My good friend Robert Taylor has for many years collected Russian/Soviet postal history, but he also collects Nicaragua. After seeing the fun he has with that, I decided to take a Latin American philatelic mistress as well, and after lots of research settled on Paraguay. Post-WW2 Paraguay is pretty icky. Not only is there the political unpleasantness of the Stroessner regime, the philatelic pandering was blatant and off-putting. I mean, Paraguay issued "Europa" stamps!
19th century Paraguay has other problems. Prior to 1870 the country was essentially destroyed completely and started over from scratch. The first few issues are all but impossible to find on cover and it's not until the late 1880s that Paraguayan covers become obtainable. So after some thought I decided to pick the 1900-1945 period as my playing field.
It was a revelation! If I have more than 2 competitors for any Paraguayan eBay lot I am shocked! I don't know of any other serious Paraguay collectors in the USA, and even worldwide they seem to be thin on the ground. As a result, material - even rare or unique material - is CHEAP! I've bought absolutely unique items for a few hundred dollars at most. Proofs and essays, which I've always liked, are common for some issues and just scarce enough for others to make it interesting. And postal history seems to be a largely unexplored field. What more can any collector want?
Even in the Russian field there are such lovely little playgrounds. Post-Soviet material (say, up to 1995) is invariably interesting, and quite scarce from some countries (I'm looking at you, Georgia), although you do have to educate yourself to be able to spot the numerous forgeries and fantasy products. hey, I'm a Russian Civil War philatelic veteran, that sort of thing doesn't scare me!
Think about it. Tired of being outbid? Go weird!
 |
| Presentation card with color proofs for the second Paraguay 1903 definitive issue |
No comments:
Post a Comment