Opinion by Lloyd A. de Vries
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and not necessarily those of any other organization, philatelic or otherwise.

In a message on the American Philatelic Society website, executive director Scott English outlines a proposal to “merge” the APS and the American Stamp Dealers Association. I put “merge” in quote marks because it seems more like a takeover, with the ASDA becoming a section of the APS, even more so than an Affiliate. (An independent stamp collecting organization that is recognized, but not managed, by the APS.)

English identifies a number of problems with stamp dealing today, but I don’t see in his proposal how combining the two groups would rectify those problems. For instance, he states that fewer than a quarter of ASDA members are stamp show dealers. (Exclusively selling at shows? Or ever selling at shows?) How would merging the two organizations change that? Does it need to be changed? Or does ASDA need to restructure to address that situation?

Talking about selling on platforms like HipStamp and eBay, “…those bound by a code of ethics are treated the same as bad actors by clumsy policies undermining the 100+ years of knowledge and good practices established by these two organizations.” Given the APS’ new partnership with HipStamp and its on-again/off-again one with eBay, I assume he is referring to eBay’s policies. (He didn’t mention any of the other selling platforms.)

Again, how would a merger fix that? Would a combined APS-ASDA convince eBay to give up its own “clumsy policies?” I don’t think so.

He says this merger would “assert our collective membership value in the digital marketplace.” How? An advertising/promotion campaign saying “look for APS membership” would do much the same. Is eBay or any other selling platform likely to require APS, ASDA or any other membership of its dealers? I don’t think so. As long as they pay and don’t violate those “clumsy policies,” all sorts of people will be allowed to use those services.

A well-known dealer who had been expelled from one or both of these organizations continue to be a very active seller on eBay up until his death a few years ago.

I’m not an ASDA member and not privy to its inner workings, but the problem prompting this proposal may be internal: a lack of money, declining membersihp, poor management and so on.

For many decades, ending around the end of the 20th century, ASDA membership was a requirement for a booth at the top stamp collecting shows in New York City. Collectors from all over the Northeast, and some from further, would come to these shows. Any dealer of any size and importance, mail-order or storefront or both, needed to have a booth at those shows.

That is no longer the case. In fact, the ASDA doesn’t even have a New York City show any longer. The fault is not solely that of internet selling. However, that eliminated a major reason for belonging to ASDA.

English proposes adding “dealer representation on the APS Board of Directors.” When I was first elected to the APS Board (1997), I asked why there was a non-voting dealer represent to the Board but not an actual seat on the Board for dealers. I was told in no uncertain terms that the APS represents collectors, not dealers. Has that changed? And what about representation for other philatelic groups, some of which have more members than the ASDA?

Dealers who are members of the APS have for years been able to get “dealer certification” from the APS, giving them access to booths at the APS-produced shows (such as the Great American Stamp Show), display advertising in the journal American Philatelist, and sometimes newsletters and other benefits. Do they still need the ASDA?

If the ASDA is in danger of going out of business, the solution might not be a takeover, but fixing the ASDA’s problems. Or even letting it die. When the Society of Philatelic Americans, a rival to the APS, encountered significant, perhaps insurmountable, problems, it went out of existence.

The USPS has found a willing partner in Disney for its “affinity” tie-ins. Disney is all about cross-promotion: All of its product lines help promote all of its product lines. I was at ABC News when the “final trilogy” (HA!) of “Star Wars” movies were released. Disney owns ABC. The anchors on several programs wore Star Wars costumes! No Disney event would ever go unmentioned in the newscasts.

Was this ordered From Above? I don’t know. After a while, a smart manager knows what the employers want and often delivers it without being asked. I’m pretty sure renting the costumes didn’t come out of our show’s meager budget.

I caught a promo the other night on ABC-TV for some sort of an “event” involving ABC Sports anchors and the Muppets. I think it was happening at Disneyland or Disney World or Disney Empire. Certainly somewhere in the Disney Empire!

The UPSPS loves announcing and issuing stamps at related events. If a pop-culture icon’s manufacturer offered an opportunity, I’m sure the USPS would jump at it. It’s all about publicity for the Postal Service (what I call “Hey! Look at me! We’re still relevant!” stamps, of which the USPS is not the greatest offender) and selling stamps and “philatelic products” at the event.

“Star Wars” by the way, for which the U.S. issued stamps in 2021 and the U.K. issued stamps in 2017, is part of the Disney empire.

Will the Buzz Lightyear stamps sell well? Yes. Will they sell well to philatelists? Who cares. We are a small part of the market.

With a little extra work, the USPS could use these affinity issues to help create more stamp collectors, who would eventually branch out into other parts of philately. That would pay off down the road. But that payoff might come after the current postal management is gone, so it’s not considered.

Meanwhile, “serious” stamp collectors turn up their noses at Buzz and Droids and Hot Wheels and the Hogwarts crowd, as did our grandparents when the first commemoratives were issued in 1892.

We are being flooded with spam, so much than the spam filtering software is demanding another $100 or more a year. (It had already doubled from 2021 to 2022.) You don’t see the garbage, but it takes time to clear out as many as a dozen messages an hour (and that’s after the ones that have certain words are sent right to the Trash).

Many offer clock parts, metal prefab buildings or family law (divorces, counseling). Overnight in the U.S., most of the incoming spam is in Chinese.

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Call me old-fashioned or even a Grumpy Old Man, but I really object to thinly-veiled commercials in recent U.S. stamps: Issues that celebrate a product or company, without actually admitting it.

Granted, the latest U.S. Postal Service selection criteria, which you can see here, do not rule out commercial commemorations. It just seems wrong and demeaning to stamp issuance.

The latest is Espresso Drinks. It is being issued within a month of the 50th anniversary of Starbucks, in the city (Seattle) where it is founded and still has its headquarters. Also coming up this year: Star Wars Droids. It’s not until the seventh paragraph (of 10) in the announcement that the alleged justification is mentioned: “Lucasfilm, the studio that created the Star Wars franchise, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2021.”

Last year, it was Bugs Bunny, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the cartoon character’s introduction. Even if I were to concede that the Wascally Wabbit is one of the “extraordinary and enduring contributions to American society, history, culture or environment,” the USPS criteria also states “Events of historical significance shall be considered for commemoration on anniversaries in multiples of 50 years.” That was the reason given why the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II was not honored.

Before that, it was Scooby-Doo (another cartoon character, 49 years old at the time), Sparkling Holidays (using easily recognizable Coca-Cola advertising images), Hot Wheels and all sorts of Disney issues, including 2017’s Disney Villains. “Negative occurrences and disasters will not be commemorated,” but bad guys are all right, huh?

In 2013, the U.S. issued 20 Harry Potter stamps, but none for the 150th anniversary of one of the greatest speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address. (To add insult to injury, the Potter stamps were issued on the Gettysburg Address anniversary date.) Don’t get me wrong: I love the Harry Potter stories, I read all the books when they first were published, saw all the movies, and I marvel at how it got schoolchildren to read books. But no Gettysburg Address stamp?

It’s not just the U.S., either. Royal Mail in Britain must have staffers working full-time on reasons to issue new Harry Potter, Star Wars or Star Trek stamps. Part of the justification for honoring the latter last year was especially laughable: Some of the actors who starred or were featured in Trek were British!

Yes, postal agencies make money on pop culture stamps: It costs a fraction of the face value to print them, not much more to market and sell them. The postal people can also make money from related products, like coffee mugs, sweatshirts and framed prints.

However, I think these stunt stamps are more of a cry for attention: “Hey, look at us! Look at us! Stamps are still relevant! This postal agency is still relevant! Pay attention to us!” People and the press will pay more attention to pop culture subjects than an award-winning playwright (August Wilson, U.S., 2021), a country’s strengths and accomplishments (Britain, 2021), or its medical discoveries (Insulin, Canada, 2021). Getting such attention may be necessary for continued funding or even continued existence. But so is denoting important facets of a country’s heritage.

Of course, I am free not to buy Hot Wheels or Scooby-Doo, and I didn’t. I am free to obtain postmarks commemorating historical events that USPS Stamp Services didn’t. And, now that I am officially an Old Man (retired, collecting pensions) and was always Grumpy, I am free to be a Grumpy Old Man.

Click on the pictures for much larger versions in a separate tab.

Non-collectors often ask me, “What’s the most valuable stamp in your collection?” I don’t actually collect stamps, I collect covers (envelopes with stamps and postmarks on them), but that’s too complicated for the non-collectors. And when I say, “I don’t know. I don’t collect for value,” the questioner isn’t satisfied.

However, shown here is what may be one of the most valuable first day covers in my collection: A ZIP Block first day cover for the $5 Railroad Lantern in the Americana Series of 1975-81, on a cachet designed and signed by James Schleyer, who also designed the stamp. I purchased the envelope at a stamp store near the National Mall in Washington, DC, along with his cachets for many of the other stamps in the series that he designed. I also serviced ZIP block FDCs on his cachets for the other high values in the series.

What’s it worth? Face value alone is $20. No one catalogues ZIP block FDCs, but I can’t imagine another FDC just like this one exists.

One of my collecting specialties is “official” cachets: A FDC produced by some person or entity with a connection to the stamp subject, often the force behind getting the stamp issued or the location where the first-day ceremony (launch ceremony) was held. I recently picked up this one from an American First Day Cover Society auction, although I may already have it: It was produced for the California-Pacific Exposition stamp (Sc. 773) by the exposition itself. The Planty/Mellone catalogues designate it as P11.

Also purchased in that AFDCS auction was this one, for the Transcontinental Railroad issue of 2019 (Sc. 5378-80), by Wile FDCs. The color picture is fabric.

I like train issues, although I’m hardly methodical enough to be called a train topicalist. This one appealed to me, so I bought it.

Another train first day cover (“cover” in a very broad sense) from the auction: An actual railroad spike, painted gold, with the Golden Spike (middle) stamp from 2019’s Transcontinental Railroad issue (Sc. 5379) and a circular date stamp. Cachetmaker Trevor Bills was the culprit!

And, no, it’s not my first three-dimensional FDC. Remember the FDC-in-a-bottle? Click here to read about that one.

Here’s another “official” cachet, for the 1964 Nevada Statehood centennial stamp (Sc. 1248). This also fits into my “oversized cover” specialty, because the envelope measures 9 inches by 12 inches.

Inside was a faux newspaper, with an article on the stamp “below the fold.” (For the second picture, I copied the article to the top half of the picture, to show off the paper’s masthead at the same time.)

This is bigger than most of my FDCs, and bigger than my albums, so I’m not sure where I’m going to put it.

Finally, it’s covers like the one below that I also purchased in the AFDCS auction #91 that make it hard to characterize my collection with a short, simple phrase: I bought it because it make me laugh, and it wasn’t very expensive. It isn’t official, it isn’t oversize, and it isn’t a ZIP block. It’s not actually a first day cover, in fact. For those who don’t recognize him, that veteran collector and cachetmaker Rollin Berger, having himself a ball. I also love the postmark!

It came about because Rollin noted the “CEC” signature on many recent AFDCS FDCs, and asked (tongue in cheek) if that stood for “Chuck E. Cheese.” It actually is “Cuv Evanson Cachets,” one of the tradenames used by Pete McClure. “FM” is Foster Miller, the other jokester here.

And I am proud to say that when my two sons were of that age, I never once went to a Chuck E. Cheese, even though there is one in the area. (I did, however, take them to a Chuck knockoff several times. And I bought them a subscription to Mad Magazine.)

What To Bring To A First-Day Ceremony
By Lloyd A. de Vries

Most U.S. commemorative and “special” issues and some of the others have events on the day that they go on sale: first-day ceremonies. Some are organized by U.S. Postal Service headquarters, others by local people, ranging from postal people to interest groups.

The listing of what happens at these events is the “program,” which is what we collect. However, we can do more than just accumulate these souvenirs. We can actually go to these events. (Shown above, the unveiling of the stamp design, launching the 2017 Flag stamp at Southeastern Stamp Expo near Atlanta.)

In 2018, word is that first day sites again will have a wider geographic distribution around the country than in the past. We saw that beginning in late 2016, when the Hanukkah stamp ceremony was moved to Boca Raton, Fla., the Kwanzaa ceremony was held in Charleston, S.C., and Nativity was at a church in Washington, D.C. In the past, almost all non-Christmas stamps for winter holidays were issued at the big New York City show in October.

In 2017, for example, Love Skywriting was issued in Chino, Calif., WPA Posters in Hyde Park, N.Y. (home of FDR, in whose administration the Works Progress/Projects Administration was created), and Flowers from the Garden in Sioux Falls, S.D., at the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum.

Nearly all U.S. first-day ceremonies have free admission (even when the event to which they are attached charges admission). In most cases, you don’t need to bring anything other than yourself in reasonably presentable condition. However, experienced ceremony attenders often come prepared. Here are some suggestions:

Money, checks or payment cards to buy the new stamps, of course: The U.S. Postal Service also is likely to offer other “philatelic products” at the ceremonies, such as uncacheted FDCs, press sheets, framed stamps and so on. Nearby, you may find cachetmakers selling their own FDCs, both serviced and unserviced.

Envelopes or cards of your own for servicing as FDCs: Cacheted is better, but cachets can be added later, if there isn’t time to prepare them in advance. Bring extras; non-collectors or those who haven’t read this column may want to trade for or purchase what you have brought.

Savvy FDC collectors who attend first-days keep a supply of good-quality envelopes for issues announced at the last minute.

Something in which to carry your collectibles: The Postal Service may or may not have large glassine envelopes, but even if it does, those aren’t very protective.

Absorbent paper to put between your freshly-postmarked covers and cards: Most on-site cancelers aren’t using quick-drying ink, and the postmarks on glossy paper may smear otherwise. Post-it notes also work well.

A good-quality pen for autographs: There is usually an “autograph table” with the dignitaries from the ceremony, and they are usually supplied with “Sharpies” (permanent ink markers). The key word here is “usually.” Also, not all dignitaries participate in these autograph sessions, so you may have to chase some down, or you may see a celebrity not involved in the ceremony whose autograph you want to obtain.

The Sharpie is a good choice: The ink dries quickly and it will write on practically anything.

A keen eye: Look for postmarks that won’t be offered by mail, such as the double-ringed red registry plug, which postal regulations state cannot be backdated. Watch the cancellation clerks at work; you may decide you want a particular clerk to handle your covers, or none at all. If you plan to obtain autographs after the ceremony, see where the autograph line will be and perhaps take a seat near where it starts.

Keep an eye out for “ephemera” that might make a nice first-day collectible: A brochure for the attraction at which the ceremony is being held and which is related to the stamp subject, for example. But don’t be greed: Don’t clean out the rack or stack, take just a few.

Also watch for programs left behind by non-collectors. Even if you only want one for your collection, the extras may be “trade fodder.” Or, in the case of multi-stamp issues, you may need more than one program to complete the set..

You may wish to add additional stamps and cancels or autographs to your first-day ceremony program to differentiate it from those that were not distributed at the event; that is, purchased from the USPS sales department.

An Attention Span: It is amazing what you might learn at a first-day ceremony. At one in 2015, for example, collectors learned how hard the Postal Service designers tried to make the person attractive. Best of all, though was the definitive bird stamp ceremony in January 2004 where a local postmaster, reading a script prepared for him by USPS Headquarters, let drop that there would be a not-yet-announced John Wayne Legends of Hollywood stamp later that year!

by Lloyd A. de Vries.

A philatelist friend alerted me that this cover featuring ABC News anchors Max Robinson, Peter Jennings and Frank Reynolds, and autographed by each of them. I presently work as a freelance writer for ABC News, so I bid a few dollars and won it. With shipping and sales tax, my total was $4.52.

It’s not a pretty cover, and I wasn’t sure of its significance.
The description said “1976,” but upon closer examination, the postmark dates are 1978. When I brought it to work, coworkers pointed out that that was the year ABC’s evening television newscast was reformatted and named “World News Tonight,” which is its present name, in July 1978.

Robinson, the first African-American to anchor a major network’s newscast, was stationed in Chicago, with an emphasis on domestic news. Jennings anchored from London (thus the British stamp and cancel), reporting on foreign news. And Reynolds was in the network’s Washington bureau, for political news. There are Chicago, Washington and, for some reason, Buffalo NY cancels on the U.S. flag stamp.The (upside-down) reverse of the envelope has a London “backstamp” as well. There is no clue who produced the cover or whether more than one was produced.

According to Wikipedia, the format worked, and the ABC newscast eventually overtook both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, for the first ratings win in the news division’s history.

In 1983, Reynolds became ill and eventually died from bone cancer. Robinson’s personal problems took their toll, and he was pushed aside to the weekend edition, and Jennings became the sole anchor.

The autographs are probably worth more than the cover is as a philatelic item. It isn’t really “postal history,” either, because what it documents isn’t postal. I still think it’s a fun cover to own, and I’m glad I have it.

Ho, hum, another American Philatelic Society election. There’s only one candidate per office, so why bother?

If you are an APS member, you should vote anyway, even though the outcome is known. The same people who are in office now will be in office for the next three years. They’d like your support. They deserve your support.

So why bother? Because low voter turnout tells a stamp society’s leaders the members don’t care. The rank-and-file can’t be troubled to find a 55-cent stamp and spend 60 seconds ticking off check-boxes.

As a former officer of the APS and a current officer of other stamp societies, I can tell you, that’s discouraging. I’m volunteering my time and many expenses, and so many other members can’t find a minute and postage.

The APS usually does have more than one candidate per office, especially for the four director-at-large seats, which act as “entry level positions.” The lack of candidates here is also disheartening.

The society’s elections seem to run in cycles: Several cycles of quiet, separated by a single hard-fought and often nasty campaign. I worry that the last round of nastiness, when one candidate sued others for defamation, false advertising and more, is scaring off potential candidates.

But that shouldn’t stop you from voting. Pull out the ballot, mark it, and put it in the mail.

I’m betting you have a stamp or two lying around.

Opinion by Lloyd A. de Vries

Royal Mail goofed.

As part of its preview of its 2019 “special” or “commemorative” stamps, it sent out what it said was a representative design for an issue of 11 stamps marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It turned out the sample design was erroneous and showed a different amphibious landing during World War II.

For the record, it showed the U.S. Coast Guard (not “Allied soldiers”) landing on May 17, 1944, at Sarmi in Netherlands New Guinea, now Indonesia. Here’s the design: Royal Mail quickly sent out a correction, adding that the stamps had not yet been printed and, of course, this design won’t be printed.

“End of story,” I thought. The mistake was caught in time, there are no “error design” stamps for collectors to seek and no economic penalty for Royal Mail of having to destroy already-printed stamps. I relabeled the erroneous illustration on my hard drive “not D-Day” and, since I hadn’t yet published the press release, I didn’t see the need for a retraction. End of (non-) story.

Boy, was I wrong!

I don’t know if it’s the times we live in, where any mistake by a public figure or agency must be trumpeted from the ramparts no matter how profuse the apologies, or if it’s the mindset of stamp collectors to seize upon any error or variation. Maybe it was just a slow news period. The incorrect D-Day stamp design became a hot topic in online discussion groups and a lead story in Linn’s Stamp News. All that’s missing is a formal complaint to the Royal Philatelic Society of London, and, for all I know, that is in the works.

I don’t know my history of wrong-design British stamps, but I can think of several design errors on U.S. stamps that did get printed and go on sale, including putting the Grand Canyon in the wrong state and showing Bill Pickett’s brother instead of the African-American cowboy in the Legends of the West sheet. Sending out a press release with an incorrect image pales by comparison.

Perhaps collectors are annoyed that the Sarmi stamps weren’t printed and they won’t be able to add them to their Mistakes On Stamps collections.

When the catalogues with the 2019 British stamps are published, I would hope this episode doesn’t even merit a footnote.

As someone who writes news for a living, I know first-hand that errors creep in all the time. You try to catch them, you hope someone else catches them before the mistakes are public, and when they do go public, you fix them. I would also estimate that 8 out of 10 major-newspaper articles I read on their websites have footnotes about corrections made. That is one of the disadvantages of the instant publishing made possible in this digital age.

Mistakes happen. This one was caught in plenty of time, with no real harm. It has already received much too much attention. Let’s move on.

by Lloyd A. de Vries

What were they thinking? Awarding $3.5 million dollars to the sculptor of a Las Vegas replica of the Statue of Liberty, because the U.S. Postal Service used a photograph of it on a stamp.

I’m often critical of the USPS, but this decision makes no sense to me. The justices say the agency made $2.1 billion from the sale of 4.9 billion stamps. That’s the gross, at 44 cents per stamp. The printing cost is a small fraction of the selling price, but a stamp represents a payment, whether it’s a tax on alcohol or playing cards, or, in the case of postage stamps, for delivering a piece of mail.

Stamps like this one are called definitives, and are the workhorses of postage stamps: Unlike stamps for celebrities or ice pops or other pop culture, which are aimed at collectors and aficionados of the subjects, definitives are intended to carry the mail. Yes, first-class mail service shows a profit, but not 43 cents out of 44!

Perhaps Judge Eric Bruggink’s dog was bitten by a mailman.

Most of us would be thrilled to see our work on a postage stamp, nationally distributed through more than 30,000 retail outlets and ending up in millions of homes and businesses.

Davidson and his attorney were no doubt encouraged by another sculptor’s successful lawsuit against the USPS. He created a sculpture for the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington. The USPS showed the sculpture — which was commissioned and purchased by the U.S. Park Service — on a stamp, the artist sued, and the USPS was ordered to pay damages.

Did Davidson pay royalties to the Park Service for his version of the Statue of Liberty? No, of course not. Legally, he is not required to do so. A purely federal agency like the Park Service can’t copyright anything. (The Postal Service is a corporation owned by the government, and therefore can claim copyrights.) Parody — such as a half-size replica using your mother-in-law’s face — is also protected from copyright.

Apparently, the USPS was faulted by the Federal Claims Court not so much for using the wrong image, but for not immediately pulling the stamp off sale and out of its tens of thousands of retail outlets. The mistake, as well as other incorrect stamp designs (the wrong African-American cowboy’s picture, putting the Grand Canyon in the wrong state, and, of course, the Korean War Veterans Memorial stamp), are affecting my part of stamp collecting: The USPS now triple-checks everything, runs it all past attorneys, then triple-checks everything again, and first day cover collectors and servicers are getting information about new issues later and later. “Even though George Washington had no children of his own, have we checked all the descendants of his stepdaughters to see if we have permission to use ‘Washington’ in a postmark?”

The Postal Service is everyone’s favorite whipping boy. It’s even part of our lexicon: “The check is in the mail,” we say, when it really hasn’t even been written.

Conservatives in particular love to attack the Postal Service. They would like to see it privatized, as in other countries, although it hasn’t always worked well. The U.S. Constitution requires that the federal government provide mail service. The USPS also delivers to every address in one of the biggest countries in the world, and for far less than most other countries’ postal agencies.

Listen to what Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation which has described climate science as “fraud science,” had to say about this case:

“Even for the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service (USPS), a bastion of mismanagement, this appears to be a new low…

“Profiting from an artist’s stolen work is simply the latest of many transgressions committed by the USPS in recent years.”

In the article, Judicial Watch calls the USPS “a perpetually troubled government agency notorious for its egregious spending sprees and dire financial woes” and “a bastion of mismanagement.”

Ouch!

But even the liberal Washington Post couldn’t help smirk about the decision. Three days after running the just-the-facts-ma’am Associated Press story, a WaPo “Post Nation” column played it as a soap opera.

“They met totally by accident … It was like the premise of a rom-com,” wrote Avi Selk, referring to a romantic comedy.

Even non-collectors have come up to tell me, and perhaps chortle, about the USPS mistake that may cost it $3.5 million.

I hope it doesn’t. I hope the U.S. Postal Service appeals the decision, or at the very least, sues Getty Images (to whom it paid $1,500 for use of the photograph on the stamp) for failing to label it properly.

And when Judicial Watch or the Washington Post wonder why its mail is taking longer to arrive, someone will point out the USPS had to cut corners somewhere to come up with that $3.5 million.