| April 2016 | Dear Member, It is spring time, and things are moving fast. A lot has happened since the last newsletter we sent, and we look forward to sharing it with you. In this mail, we want to cover several subjects, as we find them both valuable and interesting. We have come a long way at Stampworld since the beginning, and we want to share the progress with you. We also want to show you a little bit of the road ahead. There are a few interesting new stamp issues that we will be looking at one from the United States, and one from France. We also wish to share the story about the Inverted Jenny Stamp with you, as this is a very rare stamp that has quite a history. We are thrilled to serve you this, and we hope that you will enjoy reading it. | | | Where are we now? At Stampworld we are always trying to improve. We currently have more than 125,000 members, and the number is steadily increasing everyday. We have more than 700,000 different stamps in the catalogue from all over the world. But Stampworld is much more than just a stamp catalogue, as we also have the option for members to buy and sell directly through the site. There are now more than 850,000 items for sale on Stampworld, all of which is for sale by individual sellers, and everyday more than 2,000 new items are added for sale. This is only possible, because of the great members that we have at Stampworld. Buying stamps through Stampworld is very simple and straightforward, and if you are unsure of the process, we have a video section, where the process is shown in great detail. You can check out the videos here If you have a collection that you wish to sell, or if you are a stamp dealer, you can easily become a seller yourself. You can see more information about becoming a seller or VIP member, by clicking here. You are also very welcome to reach out to us, in case you have any questions about this. | Current and Upcoming Stamp Issues | United States Postal Service: Sarah Vaughn: This stamp portraits one of the greatest singers in America, Sarah Vaughn. She was one of the most iconic American singers, known for her hits "Whatever Lola Wants" and "Autumn in New York", among other. She grew up in Newark, where she nurtured her musical talents in the local church choir. To read more about her background, click here. The stamp resembles a record sleeve, and is an oil painting based on a photo from 1955. It can be found in the Stampworld catalogue here. The issue was publicized on March 29th, and can be purchased directly from the United States Postal Service La Poste: EURO 2016: The European Football Cup, also known as EURO 2016, will be held in France this summer. In celebration of this event, the French postal service, La Poste, has issued a stamp, which was made available for purchase on April 2nd. The stamp is made using several innovative technologies, and shows three items the Cup Trophy, the official game ball, and the official logo of the EURO 2016. The three items are shown inside a circle of 24 stars, where each star symbolizes one of the 24 teams that will be competing in the Cup. To see more about the issue, visit La Poste. You can see the stamp in our catalogue here. | History lesson: Inverted Jenny Stamp: In 1918, the United States Postal Service decided to start sending mail by air. As airmail was much faster than regular mail, it was decided that a letter sent by airmail should cost 24 cents, which was much higher than the 3 cents it would cost to send a letter as first class mail. The postal service decided to issue a stamp specifically for this, showing the airplane, which was going to be carrying the mail, a remodeled Curtiss Jenny JN-4HM. The Stamp was printed in two colors the frame was red and the center was blue. This meant that the stamp had to go through the printing press twice, making room for errors. The postal service knew that there was a chance of misprints, and they were very careful, not to release any of the misprinted sheets. However, one inverted sheet made it out, and a lucky collector, William T. Robey, was able to secure it. After changing hands a few times, the sheet was broken into single stamps, and sold to collectors from all over the world, who paid dearly for the stamps. One of the stamps were sold in auction in 2007, at a price of more than $950,000. If you want to know more about the history of this stamp, you can find it here. At the New York Stamp Expo 2016, one of the main attractions will be one of the Inverted Jenny's, which will be auctioned off. The stamp will also be displayed, next to a functioning Curtiss Jenny, which is depicted on the stamp. If you feel inspired, you can see if you can find the Inverted Jenny in our catalogue, but we warn you, it is pretty well hidden! | What is next at Stampworld? We are always working to improve at Stampworld, and we are still committed to that. We are working on a whole range of great updates to the site, and particularly, we are working hard to finish the forum, which has been under construction for way too long. We are currently testing it for bugs, and we hope to have it ready soon. We are also looking to add more interesting content to Stampworld, in the form of articles and blog posts, among other things. If you would like to help us with that, either by contributing articles or blog posts, helping moderate the forum, or anything else, we would love to hear from you, and you can contact us at support@stampworld.com. In the coming weeks, we will also be presenting a new cooperation with a great company, which is one of the largest of its kind in the world of philately. We are super excited about this, and we hope that you will be too. To know more about this, stay tuned to the newsletter, where it will be featured in the next one. At Stampworld, we do our best to serve you the content that we believe you would appreciate the most. The best way for us to do that, is by knowing your specific areas of interests in relation to stamp collection. When we know what countries you are primarily interested in and what themes you prefer, we can provide you with content, news and great offers that relate to these areas. If you wish to fill in your interests, you can do it right here, or by going to your profile at Stampworld.com. | | | To stay informed about everything happening at Stampworld.com you can like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.You can also keep an eye on the website, as improvements are implemented regularly. If you wish to unsubscribe from our newsletter, you can follow the link at the very bottom of this mail. | | | | |