The Cover Exchange Toyohira P.O.Box 2 Sapporo 062-8691 JAPAN Tel.: ++81-11-854-3623 Fax: ++81-11-859-6623 - East Asia's only worldwide postal history dealer -

NEWSFLASH !!

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August 22, 2000 Another move! On Aug.31, 2000 we'll shift operations to Sapporo on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. The climate is much healthier for stamps and covers (low humidity), and there's much more space available for much less money. The net is proliferating at a tremendous pace in Japan, despite high communications fees (Attn. U.S. Trade Representative: PLEASE apply some serious pressure to Japan's telecommo giant NTT!!!), so Yokohama as a base is becoming a superfluous cost factor. For the money we spend here (and we pay the lowest rent in the area...) we'll have three times as much space available in Hokkaido. And a German brewery close enough... ;) Operations will be resumed Sep.5, 2000, and catalog no.54 will be in the mail the same week. Phone and fax lines will be available on time, which unfortunately cannot be said of our server. The provider, said commo giant NTT, needs three weeks and more to have a dedicated line up and running. In my humble opinion, NTT is the only stumbling block between the Japanese people and a proliferation of the Net on par with the U.S. U.S. browsers, please be advised, that we pay $380 a month for a dedicated ISDN line, a little more than you pay in the U.S.... And it's not a top-of-the-art line... Our new P.O.Box address, to be used for all mail from outside Japan mailed on & after Aug.28, will be The Cover Exchange Toyohira P.O.Box 2 Sapporo 062-8691 JAPAN And mid-September will FINALLY see the debut of our online database, online shopping, online sales...

May 17, 2000 Essen International Stamp Fair! After having been on the waiting list for a flight to Europe till the very last moment, I hopped on a plane & visited the International Stamp Fair in Essen, hoping to lay my slicky fingers on some goodies for our worldwide clientele. The result was rather disappointing. Of course, I found a lot with my regular suppliers who are known to have excellent stocks & reasonable prices (sorry, won't give you any names...), but generally speaking, the Fair was rather feeble. Fewer dealers than 1998 (larger hallways, and one hall was only partially booked). Well, raising booth rental fees by 10% each time and offering "services" that do not merit the word "service" when compared to other international events won't exactly help... The homepage didn't even give a detailed list of participating dealers! On the other side, season tickets have been abolished, so someone wishing to access the Fair on all three days had to buy a DM 16 ($7) ticket each time for a total of DM 48 ($21). Well, if you cut down on the service side, you have at least to be on the safe side financially... ;) Security - as always, this has been thoroughly neglected. On Thursday, the day before the show opened, I walked into the hall thru a side entrance, and without the boothholder pass given to me by another dealer. The overweight guard was sitting in his little cabin, munching on a sandwich, and he couldn't care less who was entering the fair halls... Of course, all kinds of people, dealers and collectors alike, could be met in the halls, half of whom would certainly never be able to obtain a boothholder pass - most of all the guy speaking with a Hamburg accent, who had been caught stealing from a French dealer's booth back in 1998... I have complained as a boothholder in 1996 and 1998 about lax security, but my complaint (supported by solid evidence!) had been arrogantly brushed aside, and those responsible would refuse any discussion. Consequence: We won't book a booth there until further notice! Our customers in Germany and neighboring countries will have to see us on-line or come to Japan to browse thru our stock... ;). Well, soon enough we'll be able to offer a solution, that won't restrict possible personal calls to three busy stamp fair days - check this page...

Apr. 20, 2000 We finally made it to the WWW!!! Due to a mishap @ our ISP, the transfer of our Domain Name took longer than expected. Now we're there, and that's what counts. Not all of our modules are up and running yet, so please access this NEWS page for up-to-date information. We'll keep you informed. BTW, our current mail auction closes next Monday (Apr.24), so please be sure to send off your bids now... Fax or e-mail will do!