I will give this a try. I would hate to see this blog end because collectors like me did not pay.

@miclac… Thanks 🙂

Keijo, happy to support your website. Your blog as well as your comments on other stamp collecting discussion groups have been a big help to me.

@Bob… Thanks 🙂

This is a great blog and i want to help keep it going. The content is always excellent. Thanks for all your hard work!

Supporting this great blog is the least I can do. Keep up the good work. 🙂

@Reidar…. Thanks 🙂

Please forward the ibann

Thanks

Good day Douglas,

please check your email for invoice & payment instructions.

-k-

It’s done! Keep on with this amazing blog!

@David… Thanks 🙂

I note that the eBook of stories about American stamps doesn’t seem to download properly. All of the others and the video download fine, but the American stories one doesn’t download any content.

@G.B…. Thanks for the bug report. This one’s fixed now.

Hi Keijo,

Can you please check whether my premium is still valid, if it is my log-in info isn’t working,
Thanks.

@Toby… It’s valid till April 20th 2014, and all seems to work OK from my perspective.

I’m resending you the login credentials (please check your email).

-k-

Keijo – Hi ! I purchased a Premium membership
a couple of months ago but have not received
a reply email. Would you please re-send
as it quite possibly went to my trash file and
I likely deleted it. Thank you for your attention
to this email and many thanks for your
tireless work on the Blog!!
Take care,
John D

@John… Copies of messages sent. Please check your inbox (there should be 2 separate emails – one contains a receipt of your purchase and the other one has your login credentials to Premium service).

Approximately how much is a premium subscription for US customers? In other words, in dollars.

@Jody… On todays (March 30th 2014) exchange rate it’s approximately 17.05US Dollars.

In other common currencies, it equals approx.:
– 18.43 in Australian Dollars, or
– 18.85 in Canadian Dollars, or
– 10.24 in British Sterling

-k-

Thanks Keijo…the blog is really going over the moon, (unfortunately keeping it so, will cost a fortune) people using the blog for free, don’t know what are going to loose if you can’t do it any more… 50 subscribers only? its ridiculous, Damn!!!btw; how are family? and the big boy? sorry that I’m very busy with family matters (I’ll be a grandfather on June! and it’s a boy) music and the rest…anyway I hope you are OK !…cheers!

@Fred…

the blog is really going over the moon

Thanks… Just putting some of my ‘professional skills’ into good use.

people using the blog for free, don’t know what are going to loose if you can’t do it any more… 50 subscribers only? its ridiculous, Damn!!

Well, I was not expecting much more. Most stamp collectors are penny-pinching tightwads (yours truly included, LOL).

And true, it’s ridiculous… Out of 100,000 people visiting the blog each year; and of 3,500 newsletter subscribers, only fifty sees it worth supporting. I’d do better putting my money on lottery, LOL.

!btw; how are family? and the big boy?

All well… Into (that’s the name) is a big boy by now. Slightly over 10kgs, laughing most of the time, and crawling around the floors 🙂
(and yes, the first contacts with stamps & magnifying glass have been made with success).

-k-

PS. Congrats for becoming a grandfather 😉

Time to renew my subscription. Once again, thanks for a great blog and keep up the good work! 🙂

@Reidar… My sincerest thank You for the support.

Your blog is excellent, and I always open it and read various items – including some about issues not of direct ‘use’ to me. I intend to renew my subscription, due on about 17th September 2014 I think – not sure if you send a reminder? Thank you, best wishes, Philip

@Philip… Thanks for the praise and support 🙂

Re, reminder of expiration… The system doesn’t send out reminders, but instead relies that good folks take care of renewals by themselves if they find the service worth it. That said, once you’re logged in, you should see (on the main page) how many days are remaining.

Hi Keijo – Just signed up, as I can’t in good conscience continue to ‘mine’ your amazing blog for information (information that, frankly, is transforming my entire approach to the hobby) without giving back. I know you refer to yourself as ‘just a humble collector’ but, really, you’re providing great value, from an amazing storehouse of knowledge, from which the entire hobby can benefit. Thanks!

@Lee… I humbly thank You for the support.

Every buck helps in keeping the knowledge freely accessible for everyone interested (which is a really BIG crowd compared to supporters… Last month the blog had over 16,000 unique readers from 152 countries/4300 cities around the globe… Talk about truly worldwide bunch enjoying everything that the blog provides 😉

Hi Keijo,
I have just paid for a further years subscription(due today 17/09/2014), but am not sure if this has been credited to my ORIGINAL account for the blog, but maybe that doe not matter?
best wishes, thank you, Philip

@Philip… Thanks for the support 🙂

… but am not sure if this has been credited to my ORIGINAL account for the blog, but maybe that doe not matter?

The system automatically creates you another (new) account for the new period.

But by now you should have already received the new login credentials to your email (if not, then just drop me a message, and I’ll forward you a copy).

Dear Keijo,

I joined your blog community about a week ago using PayPal. To date I have not received any acknowledgment of my membership or login information. Please let me know what’s going on. Thanks!

Laura

@Laura… Thanks for getting in touch.

The payment is all OK and it’s been handled successfully on 19th October. But when digging in further I noted that the system had not managed to sent you neither of the automated confirmation messages (including your login credentials and a receipt of your purchase) due to an networking error. I assume it did not show you any error messages during sign up?

Anyway, I’ve now manually re-sent you the confirmation message and the receipt, so please check your inbox. The subscription starts from this day, so there is no loss for you.

My sincerest apologies for this. If you’ve got anything else on your mind, please do leave a message and I’ll get in touch with you.

-keijo-

Hi Keijo

I read about you in Stamp Magazine and I enjoy your blog so I thought it time I gave some support! All the best for the New Year and your target of 100000 stamps.

Cheers

Nick
 

Hi Nick,

and thanks for the support and new years greetings 🙂 I hope you enjoy reading SCB in 2015 as well…

The site is well worth my 15$… thanks and keep up the good work !!

Jere

@jere… My humblest thanks for your support 🙂

Just renewed my subscription. I’m not a serious (or even semi-serious) collector but came across your website when browsing around the internet for stamp information at the start of last year. I had a small album as a child and thought it would be nice to re-investigate the hobby when I re-discovered my very small collection. Since then I have bought the odd bag of stamps from charity shops and enjoyed looking through them and putting them in a stock book (as suggested on this site). I have really found your blog fascinating and a great read even though it is not necessarily relevant to someone collecting at my very low level. 

I have left this response because it seems such a shame that you have so few people who are willing to subscribe as it is such a useful mine of information. I imagine that most of the people looking at this site are much keener collectors than me and really feel that they should support and give you financial assistance in recognition of all the hard work you have clearly put into this site. 

@Chas… Thanks for the support. It’s great to hear you are liking the blog and my advice has been helpful 🙂

Hello

I’m thinking to be a supporter of your blog. Can I receive one or 2 pages of one of the PDF’s for checking how is it?

Thanks
Paulo

I paid for a membership, received a user name and password but can’t find how to log in.

@Paulo…

Can I receive one or 2 pages of one of the PDF’s for checking how is it?

The link to sample page can be found on Premium members FAQ-page, but here’s a direct link to sample PDF. All the articles in PDF are the same that you can read/see on the blog, just the presentation format is different.

As a generalization, premium members only articles are from 500-1,500 words each (about 2-6 times longer than the free entries) with detailed images.

@Don…

…received a user name and password but can’t find how to log in.

There are two ways…

First (and easiest) way is to use a quick login. The link for quick login is found on the same email message that contains your username and password. All you need to do is click that link, and you are signed in automatically.

Second way is to click the Premium Login text on the front page (right next to Latest, By Topic, Latest Comments etc. tabs), and type in your login credentials.

Hi Keijo—just paid my subscription, have thoroughly enjoyed reading through your blog and getting back into my stamps after a down-time of 20 years or so. Thank you for your amazing articles, keep up the great work!

@Dave… Thanks for the support 🙂

Another article (a short one) at the blog is due in few days time, hopefully you’ll be loving it too.

Just paid the subscription. Hope the blog keeps going and new articles keep coming.

Thanks,
John

@John C… Thanks for the support. Just few hours back I renewed the domain name for next 12 months, so yes, SCB is going onwards.

I cannot remember my password for my premium membership. Can you help me? Thanks.

@Rick… Cavalry is on it’s way. Please check your inbox (the one associated with PayPal).

Hello,

Is there anyway to subscribe without going through PayPal.  I do not want to create another user account is I can avoid it.  Thanks

@Anthony… For the time being there are two additional options:

1) If you can do IBAN bank transfer in Euro’s, then that’s one option.
Sadly SWIFT bank transfers or IBAN payments in other currency than Euro (such as dollars or Pound sterling) are NOT on option due to ridiculously high banking fees (about 7€ per each money order received).

2) Sending cash payment in Euro currency is another option.
Again, only payments in Euro are valid. Additionally, I take no responsibility if the payment is lost on the mail.

I wish there were other options, but it pretty much comes down to cost of additional services (with current volume). If you think either of the above would work for you, please leave a new message and I’ll get back to you with detailed instructions on how to make a payment.

-k-

Keijo,

I have yet to receive my logon for premium access. My PayPal payment was processed February 25th.
 
Thanks,
John

@John… Very likely they’ve been sitting on your spam/junk mail folder for a week 😉 At least the system isn’t reporting any delivery/bounce errors for your messages.

Anyway, I’m sending you a copy of the messages right now (please check your inbox).

PS. If I remember tomorrow (it’s about 11PM here, and I’m pretty exhausted for the day), I’ll add an extra week for Your login to make up the lost time.

Hooray! SCB has reached a landmark of one hundred sold memberships  today!!!! 

So that everyone knows where the funds from the Membership payment are going / what they provide, here’s a rough summary what SCB is achieving.  Since the introduction of Premium Membership programme …  

About a quarter of million users from over two-hundred countries have visited SCB. 

Over three quarter of a million articles (mostly free basic/entry level articles) have been read. 

The email newsletter has been sent out about 100,000 times.  

Seventy-five new articles and over 1,200 comments have been released at the blog.

These are pretty amazing numbers for a small hobbyist website…. And none of this would be possible without Your financial contribution to SCB.  So hear, hear to first one hundred sold Premium memberships. May there be many more ….

-k-

Keijo,

After using your site for a few months, I decided it was time to support you and signed up for the premium membership today.

I’m looking forward to future stamp news and interesting articles.

Thanks,

Jerry

@JerryT… Thanks for the support 🙂

I am just trying to find out where to setup a newaccount. I paid premium membership today, but do not see a place to setup my account. Only to login after I have set one up.

@Annamary… Thanks for becoming a premium member of the blog.

When you paid for the membership, the system sent you two emails straight away.

The first email (with subject “Stamp Collecting Blog: Thank you for becoming a premium member”) contains your login credentials as well as information on how to log in. The second email is just a receipt of your purchase.

Depending on your email settings it’s possible that your email/ISP provider has automatically blocked or deleted the messages (for example AOL is notorious of the latter). If you don’t see the emails on your inbox, then check the junk mail folder. If they are not to be found anywhere, then please give me a howl and I’ll send you a copy of the originals.

-keijo-

Hello:  I have paid for a year’s m’ship, but cannot access the username and password page. Can you help ?

 Thanks, Coleman

@Coleman… Sure. Please check your inbox for my message (if you don’t find it at the inbox, please check also the junk mail/spam folder).

just signed up, keep up the good works Keijo…

@Axel…. Thanks. And will do my best to keep folks happy with new content 🙂

Hi Keijo
Just signed up. I got back into stamps a few years ago and really enjoy your blog. Keep up the great work.Hope the family and/or medical issues are not too serious.John

@John… Thanks. It’s always great to hear readers of the blog enjoy my musings…

Re family/health issues… Let’s say that I will not have any issues with ‘what to do on my free time’ for rest of the year (just take a look of my collection, and how ‘miserably’ I’ve managed to add items in recent weeks). I was on a work trip to eastern Finland last week, and at the same visited my father at local ward. When I entered, I had a full A4-sheet of ‘things to ask/do’, and when I left out I had a totally different set of tasks/questions ahead of me.

Hello, Have been intending for a long time to support your philatelic endeavors. Looking forward to reading the expanded coverage. I  sent in my dues via Paypal a couple of days ago. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do. Hoping that you and family are well. Many thanks for all that you have done to promote this curious pursuit. Best,Frank

@Frank… Thanks for the support. Payment was received on Wednesday morning, and the system has sent you login credentials few minutes later (hopefully they’ve arrived to your inbox safely; if not found from the inbox, then please check the spam folder).

-k-

Hello

I’m Paulo from Israel, I’m very happy to support your website.Attached one image of a page from my collection.

Good luck!!!

Paulo

@Paulo…. Happy to have you aboard 🙂

Hi Keijo, Just signed up. I have spent days over the past few months reading your articles, and really enjoy them. I got back into collecting earlier this year, but unfortunately I am 1000s of miles away from my collection most of the year round as I work in China, whilst my collection is back home in the UK. Your blog helps a lot, as at least I get to read and learn about stamps (something I enjoy a lot), although it does make me miss being able to sort out my own collection. Thank you for the days and days of entertainment and wisdom you have provided me so far ^_^Fred

@Fred… Thanks for the kind words 🙂

I always look forward to reading your blog and am happy to make this very reasonable contribution.  Good luck and thanks.

@Karen… Payment received. I humbly thank for the support.

Signed up, your blog is amazing Keijo!

@DJCHMH@…. Thanks for the kind words 🙂

I cannot find the unsubscribe button on this site and it does not work on you emails.  Please unsubscribe me from your email alerts.

Thanks

@Brad…. Removed.

Re, the newsletter / email link…. Thanks for the bug report. It seems there was a typo (file extension reads “.php.php” though it should be just “.php”. This is now fixed, of course the change will take effect from the next edition of the bulletin).

I am trying to subscribe  (free ) trial however it seems to be stuck between taking the email and the next step. I very much wish to explore your interesting site. Love stamp collecting!

@maryann…. Your doing everything correctly; the fault is on ATT. They’ve got a bad reputation for phasing out lots of valid emails (without recipient ever knowing) in order to protect their customers from potential spam.

Anyway, I will be sending your login credentials from my personal email (@gmail.com address, so it should pass). If you don’t see my message on your inbox, then check junk mail folder. And if that too fails, then drop me another message.

glad i stumbled on to this site

@gary… Happy to hear it hit a sweet spot 🙂

Hi Keijo…to see how is your life and your dear ones…yes! long time don’t come over here and many things happened  on those years…some good and some sad…that’s life indeed…

Hola Fred! Nice to see you around, been way too long since last time. Hope life’s been good to you.

Indeed, lots of changes on SCB, but all great improvements (at least from my perspective). As for personal side, life’s been the usual, ups and downs and never boring. And of course still dreaming hitting the jackpot on national lottery 😉

-k-

Hello Keijo,
Please make a note of my new e-mail address:
 
Thanks,
John Esbenshade

@John… Thanks for letting me know. I’ve updated the email to my records.

Hi,

I thought I had paid the subscription fee a few months ago but I’m only able to access the first 150 words of the topics. Please would you let me know if I’ve expired and  need to subscibe again?

Thanks

Rachel

Hi Rachel,

you’re all paid up till Feb 2017, and things should be working all ok for you. Anyway, I’ll be sending a quick email your way.

-keijo-

I have just re-subscribed, having subscribed to SCB since 2013. It is well worth the modest subscription, and covers so many areas and philatelic information, which I greatly enjoy even though I mainly collect Japan and am not a world-wide collector. Thank you Keijo for providing an excellent service despite coping with some personal issues over the years

@Philip… Thanks for the kind words and support. It is always a great pleasure to hear folks enjoying SCB.

Hi

I have subscribed but cannot login. I keep getting the message that I have no more page views left. Help!

@Nick…. Email on it’s way. Please check your inbox.

-keijo-

will give it a try

@David… Welcome aboard 🙂

Hello,

i recently renewed my membership and got the confirmation email. I do not recall getting a separate email with user name and password. Not showing up in my junk mail.  Could you possibly send again. Many thanks,

david

Hi David,

the email should be there (but of course it is possible that your ISP has blocked it for reason or another). Seek for message with subject line ‘Stamp Collecting Blog: Thank you for becoming a Premium member’.

But I am sending you now a copy of that email.

-keijo-

Thanks, I got it!

Hi there!

I renewed for a third year a few days ago. Paypal says it went through but haven’t gotten my password for this year’s membership and last years is expired and doesn’t work. Not sure where I go to ask for my new password?

@grandpromus… All systems show the messages were sent successfully, and that gmail accepted the messages for delivery – so it is some setting your email account. Or then Gmail is messing around thinking the messages are spam/junk (likely this option).

Anyway, I’m sending you email right now, please check your inbox.

-keijo-

Hi Keijo, I hope you are well. I thought I had re-subscribed to your blog a few weeks ago but I realised today that I have not received new log-in information. There are a couple of possible reasons that occur to me for this. My Paypal account has had until now a defunct email attached to it so if the new log-in was sent to that account I won’t have seen it. Or secondly Paypal has gone a bit squiffy and not paid you. When I tried to log in to my account with my usual log in it failed to recognise me. I don’t really get this as until Saturday I was still able to pay people using that log in. Whatever, I’ve set up a new Paypal account with up to date details and hopefully that will work ……. Can you tell me from your end what the situation seems to be and if you’ve already sent me the log in re-send it to this email address

Thanks for your help with this, all the best

Crispin

@Crispinhj…. All looks ok/green from my end. Subscription is valid, and all emails report delivery success. But possibly/likely the messages have gone to defunct email (whether or not the ISP reports a delivery failure/success despite of true situation is fully up to them).

But I’ll send you login details ASAP.

-k-

Keijo / Stamp Collecting Blog wrote at March 12, 2019:
@Crispinhj…. All looks ok/green from my end. Subscription is valid, and all emails report delivery success. But possibly/likely the messages have gone to defunct email (whether or not the ISP reports a delivery failure/success despite of true situation is fully up to them).

But I’ll send you login details ASAP.

-k-

Hi Keijo

Thanks for your help with this, I’m up and running again. Sorry for the length of time it’s taken to reply, I’ve been a bit distracted with other things – nothing bad, just busy.
Best wishes, Crispin