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Hi, Welcome to Ken's Korner.  I created this page to tell you a little bit about me and what is new with Nieser Stamps. 

September 1, 2025--Our AC didn't come back on until Wednesday...7 days without AC in August in Houston, YUCK.  In any case, it is fixed now and working well.  I am catching up on orders this weekend that didn't get done when the house was so hot.  I am caught up as of right now and hope to stay that way for a while. 

I just changed the special offer for this month.  September will be 10% off Latin American collections, 20% any non-Latin American collections in stock.  Check out our selection...we have a HUGE number of collections available.  Here is the link.

I added a number of Brazil collections (BR-76-54; BR-76-55; BR-76-56; BR-57; BR-B-76-17) to the website this week as well as one from Bolivia (BO-76-36).  With a little luck, I should finally have up the nice Scott Specialty collection of El Salvador that has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to get to it--it will be SA-B-75-14.  This week I should have a Chile collection arriving and hopefully new issues.  My order of new issues arrived in Houston on August 14 according to the USPS website and has been touring many different post offices in town since then, but unfortunately not mine.  Even though it is registered mail, there is no way for my local post office to "claim" the package, or to tell them to send it over.  Hopefully it will make an appearance soon.  With the suspension of small package mail service to the US by many countries, I have no idea how much this will affect receiving new issues.  I know that Mexico has suspended service, but I am not sure about the rest of Latin America.  For those who aren't aware, this is due to the new tariff rules that just took effect.  There is no exemption any more for small amounts of shipments and the tariff needs to be paid by the shipper and forwarded to the US government.  However, most countries have no mechanism to forward those payments to the US.  Hopefully this is just a short-term glitch that will be worked out soon.

Football-wise, my alma mater (Buffalo) played their opening game against Minnesota and put up a very good battle.  We lost 23-10, but last touchdown by Minnesota didn't happen until the fourth quarter.  Hopefully this bodes well for my UB Bulls for a successful season.  I am heading up there for my annual get-together with my college buddies at the end of September for our game against U Conn.  That's all for this week. 

August 24, 2025--It has been a rough couple of days around here.  Our AC went out last Tuesday and we have been hot for the past 5 days.  We spent most of the day today out because of the heat and when we got home the temperature upstairs was 96 degrees.  A good friend of mine lent us a room airconditioner and we will have at least one room we can cool off and hopefully get a good night's sleep.  We should have our AC back working tomorrow.  This is the second time this summer and it's getting old...the house and the AC are only 5 years old...I feel like we shouldn't be dealing with this.

New issues have arrived from Dominican Republic, Mexico and Uruguay and are already up on the website.  The Chile new issues are somewhere in Houston (at least that's what the USPS website says and have been in Houston for over a week.  I have also spent quite a bit of time listing modern Brazil stationery.  There was already quite a bit listed, but this time I am adding images. 

I also have worked up a near complete set of the semi-official Brazilian airmails from the 1920s and 1930s (Scott 1CL1 through 4CL10.  I will list the better items on the Better Stamps webpage and will list all the others o a new page I will create for the semi-officials.  Hopefully, I will have this ready to go in the next week or two.

Have a great week!!

August 10, 2025--Just a brief update this evening.  I have received new issues from Brazil and just added those to the website--both regular stamps and Institutional...I am expecting Dominican Republic and Chile new issues to arrive this week.  I didn't get around to pricing up the Brazil and El Salvador collections I mentioned last week...hopefully I will get to them in the next few days.

It was great to see football back.  I watched my Bills on Saturday...I know the pre-season is not predictive of the season, but it was disappointing to see one major issue from last year still rearing its ugly head...the inability of the defense to get stops on 3rd down.  Hopefully, the coaching staff has worked out a solution for the regular season.  I also hope the front office will work out the James Cook (Buffalo's primiere running back) drama over his contract.  He takes so much pressure off Josh Allen.  Go Bills!!

Looks like I may have a decent Chile collection arriving in the next week or so.  I will keep you posted.  Until next week...

August 3, 2025--A new month already!!  It is amazing how quickly 2025 is going by. I always seem to have more stamp work than stamp time, but I guess it is like one old-time dealer once said to me, "Ken, the day you run out of things to do as a dealer is the day you know your business is in deep trouble.  So, I guess I should be grateful and stop complaining.  I have been building a presence on HipStamp.  Until last week, I only had one listing and now I think I have around 100.  It is time consuming to do, scanning in each issue and describing it, but over time I should build a significant presence there.  It is a shift in how I have been doing business...before it was mostly advertising in stamp newspapers and filling want lists.  I am now shifting to doing more online.  I hope to upgrade my website in the next 6 months, adding features like a shopping cart, a check out and a smart search feature so that you can quickly find what you need.

Acquistions...This past week I bought another interesting Honduras collection...this time of the older material and quite a bit of identified fakes.  I think I will be listing these as collections in the near future.  There are some covers and postal stationery items I have already added to the Honduras section of those webpages--some interesting and scarce items.  I also added quite a few Peru covers to that page.  I also had a few Chile #7s come in, the elusive lithographed 5c stamp.  You can find a very nice copy for sale on the better stamps page in the section for Chile..here's a link.  I have a few collections (Brazil and El Salvador) just about ready to list--they should go on the website this week.

Now that my arm is 100% recovered, I am back to playing pickleball 3 times a week.  I have greatly improved since starting in January, despite the three months I was sidelined with the torn tendon.  I played tennis many years ago and it is a lot of fun getting back into a similar game.  I have a blast every time I play, win or lose. 

August is always a little bittersweet for my family.  My dad's birthday is August 15 (he turns 88 this year).  In 1995, my mother woke up on that day, wished my dad a very happy birthday before he left for work.  A few hours later, she was dead of a massive heart attack.  This year is 30 years since we lost my mom.  I always try to have an upbeat celebration for my dad, but I know the day is full of mixed emotions for him.

Oh, I just realized that I never did a special offer for July...my apologies.  August is 10% off Costa Rica stamps, covers, FDCs and collections.  Here is a link to the offer.

July 20, 2025--It's late and I am tired, but I have again let a few weeks pass, so I will do a brief update.  Honduras and Argentina new issues have arrived, including a new set of 12 surcharges--which will be quite scarce.  The high inflation in Argentina have left stocks of older stamps virtually worthless, so the surcharges help them get rid of older low value stamps.  Also, with new issues, Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Uruguay are on order.  Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and El Salvador haven't issued any stamps yet this year.  Costa Rica and Paraguay have issued so few that I have postponed ordering until the end of the year.  Now word yet from my suppliers in Mexico or Panama.  Ecuador and Venezuela remain problematic...Ecuador from poor administration of the newly reorganized post office and Venezuela due to the economic sanctions.  I will let everyone know if that changes.

We were without AC for 4 days last week--never good during the Houston summer.  My stepson told me about the problems Wednesday afternoon (I was at work) and the late hour meant the tech couldn't be there until Friday.A comedy of errors complicated the situation greatly.  Miscommunication between the AC company dispatch and the technician left us waiting for him one afternoon...we thought he was coming to do the repair and he thought he was coming to diagnose the problem (which had already been done).  The next day, they brought the wrong board, so they jerryrigged the AC to give us some air.  Finally on Tuesday they fixed the problem (or so we thought), but a few hours later, my stepson  again called that the house was hot.  By the time I got home, it was 94 downstairs and 96 upstairs.  The AC guy showed up late...around 5:30 pm and discovered that when the system reset, the heat pump came on rather than the AC, even though the control panel indicated the AC was on and cooling.  He reset it again and finally, our AC problems were over.

Have a good week.

July 6, 2025--Hello everyone.  It has been a few weeks since my last update.  I have been focusing on cleaning up and reorganizing material to make it easier to find.  The first project was First Day Covers.  This was a massive undertaking as I had a large stock of covers and I bought another even larger stock of them.  Complicating matters more was that the huge variety of sizes of FDCs meant that there was an oversized box (3 actually) and other country specific boxes that just kind of accumulated over time.  I bought some banker boxes that allowed me to reorder the entire stock.  Some covers are still too big for the new boxes, but now when FDCs are ordered, I generally only need to look in one of two places, rather than in about 5 as was the case previously.

I also separated out covers and postal stationery for the same reason.  The covers/stationery listed on the website are just a tiny portion of what I have in stock.  The rest of the covers were reorganized by country which will make it easier to find things when specific requests come in. 

I am about to order new issues from Latin America for the first half of 2025.  Argentina, Brazil and Honduras are on the way.  Only two issues from Paraguay so far this year, so my supplier suggested waiting until the end of the year to send everything (15 planned issues) at the same time.  The rest will be ordered this week.  I've also recently picked up a pretty large Brazil collection.  I have listed the more modern material as collections on the website (BR-75-14A, 14B, 14C and 14D).  There is still the classic material to be worked up as well as material from 2003-to 2010 or so.  The collection has a near complete run of Brazil semi-official airmails (Varig, ETA, Condor, Zeppelin--listed in the Scott classic catalog) and scarce telegraphs.  There is also a good amount of classic material that I will be integrating into stock.  A few other things that I listed this past week include a classic Colombia collection (CO-75-37); some modern NH Brazil BR-75-51, 52 and 53 and I will soon be putting up at classic Argentina collection (AR-75-48).

In non-stamp news, it looks like my wife will soon finally be able to return to the US in mid-August.  She had surgery in April in her native Colombia and has been having follow-up treatment since then and trying to get a pay out of her pension plan.  All is going well--fingers crossed that there are no further delays.  My annual get together with college buddies at the University at Buffalo will be the weekend of September 27 this year.  I will also be going back to nearby Meadville, PA in mid-October.  A friend helps organize the Jefferson Institute's Annual Global Summit.  He invited me up to hear former Buffalo Bills quarterback, Jim Kelly speak.  It helped that he did mention that we would probably have dinner with him before the talk that evening.

Have a great week!!

June 16, 2025--I just added more of the classic collections:  Brazil (BR-75-50); Dominican Republic (DR-75-19); Ecuador (EC-75-23); Nicaragua (NI-75-27) and Venezuela (VE-75-20).  I also added a two volumne Panama stock with tremendous catalog value (PN-75-

June 15, 2025--Happy Father's Day!  I had the privilege of taking my father out to lunch today.  He selected a Lebanese restaurant that has a wonderful chicken schwarma.  My stepson joined us and we all had a wonderful time.  I received a funny card from my stepson and a clear puzzle piece from my son which thanked me for being a special "piece" of his life.  Earlier in the day, I was playing pickleball.  This was my second time back out since my surgery.  I got cleared to play on Thursday from the physical therapist.  There's still a bit of rust in my playing, but I hope to improve as I play more regularly.

Yesterday was the NY state lacrosse championship.  My high school, West Genesee (ranked # 82 nationally out of 4000 schools), played in their 23rd appearance against highly ranked Half Hollow Hills (#29 in the USA ). Unfortunately, WG fell 15-10 in our first loss of the season.  Still, 21 wins and 1 loss makes for a great season.

Stampwise, I've been working hard to get the classic collections ready for sale.  I just added 5 to the ones I mentioned last week--Chile (CH-75-20); Cuba (CU-75-23); Haiti (HA-75-16); El Salvador (SA-75-32); and Uruguay (UR-75-19).  Nothing is after 1929 in any of these and some cut off much earlier.  Nice well filled collections than can be built on.  The can be found at the following link: country collection web pages

Have a great week!!

June 8, 2025-- This weekend I spent a huge amount of time reorganizing my FDCs and covers to make them easier to find.  I had 12 empty banker boxes at the beginning of the weekend and none as of this evening.  I am hoping this will make finding anything ordered much easier. 

I have added a bunch of classic collections (first issues to about 1920s) to the various country collection web pages (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru--BO-75-34; CR-75-10; GU-75-25; HO-25-22 and PE-75-15).  They are well worth a look.  More will follow soon.  I also put a fascinating collection of Bolivia (BO-75-35) of just one stamp, C137 with a dizzying variety of overprint varieties.  This would be a great collection to build on for an exhibit. 

I also acquired an impressive collection of mostly Honduras postal history (1915-1933 or so).  Hundreds of covers all well written up, with a great variety of usages.  Many small town cancels, unusual destinations.  Again, this is the great beginning of an exhibit.  Available currently intact for $2750.

I go to see the physical therapist this week and hope that she will clear me to return to playing pickleball.  It has been over 3 months since I last played when I tore the tendon in my arm.  Fingers crossed.  Lacrosse-wise, my old high school (West Genesee) is now 20-0 and have made it to the New York state semi-finals.  They play again on Wednesday and if they win, for the championship on Saturday.  If they win, it will be our 16th NYS championship.

Have a great week.

June 1, 2025--I have been quite busy working through some binders of Bolivia that I bought in a huge 4 banker box lot a few years back.  There are dozens of binders that I have only given a cursory look at and I have spent some time over the past few weeks pulling out some material to add to stock  There are two very scarce items that I ran across that I would like to share with you...the first is a signed copy of C15 LH, double overprint.  The new CEBOLFIL catalog indicates that only one sheet of 25 exists.  The second is Scott 704 with an inverted overprint.  Apparently only one sheet was printed and part of the sheet was used for postage before the error was noticed.  So both of these stamps are scarcer than the inverted Jenny-- and available at a tiny fraction of price of an inverted Jenny.  You can see a scan of these and pricing on my better stamps page.  The link is to the left here.  Go to the page and scroll down to Bolivia.  I have also added quite a number of more common Bolivia varieties to the odds and ends page (link to the left).

I also noticed I was quite light on Peru covers so I dug into my cover stock and added some attractive covers (See link to the left).  I also added some very scarce an interesting Bolivia covers (also linked).  I also just purchased a highly complete Guatemala collection.  The previous owner had most of the stamps and had put together his own pages with all of the perforation varieties and overprint varieties.  Unfortunately, he didn't get to fill in many of these so that is where this collection can be expanded.  The total cat was about $4500 and I am asking $1750--it is just as I received it, nothing has been removed.  A great buy. 

So last month I mentioned that I would be having my annual get together with friend from the University at Buffalo.  This will be the 5th year we have been doing this.  We had 4 possible games in 4 different cities this year, but after a very close vote, the gang chose to go to Buffalo on September 27 for a game against UConn.  I was hoping we would go somewhere else this year...just for a change, but Buffalo is fine.  The football game isn't the important thing.  It is just an excuse for as many of us as possible to get together and hang out for a few days. 

Two weeks ago, I mentioned how big lacrosse was when I lived in central NY.  The Syracuse University team fell in the national semi-finals to Maryland but another upstate NY team, Cornell, beat them to become national champions.  My old high school team completed a perfect regular season and won the Section III NY championship (greater Syracuse).  They are currently 18-0 and start the state championship tournament on Tuesday evening against Plattsburg. 

Not much else to share this week except that this month I put Dominican Republic stamps, covers, FDCs and collections on sale.  10% off all month long.  Have a blessed week.

May 18, 2025--One thing I don't talk much about here in Ken's Korner is my love of lacrosse.  It goes back a long way...when I was in 9th grade, we moved from Buffalo to Syracuse NY and I began attending high school at West Genesee Sr. High in Camillus, New York.  Lacrosse was king at our high school.  It was much bigger than any of the other sports, including football.  Most of the players had started playing almost as soon as they could walk, so they were far too advanced for me to start playing.  My younger brother, however, took up the sport and  played for 4 years (freshman, JV and 2 years varsity).  During that time, he never lost a game, going undefeated all four years, including two varsity state championships.  West Genesee has 15 NY state championships for the boys and I think 7 for the girls.  Mike Messere coached the team for 41 years, amassing 846 wins, which is the most ever by a lacrosse coach at any level.  The last state championship came in 2014, but it appears the team is back as they are 14-0 so far this season.  I've also been watching college lacross on TV as Syracuse University lacrosse was also huge when I lived there.  The SU men's team has qualified for championship weekend for the first time in 12 years and they will play Maryland in the semi-finals on Saturday.  If they win, the final is Memorial Day at noon.

I also went to my local YMCA today to give a status update to the friends with whom I play pickleball.  My tendon continues to heal nicely and I am hopeful that I can begin to play again in 3-4 weeks.

Stampwise, I have been working this evening on Peru covers and stationery.  The other day I added some Pope Francis postcards issued by SERPOST to the website and noticed how few covers and stationery I had listed.  So today, I have been correcting this.  I just finished scanning the stationery and hopefully by the time you read this, I have updated that webpage.  I also pulled about 30 covers to list which I should be adding the next several days.  I've also added 3 Peru collections this week, a mostly used one (PE-B-75-02); a very high quality collection (PE-75-06) and an interesting lot of cancels, revenues, etc.. (PE-10). There is also a very nice Bolivia mostly used collection (BO-75-33), a thousand stamp strong Nicaragua collection (NI-75-26) and a smaller but nice Ecuador lot (EC-75-03).  You can check them out on the collections page.  I also added bunches of material to the various Odds and Ends pages for each country.

May 4, 2025--I just finished putting up a few new collections including two interesting Bolivia collections--one a highly complete used grouping (BO-75-31) and an interesting first issue collection (BO-75-32) as well as a 19th century collection of Venezuela (VE-75-19).  I have linked to the collection pages.

The first of the 2025 issues of Argentina have arrived as did the box of Honduras I mentioned last week.  I haven't dug in yet, but hope to this week.  I will provide more details once the purchase is completed.  Finally, I did update the monthly special.  May will be 40% off FDCs and Post Office Announcements.

To talk football a bit, I am very pleased with the Buffalo Bills and their off-season signings of players as well as their choices in the NFL draft.  Maybe this is the year that we will finally get past KC and get to the Superbowl.  I also met this evening via Zoom with my college buddies from the University at Buffalo.  We were planning our 5th annual get together and trying to decide what weekend this fall to choose.  We do go to a Bulls football game but most of the weekend is just hanging out and catching up.  We have gone to Buffalo the past 4 years so we are considering games this year in Minneapolis, Kent (OH), and Amherst (MA).  We'll make our final decision this week.

Until next week...

April 28, 2025--Just a short note to let you know that I am back from Colombia.  My wife's surgery went well.  She remains in Colombia for her recovery and we hope to have her home in about 7 weeks.  My own recovery continues well on my torn tendon.

Stampwise, new issues are finally here from Peru after many long delays.  While I was in Colombia, I did also pick up the new issues over the past few months.  On Saturday, I purchased a high quality collection of Peru.  If you have a want list, I might be able to help on some better unused Peru sets.  Unfortunately, it didn't contain any War of the Pacific or early overprints, but there is a lot of attractive material from the beginning of the 20th century.

Also, I have a banker box of material from Honduras arriving this week.  I don't know what will be in it, but it comes from a longtime collector and should contain some impressive material.  I will keep you apprised as I put parts of it into stock.

Have a great week. I hope to be back to regular updates now that I am home.

April 1, 2025--Time has again gotten away from me.  About a month ago, I injured my forearm playing pickleball.  I felt a pop and it hurt like hell for a bit and I figured I had pulled a muscle.  However, after the pain recurred several times I went in for an MRI and found out that I had torn the tendon in my bicep. I had surgery on the 21st to reattach it.  What that meant was I was unable to fill orders for most of the past two weeks as the tear was in my dominant hand and the soft cast prevented me from writing and made trying to pick up binders virtually impossible.  I am now using a brace and even though it is still awkward, I have restarted filling orders.  If you have a pending order and haven't heard from me, feel free to send me a reminder even though I am trying to catch up now.

I will also be out of the country (in Colombia) from April 6-20th.  My wife is having surgery there...much more serious stuff than what I have had to deal with.  Please keep Ana Maria in your thoughts and prayers.

All 2024 issues are here with the exception of Peru.  I am missing a few from Colombia and will pick them up during my trip; a few from Guatemala that I should get in May and a few from Mexico that I am trying to track down.  I have spoken to someone about a very comprehensive collection of Honduras which I should be gettting in the next few months.  There is also a collection of Guatemala on the horizon.  That's it for this update.  Lots of new material has been added to the website, so please check out your collecting interests.

February 27, 2025--I just realized I hadn't made an update since the beginning of the month.  Quite a bit of new material is here.  New issues have arrived from Argentina, El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay.  More are on the way...Brazil, Chile, Panama and Peru should all be arriving soon.  It also looks like I will be travelling to Colombia in the next few weeks and will bring back the remaining 2024 issues and the first issues of 2025.

Lots of new collections from all over Latin America have been listed. 

One of the frustrations I have being a part-time dealer is that I am unable to keep price lists 100% updated.  Sometimes that means that stamps listed as available are out of stock, but it can also mean that stamps I have acquired are not on the lists.  I do keep more than 90% of Latin America in stock at all times, so, if you don't see something on my lists, I might have it.  Feel free to send me a want list of what you need.

Another thing I have been working on is the "Odds and Ends" part of the website.  On the home page of the stamps, it is the bottom button on the left handside.  This page is for varieties (Scott listed or not), unlisted materials, unusual multiples, and other interesting items that don't fit elsewhere on the website.  Check it out, there are fascinating finds there to spruce up your specialized collection.

February 2, 2025--The past few falls, I have taken a trip up to Buffalo, NY to hang out with my college buddies for a weekend and catch-up.  One of my closest friends is an avid player of pickleball and he introduced me to the sport.  I finally got around to joining the local Y in order to play regularly and I am enjoying it immensely.  And, it is exercise that I actually like doing.  Despite that, some muscles that I haven't used in a while have been unhappy with the process and have reintroduced themselves to me.  Today it was the groin muscle in my left leg.  Going straight or downstairs is fine, but going upstairs today has proven quite a challenge.

Stampwise, I have begun the process of separating out the covers from postal stationery.  You will note some changes on the cover page.  It is a work in progress--I still have a number of countries to separate out, but the ideas was to shorten the length of the webpages--some of which were getting very long.  I also have been adding quite a number of new covers.  Most are from Bolivia, but I have also added a very nice bisect of #31 from Uruguay; a C1 cover from Chile, zeppelin covers from Argentina and Brazil, among many others.

New issues from Mexico and Paraguay have been listed and Panama has finally been ordered.  Brazil new issues are on their way, as are new issues from Argentina and El Salvador.  Uruguay is supposed to ship in the next two weeks and I will order the Peru and Chile as soon as my suppliers from those two countries answer emails.  I will also be adding to stock additional Bolivia handstamps from the past few years.  I believe I currently have a complete holding of the 160 or so different issues that received the handstamp--some in quantities of just 30 each (scarcer than the inverted Jenny)!!!

Some nice collections have just been added as well.  Check out Puerto Rico (PR-75-07), Colombia (CO-B-75-21) and Nicaragua (NI-B-25-22).  Enjoy your week.

January 26, 2025--Just finished watching the Buffalo Bills lose once again to KC...it's the fourth time our Superbowl hopes have been dashed by the Chiefs.  Exciting game but I am tired of coming out on the short end of the stick.

Stampwise, Costa Rica new issues have been added to that price list and a few postal stationery items to the covers page.  Some Mexico new issues are supposed to be in my PO Box tomorrow.  The previous shipment has gone missing (in the US mails, not Mexico's) so, some 2023 issues will not be available for a while.  My supplier will have to search for them again and I hope that nothing is sold out.  I also added a bunch of modern Honduras aerogrammes to the cover page for that country.  Finally, I added a nice little Dominican Republic collection in a Minkus binder (in great shape) to the collections page (DR-B-75-08).

One other thing I worked on this week was getting all of the Mexico Folios I have listed on the website.  For those not familiar with these, they are similar to the new issue post office announcements as they have the technical information (method of printing, format, size, quantity issued, etc.) but folios are printed on thick paper, replacing earlier post office announcements.  The announcements and folios are listed together on the FIRST DAY COVER page under Post Office Announcements.  The first folio is Scott 1859 and they have continued to date.  Link is to the left.

That's it for tonight.  Have a great week.

January 5, 2025--The Dominican Republic issues from the second half of 2024 have arrived as have additional issues from Brazil.  They are listed on the country price lists.  I also just added a small Peru/Chile collection in a Minkus album in great shape (with pages through 1985)...see PE-B-75-01 on the Peru collections page.

Not much else to tell.  I have added some Guyana orchid stamps to that price list.  I will be updating the Nicaragua price list to run an ad in the American Philatelist.  I currently have many items that are normally sold out, due to the purchase of two nice Nicaragua collections last year that I just finished integrating into stock.  One that ad is run, I just have to do Ecuador and Mexico to have run ads on every major Latin American country in the AP.  Have a great week.  Hopefully, I will have more news to share next Sunday.

January 1, 2025--What a shame that the new year celebrations were marred with acts of senseless violence.  My prayers go out to all of those impacted by the attacks

I have been off from work since the 23rd but I return tomorrow to my job at the University of Houston.  I was quite productive during the break, pricing up dozens of collections, getting new issues into stock and keeping up with orders.  I also assembled 6 bookcase extenders that will allow me more room for my stock.  I have over 300 stockbooks crammed with stamps, some of which overfilled but I didn't have the shelf space to create additional binders.  With these new shelves, I should be OK on space for the next 5 or 6 years.  But the holidays were not all about work...I spent a weekend up in the Sam Houston National Forest with some friends and spent a good amount of time with my dad.  I cooked special meals for Christmas (ham, squash casserole, mashed potatoes) and for new year (Colombian tamales and Chilean empanadas).  Everything turned out quite tasty.  The only downside was that my wife wasn't with us this holiday.  A few weeks before Christmas, she returned to Colombia for more medical treatment.  Hopefully, we will have her home in Houston soon and much healthier than when she left.

During January, I am running my semi-annual collection sale.  Ten percent off all Latin American collections (except those in RED) and twenty percent off all non-Latin collections.  I am also expecting a good number of new issues to be coming in...Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Honduras are already on the way.  Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay should be on their way soon.  I am working to order new issues from Paraguay, Peru and El Salvador (El Salvador issued stamps in 2024 for the first time in several years).  I expect to travel down to Guatemala to get the latest new issues in January or February.  I may have even found someone who can supply the new issues from Ecuador...this has been quite the challenge.  The post office is barely functioning, with no philatelic office to speak of and the post offices that are open don't seem to have the stamps.  Hopefully, the new contact will be able to come through with the stamps for the past several years.  Venezuela remains on hold due to sanctions, but I continue to work on obtaining the issues of the past few years.

I wish you a very happy, healthy and safe 2025.  ¡Feliz año nuevo!  Feliz ano novo!