happy with that. It is just a newer cell phone. If you have extra (older) phones around, then there is no need for buying specific equipment. I am glad I am back too! Thanks Charnie!
@@chrislovesstamps My cellphone that I use to take videos is very old - I think about five years old. Some time I must upgrade to a new one, and then I will try the different angle capturing you do. Thanks for your interesting reply! I enjoy it really a lot to learn what you are doing. Take care! And take it easy!
Hi Adam. Yep, they certainly add a local element to the issues. That is what I like about them too. Last week I have been looking up so many towns and it brought me to places and stories I would never see or hear without these stamps.
I just found your channel. I’ve been collecting here in the US for over 30 years. I have a collection of pre-cancels of at least 2000. One way to remove those ugly stains from your stamp is to get a glass fill it about half full of hydrogen peroxide. Take a paper towel put it over top of the glass put your stamp stain side down. Let it sit for a little while and it will remove those stains. Do not cover it on top always let it breathe. I’m always happy to share. It doesn’t look like you are in the US, but I would be willing to share stamps with you.
Hi. 2000, that is quite some. I have around 500, but they are not unique. Good tip about removing the ugly stains. Might try to wash them at some point. I am in The Netherlands. Shipping from and to the US is not cheap, although just sending stamps in an envelope and not bigger things is okay. I need to be careful with doing trades as I sometimes get things send but also from a time perspective. I would love to trade with anyone, but me doing too many trades with people would end up disappointing people as I simply will not have the time for it. No offense! I will keep it in mind though. Out of curiosity, what are you looking for? Thanks for commenting and watching!
Nice video. Thank you. I don't seek pre-cancels for a collection, but neither do I throw them away when I get them in a large lot. I keep them in a stockbook. i love the way you have set up your album. it is so much better than what I am doing. Maybe some day i will do the same. Thanks again.
Hi Jeffrey. How have you set up your stock book? I have made a few tweaks to the album already. I will show that in an upcoming video at some point. Thanks for commenting and watching!
@@chrislovesstamps I have a very simple arrangement as I don't try collect them. I just have them in alphabetical order by city. Maybe if I get enough I would go by state, then city. I do have some duplicates that I would send you if you like them. I'm thinking you already would have them in your collection because you have more than I.
@@jeffreyhalvorson31 Hi Jeffrey. The alphabetical order by city approach is pretty good also. Not handy when you want to do it by state, but I can see it both working just fine. I think I have quite some precancels by now. I will, at some point, do a proper update video where I arrange the stamps neatly so I know what I have and what I don't.
Thank you for the ideal and arrangement for the precancle stamps. I have been thinking about a separate section in my album just for precancels. I like your idea better.
Hi Phillip. It is still a work in progress, but I like that it is ordered by state and that I have a map to learn where places are. I think the lay-out could be better when having the map on one side and the stamps on the other. In that case you don't have to flip the pages and have the map and stamps of each state in one overview. Thanks for commenting and watching!
I like where you're headed with this, Chris. Great way to lay out the album, with the maps. I'm not a huge fan of precancels particularly, but I love the way they lend themselves to sorting. If you dig into this, I'll be curious to see how many towns and cities you'll find. Are pre-cancels available from smaller towns? Can't wait to find out! :D
Hi Mark. Yeah, they lend themselves to a different style of sorting. They can become monotonous, but I think with the inclusion of the maps and looking up the towns where they are and finding stories about these places bring them to life. I will definitely try and get some more precancels with different towns. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I am collecting precancels and have precancel catalogues and there are so many towns that you cannot imagine. Even my home town of 5,000 people has two precancels.
@@Robertbrown08049 Hi Robert. Yeah, I have towns with less than a 1,000 people in it, or some even around 300. It is really interesting to try and get into the history of these small towns. I love doing that.
Long Island City, NY became part of New York City when all 5 boroughs were incorporated in 1898. Long Island City remains the name of the section of Queens which is bordered to the West by the East River, the north by the neighborhood Astoria, and to the south the neighborhood in northernmost Brooklyn, Greenport. It was an industrial powerhouse through the mid 20th century and still has some industry left but it is more an area for television, small businesses, tall, expensive condos jostling by the early 20th century brownstones and brick buildings. Rutherford, NJ became home of one of America's esteemed poets of the 20th century - William Carlos Williams who lived in Rutherford. Holyoke, MA is home to an excellent, small liberal arts college that has been around for about 150 years.
Hi Chris. I have looked up some of these NY cancellations and found that some were part of New York City. It is interesting to see that New York City has grown so much. You seem to know a lot about New York. If I remember correctly you are from there, right? Thanks for the helpful info about New York City, Holyoke and Rutherford!
Also, with the pre-cancels, you need to look closer at your Washington and Franklin series because there are some out there that have significant price differences.
Hi. I need to indeed. I am taking a very casual approach though, and have not looked into varieties or documentation at all. I am as yet 'in it for the variety in towns' :-)
I don't collect US (I specialize in Germany and worldwide during the war periods) but my mother did, so I never really paid attention to them. I have her old stock books now. I will dig through there and see what she has.
Hi. Germany is a big country to specialise in. You collect everything? And worldwide during war periods seems like a really interesting area to collect.
@@chrislovesstamps LOL I definitely bit off a lot. The worldwide is more generalized, if it is cheap or I find something in a cumulation, great. Germany, specialize is probably not the best description, I don't hunt for all of the varieties and there are quite a few that are out of my budget and will probably never own but I want to get as many of the stamps listed in Scott as possible. And honestly, other than the last 20-30 years or so, I am close. Someday I may start delving into Michel's and truely specialize in a series or two that I really like.
@@doughoback5226 Hi. Specialise in series is what I have read also, that people do. Makes sense. I like your approach to world wide collecting. I often see cheap lots with nice stamps, but I do not buy them because I don't collect them. Ofcourse I can bend and break my own rules :-) I think having a category where you are allowed to buy stamps you just like, without any rule, order or structure is helpful. I am considering that: buy beautiful stamps of any country, just because. Delving into the specialised Michel catalogue for Germany is a big thing. I just have the standard one, which is detailed enough already :-)
Hi. Yeah indeed. There is tons of varieties. I am approaching it very casually for now and having a blast with them already. I like to look up the little towns, some only having a couple of hundred peoplw living there. Maybe it wasn't the case back them though because some industries went away. Thanks for watching and commenting.
If you like these wait until you explore the precancels on the Transportations Series stamp issues from the 1980's through early 1990's - some are very affordable, others not so. The only drawback is they are general cancels - no location is given.
@@chrislovesstamps I do like the back of the book, except air mail. But no, i do not collect US. My main area is Dutch East Indies and Indonesia. Beside, what i call A4 collection, mini areas that has too fit on an A4 album page
Can I ask what a "precancel" is in U.S. stamps? I'm a paper money chap and have only very limited knowledge, but stamps are like a distant relation which I feel I should see more often.
Hi Richard. Precancels are postage stamps that have been canceled before being used on letters or packages. Typically they are stamps cancelled with two lines, and the city and state where they were mailed. They were used to process letters faster. Yep, paper money might be used less and less, depending on the country you are in perhaps, but stamps are 'in decline' too. Stamp collecting might not be, but the everyday use of stamps has become less. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@chrislovesstamps Many thanks for your reply. They seem different to the system in England. Letters posted out at a local post office in U.K. will have their stamps on the envelope stamped/cancelled. I think a trip to my local library might be in order.
Precancels were sold to large mailers at a discount with the agreement that they would bundle all the envelopes with precancels when they were taken to the post office so that they could go directly in the mail without post office employees having to look at them and thus saving time and money for the post office.
I see that you like HIstory and books, so do I. I usually do not read any book unless it is was written at least 100 years ago but prefer 1600's and 1700's. I have 4 Anthony Trollope's books but not The Warden. I just subscribed to History Lit.
I collect precancels from Belgium which is the only foreign country that I collect precancels from only because I cannot turn down a bargain even if it is something that I do not collect. Last year I was at a local stamp show and a dealer had over 100 Belgian perecancel for $10. On top of that they were on Belgian precancel pages. How could I turn that down. I have found about 50 more since then but I am still looking. At my local stamp club meeting last month one member was selling off some of his stamps and one lot was a stockbook of New Jersey precancels. I have never collected US precancels but since I live in New Jersey I decided to bid and I got the lot for $7. I bought a bunch of Vario pages and it turns out that there were 912 New Jersey precancels there. I also got two precancel catalogues which takes me up to 1939. I joined the Precancel Society and I got a third catalogue from them which takes me up through 1951 so I know what stamps were issued as precancels for each city. So now I am officially a precancel collector. Just an FYI Kansas City Missouri and Kansas City Kansas are just across the river from each other but the Missouri one is bigger. Ironically most of the larger states in the US do not have the largest city as the captal, such as New York, California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia and my home state of New Jersey.
Hi Robert. I heard about Belgian precancels. But cannot remember how they look. Or if they are as 'complex' as the USA ones. Belgium has some really nice stamps in general by the way. That sounds like a really good bargain indeed! I have quite some New Jersey precancels I think. Didn't know there were 912 from New Jersey alone! The Precancel Society has some really good information for free. I also saw the various catalogues they have for the separate US states. So much love, time and dedication put into those documents. I saw indeed that Kansas City is split between the states. Pretty interesting. And I noticed that about a lot of capitol cities. Pretty interesting why that is, I should look that up. I guess there is some examples here in The Netherlands of that too, although we have provinces instead of states. Amsterdam is the capitol of The Netherlands but not of the province where it is in, North Holland. The capital is Haarlem. For Overijssel, the capital is Zwolle, but the largest city is Enschede for example. Anyway, so many interesting things to discover through postage stamps :-) Thanks for commenting and watching!
@@chrislovesstamps Most Belgian precancels have a rectangle and something inside depending on when they were issued, though some will have a six sided figure. Some will have a post horn and dates inside, some will have dates and Belgium in both Flemish and French and the earlier ones will have the name of the city and a date. They can be catagorized as local precancels which have the city and general precancels which do not. I grew up in California so I can tell you about that. About a year after the US acquired California gold was discovered and about a year after that it became a state. Sacramento was just doiwn from ther gold fields so it became a boom town so that was the natural choice . At the time Los Angeles was a sleepy little Mexican town with a low population and San Francisco was the big town. There are stories of ships pulling into San Francisco Bay and being stranded because the crew jumped ship and headed for the gold fields.
Hi, thank you for watching! Please let me know what you think about the video. And about precancels: do you collect them? Do you like or maybe dislike them? Or maybe you have not seen them before. Let me know in the comments!
Hi Chris, great video again. 4:15: Yes, it really feels good, hope you're being "infected" again ;-) Best regards from Northern Germany, Wolfgang
Hi Wolfgang. What town in Germany do you live? I am defenitely infected with the stamp collecting virus again 😂 Thank you for watching and commenting!
@@chrislovesstamps Hi Chris, I was born in Aschendorf/Ems, a small town near the Dutch border in Niedersachsen. Since almost 30 years in live in an much smaller town called Güby, which is between Eckernförde and Schleswig in Schleswig-Holstein. Nice to know you're feeling well again. Best regards, Wolfgang
@@wolfgangmeyer9918 Hi Wolfgang. I looked up Güby, it is way high in the north. Still not too far away from me. Niedersachsen definitely is closer to me though ;-) Thanks for your kind words!
Very interesting, I like the album you made you made also, very nice.
Yep. I like using these binders although I can see it is not for everyone.
WOW. Chris I love the way you have organized the collection so far. The inclusion of the maps is great. When the postal strike here in Canada is over I will send you a bunch of US pre-cancels. I also like this format of videos.
Hi Daniel. I love the maps too, gives it so much perspective. I heard something about the postal strike, how long has it been going? Would love to receive some precancels by the way. And thanks for commenting on the format of the video, it is tricky to change things because people are used to a certain format.
The strike started Friday morning.
OMG!!! CHRIS!!! YOU ARE AWESOME, MAN! TRULY! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING MY CHANNEL AS WELL AS OTHER PHILATELIC CHANNELS! You really got me emotional, my man! And what a pleasure seeing your passion for stamps ALIVE AND WELL! (What you did with the US stamps album is BRILLIANT!). Now, the prices for stamps, FDCs, postal history items on eBay are way too high! Beside buying from the President of my philatelic club, I do buy quite a lot on Delcampe. I don't know what else to tell you except that you sure made my day, Chris!! ❤
Hi Laurent. We need to support eachother. Not all viewers know of other creators and I see 'my' viewers not as exclusively 'my' viewers only. They are subscribed to multiple stamp channels. I am a strong believer in supporting stamp channels and especially those just starting out as it can be very intimidating.
I have not tried Delcampe, I have with Hipstamp. Mostly I buy on the 'local' Dutch version of eBay.
I forgot to tell you that I have just subscribed to Foxridge Philately! THANK YOU AGAIN SO VERY MUCH!!!!
Well done, Laurent. Thanks! :-)
Hi Chris -really interesting !! Thanks so much !!
Hi Jeff. Thank you!
Would love to see another budget series
Love the precancels
Me too 😂. It is in the works.
I didn't pay much attention to precancels of any type, except Canadian, until I purchased a $25 bag of stamps on paper at a local stamp show. It took me about 3 weeks to soak them off. I ended up with a lot of Newfoundland stamps and a lot of US Precancels. I've sorted my precancels by Scott # then by city. I also kept ones that were different, for example N.Y. or New York, inverted, sideways left and right, different font of the overprint, basically whatever was different. I now have 10 stock pages of my 'uniques' and several glassines with the extras. You can really go down a deep rabbit hole collecting these particular stamps.
Hi Garry. Ow, the Canadian precancels look interesting too. I have looked at them briefly months ago. Aren't they with 4 digit numbers representing a post office?
There is indeed so much variety like you mentioned.
And indeed, you can really go deep. The more I read about them, the more I realise what I don't know and that I actually only just 'touched' on them. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Wow - I love that use of state maps with the precancels. I LOVE precancels - the are a ton of fun and especially interesting when you find a hometown precancel. Precancels are also interesting in that they are a snapshot of mail commerce in the early 20th century - quite a few of the smaller towns are no longer active and may not even have post offices any more. Glad you are enjoying your precancels Chris! US stamps were often not soaked very well by the original collectors so I will often re-soak stamps to remove old hinges and improve the condition of the stamp. The nice thing about the Vario pages is that you can put a placeholder stamp in there and then swap it out with a nicer copy when you get one :)
Hi. Good tips about the precancels soaking. I have thought about soaking any used stamp I receive. Would you think that is a good idea and if so, I pressume with lukewarm water? The maps certainly give it an extra dimension.
By the warm, do you use any special equipment to dry the stamps, or just between paper towels and some heavy books? I have soaked and dried stamps before, I just want to see if there are better methods or techniques.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@chrislovesstamps I know some collectors that will soak all used if there is still glue or hinge remnants; I just soak used that still have envelope paper, tons of hinges or remaining glue like the one you showed. I use warm water and then place face down on newsprint or a paper towel, then when the stamps are 99% dry I will put them into a book and they finish drying perfectly flat. Some people will also add a tiny amount of dish washing liquid to help remove any oils, dirt and grime. It is very satisfying if you start with a small pile of old US and they clean up well 😀
@@voneschenbachmusic Hi. How does one know it is 99% dry? And why not wait until they are 100% dry and then put them in a stockbook?
@@chrislovesstamps Some stamps curl a lot during that last bit of drying, so I find it helpful to press them in a book for the last little bit of drying. If I put in a stockbook too soon the damp will warp the pages of the stock book lol
Your journey will be interesting and informative. I look forward to your progress reports.
Hi David. The journey will definitely be interesting. Thank you for joining me on this journey!
Really enjoyed seeing your USA precancels. I have some in my USA envelope, and only last week I bought a stockbook of used USA stamps, so I will sort through all my USA collection as I am now curious about what I have! Thanks for the video. :)
I am curious what precancels you have. Please let me know if you find some of little lesser known places.
Hi Chris, I joined Foxridge Philately - thanks for the hint.
I absolutely LOVE the way you arranged and did your album with the state maps! Excellent! It gave me an idea for my thematic collection. I am going to make family pages for the birds and arrange within the families. Thanks for the idea!
I am so glad you kept this remnant of your collection. At least you have something to help you get back into the hobby.
I do not collect the US (apart from some theme stamps) and I also don't collect pre-cancels. I am still focused on the stamps themselves, and not so much postal history and cancellations.
Thanks for a great video! I love your structure and format of the video with different camera views even more. As soon as I can afford more than one camera/cell phone I am going to steal the idea from you! 🙃🙂 I am so glad you are back!!!!
Hi Charnie. Thank you for subscribing to Foxridge Philately (Jeff).
The album is still in its early stages, but I also love to see a map of the state next to the stamps. That is a wonderful idea for your thematic collection. Please let me/us know the progress, would love to see that in a video. The remnant is indeed helping me a lot. I only just yesterday bought some new stamps, so I definitely took my time buying new ones after I restarted.
The precancels are for me a bit different than what I used to collect. It is almost more of a geography thing than anything else. And I look up towns, dive into its history and see of there is interesting stories. Which I hope to tell one day in a video. But that will take a lot of research/planning and probably editing and recording also.
Thank you for the compliment on the camera angles/views. Takes some time to set up and edit, but I think this is the way I'd like to go. Even if that means less episodes. I only use cell phones and laptop camera, which is not too great. The main camera is an upgrade to what I had before episode 44, and I am happy with that. It is just a newer cell phone. If you have extra (older) phones around, then there is no need for buying specific equipment.
I am glad I am back too! Thanks Charnie!
@@chrislovesstamps My cellphone that I use to take videos is very old - I think about five years old. Some time I must upgrade to a new one, and then I will try the different angle capturing you do. Thanks for your interesting reply! I enjoy it really a lot to learn what you are doing. Take care! And take it easy!
Great video! I do like them and have quite a few. I think they add a more “local” distinction to the federally issued status.
Hi Adam. Yep, they certainly add a local element to the issues. That is what I like about them too. Last week I have been looking up so many towns and it brought me to places and stories I would never see or hear without these stamps.
I just found your channel. I’ve been collecting here in the US for over 30 years. I have a collection of pre-cancels of at least 2000. One way to remove those ugly stains from your stamp is to get a glass fill it about half full of hydrogen peroxide. Take a paper towel put it over top of the glass put your stamp stain side down. Let it sit for a little while and it will remove those stains. Do not cover it on top always let it breathe. I’m always happy to share. It doesn’t look like you are in the US, but I would be willing to share stamps with you.
Hi. 2000, that is quite some. I have around 500, but they are not unique. Good tip about removing the ugly stains. Might try to wash them at some point.
I am in The Netherlands. Shipping from and to the US is not cheap, although just sending stamps in an envelope and not bigger things is okay. I need to be careful with doing trades as I sometimes get things send but also from a time perspective. I would love to trade with anyone, but me doing too many trades with people would end up disappointing people as I simply will not have the time for it. No offense! I will keep it in mind though. Out of curiosity, what are you looking for?
Thanks for commenting and watching!
Nice video. Thank you. I don't seek pre-cancels for a collection, but neither do I throw them away when I get them in a large lot. I keep them in a stockbook. i love the way you have set up your album. it is so much better than what I am doing. Maybe some day i will do the same. Thanks again.
Hi Jeffrey. How have you set up your stock book? I have made a few tweaks to the album already. I will show that in an upcoming video at some point. Thanks for commenting and watching!
@@chrislovesstamps I have a very simple arrangement as I don't try collect them. I just have them in alphabetical order by city. Maybe if I get enough I would go by state, then city. I do have some duplicates that I would send you if you like them. I'm thinking you already would have them in your collection because you have more than I.
@@jeffreyhalvorson31 Hi Jeffrey. The alphabetical order by city approach is pretty good also. Not handy when you want to do it by state, but I can see it both working just fine. I think I have quite some precancels by now. I will, at some point, do a proper update video where I arrange the stamps neatly so I know what I have and what I don't.
Thick venture!
I wish you perseverance and success!
You are the best! =)
Hi, thank you!
Thank you for the ideal and arrangement for the precancle stamps. I have been thinking about a separate section in my album just for precancels. I like your idea better.
Hi Phillip. It is still a work in progress, but I like that it is ordered by state and that I have a map to learn where places are. I think the lay-out could be better when having the map on one side and the stamps on the other. In that case you don't have to flip the pages and have the map and stamps of each state in one overview. Thanks for commenting and watching!
I like where you're headed with this, Chris. Great way to lay out the album, with the maps. I'm not a huge fan of precancels particularly, but I love the way they lend themselves to sorting. If you dig into this, I'll be curious to see how many towns and cities you'll find. Are pre-cancels available from smaller towns? Can't wait to find out! :D
Hi Mark. Yeah, they lend themselves to a different style of sorting. They can become monotonous, but I think with the inclusion of the maps and looking up the towns where they are and finding stories about these places bring them to life. I will definitely try and get some more precancels with different towns. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I am collecting precancels and have precancel catalogues and there are so many towns that you cannot imagine. Even my home town of 5,000 people has two precancels.
@@Robertbrown08049 Hi Robert. Yeah, I have towns with less than a 1,000 people in it, or some even around 300. It is really interesting to try and get into the history of these small towns. I love doing that.
Long Island City, NY became part of New York City when all 5 boroughs were incorporated in 1898. Long Island City remains the name of the section of Queens which is bordered to the West by the East River, the north by
the neighborhood Astoria, and to the south the neighborhood in northernmost Brooklyn, Greenport. It was an industrial powerhouse through the mid 20th century and still has some industry left but it is more an area for television, small businesses, tall, expensive condos jostling by the early 20th century brownstones and brick buildings.
Rutherford, NJ became home of one of America's esteemed poets of the 20th century - William Carlos Williams who lived in Rutherford.
Holyoke, MA is home to an excellent, small liberal arts college that has been around for about 150 years.
Hi Chris. I have looked up some of these NY cancellations and found that some were part of New York City. It is interesting to see that New York City has grown so much. You seem to know a lot about New York. If I remember correctly you are from there, right?
Thanks for the helpful info about New York City, Holyoke and Rutherford!
Also, with the pre-cancels, you need to look closer at your Washington and Franklin series because there are some out there that have significant price differences.
Hi. I need to indeed. I am taking a very casual approach though, and have not looked into varieties or documentation at all. I am as yet 'in it for the variety in towns' :-)
I don't collect US (I specialize in Germany and worldwide during the war periods) but my mother did, so I never really paid attention to them. I have her old stock books now. I will dig through there and see what she has.
Hi. Germany is a big country to specialise in. You collect everything? And worldwide during war periods seems like a really interesting area to collect.
@@chrislovesstamps LOL I definitely bit off a lot. The worldwide is more generalized, if it is cheap or I find something in a cumulation, great. Germany, specialize is probably not the best description, I don't hunt for all of the varieties and there are quite a few that are out of my budget and will probably never own but I want to get as many of the stamps listed in Scott as possible. And honestly, other than the last 20-30 years or so, I am close. Someday I may start delving into Michel's and truely specialize in a series or two that I really like.
@@doughoback5226 Hi. Specialise in series is what I have read also, that people do. Makes sense. I like your approach to world wide collecting. I often see cheap lots with nice stamps, but I do not buy them because I don't collect them. Ofcourse I can bend and break my own rules :-) I think having a category where you are allowed to buy stamps you just like, without any rule, order or structure is helpful. I am considering that: buy beautiful stamps of any country, just because. Delving into the specialised Michel catalogue for Germany is a big thing. I just have the standard one, which is detailed enough already :-)
There are different types of precancels - Bureau as well as locally produced varieties.
Hi. Yeah indeed. There is tons of varieties. I am approaching it very casually for now and having a blast with them already. I like to look up the little towns, some only having a couple of hundred peoplw living there. Maybe it wasn't the case back them though because some industries went away. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Holyoke is hole yolk like egg yolk
I don't collect precancels specifically but I have some and I like them. So many different types and towns.
Hi Dennis. That is an interesting name for a town then :-) Yep, a lot of towns and types of precancels there are.
If you like these wait until you explore the precancels on the Transportations Series stamp issues from the 1980's through early 1990's - some are very affordable, others not so. The only drawback is they are general cancels - no location is given.
Hi Chris. I have seen those cancellations on the transportation issues. For some reason I do not consider them when thinking about precancels.
i have a few that i picked out form a kiloware, but i don't really collect them
Hi. Do you collect USA at all? What do you collect? 🙂
@@chrislovesstamps I do like the back of the book, except air mail. But no, i do not collect US. My main area is Dutch East Indies and Indonesia. Beside, what i call A4 collection, mini areas that has too fit on an A4 album page
Can I ask what a "precancel" is in U.S. stamps? I'm a paper money chap and have only very limited knowledge, but stamps are like a distant relation which I feel I should see more often.
Hi Richard. Precancels are postage stamps that have been canceled before being used on letters or packages. Typically they are stamps cancelled with two lines, and the city and state where they were mailed. They were used to process letters faster.
Yep, paper money might be used less and less, depending on the country you are in perhaps, but stamps are 'in decline' too. Stamp collecting might not be, but the everyday use of stamps has become less. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@chrislovesstamps Many thanks for your reply. They seem different to the system in England. Letters posted out at a local post office in U.K. will have their stamps on the envelope stamped/cancelled. I think a trip to my local library might be in order.
Precancels were sold to large mailers at a discount with the agreement that they would bundle all the envelopes with precancels when they were taken to the post office so that they could go directly in the mail without post office employees having to look at them and thus saving time and money for the post office.
@@Robertbrown08049 Aha! Okay, got it. The mist has cleared. Many thanks.
I see that you like HIstory and books, so do I. I usually do not read any book unless it is was written at least 100 years ago but prefer 1600's and 1700's. I have 4 Anthony Trollope's books but not The Warden. I just subscribed to History Lit.
I collect precancels from Belgium which is the only foreign country that I collect precancels from only because I cannot turn down a bargain even if it is something that I do not collect. Last year I was at a local stamp show and a dealer had over 100 Belgian perecancel for $10. On top of that they were on Belgian precancel pages. How could I turn that down. I have found about 50 more since then but I am still looking. At my local stamp club meeting last month one member was selling off some of his stamps and one lot was a stockbook of New Jersey precancels. I have never collected US precancels but since I live in New Jersey I decided to bid and I got the lot for $7. I bought a bunch of Vario pages and it turns out that there were 912 New Jersey precancels there. I also got two precancel catalogues which takes me up to 1939. I joined the Precancel Society and I got a third catalogue from them which takes me up through 1951 so I know what stamps were issued as precancels for each city. So now I am officially a precancel collector. Just an FYI Kansas City Missouri and Kansas City Kansas are just across the river from each other but the Missouri one is bigger. Ironically most of the larger states in the US do not have the largest city as the captal, such as New York, California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia and my home state of New Jersey.
Hi Robert. I heard about Belgian precancels. But cannot remember how they look. Or if they are as 'complex' as the USA ones. Belgium has some really nice stamps in general by the way. That sounds like a really good bargain indeed!
I have quite some New Jersey precancels I think. Didn't know there were 912 from New Jersey alone! The Precancel Society has some really good information for free. I also saw the various catalogues they have for the separate US states. So much love, time and dedication put into those documents.
I saw indeed that Kansas City is split between the states. Pretty interesting. And I noticed that about a lot of capitol cities. Pretty interesting why that is, I should look that up. I guess there is some examples here in The Netherlands of that too, although we have provinces instead of states. Amsterdam is the capitol of The Netherlands but not of the province where it is in, North Holland. The capital is Haarlem. For Overijssel, the capital is Zwolle, but the largest city is Enschede for example.
Anyway, so many interesting things to discover through postage stamps :-)
Thanks for commenting and watching!
@@chrislovesstamps Most Belgian precancels have a rectangle and something inside depending on when they were issued, though some will have a six sided figure. Some will have a post horn and dates inside, some will have dates and Belgium in both Flemish and French and the earlier ones will have the name of the city and a date. They can be catagorized as local precancels which have the city and general precancels which do not.
I grew up in California so I can tell you about that. About a year after the US acquired California gold was discovered and about a year after that it became a state. Sacramento was just doiwn from ther gold fields so it became a boom town so that was the natural choice . At the time Los Angeles was a sleepy little Mexican town with a low population and San Francisco was the big town. There are stories of ships pulling into San Francisco Bay and being stranded because the crew jumped ship and headed for the gold fields.