An Excerpt from THE STAR newspaper 10 March 2006

Here is an excerpt from the Malaysian Newspaper THE STAR dated 10th March, 2006 - a full report on the Malaysia Entry winning the 3rd Prize for the 2004 World Best Maximum Card Competition :

Friday March 10, 2006

Malaysian shines at international stamp event

Stamps
By V. Senthinathan

THE International Competition for the Best Maximum Card introduced in 2004 was held at Southern Paris, France, entitled Maxifrance 2005 from Sept 23 to 25 last year.
Malaysian philatelist Ye Choh San’s card entitled Bullock Cart was awarded the third best maximum card out of 27 participating nations.
Voting for the best Maximum Cards, which started in 2004, attracted some 27 countries and they are Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungry, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland.
All the entries were judged according to the FIP regulations, which take into account the choice of theme, originality, research and maximum degree of visual concordance between the three essential elements in the Philatelic Maximum Card that comprised picture on the card, affixed stamp (linking similar theme) and relevant postmark.

Ye’s winning entry.

This Maximum Card competition is the second to be introduced by FIP after the World Best Maximum Card competition at the World Stamp Championship 2004 in Singapore. Looking at the maximaphily collectors in Malaysia, it sad to note that few collector show interest in this category of philately.
With Ye’s international success, Persatuan Setem Malaysia feels it could unearth more serious collectors in the future.
The three best Maximum Cards were judged on vote count and the winners were Holland’s Royal Kiss of Love and Simplicity by Ronald van der Leeden, which took the first prize, while second went to Cyprus’s Tenderness of Nature – Dolphins by Nicos Rangos. Third prize went to Ye.
Though maximaphily is relatively new in South East Asia, the hobby is gradually gaining momentum because of the introduction of “one-frame” competitive exhibits.
Collecting maximum cards tend to create an interesting “view” disposition, possibly leading one to narrow their collection into “thematic” philately or “maximaphilately” or even “social” philately.
Maximum cards issued worldwide has depicted several hundreds of topics, and forming collection into any of the three categories mentioned above should not pose any difficulty to beginners. Currently there is an influx of collectors from China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, etc, the competitive challenge is between Europe and Asia.

Complaint on the NON return of the Maximum Card submitted for World Best Maximum Card Competition

Yes, there have been numerous complaints on the non return of the maximum cards submitted for the World Best Maximum Card competition. I participated in 2005 for the 2004 World Best MC competition and the MC submitted had NOT been returned by the Commission. The NON return of the MC as regulated by the commission has obviously deterred many MC creators to submit their BEST MCs to compete in the competition. Every MC creator knows the difficulty in looking for an ideal postcard to realise for  a concordant MC, hence, with a unique MC created in hand, it is rather difficult to part it for an entry in the World Best MC competition of which the MC will never be returned. Personally, I do NOT understand why the commission does NOT return the MCs to the owner afterall a digital copy will be fine for keeping as records in the files or webpage. I will like to appeal to the FIP Commission of Maximaphily to consider returning MCs submitted by individual collector for the competition, as these MCs are the properties of the individual collectors.  I am sure most of the MC collectors will welcome the move by FIP maximaphily commission for returning all the entries back to the owners, and probably, in future the BEST MCs  ill be submitted by ALL without any fear of being retained by the organiser.

World Best Maximum Card Competition

Malaysia's Entry - Bullock Cart won the 3rd Prize in the 2004 World Best Maximum Card competition.

World Best Maximum Card Competition is a yearly activity organised by the FIP commission of the Maximaphily. Each country is represented by a single Maximum card created during the preceding year. The competition is judged by votes cast by the representatives of the FIP commission of Maximaphily who are present at the exhibition venue. Points allocated for the first position cast is 9 pts, the second position 6 pts and the third 3 pts. The MC with the highest points wins the first prize. A certificate of recognition will be presented to the winner, and the MCs will be permanently on display at the official webpage of the FIP commission of the Maximaphily @ http://www.maximaphily.info/competitions.html . It is regretted to note that the results for the 2006/2007 and the current 2008 World Best MC competitions have NOT been updated at the above webpage.

Malaysia won a 3rd prize in the 2004 World Best Maximum Card Competition.

World Best Maximum Card Competition - Results

2008 BEST MAXIMUM CARD WORLD COMPETITION-OCTOBER 24, 2009

During “ITALIA 2009” held in Rome on October 24, the official delegates present were invited to vote, according to the regulations of the World Best Maximum Card Competition, for the three best  maximum cards created during the year 2008.

The following forty five (45) countries took part in the competition:
Albania, Aland, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria. Canada, China (PR), Chinese Taipei, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, [b]Malaysia,[/b] Moldavia, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and USA.

1st prize went to Nicos Rangos, Cyprus. 2nd prize went to “Les Maximaphiles Français” Association, France and 3rd prize to Nikos Mallouchos, Greece, together with Cesare Rialdy, Italy.

Detailed Results:
Cyprus 塞浦路斯  42 points 分，First 第一名
France 法國 21 points 分，Second 第二名
Greece 希臘 15 pts 分，third 第三名
Italy 義大利 15 pts 分，third 第三名
Luxembourg 盧森堡 12 pts 分
Angola 安多拉 9 pts 分
Czeh Republic 捷克共和國 9 pts 分
Poland 波蘭 9 pts 分
USA 美國 9 pts 分
Brazil 巴西 6 pts 分
China 中國 6 pts分
Finland 芬蘭 6 pts 分
Taiwan 台灣 6 pts 分
Algeria 阿爾巴尼亞 3 pts分
Belgium 比利時 3 pts分
Romania 羅馬尼亞 3 pts 分
Ukraine 烏克蘭 3 pts 分
UK 英國 3 pts分

Others Less than 3 pts ( including Malaysia) 其餘國家獲得不到3分