The PosMalaysia hobby

The recent 'catch' by eBayers in Kota Kinabalu has been reported to the Police which didn't seem to be excited by the event, so a press conference was held on 18th June 2009 at Wisma Merdeka Complex. It was held in English but the poor Daily Express reporting didn't justify the effort, so the Chinese version from the Overseas Chinese News is also made available for those who can read Chinese. I hope the link will work as it is stored in a 'free' internet storage site :)

My eBay purchase from Australia arrived last week after the thief been detained by the Police & last night gantianexpress also confirmed he'd received a few overseas mail recently. It looks like we're back to the decent world, for the time being.

I'm not sure that's the last or the end to the story, I'm still worried because I was told that there are many more of the PosMalaysia staff are getting too 'exited' to be normal. For those of you that have been losing your mail for the passed ten years, you may breath for now, until the thieves are brought to the 'Taliban' justice, I don't think they are afraid as they have been doing it in a 'safe heaven' for too long.

I will be following the story for 'our' interest & post the latest here for your viewing. Comments on the subject will be most welcome and will make it more interesting. A round of applause for our heroes please !

A forge Kuching post mark ???

I received an email from owley of Australia yesterday regarding my posting on 2nd June, 2008. He suspected the post mark might be a forge KUCHING post mark on the 18c stamp. I went home to do an other check, the result as shown above. I found it a good match of the Proud D.7 post mark. I have not seen the forge KUCHING post mark, so I cannot tell the difference. I would be grateful if I can have more comment and information from you all, on this subject.

Our local eBayer heroes have caught a postal thief in Kota Kinabalu and reported to the Police. I have not seen it reported on the newspaper yet but will be after the progress of the matter. Meanwhile, you may click PosMalaysia's enemies to have fun. Before all the stolen goods buyers are caught, you might still find good material here, especially if you are a 'red-hair devil' :)

Another fake postmark on eBay

Watch the top left corner carefully, you will see the bar cancel. A 'squared-circle' stamping over the bar-cancel is a common trick by the greedy people. I'm not saying the British seller is a cheat, but when offering any item worth hundreds of $, be careful. Bidders for used North Borneo stamps at eBay, 'jab-sang-lah'. I got cheated before, and might be again if I'm careful.

Glad to see that the seller spotted the fault & re-valued this stamp to start bidding from GBP0.99 & mentioning the bar cancel. So it's not all bad for me to delay posting for a few days.

jeremy6139 is supposed to be in town today but I've not been contacted yet. Will write again after our 'yam-cha' session which I'm sure will happen soon.

"Gook-Miao-Mee-Sui'

"Gook-Miao-Mee-Sui" in Hakka means "Forcing a cat to dive" i.e. forced to do something unwillingly.

A eBayer friend won a book some years ago was being heard of this ownership by an Official of Sabah Archives. Many attempts to buy off this book from my 'well-off' friend failed. But after many sleepless nights, my 'good-hearted' friend came up with a good ideal & conditioned that Sabah Museum will re-print this book after his donation, so that all of us can buy a copy. Now the feeling of "Gook-Miao-Mee-Sui" has left my friend & I thank him for giving us the opportunity to own a copy of this important book, though it will not be the "Complimentary copy' to Harry Keith as it originally was.

Last night gantianexpress and I went to meet the visiting Mr.Chai from Sarawak, who is an advance philatelist of Sarawak, a friend of g-matang, and a member of the SSS. He showed us some of his North Borneo material, including document and maps that he was trying to dispose of. We ended up buying a few covers from him before we left the hotel. Nothing very spectacular but a sign of good gesture that's all, to a fellow collector. But we know he has a lot of good stuff. He has recently published a postcard book.

A Japanese officer in North Borneo

Have not written for quite some time due to the failure of my scanner, not an excuse, I've now got a new Conoscan Lide 100 at a reasonable price :)

I have obtained a copy of interesting old photo taken someway in North Borneo during the Japanese Occupation but without much information. I only know that the Jap officer on the left survived the WWII and was returned to Japan, living 'happy ever after' till he passed away in the 1980's. Any information to help identify this officer will be highly appreciated.

Some 'goodies' were won by bury1883 and gantianexpress during the passed 2 months, hopefully I will be able to obtain the scan to show them here soon.

g-matang has expressed his intention to come to Kota Kinabalu in late February but gantianexpress and I have not received the confirmation yet. We are looking forward to meet him here and bury1883 also hoping to be able to make a trip here to meet him. jeremy6139 from UK has confirmed to come and will arrive in KK on 14th March, surely there will be a few 'yam-cha' sessions like last year :)

kbgoh has send me an email for a trip they have organized, to a China stamps exhibition in mid-April. For those who are interested to join them or wanting to know more about it, please email to let me know, I shall forward all the relevant information.

Merry Christmas & a 'jab-see-gai' 2009

Met gantianexpress in Singapore on 2nd December & g-matang picked us up to see his Airmail cover collection. He specialized in Sarawak & North Borneo 1945 and earlier covers. It was an eye-opening event, and the story behind each cover was making the collection very interesting.

3rd December gantianexpress went home to Sabah. A couple of days later I was him winning this stamp with a clear 'ELOPURA' postmark. So, we in Singapore knew that he was well & bidding from KK :)

I saw SALES before Christmas in Singapore this year, showing sign of recession. I don't know even SALES will help in Sabah businesses but I still cannot win North Borneo stamps cheaply at eBay :)

In this recession time, I'm wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and hope you pick up more bargain at eBay in 2009. Buy more to help beat recession (I will if I have the money :).

Postage Due with stop

Nice used copy of this difficult stamp won by tapiapi at ebay recently. Not many interesting items from Borneo being offered for the past month, except some from colchew, a Sabahan collector specialize in Japanese Occupation & early items, but they were never cheap for those quality items. gantianexpress may have picked up some nice items from him and a bag or two for the wife :)

I have been trying to jab-see-gai from Jeremy6139's Br. Commonwealth listing with little success, any winning will be delivered by hand on Jeremy6139's next trip to KK, best service anywhere in the world :)

Raining very often since August, I received no 'yam-cha' SMS from gantianexpress last night, so it'll be the next good Saturday for 'yam-cha' unless gantianexpress buys a cow for 10 cents, or something like that in the next few days :)

Xinjian photo from g-matang

Received a few photo from g-matang taken during his last Xinjiang trip, without any description from him, so it's up to my imagination. Please comment to let me know when I'm wrong :)

This may be the 'Lake of Heaven', I'm not sure but it's beautiful enough, whatever you call it.

This is not g-matang in disguise, I'm sure.
But I'm guessing the background mountain is 'TianShan' where the 'Seven Swordsman' came from.

I wonder if this was the cow that chewed the letter from Gantian to Xinjian ?
In case she has digestive problem, treasure hunt may be on. Hope g-matang didn't miss it :)

I was hoping to see photo of g-matang drinking horse milk tea & eating BBQ camel in the town, may be he'll send them to me next time.He missed the grapes-festival in mid-August that I'll love to see. Hope one day I can organize a trip to see it with gantianexpress, bury1883 etc..since it is a philatelic desert, according to g-matang, so there'll be no conflict of interest going with these guys.

Hope to see some posting from tapiapi, if he has no problem with the technical side of it. Otherwise I'll be happy to do it for him, like this one I'm doing for g-matang. But please give me the description of each photo, or I'll have to 'fire-dog' (bullshit) my way through :)

May be I'll have some photo from jeremy6139 ? Now Beijing Olympics is over, we're looking forward to London2012 !!! Meanwhile, back to work & sleep early.

Hello Johnny,

Turns out I had already set up a Google account. Unfortunately, I have not been lately winning anything of interest, but I am sure a few nuggets will appear. Cheers!

Papar & Keningau ealy post marks

A nice lot won by gantianexpres recently at a good price, ssstawao earlier won a cover with the Papar pmk at 5 times the price of this lot. The two big chops were used before the official steel chops were ready, so they were used for a short period. The 1st Papar provisional chop (without the center box) was used in 1949 before this 'boxed' chop. Keningau and Semporna were the other two towns using the provisional chop (without the center box). 2nd provisional chop with the center box only used in Papar. Date inverted are known and seen for these post marks.

Have not heard from bury1883 for quite some time but received a short SMS from him last week regarding a politician, therefore I know he is not yet obsolete. Hope to hear from g-matang about his last Sinjiang trip, there must be a lot of good stories :)

1909 North Borneo 18c used

Just to let some friends know that I'm still alive & kicking hard :)

I have a few copies of this 18c used but all with the Sandakan CDS, this is the 1st non-Sandakan I've collected. Being overprinted about 2 months after issue date, I expected very few used copies, I have suspected favored canceling at Sandakan PO afterwards, though I've seen one Sandakan used on postcard, owned by gantianexpress. Hope other collectors could enlighten me on this subject.

jeremy6139 should be back from holiday in Spain by now. g-matang has gone to Xinjiang last weekend, I guess he's drinking horse milk tea & looking for stamp-shops like all of us would do. Hope he found a love letter from my grandpa to his secret girlfriend in China more than 20 years ago, thereafter, any communication would not be via postal services :)

This was a KUCHING forge postmark instead of a real KUDAT postmark. Thanks for the information from 'owley' of Australia, also a member of the SSS.

Rare Labuan red dots postmark

If I don't write again, I'll have to use 'cut & paste' to answer many email.

Our friend 'tapiapi' has won many useful North Borneo & Labuan lately. I noted this 'Rare Labuan red dots postmark', I remember a friend paid 5 times the realized price for a fine used copy. 'tapiapi' has go a bargain here.

It is getting more and more difficult to 'jab-see-gai' these days, even the CTO are getting expensive. So I can only show those my friend won.

Our UK seller friend is going back home next week. Hopefully we'll see some useful listings. Our 'yam-cha' session last Saturday saw 'srilabuk', 'chephe' & 'gantianexpress', where 'gantianexpress' showed us the photo of his recent acquisition of a North Borneo Japanese Occupation used in Lahad Datu, very impressive at a bargain price.

Had not heard from 'bury1883' for some time, later received a phone call from him telling me his children were home for X'mas & CNY, so he was so busy that he even missed some nice items at ebay. He then went to China searching for his 'root' (or most likely stamps). Now back to Tawau, may be studying the 'after-effect' of our recent election result :) I know too little to comment on our domestic politics :) so don't tempt me.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas !!! Wishing you one year older but one year wiser :)

Picked up a 'jab-see-gai' for a few bucks last month. The C & s in Cents dropped variety not mentioned in the SG catalog as informed by tapiapi. The variety is recorded in ISC catalog by Steven Tan, but not priced. Advised by sarawakiana to publish this here to benefit those who have no ISC catalog.

I've slow down buying to avoid the 'high risk period' (November to March) as our postal service is not that reliable.

Last week saw chephe out-snipe sstwao for a North Borneo 1964 cover to Germany at a very high price. I wonder if he was bidding on behalf of somebody else, he is only collecting FMS seriously. I suspected gantianexpress, if so this guy (sorry, wrong spelling, this horny fellow is not gay) is stabbing his 'brother' from the back :) I have not asked, not sure if I should be so curious. Hope gantianexpress will make a comment here to clear his name for Christmas. I'm not accusing, but he's the prime suspect, bury1883 already phone up to test the water.

Let the festive season be kind & forgiving !!! After that....we can fight dirty again.

The lazy man responded...

Sorry gang.... being lazy & will be busy in the last 2 months of 2007. Really...!!!

I will be very happy if anyone can identify the post mark of the top 3 stamps for me. I offered 25% of the seller's selling price but rejected, so I have to stay happy just keeping the scan :)

The bottom row, $2 & $5 are 'JUDICIAL' perfin. This lot saw bury1883 out-snipe tapiapi & gantianexpress on 09-Oct-07 at a reasonable price. bury1883 said he would sell the $2 stamp to his gang, sstawao, one more happy man :) who was out-snipe by me for the $1 perfin in October, 2000.

My friend, gantianexpress, has not been very happy recently. He was out-gunned by a kudat109 for a North Borneo collection containing a very nice GAYAH S.O.N pmk and some other nice cancels. It was a 4 snipers fight, with bury1883, tapiapi came in 3rd & 4th, a total of 13 bids. Almost all the 'kaki' turned up :) The scan is too big to be included here, you may check eBay item#220162218432 , for those who're too late to see the scan from eBay may email me for it. How can I not saved the scan for this event :)

gantianexpress, chephe & yours truly interrogated a suspect as kudat109 and got a confession. We now know who is kudat109 :) gantianexpress was denied the pleasure of torturing during the process, that I can assure you !

Lost 4 overseas letters to Jurong East, Singapore since September, the total lost in 2007 is now 10. Hope it'll end soon. It looks like very little SingPost can do. When thieves are not caught & punished, stealing will continue (I'm telling you, chephe, report to the police ! :)). To pay shipping by registered mail every time, is not an option for 'jab-see-gai', it defeats the purpose :) So good luck friends, prayers will not be entertained !