Postage Stamp Chat Board and Stamp Bulletin Board Forum

The Press.

Well what can one say but their are 10000+ competitors and 22,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! press acreditation in Beijing, talk about a freebie...

My prediction - 10 gold medals.


rabbit

If only the press trained like the athletes, maybe we would get some decent reporting. Once in a while it may even be somewhere near accurate.

Leisel Jones - Gold Medal in the 100 Metres Breaststroke.

Norm

Norm,

How many premiership medallions do you think Geelong will win? Probably about 22 I think. Go cats.

Tim

More than that. The coach gets one also.

David Maiden sent me this email today from Beijing Stamp Expo:

--------------

Olympex: Olympic Expo Beijing 2008 : A Report From the Front Line

I am writing this on the afternoon of Day 3 of Olympic Expo, seated at a desk in Max Stern’s Booth in Hall 7 ( Postal Administrations and Dealers) of the Expo.

I want to try and capture the excitement of the moment in words.

There are 34 booths in Hall 7 and every booth is three deep with customers, and most have queues 10 to 15 metres long, waiting to buy. Everywhere I look there is a frenzy of activity. The air is electric and I can hardly hear myself think as booth holders and their wonderful volunteer staff literally run back and forth from counter to stock shelf to serve the sea of customers.

The Opening Day ( Friday afternoon) was very good in terms of attendance, and Day Two (Saturday) was excellent, but today has been truly outstanding. It seems like everyone in Beijing who is not at a sporting event is here. Official figures are not available yet, but a straw poll I have taken amongst experienced booth holders suggests we have had at least 40,000 people through in two and half days already.

Despite the frenzy of activity, the organisation and order is excellent, thanks to the volunteer guides ( 1000 of them ) and to the overwhelming friendliness of the Beijingers, who are celebrating a special time for their city and nation.

In December, I wrote to postal administrations and dealers on behalf of the IOC and provided my assessment that China Post and the IOC had all the right settings in place for a succesful event.

Never in my most optimistic moments could I have imagined how succesful it would be. China Post and the IOC have pulled out all stops to make this Expo an absolute show stopper. It is the best conducted and best attended I have ever seen.

Its not just the large crowds and the level of sales, it’s the entire organistion and operation of the Expo that is so impressing everyone. For example:

* Booth holders were met at the airport and transported to the official hotels( what a contrast to the days when Commissioners and Judges were met and the trade had to make their own way );

*Registration/accreditation was waiting for booth holders when they checked into the hotel;

* A social programme of dinners and tours was offered on arrival;

*Those booth holders who shipped their stock with the official freight forwarder, Schenker, received it within 30 minutes of arriving at the Expo, without any Customs hassles;

*Volunteer staff ( bilingual) have been available to work in booths at no charge. These young people( University students and /or staff from China Post) have impressed everyone with their friendliness and their hard work.

* Lunch is provided each day free of charge;

*A team of cleaners are working all day in the Hall to keep the booths and aisles clean;

*Visitors passes and complimentary tickets to Olympic events have been made available to booth holders;

*Booth rental is free and no customs duties are payable.

Olympic Expo is unlike any past Olymphilex. It truly is a new beginning.

The huge Beijing Exhibition Centre is divided into three broad areas: in the middle hall ( entrance) is a most impresssive display from the IOC Museum in Lausanne; paintings, sculptures, medals, torches, uniforms, movies etc.

The halls to the left contain the competative philatelic exhibits which have been displayed in the most attractive manner I have ever seen anywhere. Each frame has a panel of coloured perspex above and below it, and huge posters of Olympic athletes and Olympic stamps hand from the ceiling to add further colour and interest.

The halls to the right contain:

* postal administrations/mints and dealers
* Olympic sponsor displays eg BHP has an exhibit of aboroginal art
* Coke pin trading centre
*Official auction display
* a display of the philatelic collection of Honourary IOC President, Juan Antonio
Samaranch.

Who are the customers and what are they buying?

For the first 2.5 days, the customers have predominantly been “casual collectors”;
people who want a philatelic/numismatic memory of the Games. The Passport is a huge
success, and the average spend per customer is about 30 RMB ( about $5 USD), although
high quality Olympic themed albums/collections priced at about $50 USD are selling
well. A number of booth holders are already sending home for extra stock. To date there
have been few customers who are serious philatelists, or perhaps they have not been able
to get through the crowds.

Many families are attending, and it seems that about two thirds of the customers
are female. Its clear that the customers have come for an Olympic
experience. Games tickets are as scarce as hens teeth, and Olympic Expo provides an
an entertaining,low cost, way of attending an official Olympic activity.

It’s now 4pm, and I have had to interrupt writing this several times during the day to go
and assist Max Stern, and the Greek Post Office tear stamps to keep up with the incessant
demand. Max has 5 people in his booth working flat out, and the Greeks have 9 staff,
and crowds of 3 and 4 deep continue to surround the booth. I have just borrowed a string
of small flags from Maxine Cannon at the Isle of Man booth to make a queueing system
to help manage the crowds at Max’s booth.

I can’t believe I am about to write this , but lets hope there are fewer customers tomorrow!

David Maiden

PS I am sending this on Tuesdsay morning. Monday, Day Four, was not quite as hectic as the weekend, but it was still busy and constant; 8,000-10,000 came through.

(David Maiden was asked by the International Olympic Committee and China Post to
provide advice on the organisation of Olympic Expo, particularly from the point of view
of foreign booth holders.

He was Group Manager Philatelic for Australia Post from 1991 to 2002, Special Olympic
Advisor to the Greek Post from 2003-04, and is a Member of the Australian Philatelic
Order. )

-------------------

And Mister Ageless Max Stern, who I think is aged 128 and still going strong.

Glen

The way the Australian soccer team went, they probably should have called on Max to help out as a player. He is still a registered Soccer player after all.

Norm

Yes Max is THE oldest Registered soccer player in Australia and has been for many years.

He plays for the Maccabiah JUNIORS as I recall. (True!)
.

The lastest events of the Olympic Expo Beijing
2008 can be found here

Folks,

Another gold in the Womans 4x200 relay. 3 golds for Stephanie Rice.

Pretty good.

Tim

And none at all (gold) for the Aussie guys (c'mon where's ya tickers!)

(and none at all for NZ)

Cheers,

Ewen

Picked this up today

Geee! AustPost is fast enough to celebrate her winning!

yeah... fast alright ... do they do that for each Gold medal winner ??? Could cost you Aussies heaps ... Won't cost us Kiwis very much though ... Nor you either Kenny !! hehe ... Dave

DK .. "Instant" stamps for each Gold Medal winner.

On sale nationally the next day usually.

Lucky Australia hasn't had/caught any drug cheats yet - it would be fairly embarrasing having to retract the stamp a week later when the test results come through!

Ewen

The Greeks did it in '04. That stamp is a tad scarce now!

Indeed .. I cornered the world market on those!

The PO needed to yank them off sale almost as soon as they were printed,

Very detailed background to them here

http://www.glenstephens.com/sampanis

Ah, that's right - oh well, her family will be sitting pretty - I bet they bought many copies to show/give to all their friends!

Ewen

Glen,

Great article on the Athens drug cheat stamp. What sort of prices do they sell for now?

Tim

Tim .. they still sell steadily.

Actually I bought back a small holding of them in an estate lot this week, so have offered those here at HALF retail to move those, as I bought them cheap, so for anyone who always meant to add this to their collections, the timing is pretty good.

http://stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=7826
.

Interesting stamp, if you grab your scope out, you'll notice that there is still the "blue background" in between her fingers and the medal. This is the blue from the previous (2004) Olympics issue. Used the same design template by the look of things and forgot to replace the colour with this years background.

Boring but interesting.

Would it be the blue back ground from the athens issue or is it just the blue background of the pool surrounds?

Appears to be the blue from the Athens series template. If you look at the news images of the stamp, you can see the blue much better and the tone of it. I didn't notice it on the stamp initially, but picked it up on a newspaper image that was shown in a much larger size.

Thought it was the newspapers mistake till i checked my sheet.

Not mine - I tipped 9.

Update - Australia 11 gold medals
(NZ 3 gold's, still winning per capita)

Cheers,

Ewen

Still in with 15. ( about post 4-5 in this thread.

I predicted 11 Gold, 18 Silver, 20 Bronze - as I type this Australia are at 11, 12, 12 - so I'm still in the hunt (not for long though I hope)

Cheers

Thank goodness Royal Mail didn't decide to do one stamp per winner!

AustPost do them in lots of 10 per winner.

Still in - predicted 12 Gold for OZ (currently 11).
NZ with 3 .... and GB, defying Glen's predictions, has 16 - Wow !!

Congrats to Kenny and Malaysia - 1 silver - which totally blows Kennys pre-start prediction of 0 , 0 and 0. Well done Malaysia!!

Interestingly South Africa has only 1 silver to date ? What's going on there Colin? ... ... Dave

Nup I predicted only 10.

But after following another thread about the POMS,

and me being a royalist,if we join the POMS and ours together WE are doing OK.

Need to think BIG here - how is the Commonwealth going?

My guess of 12 Golds many weeks back is looking pretty safe.
.

Sorry Glen they have now jumped to 13 Gold. Don't think we will get to my guess of 16 though.

TEAM GB now at 18 Gold - yee haaa

\o/

Peter

Wait until they drug test the Poms.

Chip Butties is a Olympic banned substance I am advised - they can kill a horse, and are thus not fit for human consumption.
.

Just won gold in diving,Mathew Mitchum. Thats 14, now if the opals can win the Basketball my 16 call won't be too far off.

Looks like I am on the money with GOLD anyway.

Discipline Event Name
Swimming Women's: 4x200m Freestyle Relay RICE Stephanie, BARRATT Bronte, PALMER Kylie, MACKENZIE Linda, GALVEZ Felicity, BAINBRIDGE Angie, SCHLANGER Melanie, DAVENPORT Lara

Women's 4x100m Medley Relay: SEEBOHM Emily, JONES Leisel, SCHIPPER Jessicah, TRICKETT Lisbeth, WHITE Tarnee, GALVEZ Felicity, REESE Shayne

Triathlon Women: SNOWSILL Emma

Rowing Men's Pair: GINN Drew, FREE Duncan

Men's Double Sculls: CRAWSHAY David, BRENNAN Scott

Sailing 470 Men: WILMOT Nathan, PAGE Malcolm

470 Women: RECHICHI Elise, PARKINSON Tessa

Diving Men's 10m Platform: MITCHAM Matthew

Swimming Women's 100m Breaststroke: JONES Leisel
Women's 100m Butterfly: TRICKETT Lisbeth

Women's 200m Individual Medley: RICE Stephanie

Women's 400m Individual Medley: RICE Stephanie

Canoe/Kayak - Flatwater Kayak Single (K1) 500m Men WALLACE Ken

Athletics Men's Pole Vault: HOOKER Steve

Full results can be found here:
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/I ... US_T.shtml

Lisa

C'mon Mr Boggler !!!! you can't sit on the fence here ... GB or Aussie??? Which is it ??? ... and how many of the GB team are Scots?

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 50 20 28 98
2 United States 35 37 36 108
3 Russia 22 21 28 71
4 Great Britain 19 13 15 47
5 Germany 16 10 15 41
6 Australia 14 15 17 46
7 South Korea 13 10 8 31