If you sent me cards and I haven’t returned the swap, please contact me and at least verify if I have received a card from you.  Don’t hesitate to contact me! Before I left, I posted mail to some swappers so please let me know if you’re received mail from me.  If not, I can check to see if I had sent you a return swap.

Anyway, enjoy the weekend!

• Bhavin Gada – Kenya (1 regular mail, 2 registered as requested)
• Aleksander Pliszka – Poland
• Natasa Hanakova – Slovak Republic
• Mel Maydon – UK
• Ger Hungerink – Netherlands
• Ivy Abrogena – Saudi Arabia (1 regular mail, 2 written+stamped cards)
• Sergey Lazarenko – Khazakhstan
• Michael Elbers – Germany
• Anis Wahyuni – Indonesia
• Chintu Agrawal – India – (registered)

I’ve also made the mistake of not registering both bulk mail.

All the cards I’ve been buying so far have cost me 5 rupees each, so that’s almost 150 rupees in the drain.

Here’s the interesting part…two or three swappers have not posted cards in return yet.  One gave me an excuse that they were ‘busy’. o_0 …this coming from a swapper who asked me to send a card (as opposed to me being the one to ask).

Seriously people, if you don’t have time to swap why do you? As I was getting back into the swapping game, it was partially my fault for initiating most of the swaps.

The following are swappers who I sent cards to (first batch and second batch).  The ones in green are swappers I’ve already received cards in return from, and the ones in red are swappers who I have not received cards from:

• Lee Hock Peng – Singapore
• Mirek (1 card) – Poland
• NourEddine (5 cards) – Tunisia
• Rupendra (5 cards) – India
• Magdalena (5 cards) – Poland
• Petrochenko (5 cards) – Russian Federation
• Chiara (5 cards) – Italy
• Leticia (3 cards) – Spain
• Godfrey (10 cards) – Philippines | Communicated: Has never received the cards I sent
• Mirek Chomka, Poland (1 written card)
• Vendula Špieglová, England (1 written card)
  
• Arslan Petersen, Denmark (2 written cards)
• Marlon F. Vicente, Philippines (1 u/u card) | Communicated: Have sent cards
  
• Mervat Salman, Jordan (1 u/u card)
• Annerie Meijer, Netherlands (3 u/u cards)
• Agnieszka Smandek, Poland (5 u/u cards) | Communicated: Have sent cards
  
• Arnab Chatterjee, India (6 u/u cards, 1 written card)
• Daniel Enrique Ladioray, Philippines, (3 written cards)
• J.S. Dominguez, Philippines (10 u/u cards)

Now, the way it works from here is, I attempt communication with them.  If this is possible, we have to come up with a resolution.  For those that I can’t seem to reach or connect to, I have to openly ask the swapping community if anyone can help me contact them.  If somebody is able to do this, they have to let the swapper know that I have not received any items in return and they have to contact me for a solution.

If I contact the community, and everyone replies saying that they have not been able to reach the person or they’ve had bad experiences with the person, this swapper is then placed in a swapper’s BLACKLIST.

A swapper’s black list should never be the first action taken against the person.  It should be the last resort.  Its purpose is to prevent others from swapping with the person or simple to raise caution so that others who want to swap with them will be careful.

Now, for me to have sent 19 envelopes and receive only 9 back is NOT good.

I even bought other collector items incl. costly stamp sets just so that viewcard collectors with extra Africa cards in their collection might be willing to offer me a card or two.  But believe me; it’s never been the case.  They simply didn’t have cards from Africa.

Anyway, I’ve already spent enough on viewcards alone, and posting so I’m done with that.  So that’s why I’m on Delcampe.  I’ve decided to sell the collector items I have and with that money earned I can purchase a few African postcards they have on there.  Most of these cards are from European collectors or sellers.  But the cards are so cheap, they go for less than a dollar in some cases.

The reason why I’m selling e.g. the stamp sheets is because I bought them for about 30-70 rupees per sheet.  Some stamp collectors have asked me for these, and in return they will send me postcards.  But I already have a lot of postcards from all around the world; so I don’t really want to entertain such offers.  I guess I’d rather have my money back.  But the great thing about my experience so far with Delcampe is that I’ve been able to sell some stuff on there, and make some profit; enough to have the money I paid for the stuff back and also enough to pay for African viewcards.

I figure it’s just a lot cheaper and a time-saver to buy a collectors item directly from someone who sells it; rather than spending several years searching for a collector and then negotiating an exchange item for that thing you want.

I’ve even gone as far as offering to buy African postcards…and nobody has offered me any card for whatever the amount.  It’s really different from the way I work or live my life; if I found out that anybody’s looking for a collectors item from Seychelles and they’re willing to buy it off me I would very gladly do it.  In fact, I have done so and I do so.

Thank you very much for the cards swappers, great swap!

• Italy
• Germany
• Spain
• Czech Republic
• Poland
• Singapore
• China
• France
• Philippines
• India
• Chile
• *There might be some more others.  Please ask me.