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I passed on the link of this topic to the editor - Rainbow Stamp News - monthly e-stamp bulletin which has good readership throughout India and abroad.

The topic is now published in the June 2012 bulletin - http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.in/

let us see if all of our small, collective effort straighten things up.

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My Blog - http://shipthemegallery.blogspot.com/

Wow, smart move there Voyager, thanks, I can see that this is already part of the current e-edition there

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

That may be something left over from the British influence - historically Royal Mail was similarly reliant on HM Treasury

Thanks Voyager! Much appreciated.

I hope this thread will NOW be read by many Indian stamp collectors who are not members of stampboards yet and hopefully some initiative will be taken to eradicate the problem that is currently on.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

Thanks, hopefully I will send a mail on Monday to the Director.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

Yup, that's the one. And I was a bit surprised because of the use of the souvenir sheet on an international letter as compared to the previous letters bearing definitive stamps.

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Mint, or used?

A sheetlet on Indo France jt issue of 2003





A pleasure to look at.

opkedia

Any news yet?

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My wantlist for Malta Revenues

No none.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

That´s not surprising. I think it is only waste of time to write to any India institution. I tried it several times to various archives - by email, even normal letter. It is more than 2 years ago and still no answer, not surprisingly.

In the last letter I also cited the India Right to Information Act with the same NO response.

I don´t know what is the cause of this - presumably laziness or unwillingness to respond.

I think the correct thing to do would be to proceed in the following sequence :

1. Select three worst stamps in terms of design and print quality.

2. Apply to the Chairman Postal Services Board alongwith a postal order for Rs 10/- and enclosing scans of these three stamps.

3. On the strength of Serial Number 2 above, seek the following information under Right to Information Act (RTI Act) :

a. Names, designations and addresses of designers responsible for the design.
b. Names, designations and addresses of officers responsible for quality control in printing.
c. Details of action taken against officials for poor print quality.
d. Names, designations and addresses of officers responsible for initiating disciplinary action against those officers who are responsible for poor print quality.
e. Any quality control mechanisms implemented to prevent poor print quality.

Not only are you bound to get a reply but hopefully things would also start moving.

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http://princelystatecoins.wordpress.com
http://oldindiacoins.wordpress.com

Of course, they are lazy bones!
And they are least bothered. India Post has not yet issued any stamps on London 2012 Olympics.
I have written to the Secretary, Dept of Posts about this last weekend in the form of a letter. I sent it by Registered Post, hope she replies!

They should respond, but I don´t think that this Act is used as it should be. So, you may receive some response, but I am sure it will take several months if not years.

Well, according to Right to Information (RTI), information has to be provided within 30 days.
If you have an acknowledgement of the letter, I think you can go to the higher authorities..

Its seems you guys have a point. I never generally associate India after the 1950s as an A grade country, but lately I have noticed a lot of very high issues of late on mail from India. I usually think of those scungy 15 or 20 paisa stamps of Gandhi (A shame as he was probably one of the greatest people to have lived), and that 5 rupee stamp of the moth and the 20 rupee one of the cat. But those new ones you showed me, looked just as bad.

Is it still only 5 rupees for standard post, if it is its very cheap compared to the 70 cents we are going up to on Sunday.

Your lucky for the year pack cost, too here we issue a new set of ridiculous stamps every 2 weeks and the year end cost with Miniature sheets and show miniature sheets is nearly $200 in our money or about 6,000 Rupees in your money.

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I collect Malta, Ireland, Malta, Tristan da Cunha, Malta, various Pacific Islands, Malta, New Zealand, Malta, Australia and Malta.

The ever declining quality of Indian stamps is not the biggest drawback w.r.t. Indian Philately. As is evidenced from history of philately, some people are even fascinated by the "ugliness". The Biggest drawback which is driving young Indian philatelists is the total negative attitude of India Post in general and the totally farcical and bad attitude of the Postmasters in the majority of the post offices. I almost gave up collecting stamps from abroad due the rampant theft in my local post office. Then I changed address but still some gets lost. Some registered even. But what choice do I have:
1. Stick to Indian dealers, who will follow the Indian catalogue called Phila India written by Manik Jain. And imported items from abroad which is face value+ margin+ registered post+ further margin . With all due respect to Manik Jain, it is not unknown that most of the prices are set by his own coterie of dealers who plan to control the market. So once that done, stocks are hoarded , Philatelic bureaus are out of sheets etc etc, the story is endless. A visit to him for a commoner like me who tends to ask too many questions will be a futile effort , totally. That means... I have tried.
2. The Postmaster near my home is an abusive guy who does not know how to humanly behave. Once i tried to send registered post to US from this post office and I was told that though it is allowed in this post office , but they dont have customs declaration forms. I asked when I can get? This guy said that I can get lost and go to hell. What can I do? Nothing. Writing to any authority like this in India is a futile effort and really you spend your time for nothing. I have no time for people like this and really its just a hobby for me, not a vocation to get tensed and worked up. I wish I can write or approach a person who has authority to take action on this. I wish there was a pressure group who can connect to the right people. But the love of the hobby is too great... despite the insults and losses.

So , friends, the quality of Indian stamps is just a small issue , to dissuade people from hobby. There are bigger issues which is very wrong with India post, and this is only a collector speaking.

What is the PO selling price of this S/S? 35 rupees?
I was just wondering, because when I buy new Indian stamps from Dutch dealers the S/S are allmost triple the price of a set.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewie1980/collections/
http://www.delcampe.net/stores/stewie1980

Yes, its 35 Rs. You can get this from post offices in India.

It is the same story everywhere mate. My local post office do not have Express parcel bar codes for nearly a year. I have complained several times without any outcome.

See, I never liked this person called Manik Jain. He might be a knowledgeable person who has published a few books including a catalog but that does not change the basic person he is. I have been visiting him since 1996 (when he sold stamps). Now he is into full time publication and does not sell stamps. Everytime I visited his outlet, I felt he judges a person by his outfit. I have went their quite shabby in tee and jeans, and also super suave in my finest suit. The treatment was different.

The albums that he makes are purely and utterly JUNK. Made of rubbish material. But that sells anyways. Just some days ago I found someone in this forum using these Phila India album pages for storing Edward VII mints. A class example of, investing elephants in stamps and needles for storage.

I bought his Phila India Miniature Sheet album some 2 years ago and found that it is like an acidic bath to keep my stamps in. Dumped in instantly.

Indian collectors seek everything economic in this humid and hot weather. And they are getting that. People I meet will seldom use/seek good quality stocksheet or stockbooks. Whatever cheap works for them. And 75% collectors collect in block of 4s. Seriously, visit the GPO and you will find people buying BL4s. I asked someone hey how do you manage to keep blocks, it must be costly. The reply was, - "Get the stockbook the GPO sells for Rs 200 ($4). I have bought 10 and I keep my blocks in them."

That is a cheap chinese stockbook and the pages bend like bow if the stockbook is kept open for 15 mins.

For any complaint related to the Post Master or Post Office, use the link below Aranya.

http://www.indiapost.gov.in/PC_GuideLines.aspx#C

And keeping a standing order account (PD) with the GPO is the best option with Hand Delivery option. Remember, whatever you mention in your standing order the GPO has to supply you, rare, hoarded, amassed, wiped off, or not. If not withdrawn.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

Why not? The dutch dealers buy from Indian dealers who charge minumum 50% of FV over Face, considering they buy in bulk from these Indian dealers. Then there is registered shipping. Then the Dutch dealer has to make profit.

Why do not you buy from the Indian dealers from ebay.in OR if you collect modern Indian stamps just have an exchange partner from India.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

But why the Indian dealers sell the sets +50% and the S/S +150%?!

I will definitely never buy the S/S from the Dutch dealers again!

Thanks for your your answers, Aranyadc and Indieguy!

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewie1980/collections/
http://www.delcampe.net/stores/stewie1980

Any advice not sought is a bad advice.

opkedia

One thing I noticed with the Phila India catalogue even way back in its 2008 edition which indicated a strategy at work was the extremely low pricing of the British India stamps and exorbitant high prices of independent and modern India stamps, completely misplaced in comparison to the market situations back then. It should have been the other way around.

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

I have gone to the G.P.O. in Bangalore only thrice in the last 5 years and even that I've reluctantly went there because I needed to help a friend with some new issue. I hate going there, the people are so unresponsive and uncooperative. And most of the material, I've noticed, they never take it out, they keep it for some special clients I suppose. They simply say they do not have when you ask for specific material.

However, in the middle of all that is wrong with Indian new issues and the postal system itself, I had one surprising experience this week.

I had shipped a cover to Mumbai containing material worth $600 on the 6th of this month. When I tracked it online after two days, for various reasons, they were unable to deliver it to the addressee, and the last recorded status online was 'item bagged and shipped back to Bangalore', the reason being 'insufficient address'. Yesterday, my postman delivered it back to me, intact and safe. That was unbelievable

I counted on it all the time that this might end up "lost-in-transit" but I was pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the postal services here

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to reflect on God's creation is very fruitful meditation, and to reflect on Man's beauty of a creation - stamps - is no less either!

I think SG is more realistic in the matter.See discussions in following forum and comment of Mr.Tony on the topic.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=39782

opkedia

This being a public forum, and a lot of other collectors reading now and in future the advice is for them and not for YOU.

I have had the pages tested in Germany properly before coming to a decision which not many Indians do. And frankly they are little better than the cardboard boxes in which you buy sweets from sweetshop.

So keep that "bad advice" opinion with yourself and be happy with the way you store them. Do not comment on stuffs you have no idea on. However you may take a page go to a lab and have it tested. (Which I am sure you will never do and again post something rubbishly patriotic here.).

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

Safi,

The Phila India catalog can be treated like a book with the all the images of Indian stamps, MS/ Sheetlets and NOT as a reference price guide. Ask any dealer around and they will say they do not care about what price SG or PI catalog suggests.

And it is quite evident. The current prices have shot through the roof for the post independence period almost 40% more than any catalog value.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

Speed post is definitely the best. I have never lost anything. Both registered post and Speed post.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

For this public forum my advice-life would be more beautiful and enjoyable if one think positive and donot find fault with everything.

opkedia

Thanks indieguy for your comments. I have lodged a complaint in epostindia website. Let me see how it takes me.

Life should be realistic. And beautiful. And beauty is also in a fact to identify a wrong and then set it right by awareness and action. Beauty doesnt always amount to feeling wronged and resignation. Thats my take on life. Otherwise we should all be watching only Bollywood movies.

Tell me about it. I go to the GPO to pick up my standing order material once in SIX months. And to deposit money I use EMO. These days they have nothing in the philatelic counters.

All stuffs are sold in bulk to high hats. BUT, the easiest way to take on them is to check your standing order material. Hand to hand delivery. One crease, one missing perforation or slightest fingerprints on the gum side and they are bound to replace it, whether they have it in stock or not.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

I put these Gandhi into stock today as a mis-perf stamp error. Only a 2002 issue, but print quality is quite appalling.

I have recently started collecting stamps again, for a theme, I decided I will primarily focus on India stamps. As any new collector would do, I have been looking at various forums, avenues to get my collection going. Also I slowly learned about Collectors year pack. With much expectation and enthusiasm I decided to start my India collection from recent years and work my way backwards to pre independence era(Thanks to exorbitant prices in ebay). So in my first attempt I ended up spending around Rs. 2500, buying Miniature sheets, and collectors year pack(2010 & 2011) from India Post. Once i got them, i was excited to see them, but to my horror 4 or 5 stamps in the collectors pack were damaged . So much for India post's care for the collectors.. I mean collectors pack are for collectors, now who in their right senses would put a damaged stamp in there . I was really surprised at the poor quality of the stamps issued in 2011 and some of the 2012 stamps, the printing really sucks... a ink blot on a toilet paper would have looked better, Sorry i just couldnt stop myself. I also bought the Khadi stamp of Gandhi for Rs. 250. I was looking forward for a really nice cover (read booklet), since India post were charging Rs.250 for a Rs.100 face value stamp(Oh.. did i mention the Rs.100 printed in stamp looks more like Rs.1 ). Again to my dismay, there was nothing great about the cover it came in (I could have got it printed in my friends printing press for Rs.10 each, with no spelling mistakes and couple of more nice colour and without smudging). I realised the only reason India post had put it at Rs.250 was to make it look something special, and help dealers increase it to Rs.500 in another year. Now i really think whats the fun in collecting such stamps, where it shows poor committment, laziness and lethargic attitude... Stamps are supposed to be windows to a countries culture and people, If this is to be true, India Post is doing a shabby (believe me i want to scream out loud some other nasty one's) job, Forget the designs, the quality of stamps is so pathetic no one will ever think about collecting India stamps. (Who knows there may be folks 100 Years from now who are interested to collect Modern era uglies, errors and oddities - India will be the shangrila... heheh I am sure Tony would be reincarnated in the new avatar )

After this first shock, I had joined the stampboards, and had started to be the beneficiary of freebies. I got stamps from Ajolicoe, got a xmas gift through secret santa - lovely lot thanks to Margoz, some more stamps from Royalcounty. Now I was happy, but not really because i realised, some more stamps were posted for me, its been more than 7 weeks and still no sign of them. I suspect as members have mentioned above India post must have just swallowed them One of my orders in wopa never came, its been 2 months.... This is very frustrating. I am really sad that in India, where people spend hard earned money on buying stamp, India post really doesnt care about the stamps nor do they care to curb theft.I am really surprised, this happened inspite of using my office address, where many international mails come.

Although its sad and not a great start, thanks to stampboards, I am hanging in there..reading through forums is a great joy, seeing the scans of stamps and enormous knowledge the stamp gurus share here, keeps me motivated to continue my hobby.

Cheers !
Back2Philatey

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Collecting Pre & Post independence India Stamps
Pauper to the King of Hobbies

hello back2philately,

I experienced this long before, so restricted myself to collect only miniature sheets of India, and only thematic stamps that I am interested. the rest, I buy to just fix to send on outgoing envelopes.

...for envelopes getting lost frequently, I stopped swapping through normal mail and swapping small value of stamps, say below $20.

regarding WOPA, after placing an order, I contact and ask them to send by registered mail whenever possible, instead of the package getting lost.

Initially one of my order did not arrive, and after waiting for 60 days, when reported non-arrival of mail, they sent replacement by registered mail upon request.

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My Blog - http://shipthemegallery.blogspot.com/

Who knows! Sloppy printing can make a happy hunting ground for collectors

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'First I'll steal all the money, then I'll kill everybody, and then I'll go away', Père Ubu

Can someone in India please email me a single high rez scan of the RS10 and RS50 stamps please?

admin at stampboards dot com

Are these still the current high values?

Glen

The poor quality stamps are all photogravured. The ones printed by wet offset method look slightly better.

Photogravure






Wet Offset

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

Since these third world countries started designing and printing their own stamps, the results have often been very poor. The solution is to let quality British companies like Crown Agents do the job properly. It would be money well spent.

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29,000 stamped postcards & covers:http://www.delcampe.net/stores/edwardx
Collecting old passports:http://www.passportland.com/

Then we will be bombarded with useless variations of the same issue and spending half of the month's savings behind those.

Which thankfully we (one of your third world countries) are saved from.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

Thanks for the wonderful tip Voyager ! I will try this next time I order something. I have written to them today on those missing orders. Lets see how it goes.

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Collecting Pre & Post independence India Stamps
Pauper to the King of Hobbies

Being Indian (although now living in Canada), here is my take on the decline of the postal department in India.

I love India (It's my homeland), however I do not believe in "False Patriotism".

The one word that could be used to summarize the root of India's problem's with regards to government organizations: Corruption.

The level of corruption is at it's worst. Be it the postal department or any other. The salaries paid to workers are laughable. So what do they do? They use sub par raw materials, methods, machinery etc to get the work done and end up keeping the money for themselves which should have been spent otherwise. Be it making a new road or printing stamps. Everyday there are new scams that have been brought to light involving millions of dollars. I have literally seen politicians go from rags to riches (owning a couple of private jets) overnight and continue to do so.

The sad part is that the people who get screwed the most are the poor and the dirt poor. They are fooled into voting for someone based on his / her background (caste / religion ) instead of that person's capabilities. And when that person is elected, he / she just makes all the money which should have been used to make life better for the have nots however he / she just embezzle the money with no concern for the masses. Then, those very same poor people vote for a new joker (usually backed by the old one) in the next election. And the cycle continues.

Then again there is the Indian attitude of "Chalta Hain" which loosely translates to "Don't worry about it" but with an added infinite level of "I couldn't be ars** to care".

Unfortunately I don't have any hard proof to back my claim, but i do have common sense which leads me to believe that the lack of quality printings of Indian stamps is here to stay for some time.

mindpsyche is sadly right. India is blighted by corruption and cronyism. I'm not Indian, but worked in development finance for many years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_India
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-15979646

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29,000 stamped postcards & covers:http://www.delcampe.net/stores/edwardx
Collecting old passports:http://www.passportland.com/

Corruption more or less prevails in every economy. There are exceptions too. As a matter of fact, population and diversity catalyses corruption to a large extent.

India has 22 languages. I have come across people in Chennai (South India) saying "Hindi Bolne Ka Nahi" that is he is saying "Don't speak in Hindi" to me in Hindi itself. Open sheer hatred for the official national language.

It is very difficult to unite such a country that varies greatly in culture, language, thoughts, geography, history and economy every 600 kms apart. Corruption is just one of the byproducts of this diversity.

Let us not make this thread controversial by discussing this further. I started the thread to discuss only the declining quality of Indian stamps but interestingly issues of 2013 have picked up quality again.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

..and to the surprise, recently, the Department of Posts asked opinion from general public for new subjects / themes to be depicted on the commemorative postage stamps.

that was a surprise welcome move. Hope they concentrate on quality of printing and paper too..

http://www.indiapost.gov.in/Pdf/Suggest ... 1_2013.pdf

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My Blog - http://shipthemegallery.blogspot.com/

From a long-term point of view, the quality of Indian stamps is definitely on a gradual uptrend:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8480

When when you start with utter toilet paper like this, the quality can ONLY improve - it simply could not get any worse.





China is a poor country too, and their stamps for 50 years have been superb, so India has no excuse except total apathy - of the stamp printers, PO, and the population at large - for meekly accepting ugly rags like this, as the 2nd highest Definitive stamp.

Any FORGER could do a better job.

Postage stamps are a country's window to the world.

Paste amateur hour rubbish like this on all overseas sendings, and India continues to APPEAR to be a 4th World under-developed nation, in the eyes of all that receive them. Simple as that.

India desperately wants to be taken seriously by the rest of the world, and mailing overseas parcels wallpapered with 100 x ugly and cheaply printed 10 Rupee stamps is a joke.

Printing pretty 5R Commems and M/S aimed only at collectors, does not stop overseas parcels being covered in toilet paper grade stamps like those above.

WRITE to your PO, write to your Minister, write to the newspapers there. The issue is easily rectified if INDIANS wish it to be.

I wrote about this globally this month - http://www.glenstephens.com/snmarch13.html

Here is a fact. A lot of well known stalwarts of this hobby are philatelic advisors to Indian post. I wonder what they are doing. They sit with a magnifying glass all day long and I am sure they are aware of the print quality. However, I find no mention of this in any of the guide books or literature of the online newsletters they publish?

And regarding the highest value of the stamp, nobody uses India Post these days due to their poor and shoddy service. People pay a few bucks more and use a courier instead.

I am yet to see postally used Rs. 50 definitive. Unless some phila-person uses them no postmaster even stocks these. They will sell just Rs. 10 x 5 instead.

Demand is low.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

I have used nearly 50+ stamps of Rs. 50 in outgoing mails in past one year.

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My Blog - http://shipthemegallery.blogspot.com/

Even me too. But we are all philatelic people. We do that because we want to use it. A normal person who just visits the post office to mail say a big parcel do not even get stamps, let alone Rs 50 stamps. It is all computerised booking and labeling these days.

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Always looking for Mint Definitive Sets, UPU 1949 stuffs and Socked on Nose cancellations

yes right.

sometimes, the perforations on Rs. 5 stamps, which is most commonly used, is so poor that, many get torn while separating and gets damaged.

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My Blog - http://shipthemegallery.blogspot.com/