Happy New Year! I hope you have had a chance to reflect on the plusses and minuses of the past year, and have set for yourself a clear plan for the coming year. For me that means making a variety of changes. One of which will be less popular as I explain below, I am raising my shipping and handling charges. Another change is my continuing move into the internet marketing arena. This will take time away from the cover business, but will hopefully help me work down down my accumulated debt. It seems I’ve more inventory than dollars these days, but the gas company won’t take first day covers for the heating bill. This past few months, I’ve had some success with my various adwords campaigns during the Christmas buying season. I don’t expect to do as well in the off Christmas season, but I hope to build up to the Christmas levels over the coming months, and set myself up for a very busy Christmas this coming year. My repeated new year’s resolution revolves around my ever so large middle which I need to shrink. Again, I have had some recent success, but that was largely negated by the holidays. So I am going to try, try again. Initially I am going to do the same diet that brought me some recent success. This involves eating frozen entrees, 3-6 times a day. It’s a bit pricey, but allows me to eat often, which I’ve come to understand is a good thing. Even though I may eat up to six of them, most have low calorie counts. More importantly, they usually contain a meat portion and vegetables with relatively few high glycemic starches. One to two weeks of that will enable me to drop 10 pounds or more based on past experience. But I will get bored. My next step will be to either repeat after a period of time or explore a new diet I’ve been hearing about that takes a radically different approach to eating. I’ve liked what I have read about it, and my wife (who has bought and read every diet book ever written) tells me it is getting a lot of positive press. It’s called calorie shifting. I haven’t bought the eBook yet, but I intend to. If any of you have had any experience with it, I’d welcome your comments. I have other plans as well, including a planned trip to Turkey this summer to visit the new in laws. Can’t afford it at the moment, but will do my best to sell a ton of covers between now and then. Your help, as always, is appreciated. Among my goals from the past year was to get all my covers up and listed on eBay. I didn’t get that one done. I still have several thousands covers in boxes that have not made it online. While many are cheapies, there are still many better covers, primarily space and flight oriented that need to get processed. You can expect to see most of them in the coming three months. My plans for New Year’s day include a board game day with family and a hike along the river in my annual Robin hunt. I like to be the first to see signs of Spring and the robin certainly has that cachet. Even though I know I am hunting for wintering over robins, it’s fun to claim the bragging rights. I’ve been successful almost every New Years day for over a decade now. I’m confident I will be successful again this year. I hope the coming year will be one of your most successful years as well. Best wishes, etn Recent and Future eBay Listings: You can find all my current eBay auctions and my eBay Store items in my store by searching the following link. ETN Covers eBay Store I also have a significant collection of ship covers at … www.shipcovers.com Colorado I continue my States Series with a look at Colorado Covers today. Two are New Years related. These and several other Colorado Covers are now on eBay. 1711 Colorado Centennial Issue First day cover Medallion cachet. http://images.marketworks.com/hi/33/33063/fdc5065.jpg USS Colorado BB45 Ship Cover New Years Day 1/1/1934. http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/33/33063/ship1186.jpg USS Colorado ACR 7 (1901-1916) Picture postcard http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/33/33063/ship6941.jpg UX27 Loveland Colorado Last day 1cent rate 12/31/51 1001 -15 Colorado WM Grandy Cachet etn Map Cachets Over the years I have encountered a number of first day covers made out of old maps. I once had a clipping attributing these to a particular person, but the idea once out has been copied by others. The process is simple enough. Find an old map which shows a location appropriate to the stamp in question, cut it to shape, and create an envelope out of the map, and get it first day stamped. At one time I had almost 70 of these. Now I’m down to less than a dozen and a half examples. Those I have are now listed. Map Cachets Below is an example. Makes for a colorful first day cover. 1274 International Telecommunications Union on a Map cachet Cargo Ships Cargo Ships come in a wide variety of designations. I tend to lump them all together. Though somewhat less “sexy” than Battleships, destroyers etc, the cargo ships were the true lifeline for the fleet and its mission. After all, its not just the Army that travels on its stomach. I am featuring Cargo ships this week in my ebay store and at auction. USS Mount Hood AE-29 with a Mermaid Ship Cachet Mar 22, 1996 Advice Every year I'm starting to ask myself why I see friends who'll waste away and die Each new season I'll try to live it with flair Not tied to a TV and a stuffed easy chair Never letting my mind and body feel old Challenging myself facing Winter's cold Spring renews, in it's lakes and streams Calendars turn, I'll be living my dreams -Robert A. Swart Court Jester You can't take it with you Trying to disprove the saying "You can't take it with you," a stingy old lawyer, diagnosed with a terminal illness, finally figured out how to take at least some of his fortune with him when he died. He instructed his wife to go to the bank and withdraw enough money to fill two pillowcases. He then told her to take the bags of money to the attic and leave them directly above his bed. When he passed away, he planned to reach out and grab the bags on his way to heaven. Several weeks after the funeral, his wife, up in the attic cleaning, came upon the two forgotten pillow cases stuffed with cash. "Oh, that old fool!" she exclaimed. "I knew I should have put the money in the basement." The Cowboy and the Preacher One Sunday, a cowboy went to church. When he entered, he saw that he and the preacher were the only ones present. The preacher asked the cowboy if he wanted him to go ahead and preach. The cowboy said, "I'm not too smart, but if I went to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I'd feed him." So the minister began his sermon. One hour passed, then two hours, then two-and-a-half hours. The preacher finally finished and came down to ask the cowboy how he had liked the sermon. The cowboy answered slowly, "Well, I'm not very smart, but if I went to feed my cattle and only one showed up, I sure wouldn't feed him all the hay." Shopping Frenzy I was browsing in a souvenir shop when the man next to me struck up a conversation. Just as he was telling me that his wife was getting carried away with her shopping, a brief power shortage caused the lights to flicker overhead. 'That,' he sighed, 'must be her checking out now.' To Subscribe to my Steps newsletter send a blank email to stepsnewsletter@aweber.com You will get a request to confirm. Once you confirm you will be on the list for all future newsletters. You may unsubscribe at any time.