Welcome to issue #5 - For those checking at the web site, remember it is easy and free to subscribe via email, details are at http://www.stampnewsonline.com

This past weekend, my local stamp club (The Oregon Stamp Society) held its annual Metro show about a mile from my house (talk about convenience!) - It was the first stamp show that I had been to in a while. What I mean by show is something more than just a dealer bourse. They had 40 frames of exhibits, and there was even a competition. The grand prize winner showed varieties and the career of a local cachet maker who was active for about 70 years, and who died only last year. Add 16 well stocked dealers, a bright and high ceiling room at the local Armory, plenty of parking and a large crowd, and you have the recipe for a very successful show.

I've done a lot of my collecting online and through the mail, and that is fine. However, after spending a couple of days at the show, I was reminded that shows will just not go away. The internet is great because I can purchase an item from someone 10,000 miles away, from someone who I would never have a hope of having contact with. However, there is just something nice about buying stamps in person. If you haven't been to a show in a while, and there is one in your area (Most won't be so lucky to have one so close) I would recommend going to it. Why won't shows go away? Well, here are a few reasons.

1. Cherry Pickers - These are people who know certain stamps better than dealers do. Generally, dealers are going to have more philatelic knowledge than collectors because that is their profession. However, if a collector specializes in a certain area, they might know more about that area than the dealer does. I talked with one collector who specialized in an area similar to me - George VI stamps. His philatelic knowledge was much greater than mine, though he has been doing this for 30 years or so, while I have been at it for only a few years. He is able to go through dealer stock and find mis-identified material. This is not easy to do online, because sometimes the scans (if they are there at all) are not of a high enough quality, or perhaps the scan is not of the actual stamp. Shows are really where you need to go to do this.
2. Bargains and lots - Dealers do sell these online, but the shipping costs might make it a questionable deal. This will only get worse with the upcoming rate increases. At a local auction a couple of months ago, I was able to purchase a 50 pound lot of philatelic material for only $70. It yielded quite a bit more than that when I broke it down, but it would have been a questionable blind purchase online.
3. Philatelic friendships - This can be obtained online, I have met a lot of great people through the various philatelic chat rooms and message boards. However, it's also nice to get together with people in real life as well. The one collector I talked about earlier was willing to let me borrow some items from his personal philatelic library - Something that is not as easy to do with people far away.

An online report states that McDonalds is looking to sell things other than food at their restaurants. Some of the ideas listed include videos, watches, and yes, stamps. Of course, they will only be stamp booklets, it seems an impossible idea that they might sell anything collectible. However, it would be a great way for the USPS to get collectible stamps out in front of the public. It seems there are fewer opportunities to find them even at the post office. A recent report showed that the cheapest way for the USPS to sell stamps was through others, such as grocery stores. Of course the most expensive way was to sell them at the post office. As long as they include commemorative stamps, I would not mind going to a fast food store to buy stamps.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that priority mail now takes on average more than a half day longer to be delivered than first class mail. Priority mail has gotten slower over the past year, and now takes about 2 1/2 days to arrive.

If you've been to a post office in the US over the past few years, then no doubt you've been asked by a clerk whether or not you want your two ounce letter to be sent via priority mail. That would increase the price from 57 cents to $3.50, but the fancy packaging is included. The clerks are required to ask you just as they are required to ask if you want to use your debit card. If this were any other industry, there would be a public outcry and federal investigations. Can you imagine the airline industry selling first class tickets, but when you get on the plane the seats are no different than coach, and the food is actually worse? Nobody would stand for that, but since this is the United States Postal Service, apparently it is okay.

Continuing on the priority mail theme, the new rates going into effect on June 30^th will have a dramatic effect on priority mail. While the media is gleefully reporting a 1 or 3 cent increase in the price of a postage stamp, they are ignoring the rates of packages that people generally are clueless about until they go to the window to mail a package. These new rates mean that priority mail will be going from a flat rate up to 5 pounds, to zoned rates for anything over a pound. Currently, it costs $3.95 to mail a 17 ounce package (which is not that heavy!) anywhere in the US. On July 1, it will still cost you $3.95 to mail the package to someone in your own zone, or close geographical proximity. If you mail the package across the country, that rate will now be $5.75. That is an incredible increase of $1.80. It gets worse for larger packages, a 5 pound package is now $7.70 anywhere, that will go up to $12.15 if you are sending it far. People in Alaska, Hawaii and the US Military will always be paying the Zone 8 charges. If you buy and sell on ebay, this means that it will be hard to give postage quotes without looking them up. Fortunately, stamps are light, but if you buy supplies, kiloware, or larger lots, it could get quite expensive.

The US Mint shocked a lot of people when they announced that they are placing for sell items that were announced sold out up to three years ago, directly competing with dealers. They've done a number of things to alienate coin collectors, including me. When the new state quarters first came out, they were selling them at face value with a postage/handling fee, which I thought was fair. However, they then became greedy and started to sell quarters that they minted for over face - Something like $35 for a $25 bag of coins. That is when I stopped buying, and basically stopped actively collecting. This new trick is an outrage, because is their word worth anything at this point? If you announce something is sold out, it should be sold out, and inventory remaining found later should be destroyed, not placed on the marketplace at a much higher markup to directly compete with dealers. With all the faults of the USPS, imagine if stamps that are sold out and selling above face value started to be available again at the post office at a price higher than issue price? Hopefully this does not give the USPS any great ideas on how to raise revenue.

Thanks for reading, see you next week.

Alan Cohen

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