Month 2 Comes to a Close Listing of Jubilees Begins, Huge Purchases Made and Apprehension Starts

I am now at the end of my second month, and while I am happy with much of my progress to date, I fear that I am not getting material listed quickly enough. The administrative tasks of running a business all chew up time and cut into the core business activity. Without employees, I am left having to do everything myself. So Steph and I had a chat last night about my workload and we decided that for the next little while, I am not going to clean during the week, and for dinners we will make use of my new cookbook for Slow Cookers, so that I can get the prep done the night before which will save me some time. I've also been spending an hour or more composing many of these posts, so I may go a bit lighter on future posts for a little while. As I try out the slow cooker recipes, I will share the better ones in  future posts.

I have begin to list the stamps of the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Issue which appeared in June 1897 to Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign. There were 16 stamps in the set ranging in face value from half a cent to five dollars. The first two stamps of the set look like this:

They really are exquisite examples of engraver's art and remain very popular with philatelists to this day. A complete set in below average condition can be put together for about $3,500, but a really top notch quality set will set you back at least $30,000, as there were 5 dollar values and each of them can cost upwards of $5,000 in top notch condition. 

This week I also spent $9,000 of the investor funds that I received, filling in the gaps that were present in my British West Africa stock. I had begin amassing Gambia, Gold Coast, Ghana, Morocco Agencies and Sierra Leone in preparation for my offering of these countries in 1-2 years time. I had purchased a considerable amount in July at auction and had just sorted it out this past week so that I could see where the gaps are. I then went online and begun purchasing some of the missing stamps at retail. I paid more for these stamps than I had buying at auction, but many of these stamps were the ones that are not coming up for sale at auction because of their scarcity, and I believe that I can mark them up accordingly. So My base stock in these areas is now almost complete, and I can begin building it up as sales of Canada and Nigeria increase. 

So, I'm still optimistic, but apprehensive now, as I can definitely feel the clock ticking.