News — hobby

  How far can you travel on $14.80? Recently we sold an item on eBay to one of our longtime customers in Peru. Because of the cost of the item we sent it by registered mail. Typically international registered mail takes anywhere between 10 days to 2 months to arrive depending on the destination. This cover took a bit longer… and a bit of a detour. Thanks to electronic tracking implemented in many countries that are part of the Universal Postal Union, we can quickly locate letters and packages with a few keystrokes. Given the nature of our mailings, we...

Currently, you can find millions of things to buy on eBay. From clothing to cologne, it seems anyone can sell almost anything. But listing an item for sale is just the first step in starting a successful business as a seller.  Recently, one of our buyers asked for some tips on how he could start his own store, and we thought the information might be interesting to others: Nik and I started selling stamps about 12+ years ago as a hobby.  Nik had collected since he was a kid.  We started out selling some of his duplicates to pay for...

We wanted to pass along a THEFT ALERT from the American Philatelic Society.  They sent out an email alert to dealer members and we wanted to post it so that others could see it. The text of the email from the APS is as follows:   Stamp Theft alert shared for Lawrence Clement:  Stolen collection of World War ll German occupation  stamps, p to z countries and  Japan/Japanese occupation stamps.  There are many Burma occupation stamps with the peacock overprint including 1N1-3, 1N29 (2 copies), 1N45-6, 1NO1, etc.   The stamps are on hanger pages with 3/4 inch white tape with...

Hours of enjoyment come from this hobby, even when you are a dealer.  Last evening I was breaking down a collection from El Salvador and came upon a very interesting stamp.  I came upon a series of official stamps that had two examples of one denomination.  The stamp is Scott #O331, a 12c brown National Palace issue, with "OFICIAL" overprinted diagonally.  The collector indicated that the second was a darker color shade variety.  I looked at it and it also appeared to be at first glance just a darker version of the brown color.   However, after closer inspection, the...

  Welcome to the inaugural blog for OquistStamps.  We will be periodically posting helpful information for the philatelic community.  While we are an active dealer, we are committed to providing information regarding all aspects of philately.   One of the most rewarding things about our hobby is the new discoveries that are constantly occurring.  Whether it's new information about a specific issue, or ways to detect forgeries we are constantly learning.   Check back every now and then for new information that we'll be passing along.   For now, happy stamping!!   Nik and Lisa