Israel Stamp Reviews

The "Alexandru Ioan Cuza Bicentenary" cover that features in this report arrived in Israel from Chișinău, Moldova courtesy of the International Moldovan Philatelic Society . In January of this year, the IMPS held a prize draw in which ten members were selected at random to receive the cover by mail. When the drawing results were announced in March, yours truly was listed among the winners. Just then, however, the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic began sweeping across the globe, and by the time the cover was issued postal authorities in many countries including Moldova had suspended international operations. It took until July for the cover to finally reach its destination. In a letter accompanying the cover, IMPS President Niall Murphy indicated that only twenty-four "Cuza" stamps were printed. Anticipating that some collectors might be tempted to capitalize on the stamp's rarity and sell it to the highest bidder on Sotheby's or eBay, Murphy expr...

Hardly a day goes by when one of the two main Israeli stamp collecting groups on Facebook does not see a message posted by a new member asking what to do with a deceased relative's stamp collection or sharing photos of a collection to solicit assessments of its worth. The responses to these messages typically range from silent disregard to curt replies a-la "worthless" and "garbage" to scornful rebukes. When Gal Rotem decided to sell his grandfather's collection, one look at the reality on Facebook was enough to convince him he needed to approach the situation differently if he were to have any hope of his collection getting noticed and being taken seriously. The end result was Ruvikrotem.com , a website registered with the goal of showcasing Grandpa Ruvik's 40-album collection and maximizing its value to potential buyers. But as Gal's involvement in digitizing his grandfather's collection grew, so did his fascination with it. The website ...