This page is going to be special - a kind of perpetuum mobile. New news will be added, obsolete ones deleted.
News: The collection of Dr. Zapppala is being dissolved and offered on ebay. There are many wonderful items, but if you collect GBLA, be careful, as only some items are really GBLA. Some prices are shown in another article on this blog, some items have been uploaded to the article on his imitations.
News: As there were complaints that internet translations of my articles from Slovak language do not provide satisfactory results, I have uploaded all articles on GBLA in English, too. Enjoy.
News: A buyer of this card spent for it more than 100 Eur at an auction in Germany. It was offered and sold as an GBLA item. In reality, it has nothing to do with GBLA. The stamp in the middle is a rather worthless imitation.
News: The Great Bitter Lake GBLA Facebook Group was created on December 3, 2021 by Professor Hanna. In a few days it reached over 100 members. As the founder asked me to join, I did. I only wondered if it was going to be about old GBLA seamen and stamps, or latest news.
I recommended joining to several seamen and top GBLA collectors, but they did not want to be among the first ones. The argument that we had more than 100 members was declined as this being more Egypt than GBLA group. Partially true, but Egypt is exactly the place where thousands of GBLA items, including stamps and covers, could be still found. If you read the book by Captain Hill, his guess was that only 10% of letters, sent from GBLA, left Egypt. Hence, 90% remained in Egypt. Most of them with GBLA stamps. If you follow ebay and auction prices, you know what a fortune is waiting to be discovered. The readers of my Encyclopedia know where they should search for them. Wishing good luck and let us know when you find any.
News: "The
one who owns the largest collection of this is from United Arab
Emirates". This information is from the GBLA Facbook Group. True or false? I have not seen that collection, yet, but I know about at least three other collections, which aspire for this title. "He exhibited it at Sharjah Stamp Exhibition 2018". It is false. He did not.
If I were him, I would try to improve the exhibit to get it to a World Stamp Exhibition. For sure, I can help to make his collection better not only due to my knowledge, but also with philatelic items, as I am in contact with many owners. Some willing to sell. Good example are the linocuts by Marian Kasprzyk. They are the absolutely most rare GBLA philatelic items as they exist only in one piece each. Marian printed his 26 wonderful pictures with them on covers and cards. I know present owners of 25 of them and some could be available to be purchased. First time in 50 years.
As he had bought such a large collection, he has probably got many duplicates and items he does not need for his exhibit. I could help him to swap or sell them.
News: The Catalogue was already supplied to all five continents - Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, UK and USA, where GBLA members were from. Egypt and Israel, where the ships were trapped. Further to Australia, Canada, China PR, Italy, Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland. Surprisingly, none to Bulgaria, France, Norway and Sweden, which had crews on the Lake, yet.
News: Also the enlarged 2nd edition of the Catalogue is theoretically already sold out, but as several Egyptian “buyers” failed to pay, a few pieces are still available. I keep the price in Euro fixed low despite of a considerable devaluation of Euro currency. Just there is a risk of increase in postal rates which I cannot influence. The excuses of impossibility to pay from Egypt have proved untrue, as several books were purchased and mailed to Egypt without any problem recently.
Naturally, the book is available also to be swapped for GBLA items. So there is still a chance to get a copy. Its values have become a GBLA standard.
News: Mr. Daw kindly offered on ebay a split GBLA collection, which he had purchased at Cavendish Auction as a pig in a poke. Many thanks to him for doing so, enabling collectors to see and get individual items. The final prices copied the Catalogue values hierarchy and next to worthless imitations, permanently available on ebay, remained unsold. I am already looking forward to seeing his next valuable GBLA lots.
News: There are no news in the GBLA Facebook Group for a rather long time. Looking forward to seeing some. It would be my pleasure to delete this news as soon as possible.
