The Stamp Collecting Report
A radio feature by Lloyd de Vries

Download or listen to this report as an MP3 sound file.

Alone or With Others?

The Stamp Collecting Report. I’m Lloyd de Vries.

One thing we learned during the pandemic: Stamp Collecting is a hobby that can be done all by yourself or in a group, as a solitary pursuit or a social event.

You can sort and put away your stamps and related materials at any hour of the day or night, whether you’re in quarantine or just coming home from work late at night. But you can also get together with fellow collectors to buy, sell and trade stamps, give and get advice or just trade stories. There are “stamp shows,” as they’re called, almost every weekend of the year. Some are just a small collection of dealers in what’s called a “bourse.” Others are much more elaborate affairs, with not only dealers, but meetings, seminars, and food functions. Sometimes a new stamp will go on sale, too. There are also clubs in many areas. We’ve got links at virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

One other thing we learned: Stamp collecting adapted quite nicely to the online meeting technology. For a year or so, it was almost the only way we could get together. But online meetings also make it easier to show your most interesting stamps to others attending the session. You can see much more on a computer or even a phone screen than something hand-held in the front of a room.

Best of all, you can participate in stamp collecting both by yourself and in a group, often all in the same day.

Stamp collecting weathered two world wars, the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1917, COVID-19 and mass media like radio, television, the movies and the internet. And it’s still going strong.

And that’s stamp collecting for now. I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, and for that list of links I promised, visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

• Linn’s Stamp News Events Search Page
• American Philatelic Society Events Calendar
• APS’ schedule of the top shows in the U.S.
• APS’ search tool for local clubs

The Stamp Collecting Report began in 1997 as a 60-second weekly feature distributed to CBS Radio Network stations by CBS News as part of its Weekend Feature Package. Eventually, longer versions were recorded for this website and a Christian evangelical shortwave service. The Report ended its CBS run in 2017 with only six repeats in some 1,040 weeks. It is now produced solely for The Virtual Stamp Club on an occasional basis.

Go to Report Index • Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page

The Stamp Collecting Report
A radio feature by Lloyd de Vries

Download or listen to this report as an MP3 sound file.

Not dying: EVOLVING.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I’m Lloyd de Vries.

Recent news in the philatelic world has the pessimists wringing their hands, saying “The End Is Near!” These include the cancellation of the only top-level stamp collecting show in the New York City area, NOJEX, and the number of pages in a recent issue of Linn’s Stamp News, the leading philatelic periodical.

There are several factors involved in the stamp show problem: One is the high rents for venues in major cities. Most shows are now held in the suburbs: ten, twenty, thirty miles from downtown. Even those with an address in a big city are really on the outskirts.

The other problem for stamp shows is age: The committee members are old, having failed to bring in new, younger members. The “model” for their shows is old, too: Provide tables for dealers, space to exhibit collections, and maybe a few meetings.

Many of today’s dealers and collectors buy and sell on the Internet. Give them a reason to come to your stamp show, maybe special guests or rarities.

Linn’s — the weekly stamp newspaper — recently cut the number of printed issues. The others are available online. Where are today’s collectors and dealers? I just said: On the Internet. Mainstream news media are facing the same problem, competing with free news sources on the web. Linn’s needs to provide solid, accurate news and insight, and so far, it is.

Stamp Collecting isn’t dying: The old ways of doing it are. It’s not the same hobby it was in 1923 and it won’t be the same hobby in 21-23.

And those are my thoughts on stamp collecting. I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

The Stamp Collecting Report began in 1997 as a 60-second weekly feature distributed to CBS Radio Network stations by CBS News as part of its Weekend Feature Package. Eventually, longer versions were recorded for this website and a Christian evangelical shortwave service. The Report ended its CBS run in 2017 with only six repeats in some 1,040 weeks. It is now produced solely for The Virtual Stamp Club on an occasional basis.

Go to Report Index • Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page

The Stamp Collecting Report
A radio feature by Lloyd de Vries

Download or listen to this report as an MP3 sound file.

Too good to be true.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I’m Lloyd de Vries.

You may have seen the ads on Facebook: One hundred Forever flag stamps for half the 55 dollars you’d pay at the post office. If you click on the link, you’ll go to a website with the Postal Service name at the top.

The red flags should go up right away. First, a hundred stamps now will cost you 63 dollars, not 55. The actual web address isn’t U-S-P-S-dot-com. And the Postal Service never sells its stamps to ANYONE at a discount.

If you get anything at all for your money, they will be counterfeits — fake stamps. They’re missing certain markers and the printing is bad. In the past, the Postal Service would return your mail to you because it didn’t have enough postage. Now, the agency wants permission to just throw away mail with counterfeit stamps. You won’t know your bill payment wasn’t delivered until you get the shutoff notice.

And that’s NOT stamp collecting. I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club.

The Stamp Collecting Report began in 1997 as a 60-second weekly feature distributed to CBS Radio Network stations by CBS News as part of its Weekend Feature Package. Eventually, longer versions were recorded for this website and a Christian evangelical shortwave service. The Report ended its CBS run in 2017 with only six repeats in some 1,040 weeks. It is now produced solely for The Virtual Stamp Club on an occasional basis.

Go to Report Index • Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page

The Stamp Collecting Report
A radio feature by Lloyd de Vries

Download or listen to this report as an MP3 sound file.

Being Resolute.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I’m Lloyd de Vries.

The beginning of the year is the time to make resolutions to do better in the next twelve months. For me, and perhaps for you, that includes what I do, and don’t do, in stamp collecting.

For 20-23, I hope to improve my exhibit, find a key item that I know I have here somewhere, and enter the exhibit in more competitions. I won’t win anything major, I just want to do better.

And the fact that I know I have that piece “somewhere” tells you about another resolution I need to make!

I resolve to update The Virtual Stamp Club website more often and even do more of these audio features.

And I need to be more patient and forgiving when something goes wrong. After all, this is a hobby, not my life, and it’s supposed to be fun.

What are your stamp collecting resolutions? Leave a comment under this piece’s script and tell us about it. Then come back in a year, and tell us how you did.

And that’s stamp collecting. I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club.

The Stamp Collecting Report began in 1997 as a 60-second weekly feature distributed to CBS Radio Network stations by CBS News as part of its Weekend Feature Package. Eventually, longer versions were recorded for this website and a Christian evangelical shortwave service. The Report ended its CBS run in 2017 with only six repeats in some 1,040 weeks. It is now produced solely for The Virtual Stamp Club on an occasional basis.

Go to Report Index • Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page

The Stamp Collecting Report
A radio feature by Lloyd de Vries

Download or listen to this report as an MP3 sound file.

A stamp set that touches my heart.

The stamp collecting report. I’m Lloyd de Vries.

[Music: Opening theme of Broadway show; establish and under]

New U-S stamps celebrate the centennial of the birth of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the “Peanuts” cartoon strips. The comics still run in newspapers today, even though Schulz stopped creating new ones in Two Thousand. It’s a testament to just how beloved Peanuts was and is.

“Peanuts” means a lot to me personally. You see, my brother had what today are called “learning disabilities.” Back around 1960, he was written off by the education system. My mother was told her child could never be taught how to read.

Mom didn’t accept that. She bought several of the Peanuts compilation books that reprinted the daily comic strips and yes, from those, Jeremy learned how to read. I read them, too, of course, and decades later, he and I were still sharing jokes from “Peanuts.”

Peanuts is kind, gentle, funny and literate. The jokes are never mean or nasty. I’m not sure any other comic strip could have done the job for my family.

I doubt Schulz ever knew what he had done for us, but there have been many other tributes to him. These ten stamps are the latest, and I can’t think of someone who deserves it more.

[Music: “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown….”]

And so were you, Charles M. Schulz.

And that’s stamp collecting. I’m Lloyd de Vries.

The Stamp Collecting Report began in 1997 as a 60-second weekly feature distributed to CBS Radio Network stations by CBS News as part of its Weekend Feature Package. Eventually, longer versions were recorded for this website and a Christian evangelical shortwave service. The Report ended its CBS run in 2017 with only six repeats in some 1,040 weeks. It is now produced solely for The Virtual Stamp Club on an occasional basis.

Go to Report Index • Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page

The Stamp Collecting Report
A radio feature by Lloyd de Vries

Download or listen to this report as an MP3 sound file.

What Happened to Hollywood?

The Stamp Collecting Report, I’m Lloyd de Vries.

This summer, the U-S issues stamps celebrating Buzz Lightyear, an animated film character. Last year, there were stamps for ten droids, or robots, from Star Wars, and I doubt anyone but a real fan had heard of half of them. The year before that, Bugs Bunny, another fictional character. But real people? The last Legends of Hollywood stamp was in 2016, for Shirley Temple.

The Black Heritage series, Music Icons series, even the Literary Arts series have all kept going, but not the stamps for the film industry. The Postal Service insists the Legends of Hollywood series isn’t dead, it’s just on hiatus.

“We were at a point where we weren’t sure who to put on next.” RUNS :04

I talked to Bill Gicker — in charge of the stamp program — last summer.

“When the series had started, the people who were being honored were very much sort of that golden era of Hollywood, the studio age.” RUNS :07

Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart and so on.

“We were at point where we weren’t sure the people we could, would be eligible next were of the same caliber as those we had done before.” RUNS :08

In the studio era, movie stars just didn’t do television. Today, there’s plenty of crossover.

“We also have to have a discussion whether we think we should expand into television, since television is also Hollywood.” RUNS :06

Now, there were rumors that rights issues were a problem. Some estates reportedly demanded money, others wanted the person portrayed as a humanitarian, not an actor, and in some cases, the different heirs just couldn’t agree with each other.

“Rights are a challenge, but it’s a challenge we deal with, with everything.” RUNS :04

And you’d better believe the U-S Postal Service has attorneys researching the rights, not only for the person being honored, but for the photograph, the character, the costume, just about everything.

“If someone’s worthy of being on a stamp, we try our best, and usually we can clear a stamp. Occasionally we can’t, and that’s just how it goes.” RUNS :08

So movie fans, don’t give up hope. The Legends of Hollywood series may be coming back … to a post office near you.

I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

The Stamp Collecting Report began in 1997 as a 60-second weekly feature distributed to CBS Radio Network stations by CBS News as part of its Weekend Feature Package. Eventually, longer versions were recorded for this website and a Christian evangelical shortwave service. The Report ended its CBS run in 2017 with only six repeats in some 1,040 weeks. It is now produced solely for The Virtual Stamp Club on an occasional basis.

Go to Report Index • Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page