Welcome to our May 2008 newsletter, where we attempt to keep you up to date with the happenings in Auckland, New Zealand. I trust that since our last newsletter in December you have all had a great Christmas break and that 2008 is turning into a very good year for everyone. It has been good to meet up with many clients that have visited from both New Zealand and many overseas clients who have been holidaying here lately. We have had so many passenger liners coming in, and at one time we had 3 clients in the shop who were all from the same ship!

We have had a real pearler of a summer. The sun has been ooh so warm, the days long, and oh so very little rain. It has reminded me of the summers we had when I was just a lad … not so many years ago that must have been!! As I type this, the weather  has just decided that it is no longer summer here in New Zealand, the weather is turning, so that we are at long last getting some rain, much to the relief of our farmers, but for me WORSE - IT IS GETTING COLD! Yes I am even jumping in the spa at night to warm the bones before heading off to bed.

It is so unreal to think that we are nearly half way through the year and it was just the other day that we were starting the year off. Why it is that time seems to accelerate as we get older?

I have found this year to be very busy both here at work with all our lists, this next Postal Bid Sale 177, and my recent church “NEW ZEALAND & BEYOND” Conference where we had guest speakers from USA and Australia plus our own Pastor Tak Bhana. We had over 750 guests and my wife Robyn and I were in charge of the feeding and watering area so it was a lot of fun for us.

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We have had a very good start to this 2008 year. The lists that Clayton has put out include British Commonwealth, Pacific Islands, and recently French Pacific. These are lists of everything that we have in stock and gives the Stanley Gibbons number for identification and with many items having limited supplies it is ‘the quick’ who have the smiles. With this in mind, I have started sending an email to all whose email addresses I have, to notify them of the list and for those that want, they are then emailed a copy of the list in a PDF File. Very user friendly. A great way to receive instant lists and also it helps to save on the printing and posting costs that we have to incur. (More on this later).

Gladys is kept busy with her New Issues of Countries and Thematics. Her monthly lists of what is available have proved to be very popular and make me think that not many other Dealers are covering this type of collecting. So if you have problems sourcing your new stamps, let Gladys know and she will see what she can do for you. The recent List of NEW ZEALAND SPECIALS was a first for the year and as I write this, we are still receiving many orders. This keeps Kirk very busy from the time he arrives until he goes home at night. This pleases me to see him busy. He is also engrossed in the TradeMe and Ebay sales online. He is selling many of our 2008 ACS New Zealand Colour Catalogues, packets of hinges, and many other coins, banknotes, etc. Remember if you want to view his sales his user name is “AKCTYSTMPS”.

I have worked hard including most Saturdays, to get this next Postal Bid Sale out now, and even then the Sale date is a little bit close, so do bid as early as you can. Currently I am clearing through Customs, our largest shipment yet from our German agency, LINDNER. This will allow us to be well stocked for some time and no doubt, I will produce a mid year Accessories List so those in New Zealand keep your eyes to your ‘in box’ of your email accounts.

I have been offered some very nice material this year and it is nice to see it also turning over. Some of this material is now placed in the current Bid Sale,(see the British stamps, Australia States stamps, and World postal history) but much of it has been placed to clients with known interests. As I type this I have just bought some very interesting European postal history so keep your eyes out for Sale 178.

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Now might be a good time for you all to update with us your collecting interests and WANTS LISTS. Much of this material will only sell once and then disappears into someone’s collection for many years. I know this happens, as with my own collection of Auckland’s North Shore Postal History and Postcards.
I am always on the look out for better single items or even Collections and with both direct sale or Vendor options available, can cover most situations. I currently have a client who is collecting 3c “Thames” Centennial issue of 1973, so anyone with ‘unusual’ items of this stamp, NOW!!! might be a good time to let me know.

In New Zealand we have just had an enormous jump in the price of sending most products by mail with in New Zealand. As inland clients will have noticed, the cost of sending you the Bid Sale Catalogue has gone from $1.00 to $1.50 (and not that long ago it was 90c). Also the dimensions have been halved and the weight has gone from 2 Kgs to 500 grms. The cost of sending a parcel has also changed DRAMATICALLY. No longer is it simply based on weight (which made it very simple for most to work out with a set of scales) but now works on both weights and dimensions so that we now have to stop and get our measuring tapes out to work out the cubic measurements. Also NZ POST has advised that STAMPS are not available over the counter to send a parcel. However it is still ok for us to put the stamps on and then take the parcel in for processing. Apparently this new system has been in the pipeline for 2 years. I guess that this is a great way for NZ Post to be cashing in on the enormous business that our national online TradeMe auction generates. This is where people sell off surplus items and then use the parcel post system to send them to the new owner. So not only is NZ Post getting a benefit from this new area of business but they have now altered the rules so that they are maximizing their systems. Perhaps there is room for another “equal” competitor in this “FREE” country of ours. It has certainly made it more economical to send items via our Courier systems available. Perhaps if you have given us a POST BOX Address, now is the time to provide a street address so that if any parcels are to be sent to you we can courier them. I know that getting used to this new system will certainly slow up the mailing out of the Auction on 27^th May.

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Thank you to all bidders from our previous Sale 176. This was one of our better sales and certainly helped the finances some. It was interesting to see that the New Zealand Stamps were very popular amongst a few bidders and so pushed up the realization of a few Lots. Much of the block and sheet material was keenly bid on. As always, the prices for most of the “COLLECTIONS” was good with most being sold. World Postal History was also a strong seller. The Estate Collection of PNG sold well but no bidders on the Australia used in PNG so I will have to break this down a little over a few of the future sales. The Estate must be sold so there might be a bargain or two for bidders. The $2.00 invert of the 2004 Olympic games did not sell. There has been a few problems in this area and the Royal Philatelic Society of NZ has issued a statement that they will not be considering any other error of this issue other than the $2.00 invert. Apparently someone had sold a label without the picture as an error, but Royal advises that it is possible to remove the picture. So unfortunately, even though these errors may well have happened during production they will be very difficult to prove. There is still plenty of interest in this area though. I had been offered a presentation pack with the strip having the invert $2 but for some strange reason, the owner would not forward to me for inspection before purchase. I will not buy this sort of error on a sight unseen basis because of the known problems so I rejected this. I am still looking for a genuine strip with the inverted $2.00 if anyone wishes to sell.

This Sale 177 has been exciting to put together and while there is not much in the way of New Zealand postal History, the WORLD POSTAL HISTORY section is well worth looking through. There are some amazing covers. Once again there is a very strong listing of NZ Full Face Queens and also a very good listing of Australia States stamps. Also for postcard enthusiasts, there are some wonderful World and New Zealand Cards.

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As mentioned elsewhere here, the cost of distribution of the printed matter we produce is becoming prohibitive. I therefore regret that over the coming months I will be reviewing everyone’s data and where there has been no response to the Bid Sale posted out, these people will no longer be receiving them. I am sad to have to do this as I love the principle of PROMOTION OF MY BUSINESS. But the cost of the Catalogue and the posting of it is hurting, so working on reducing these costs is the only answer. To overcome non use of a Catalogue and to continue receiving it, there will now be a subscription available of NZ $15.00 per year, to those that have not bid since 2002 or who have not bid since joining the firm more than 3 years ago (2004). Also another way for us to reduce costs is to advise that you can view the Catalogue on our web site instead of posting a copy out. I always email to my email data base when it is available on our web site.  We will then only send you a Catalogue if you subsequently request it for any particular Sale. Please note that we are more than happy to continue sending the Catalogue to the many people that enjoy bidding in our Sales. This also applies to many other Lists that are published from us throughout the year. This leads me on to the following

This does seem to be a constant area of updating but I am happy to do it. I am talking about your email and interest details. I know I have mentioned it before in this newsletter, but it IS IMPORTANT. If we don’t know your collecting interests, you will not be advised of what we hold in stocks that might be of interest to you. For those on email and registered with us
YES YOU AUTOMATICALLY get told of new lists and even one off offers. I have started putting in the TOPIC line the purpose of the email, so that if it is not of interest, you can delete it without having to open it. I have been getting a few of these bounced back at me lately and it is getting to the stage that I will have to remove the email addresses of these people. I believe that if you place our email address of acs@nzstamps.com in your approved addresses lists then they will not be rejected. Also some people seem to constantly have “OVER QUOTA” showing. I think that for those on the internet, this is a great system of transporting information for all to see. So again, if you have not sent your email address, PLEASE SEND IT NOW!! I have the data base split into Auckland, North Island, South Island, and other sections for overseas clients. This way Auckland clients are made aware of Saturday openings, New Zealand clients are advised of Trade Shows and everyone is advises of OFFERS ETC.

Also remember that if you change your email address for any reason, we need to be advised.

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This looks to be a busy year for us. After last year of having time off the shows, we are going to be attending the following:

LOWER HUTT 10^th  – 11^th May 2008

Horticultural Hall, Laings Road

Christchurch 28^th-29^th June 2008

(we will not be attending this show)

AUCKLAND – 8^th – 9^th August 2008

TARAPEX’08 7^th – 9^th November 2008

This is a National Trade show and should be well worth the visit for those that can attend. I know my wife Robyn is keen to attend as there is some kind of flower show on at the same time. Oh joy!. It has been some time since we attended the last TARAPEX Exhibition and New Plymouth is always a great place to visit. So mark these dates down now.

This year has seen an abundance of issues from New Zealand Post. Starting off with Underwater Reefs, the production of which could have been much improved with more realistic photos and scenes of what it is like down under. As always, in February we saw the issue of the YEAR OF!!! For the Chinese community. This year it is the year of THE RAT. This is always a popular issue with interest in the gutter pairs etc. March saw the release of the issue for WEATHER EXTREMES. This is a real Auckland one this one, though fortunately we do not get snow. This issue was also used for the first of the Limited Edition Series for 2008. Just after this was the issue of the Taipei 2008 Stamp Exhibition Miniature sheet. Always well collected by our Asian community. April has seen the release of the wonderful ANZAC series. This is the first of three years worth of issues. Associated with this issue is also the popular Miniature Sheet Booklet. This is an exciting issue and one that will be near and dear to most Kiwis hearts. After all it was partly because of our troops that the area now known as Israel was created.

Well here is the end of another newsletter. Any time feel free to contact me with wants, comments, or any suggestions.  Regards to you all

 Warwick