Sales
Division Colonies
We find that colonies of European countries
regularly are in short supply. They are also very good selling
categories. Consider this: the average sales percentage in
the system for all sales books upon retirement is 32 percent;
the colonies categories sell 32–57 percent by the time they are retired. As you
will note in the “Needs” list at the end of this
column, we have listed the European colonies, a couple of British
areas, and U.S. Possessions.
If you plan to sell stamps in these areas, the sales books are
great for doing so, as evidenced by the following sales results:
Spanish
Colonies — 57%
French Africa — 52%
Netherlands Colonies — 51.3%
Italian Colonies — 47.4%
French Colonies — 45.4%
Portuguese Colonies — 41.6%
German Colonies — 41.3%
If the stamps are priced attractively,
your books could sell better than the category average.
If you
plan to buy stamps, the sales books also are
a great place, as also evidenced by these same numbers. You likely
will find a lot of material for your collection. Additional categories
shown below are British Africa, 38.3%; U.S. Possessions, 36.6%;
and British Asia, 32%.
Whether you are selling or buying in these
categories, what should be included in the sales books? First
of all, remember that the Colonies of a country
are just that — colonies,
not independent nations. We realize that collectors might collect
a colony and its independent country (say, Spanish
Morocco and Morocco), but many do not. Thus, in this example,
presenting Spanish Morocco in a book by itself and Morocco
in its own book would be desirable. The latter would then be
circulated in the Independent Africa category. Offices abroad
might also be included in sales books of colonies. An example
might be German Offices in China mounted in a book also containing
Kiauchau, a German colony in China.
The U.S. Possessions — such
as Canal Zone, U.S. Cuba, Danish West Indies, Guam, Hawaii,
U.S. Philippines, U.S. Puerto Rico, Ryukyus, Mariana Islands,
Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau — might
be considered the U.S. version of “colonies.” The
Offices in Shanghai (Scott’s “K” numbers)
also could also be found in the Possessions or in the U.S.
Back of the Book.
Contact us to obtain a listing of what could
be found in each of the “Colonies” circuits, or
see the list
online.
Holiday Breaks
Please let us know if you will be unable to handle circuits
during the upcoming holiday season. We can place you on a temporary
bypass for two weeks or more at a time, automatically resuming
the circuits for you, if you notify us with the date for resumption.
It is not necessary to notify us about an absence of less than
two weeks. Just process the circuit you get from your post office
within seven days after your return.
Chapter Circuit Schedules
For the members who might not be aware that local stamp
clubs also can receive circuits, consider joining your local
APS chapter and taking advantage of this additional buying venue
by getting your collecting interest on the club’s want
list for the monthly circuit. APS chapters that are receiving
regular sales circuits from us should already have sent us their
2009 schedules for meetings at which they want to have a circuit.
If you have not, please be aware that the deadline was December
1st. Please contact us to avoid interruption of this service.
Also, please canvas your members for an up-to-date want list.
This helps us target the circuit to your needs.
How I Got into Stamp Collecting
This month’s testimonials are from David Blake of West
Virginia and Leonard Cremona of New Jersey. They continue the
theme that one-on-one with a beginner is still the best way
to get someone involved in the hobby.
David Blake:
I would stay with my grandmother
on different occasions and she would let me sit at her desk and
look thru the letters that she had received from family members
who traveled around the country: Lincoln NE, Long Beach CA, Rochester
NY, Lancaster PA, all very exotic for a 6-year-old. She started
to allow me to cut the stamps off bills and other mail at the
time. My interest in collecting stamps had reached her friend,
the postmistress in our town, who would send me birthday cards
with great stamps on them. Well this all served to really inspire
me to collect everything related to stamps.
I received an H.E. Harris starter
album and I began to save up coins to purchase bags of stamps
(probably $1.50 for a bag) at the local stationery store. Several
of my friends would get together and play HE Harris stamp magnate.
It consisted of trading whatever stamps we could for the most
stamps that we could get or needed. This was all great fun for
a group of 8-year-olds to engage their days.
During later years
I would regularly buy stamps and just stash them away, and
at irregular intervals I would look at them and nothing more,
all the while adding regular purchases into the total. The
album had been outdated by many years. When my wife asked me, “What’s
in that box?” and
found out that the contents were my long simmering stamp collection,
she urged me to get an album and spend some time on it. She
bought me a nice group of stamps covertly and gave them to
me as a birthday gift. I joined the APS and my local stamp
club in Harrisburg. Work still interferes with my collecting
efforts but I now have a collection that I am proud of.
Leonard
Cremona:
I was introduced to collecting at an early
age without realizing it. My maternal grandfather collected
travel labels and postage stamps. During 1929–30, while
I was in grammar school, he used to sit me on his lap and we
would go through his collections page by page. He willed his
stamps to me, but during WW-II all were lost. When I returned
from service, I started my current collections early in the
50s with U.S. stamps, eventually specializing in Austria, Poland
and Germany and Topicals of ships and lighthouses, all of which
continue to this day. Now that I am a grandfather and interested
in passing my collections to others, I find there is little
to no interest in my collections among family members and friends.
‘5 For 10’ Categories
(Needs)
We need U.S. items, except U.S.
First Day Covers, U.S. Mint post-1950, U.S. Used post-1950, and
U.S. Plate Blocks post-1950. You can earn coupons for free blank
books and mounts for every 10 completed books containing material
from a set list of categories. (Each group
of 10 or more qualifying books must be received at the same time
and total at least $50 per book. The coupons are issued when
the qualifying books are reviewed soon after arriving.) Each book must be designed to
fit one of the categories, exclusively. Details are sent with
blank sales book orders. You also may visit www.stamps.org and
click on Sales Division and How to Sell. [Note: Single-country
books usually have better sales.] Below are categories that are
in very short supply at this time:
- U.S. Possessions
- British Africa
- British Asia
- French Africa
- French Colonies
- German Colonies
- Italian Colonies
- Netherlands Colonies
- Portuguese Colonies
- Spanish Colonies
Collectible Postage
It is important that circuit members use collectible
postage when forwarding circuits. The member receiving a circuit
likes to have some used postage to add to his/her collection
as some payback, however minimal, for the cost of forwarding
each circuit. Continue to ask the postal clerk for a meter stamp,
even if it is for $0, to indicate that the package was mailed
through a clerk, giving it quicker passage through the postal
system. Postage stamps and meter stamps are officially recognized
as indicators that postage on a package has been prepaid. The
proper mailing method must be used to forward circuits. Our main
concern is for the circuit content.
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