Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Call me crazy, but I'm having fun!
David
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Crazy!
rrr...
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I have a similar topical collection, but for VW Beetles only, as that was my first car.
Tedski
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A slightly modified VW Bus ...
Ryan
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02:04:16pm
The People's Car is an intriguing subject, both on stamps and in Matchbox sized toy cars.
I bought my first VW Transporter, Deluxe in 1963.
Like this but gray and white.
I used it to carry friends out to Westhampton Beach, Long Island where we could pull out between the dunes, camp around a fire and swim, before all the expensive homes were built and the "No Parking" signs proliferated.
Then I had a '66 model and had the chance to attend the VW schools in Orangeburg, New Jersey
I set it up for camping and my then fiancee, and later wife, and we traveled all over the East Coast on weekends and vacations as far north as the Canadian border in Vermont and south to Parris Island, South Carolina.
Then one day one of my customers offered to sell me his almost identical Red Transporter that he had kept meticulously clean, garaged and properly serviced for a price that was on the borderline of charity. I scrapped the "66 and moved everything over to the "newer 1969" and my wife and I continued to go on trips with that vehicle, but of course there were three or four children to keep us busy and we sometimes took friends along. On one month long trip to Florida there were the two of us, our then three children, a couple that had been living with us anyway and their two babies. We'd stop at campgrounds for he night or a few days and could set up our 10' x 10' tent in minutes. I know we looked like hippies on the run, but it was an experience I fondly remember.
This recent Aussie stamp sure brought back fond memories, although I never covered my VWs with decorations. We eventually parted with the VW Camper in favor of a bigger red Dodge B-350 to accommodate everyone and everything that we had to drag along when we got up to sixth child.
And over the years, I owned several of the Beetle and Super Beetle models. The beauty of the VWs was that the basic design changed little between the 1930s when this German stamp was issued and the 1980s when I owned a Black 1966 Beetle.
I had owned and operated a Shell Gas Station / Repair Shop for years and my sign "Independent Volkwagan Repairs" brought me a lot of business that was being chased away by other shops because "Those foreign cars use METRIC nuts, bolts and wrenches" The more foreign cars that seemed to be at the shop the better my business ran.
This photo was taken after I sold the business.
I always kept a very clean shop and won several awards including being chosen as on of four Shell Stations nationwide, chosen to take part in a promotional film from among h thousands of similar businesses under the Shell logo.
when 
Now I have about 20 Hot Wheels or Matchbox VW models to entertain my grand children with when they visit.
There are a fair amount of examples of VWs on stamps but often they are relegated to a part of a busy background.
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Thanks Charlie, for the couple of examples in this new topical area. I would love to see any more examples that you (collectively) have.
Tim
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Very nice... and a wonderful story!
David
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Our first two cars in married life were Beetles.
Beetle enthusiasts might enjoy these sites:
http://www.japhila.cz/hof/0155/index0155a.htm
http://www.volkswagenstamps.com
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NZ Post had a VW in a set of 6 classic cars from 2000 - Classic Cars
I never owned a Beetle, but I did have a VW Transporter - Registration BEA8T.
....and a RED Golf GTI which someone decided to steal one night. The insurance paid out, but the police eventually found it 6 months later - too late!!
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This was the 5 RM sticker that had to be glued into the savings card for the new KdF car.
And what about this Golden Stamp :
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i suppose as your friend i am honor bound to send you this one. I remember when i was in the service in the early 1960s G.I.s were shipping the beetles home by the boatload. The windows and windshield glass had to be modified to meet U.S. safety specs.
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Well PhilB,
I know that G.I.'s also shipped over Messerschmits, Heinkels etc.
The hockey-team from my town played a lot of games in Baden-Baden, Lahr, Zweibrücken, Iserlohn.
That is why I know the stories..........
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Those T1 Transporters are worth a fortune nowadays. Even unrestored and in poor condition...
Well, correction. They used to be very expensive to buy, I don't know if that's still the case with all the uncertainties in this time of lockdowns.
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About those 5 Reichsmark stickers :
Originally, the car was supposed to be available for 990 Reichsmark (RM) (today around 4,300 euros).
A cash payment was not planned, but the interested parties could buy an unlimited number of 5 RM tokens and stick them on KdF-Wagen savings cards.
The first savings card (base card) also served as a purchase application.
The Second World War prevented delivery of the cars ordered in this way; Series production no longer occurred.
Since the VW factory started producing exclusively for war needs in 1939, none of the over 330,000 KdF savers got a car.
By the beginning of the war, 278 million RM had been held in an account of the Bank of German Labor; a great number of savers had their savings cards stuck to them and were therefore entitled to a vehicle.
In the war years, however, instead of the promised civilian KdF wagons, around 65,000 bucket and swimming cars and various other armaments were produced for the Wehrmacht.
After the war, many KdF savers asked for a Volkswagen to be delivered.
Since this was denied, the VW saver trial took place, which dragged on for years.
In 1961, the plant made a comparison with the former KdF savers: VW granted savers with a fully bonded KdF savings book a discount of 600 D-marks on a new car, almost one sixth of the new price of the cheapest version.
Those who wanted to be compensated with cash only received DM 100 instead.
Source : Wikipedia
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Thanks all for posting the VW stamps and stories. My father had a 1962 Beetle when I was 12. I remember that he got the speedometer up to 80 mph on a dirt road taking me to a birthday party that year once but made me promise to never tell my mother!
I never had a VW Beetle but had a VW Rabbit and two VW Golf's in succession before I got married. My wife has been hinting that I should consider an electric VW when I retire. I think she just wants to get the range down on where I might go. 
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I actually owned a Beetle briefly, even though I never liked them.
My 1967 Honda 305 Superhawk needed a bit of a rebuild, and the twin carbs made it a non-trivial project. So I had to get the cheapest thing I could for a few weeks while I was doing the rebuild after hours. What I found was a pale blue Beetle. Sold it at the first opportunity. Hope to never suffer with another. To each his own.
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I owned two Beetles in the late 60s and early 70s. The first one had a sunroof which never leaked. What it didn't have was a fuel gauge - instead there was a reserve tank you switched to by activating a lever down next to the clutch pedal. I remember one Easter Sunday we left Cambridge at about 11 pm to drive to London. I didn't remember how low the tank was, and the fuel ran out after a few miles. I switched to the reserve tank (5 litres) and decided to drive on in hope of finding a petrol station, but they were all closed. We eventually found one open just north of Enfield on the northern outskirts of London - great relief. That was well over 40 miles.
The second Beetle was a 1303s - with a fuel gauge but no sunroof.
Now we drive a Polo, which is rather boring! Ichabod, Ichabod.
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I did not know they existed on stamps........
Ein Kübelwagen typ 82 (a Beetle Jeep )
Does anyone know if there exists stamps of a Volkswagen Schwimmwagen (A swimming car)
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I never owned a VW but my buddy did in the early 60's i was used to cold weather back then but man the heater in that bug did not give much heat.
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I love the booklet with the stickers to get a KdF Wagen.
The Kubelwagen is neat. The Canadian Army, in the 1980s, had an Iltis. (Iltis = German for Polecat). It was manufactured by Bombardier, under licence from VW and looked like a modern kubelwagen. It was great to drive.
Just got a nice postcard of a VW van in the mail to-day, from one of my Postcrossing exchanges.
Thank-you all for sharing,
David
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David - I decided not to try Postcrossing because I think my wife would get very suspicious if I start getting postcards from unknown women …
All things considered, my need for a quiet life overcomes my curiosity about swapping postcards with complete strangers.
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This article might be of interest too:
https://www.renostamp.org/post_boy/articles/2016/Origins-of-the-VW-on-Stamps.pdf
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Thanks for the story jillcrow
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Jill:
A useful article; thank-you.
David
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"the heater in that bug did not give much heat"
Nope. That's because it was an air cooled engine. There was no radiator to provide warm water for the heater to use. The heater had to blow air across the engine block.
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The few times I was in a "bug" back in the late 60s, early 70s, there was a gas heater which worked really well, when it worked. Otherwise, on a cold winter's night everyone would be continuously scraping frost from the inside of all the windows, and freezing.
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Today I will share a postcard from my collection, mailed 12 April 1965 to Newton, Iowa, USA, with an Army-Air Force Postal Service APO 172 cancel from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, showing Volkswagens at the ski resort in Southern Germany. Just tie your skis on the back and off you go!
According to Wikipedia, Garmisch and Partenkirchen remained separate until their respective mayors were forced by Adolf Hitler to combine the two market towns on 1 January 1935 in anticipation of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games. The town is known as the site of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games, the first to include alpine skiing, and hosts a variety of winter sports competitions. During World War II, Garmisch-Partenkirchen was a major hospital center for the German military.
Linus
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Lovely postcard, Linus!
David
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A bit OT, but my wife drives a 2003 New Beetle, six speed standard. What a great car to drive! Back in the seventies she had a 19?? bug with "custom" push button start and barely a floor. Amazingly, it was stolen!
Geoff
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David,
You might be interested in this postcard, currently for sale on MAR Historical (Matthew A. Roth Historical):
The URL: https://www.marhistorical.com/en/info.php3?session_id=6qhvuukgpeotkqiobcbmf82v6c&orderNo=9068-3200108554
I've bought many Third Reich stamps, covers, and postcards from Matthew, with nary a problem. This particular postcard is going for US $75.
Bob
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Bob:
A wonderful postcard featuring German-built cars!
David
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I have started a new topical collection... Volkswagens on stamps. All types of vehicles made by VW, the Kubelwagen, Beetle, Passat, etc.
Call me crazy, but I'm having fun!
David
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re: Das Auto!
Crazy!
rrr...
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re: Das Auto!
I have a similar topical collection, but for VW Beetles only, as that was my first car.
Tedski
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re: Das Auto!
A slightly modified VW Bus ...
Ryan
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
22 Aug 2013
02:04:16pm
re: Das Auto!
The People's Car is an intriguing subject, both on stamps and in Matchbox sized toy cars.
I bought my first VW Transporter, Deluxe in 1963.
Like this but gray and white.
I used it to carry friends out to Westhampton Beach, Long Island where we could pull out between the dunes, camp around a fire and swim, before all the expensive homes were built and the "No Parking" signs proliferated.
Then I had a '66 model and had the chance to attend the VW schools in Orangeburg, New Jersey
I set it up for camping and my then fiancee, and later wife, and we traveled all over the East Coast on weekends and vacations as far north as the Canadian border in Vermont and south to Parris Island, South Carolina.
Then one day one of my customers offered to sell me his almost identical Red Transporter that he had kept meticulously clean, garaged and properly serviced for a price that was on the borderline of charity. I scrapped the "66 and moved everything over to the "newer 1969" and my wife and I continued to go on trips with that vehicle, but of course there were three or four children to keep us busy and we sometimes took friends along. On one month long trip to Florida there were the two of us, our then three children, a couple that had been living with us anyway and their two babies. We'd stop at campgrounds for he night or a few days and could set up our 10' x 10' tent in minutes. I know we looked like hippies on the run, but it was an experience I fondly remember.
This recent Aussie stamp sure brought back fond memories, although I never covered my VWs with decorations. We eventually parted with the VW Camper in favor of a bigger red Dodge B-350 to accommodate everyone and everything that we had to drag along when we got up to sixth child.
And over the years, I owned several of the Beetle and Super Beetle models. The beauty of the VWs was that the basic design changed little between the 1930s when this German stamp was issued and the 1980s when I owned a Black 1966 Beetle.
I had owned and operated a Shell Gas Station / Repair Shop for years and my sign "Independent Volkwagan Repairs" brought me a lot of business that was being chased away by other shops because "Those foreign cars use METRIC nuts, bolts and wrenches" The more foreign cars that seemed to be at the shop the better my business ran.
This photo was taken after I sold the business.
I always kept a very clean shop and won several awards including being chosen as on of four Shell Stations nationwide, chosen to take part in a promotional film from among h thousands of similar businesses under the Shell logo.
when
Now I have about 20 Hot Wheels or Matchbox VW models to entertain my grand children with when they visit.
There are a fair amount of examples of VWs on stamps but often they are relegated to a part of a busy background.
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re: Das Auto!
Thanks Charlie, for the couple of examples in this new topical area. I would love to see any more examples that you (collectively) have.
Tim
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re: Das Auto!
Very nice... and a wonderful story!
David
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02:28:00am
re: Das Auto!
Our first two cars in married life were Beetles.
Beetle enthusiasts might enjoy these sites:
http://www.japhila.cz/hof/0155/index0155a.htm
http://www.volkswagenstamps.com
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re: Das Auto!
NZ Post had a VW in a set of 6 classic cars from 2000 - Classic Cars
I never owned a Beetle, but I did have a VW Transporter - Registration BEA8T.
....and a RED Golf GTI which someone decided to steal one night. The insurance paid out, but the police eventually found it 6 months later - too late!!
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re: Das Auto!
This was the 5 RM sticker that had to be glued into the savings card for the new KdF car.
And what about this Golden Stamp :
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re: Das Auto!
i suppose as your friend i am honor bound to send you this one. I remember when i was in the service in the early 1960s G.I.s were shipping the beetles home by the boatload. The windows and windshield glass had to be modified to meet U.S. safety specs.
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re: Das Auto!
Well PhilB,
I know that G.I.'s also shipped over Messerschmits, Heinkels etc.
The hockey-team from my town played a lot of games in Baden-Baden, Lahr, Zweibrücken, Iserlohn.
That is why I know the stories..........
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Approvals
re: Das Auto!
Those T1 Transporters are worth a fortune nowadays. Even unrestored and in poor condition...
Well, correction. They used to be very expensive to buy, I don't know if that's still the case with all the uncertainties in this time of lockdowns.
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re: Das Auto!
About those 5 Reichsmark stickers :
Originally, the car was supposed to be available for 990 Reichsmark (RM) (today around 4,300 euros).
A cash payment was not planned, but the interested parties could buy an unlimited number of 5 RM tokens and stick them on KdF-Wagen savings cards.
The first savings card (base card) also served as a purchase application.
The Second World War prevented delivery of the cars ordered in this way; Series production no longer occurred.
Since the VW factory started producing exclusively for war needs in 1939, none of the over 330,000 KdF savers got a car.
By the beginning of the war, 278 million RM had been held in an account of the Bank of German Labor; a great number of savers had their savings cards stuck to them and were therefore entitled to a vehicle.
In the war years, however, instead of the promised civilian KdF wagons, around 65,000 bucket and swimming cars and various other armaments were produced for the Wehrmacht.
After the war, many KdF savers asked for a Volkswagen to be delivered.
Since this was denied, the VW saver trial took place, which dragged on for years.
In 1961, the plant made a comparison with the former KdF savers: VW granted savers with a fully bonded KdF savings book a discount of 600 D-marks on a new car, almost one sixth of the new price of the cheapest version.
Those who wanted to be compensated with cash only received DM 100 instead.
Source : Wikipedia
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re: Das Auto!
Thanks all for posting the VW stamps and stories. My father had a 1962 Beetle when I was 12. I remember that he got the speedometer up to 80 mph on a dirt road taking me to a birthday party that year once but made me promise to never tell my mother!
I never had a VW Beetle but had a VW Rabbit and two VW Golf's in succession before I got married. My wife has been hinting that I should consider an electric VW when I retire. I think she just wants to get the range down on where I might go.
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re: Das Auto!
I actually owned a Beetle briefly, even though I never liked them.
My 1967 Honda 305 Superhawk needed a bit of a rebuild, and the twin carbs made it a non-trivial project. So I had to get the cheapest thing I could for a few weeks while I was doing the rebuild after hours. What I found was a pale blue Beetle. Sold it at the first opportunity. Hope to never suffer with another. To each his own.
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re: Das Auto!
I owned two Beetles in the late 60s and early 70s. The first one had a sunroof which never leaked. What it didn't have was a fuel gauge - instead there was a reserve tank you switched to by activating a lever down next to the clutch pedal. I remember one Easter Sunday we left Cambridge at about 11 pm to drive to London. I didn't remember how low the tank was, and the fuel ran out after a few miles. I switched to the reserve tank (5 litres) and decided to drive on in hope of finding a petrol station, but they were all closed. We eventually found one open just north of Enfield on the northern outskirts of London - great relief. That was well over 40 miles.
The second Beetle was a 1303s - with a fuel gauge but no sunroof.
Now we drive a Polo, which is rather boring! Ichabod, Ichabod.
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re: Das Auto!
I did not know they existed on stamps........
Ein Kübelwagen typ 82 (a Beetle Jeep )
Does anyone know if there exists stamps of a Volkswagen Schwimmwagen (A swimming car)
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re: Das Auto!
I never owned a VW but my buddy did in the early 60's i was used to cold weather back then but man the heater in that bug did not give much heat.
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re: Das Auto!
I love the booklet with the stickers to get a KdF Wagen.
The Kubelwagen is neat. The Canadian Army, in the 1980s, had an Iltis. (Iltis = German for Polecat). It was manufactured by Bombardier, under licence from VW and looked like a modern kubelwagen. It was great to drive.
Just got a nice postcard of a VW van in the mail to-day, from one of my Postcrossing exchanges.
Thank-you all for sharing,
David
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re: Das Auto!
David - I decided not to try Postcrossing because I think my wife would get very suspicious if I start getting postcards from unknown women …
All things considered, my need for a quiet life overcomes my curiosity about swapping postcards with complete strangers.
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02:36:27am
re: Das Auto!
This article might be of interest too:
https://www.renostamp.org/post_boy/articles/2016/Origins-of-the-VW-on-Stamps.pdf
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re: Das Auto!
Jill:
A useful article; thank-you.
David
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re: Das Auto!
"the heater in that bug did not give much heat"
Nope. That's because it was an air cooled engine. There was no radiator to provide warm water for the heater to use. The heater had to blow air across the engine block.
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04:23:34pm
re: Das Auto!
The few times I was in a "bug" back in the late 60s, early 70s, there was a gas heater which worked really well, when it worked. Otherwise, on a cold winter's night everyone would be continuously scraping frost from the inside of all the windows, and freezing.
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re: Das Auto!
Today I will share a postcard from my collection, mailed 12 April 1965 to Newton, Iowa, USA, with an Army-Air Force Postal Service APO 172 cancel from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, showing Volkswagens at the ski resort in Southern Germany. Just tie your skis on the back and off you go!
According to Wikipedia, Garmisch and Partenkirchen remained separate until their respective mayors were forced by Adolf Hitler to combine the two market towns on 1 January 1935 in anticipation of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games. The town is known as the site of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games, the first to include alpine skiing, and hosts a variety of winter sports competitions. During World War II, Garmisch-Partenkirchen was a major hospital center for the German military.
Linus
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re: Das Auto!
Lovely postcard, Linus!
David
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05:40:58pm
re: Das Auto!
A bit OT, but my wife drives a 2003 New Beetle, six speed standard. What a great car to drive! Back in the seventies she had a 19?? bug with "custom" push button start and barely a floor. Amazingly, it was stolen!
Geoff
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re: Das Auto!
David,
You might be interested in this postcard, currently for sale on MAR Historical (Matthew A. Roth Historical):
The URL: https://www.marhistorical.com/en/info.php3?session_id=6qhvuukgpeotkqiobcbmf82v6c&orderNo=9068-3200108554
I've bought many Third Reich stamps, covers, and postcards from Matthew, with nary a problem. This particular postcard is going for US $75.
Bob
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re: Das Auto!
Bob:
A wonderful postcard featuring German-built cars!
David
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