Tuesday 21 January 2020

Bushfire Auction - Christmas freak raises A$600!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Bushfire Auctions being run on Stampboards, into which I had put one of the Christmas mis-registration freaks that I had for sale.



The first one sold for A$125, or about £65.  The person who originally found them, from whom I got my supplies, then offered more, one of which went to the underbidder at $100, and the other three also sold for a further S375, making about £320 in total, contributing to the near $10,000 raised by the philatelic community.  The Australian catalogue producer contributed a whole case of specialist catalogues including 12 copies of the KG6 catalogue (overseas bidders will be required to pay postage on these but all other lots are postage free, it being paid by the donors).

All this is going to the Australian Salvation Army, known - in typically Australian fashion - as the Salvos:
The Salvation Army Bushfire Appeal who are a respected and highly trusted, very low overhead, (mostly volunteer) national body, who have organised a fleet of Food and Aid caravans like the one shown nearby, in the areas of current devastation NATIONALLY.

A hot meal, a cup of coffee, a bottle of water etc, and kind and compassionate words etc, will not bring anyone's home or livestock back sadly, but in a situation of shock and tragedy, it does show that someone cares, right there and then. 

Ditto the brave firefighters, who mostly are unpaid volunteers, and who risk their lives to save others and their homes - for them also, these Salvation Army Support Vans might be able to assist them too, in some tiny way, and lift morale, if we help fund many more of them.

Salvos by Mid Janaaury had served 225,000 meals to the front lines, via 165 Emergency centres.

All the auctions are listed here.   Some are over, of course, but there are auctions still running including a reasonable 1d black (and more to come), so take a look and if you want to bid, join the thousands who are members (but do carefully read the rules).

I've also put these up for offer:

The Scottish 'Condom' packs, which currently stand at £10 and which are not often seen intact:



And the National Trust retail hanging packs, the only special issue ever to be sold this way, currently standing at £15:



A lot of full- and part-time dealers read this blog.  If you have got any slow-moving stock that you would like to offer to help the people of Australia*, please send it to me and I will sell it with or without showing the source, depending on whether you want to remain anonymous.  Buyers don't pay postage, all the sellers are paying the postage, ie we will. (* We know their politicians haven't been very good in this crisis, but don't let that cloud your judgment!)

A schoolgirl in Canada donated her savings, and is being rewarded for her generosity by dozens of collectors and dealers sending her wildlife stamps from around the world.  We all have that sort of thing "sitting in a box", and I'm sure she will be thrilled to get all the mail.

Thank you for whatever you offer.  Let me know by email to the usual address (up there at top right) so that I know that it's coming.  Further progress reports will be made.



1 comment:

  1. Other than the plastic packaging, if only nice stamps were sold in more locations you picked off the shelves yourself...

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