Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Exchanging Toy Soldiers For Stamps

Bernard is a faculty member of the University of Cebu who also collects Sports on stamps. During one of the "Pasko Sa Sugbo" (Christmas in Cebu) events organized by the Cebu City Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission, I was introduced to him as one of the judges for the Christmas Decor competition in the Establishments category. CHAC appointed me as the Chairman of the Board of Judges.

In one of our conversations, we talked about collecting toy soldiers. I shared to him that aside from Star Wars and stamps, I collect toy soldiers as a minor collection. These include Tamiya's famous generals set that consists of General MacArthur, General Patton, General Eisenhower, General Montgomery and Field Marshal Rommel; and World War II American, German and Japanese soldiers.

I also have a special spot for figures portraying Gettysburg and the American Civil War. When he learned about this, he invited me to visit him in his office the following day.

Inside his office the next day, he showed me nine metal figures that consist of 3 Union Soldiers, 3 Confederates, and 3 figures from the American Revolution. He brought up the idea of exchanging the figures for some stamps featuring Sports. I readily agreed and went home with the new treasure I got.

I did come back the day after, and gave him all the mint Sports stamps, FDCs and souvenir sheets in my collections. It was a barter that both of us were happy and satisfied.

Ricky Teves, my best friend who is also into collecting shared to me that metal figures are not common these days as toys are now made of plastic or rubber. This makes my metal soldiers quite rare and unique.

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