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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations July 15-16, 2006:

Tongs, catalogues -- and computers

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

Stamp collecting used to require standard tools, such as magnifying glasses, tongs, and 
catalogues. But now there's another essential -- the computer.

Those catalogues? Now on disk or the Internet. There were computers available at the 
Washington Two Thousand Six show so collectors could read those books, or check eBay lots 
or their e-mail -- and they were always in use.

The National Postal Museum's Ted Wilson was showing off a new online service, Arrago....

"It allows anyone who has Internet access to be able to access the museum's collections."
RUNS :05

You can use your computer to catalogue your stamps, display them, even MEASURE them.

Approvals, in which stamps are sent to potential buyers, are also going high-tech, because, 
says Tom Horn of the American Philatelic Society, customs taxes make sending the real 
things overseas impractical.

"We can use that digital imaging to send things to members in countries we can't send to now."
RUNS :05

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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