To page or not to page...

That is the question. Whether tis nobler to make ones own pages, or to use a pre-printed album? So, my Shakespeare may not be the greatest (I was never a fan), but the question is serious. I use the White Ace album for my tab collection, but just recently I found out that Lindner makes a Minisheet album, as well as an album for the Klussendorf stamps. Both of these are rather pricey. Does anyone use them? How complete is the Klussendorf album? Right now, I am using a SuperSafe sheet album to hold my mini-sheets, is there any reason to switch to the Lindner minisheet album?

April new issues are going to get expensive

Judging by the new lots appearing on E-bay this week, Israel released a bunch of new items. First, there is a second printing of the Fruits of Israel booklet, as well as the 30ag Menorah self adhesive sheet. This is followed by the SEVENTH printing of The Israeli booklet. There is also a new SIMA label, a continuation of the Birds of Israel series. There is also a set of 3 sheets for Innovations in Israel. These sheets were issued for a show in China, and have 2 labels in the middle of the sheet, which means I will likely need the full sheets for my collection. Next is a joint issue of Canada-Israel friendship. Since the Canada side of this issue is a booklet of 6, I imagine the joint FDC's will be a bit on the pricey side. Then comes an issue for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Herzl. It looks like there is a souvenir sheet for this, as well as a special generic sheet that was issued in a very small quantity (10,000). In addition, there are several normal issues, such as Memorial Day and a September 11th memorial stamp. I am not looking forward to the invoice on my new issues.

Weekend recap

Julie and I attended the Easter Seals stamp show in Sacramento on Sunday. The day started with Julie waking up at 7am and asking if it was time to leave yet. I managed to get her to wait until 9am, but she was raring to go. We got to the show about 15 minutes before the doors opened, another delay that Julie did not appreciate. But, we made it through that and into the show. We spent the next four hours going from table to table, looking at all the stamps, and filling up 2 pint buckets with Julies finds. And in another repeat of last year, Julie would not even think of leaving the show to grab lunch, she insisted on having a hot dog at the show.

Since I was unable to find anything for me at the show, I spent a few minutes going through the latest APS stamp circuit that had arrived on Saturday. I found a copy of the Mizpe Ramon self adhesive booklet with a different phosphor variety then the one that was in my collection. This sent me digging through my Bale catalog trying to figure out if this was a new variety. Turns out that the phosphor varieties are described, but not in the booklet section. The details are in the definitive specialized section. I now have both a 3 line and an 8 line phosphor booklets. The notes for this issue also mention a copy with a barcode. Neither of the copies I have include this barcode. Anyone have a spare?

In the same circuit book, there was a Hyacinth booklet. The catalog indicates 2 separate prints for this booklet as well, one with phosphor all over, and one with 2 phosphor lines. Neither the booklet in my collection, nor the one in the circuit book, showed any indication of phosphor under my UV light. Are there any other differences in the booklets?

Still here...

I am still here. Just have not had anything interesting to say about my collection recently. No major purchases, and very few minor purchases. I don't even have a lot of interesting items on my watch list on E-bay. I will be attending the Easter Seals show in Sacramento next weekend (Julie got a postcard about it, and is ready to go!). Westpex is at the end of the month, but it doesn't look like I will be going. I took a look at the dealer list, and it doesn't look like there will be any dealers there that are worth the two and a half hour drive (each way), $5 in admission, $5 in parking, and $8 in tolls.