Stamp trading should be equally beneficial
One of the “popular topics” on my inbox (email, facebook etc.) involves trading/exchanging recent Finnish mint stamps to recent non-European (usually Indian, Malaysian or Vietnamese) issues. I can say that not a week goes by without at least couple such request landing on my inbox.
Finland - Save the Polars and Glaciers miniature sheet
Especially the Finnish “Preserve the Polar Regions & Glaciers” miniature sheet (Image on the left) seems to be *burning hot* as many ask just and only for it; in return they would send me some new issue from their country.
Personally I’m very much in favour of trading/exchanging stamps. But… IMO a trade should be equally beneficial for both parties. Such is not the case with these requests, and I’ve come up with “auto-reply” I send every time.
Dear mr/mrs X,
And thanks for showing interest for trading stamps with me. Unfortunately I collect ONLY USED worldwide stamps and I HAVE NO INTEREST IN EXCHANGING MINT/UNHINGED STAMPS as suggested by You. Before you delete this message, I urge you to read rest of my response as it contains important information about Finnish stamps in general.
For collectors wanting to acquire recent unused Finnish postage stamps I recommend visiting Finnish Post online store. Purchasing stamps directly from GPO might sound odd to You, but trust me – It’s the best and easiest method to acquire recent unused Finnish issues.
Several recent Finnish commemorative stamps have limited availability. I think it says a lot when I say I have never seen the Polars-miniature sheet sold/provided in my local (small) post outlet. If they ever received any copies of the sheet, then they very few… Sadly the same can be say about most Finnish special commemorative stamps. That is just the way Finnish Post operates these days. Small outlets focus on “common stamps” while larger main offices keep stocks of special products too. That said, I could get the issue You want, but it would be equally difficult for me than to You (as my nearest “large post office” is 60 kilometers southwards
)
Finnish special stamps (and postage in general) are also quite expensive. The miniature sheet You asked has a face value of 1.60€. And sending it to India would double my expenses… 3 euros is equivalent of 210 Indian rupees. Or 42 recent Indian stamps with face value of 5rp!!!
I hope you agree when I say that the trade as suggested you would not be equal.
best,
-keijo-
Nuff said… Have you encountered any “problematic” traders/trading wishes? And how you deal with them?
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This could be a post on my blog too… :d
The situation as you describe it is the same in Belgium: common (self adhesive) stamps are seen sometimes (the flowers a lot…), but special stamps I can’t even buy in my post office – swhich is kind of strange as it has a section for philatelists…
And prices are also very high: 0.59 euro national mail, 0.90 euro in Europe and 1.05 rest of the world… (next year + 0.10 euro :s).
Needless to say that I am choosy in my trades too
Best wishes
Hi Keijo,
Philately is quite a rage with enthusiasts in india, taking in account our population you would agree to the mathematical probability being high because of the sample space contributing substantial collectors.
Also, in spite of euro and rupee valuation being almost 65:1 there are still a substantial number of people here who can actually afford (or splurge)such stamps as mentioned by you, India unfortunately isn’t the same country where all you could hope to see was snake charmers, naked fakirs and the Great Indian Rope trick.
Also, because of the cultural diversity (and other forms) we issue more than 80 plus issues any given year, which is significantly higher than the lesser number of issues taken out by an average European country (approx. 8). Hence the higher cost of European issues is equalized by the lesser number issued of them.
For a sane collector the higher number of stamps issued here give exchange benefit of a better quality stamp issues (also special stamps like UV sensitive, holographic etc)from Europe, and for a European collector the exchange rate benefit gives access to diverse and higher number of stamps covering an amazing variety of themes.
You don’t need to invent this auto reply thinking Indian collectors are some kind of pests.
Hello Abhay,
Maybe I should have stressed this more in the original post, but the rant is definitely not against Indian collectors only. It is against ALL collectors trying to fool other collectors with heavily biased exchange/trade offers.
The above auto-reply uses rupees because it was taken from real mail response sent to India. But I have similar autoreplies using rinngits, dongs, pesos etc. as currency…
Then for this:
“Also, because of the cultural diversity (and other forms) we issue more than 80 plus issues any given year, which is significantly higher than the lesser number of issues taken out by an average European country (approx. 8).”
I think most europeans would be very happy if their country produced only approx. 8 sets a year. The reality is far from it… Here are few numbers to set the records straight:
In 2008:
* India produced 40 sets / 64 stamps
Compared to some smaller european countries:
* Finland produced 23 sets/63 stamps
* Belgium produced 40 sets/125 stamps
* Luxemburg 18 sets/ 46 stamps
Compared to some larger european countries:
* Germany produced 53 sets/70 stamps
* Spain produced 46 sets/102 stamps
As sad as it is, I don’t think there is a single European country that issues less than 10 sets a year. Even the smallest European states (such as Andorra,Monaco, Vatican etc) make around 15-50 issues (=30-100 stamps) a year…
But that said, I do love/like Indian stamps (and even stamp collectors) equally to any other.