Welcome to the Club!

#1 · March 29, 2020, 11:08 am

Quote from Steve on March 29, 2020, 11:08 am
This website is my response to the Covid-19 pandemic. I created it as a means of reconnecting collectors living in self-isolation with the social side of our hobby. Hopefully, by the time this crisis is over, this website will have generated enough interest to continue as a useful promotional platform for the philately and postal history of southern Africa.

I am a South African postal historian living in the UK. I am a member of the Cambridge Philatelic Society and the South African Collectors’ Society. One of the things I enjoy most about my life in the UK is the easy access I have to its many stamp fairs and the trove of treasures that can be found here among the material that Ralph Putzel said was "slumbering in odd boxes and corners". Spending a Saturday morning hunting in the company of like-minded collectors has always been a great pleasure, as well as an education.

This ended abruptly when the Coronavirus crisis forced the closure of stamp fairs, society meetings and auctions. Overnight, my stamp world shut up shop. What was I to do? In looking around for a way to continue my participation with my hobby, I decided that self-isolation gave me the perfect opportunity to get my long delayed South African Philately Club website project up and running.

I first came up with the concept of the South African Philately Club in 2015. At the time, it seemed that a website that offered a combination of philatelic society displays and interaction with a stamp fair / auction would provide collectors with a new way of meeting, discussing, buying stamps and covers and displaying them. However, I did not take it much further than talk about it. Recently I discovered a 'Business card' from that time (see bottom, below), which I had prepared for CAPEX 2015 Stamp Exhibition in Cape Town. On it, I made so bold as to say that my 'anticipated launch date' for this website was 'Q1-2016'. Well, water under bridges, mice and men and all that! (On seeing it again, I was surprised to see how neatly the printed-both-sides business card below shows my love of Cape Town, postmarks, bokkies in all forms and pyromania.)

Well, as you can see, I have now made the South African Philately Club a reality. This is the first version of the website. It remains a work in progress. There is still a long way to go. There is much I want to add. Your feedback is welcomed. Please!

I decided to call it a ‘club’ because I thought this sounded less intimidating than a society. This club is free and open to all who have an interest in the philately and postal history of southern Africa. My hope is that you will use the Forum as ‘a medium for an exchange of views’. (Concise OED.) If you want to participate in the Forum, you must first sign in and become a member.

Another feature of this website is the Display area where your collections of philatelic and or postal history material can be shared with other viewers on-line across the global village. Readers can flip from display sheet to display sheet at the click of a button. Unfortunately, we are hostage here to the technology we use. At present, you cannot upload a Display yourself and will probably will never be able to. If you want to have your display included, please email the club for further advice on how best to do it at present: postmaster@southafricanphilatelyclub.com.

You may have some issues as you begin to use this site. If you do, please email your questions to: postmaster@southafricanphilatelyclub.com. As it is our aim to build up a comprehensive FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for the purpose of assisting members with ready answers, it is important that you email us about any difficulties you are experiencing.

I have a near total lack of technical programming skills. Getting this far with this website is due in large part to my wife. (On behalf of SA collectors everywhere, "Thanks, Possum!"). I am way out of my comfort zone here. I would rather be "playing" with my stamps.

I hope that you will find this website useful. The Club and its members look forward to hearing from you. We will all be a little less self-isolated when we receive your post.

Good luck, stay well, stay safe.

Stefanus.

South African Philately Club.

Email: postmaster@southafricanphilatelyclub.com.

This website is my response to the Covid-19 pandemic. I created it as a means of reconnecting collectors living in self-isolation with the social side of our hobby. Hopefully, by the time this crisis is over, this website will have generated enough interest to continue as a useful promotional platform for the philately and postal history of southern Africa.

I am a South African postal historian living in the UK. I am a member of the Cambridge Philatelic Society and the South African Collectors’ Society. One of the things I enjoy most about my life in the UK is the easy access I have to its many stamp fairs and the trove of treasures that can be found here among the material that Ralph Putzel said was "slumbering in odd boxes and corners". Spending a Saturday morning hunting in the company of like-minded collectors has always been a great pleasure, as well as an education.

This ended abruptly when the Coronavirus crisis forced the closure of stamp fairs, society meetings and auctions. Overnight, my stamp world shut up shop. What was I to do? In looking around for a way to continue my participation with my hobby, I decided that self-isolation gave me the perfect opportunity to get my long delayed South African Philately Club website project up and running.

I first came up with the concept of the South African Philately Club in 2015. At the time, it seemed that a website that offered a combination of philatelic society displays and interaction with a stamp fair / auction would provide collectors with a new way of meeting, discussing, buying stamps and covers and displaying them. However, I did not take it much further than talk about it. Recently I discovered a 'Business card' from that time (see bottom, below), which I had prepared for CAPEX 2015 Stamp Exhibition in Cape Town. On it, I made so bold as to say that my 'anticipated launch date' for this website was 'Q1-2016'. Well, water under bridges, mice and men and all that! (On seeing it again, I was surprised to see how neatly the printed-both-sides business card below shows my love of Cape Town, postmarks, bokkies in all forms and pyromania.)

Well, as you can see, I have now made the South African Philately Club a reality. This is the first version of the website. It remains a work in progress. There is still a long way to go. There is much I want to add. Your feedback is welcomed. Please!

I decided to call it a ‘club’ because I thought this sounded less intimidating than a society. This club is free and open to all who have an interest in the philately and postal history of southern Africa. My hope is that you will use the Forum as ‘a medium for an exchange of views’. (Concise OED.) If you want to participate in the Forum, you must first sign in and become a member.

Another feature of this website is the Display area where your collections of philatelic and or postal history material can be shared with other viewers on-line across the global village. Readers can flip from display sheet to display sheet at the click of a button. Unfortunately, we are hostage here to the technology we use. At present, you cannot upload a Display yourself and will probably will never be able to. If you want to have your display included, please email the club for further advice on how best to do it at present: postmaster@southafricanphilatelyclub.com.

You may have some issues as you begin to use this site. If you do, please email your questions to: postmaster@southafricanphilatelyclub.com. As it is our aim to build up a comprehensive FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for the purpose of assisting members with ready answers, it is important that you email us about any difficulties you are experiencing.

I have a near total lack of technical programming skills. Getting this far with this website is due in large part to my wife. (On behalf of SA collectors everywhere, "Thanks, Possum!"). I am way out of my comfort zone here. I would rather be "playing" with my stamps.

I hope that you will find this website useful. The Club and its members look forward to hearing from you. We will all be a little less self-isolated when we receive your post.

Good luck, stay well, stay safe.

Stefanus.

South African Philately Club.

Email: postmaster@southafricanphilatelyclub.com.

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Lonely_Shepherd has reacted to this post.

#2 · April 14, 2020, 9:54 pm

Well done Steve - let's hope it thrives [no reason why not]

Well done Possum - a tidy, simple, neat, uncluttered site & many more positive adjectives are available. One thought: as things grow it's quite useful to have an Index tab/subject Index [very much easier to start it early!]

Jamie Smith has reacted to this post.

#3 · May 6, 2020, 6:58 am

Thanks for setting up the Club Steve. We now need to give it a bit of a traction. Long time Cape of Good Hope collector and cut off from other collectors due to work for many years.

Jamie Smith has reacted to this post.