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A Love-Hate Relationship

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

While part of the Postal Service loves collectors and the stamps we buy, it seems as if 
other parts hate us.

Collectors try to use nice stamps on their mail, especially when it's going to other 
collectors. But all too often, the envelopes arrive with heavy lines drawn across them, 
ruining the stamps. It's to prevent the stamps from being used again. But often they've 
already been neatly canceled. It seems malicious.

The Postal Service also issues expensive stamps for Priority Mail and Express Mail. But 
if you place the stamps as indicated on the post office-provided envelopes, the recipient 
will tear the stamps in half when opening the envelopes.

Also, if your package weighs more than thirteen ounces, and you have only stamps on it, 
you have to take it to a postal clerk. It's all because of a series of mail bombings more 
than a dozen years ago. But mailers buy sixteen-dollar stamps to AVOID standing in line at 
the post office. If a stamp can't carry the mail, is it really a stamp? Or a sticker to 
gouge collectors?

One of the problem is that the Postal Service doesn't make any money from used stamps, only 
new ones. But many stamp collectors start with the used stamps they see on their mail -- IF 
they can find them.

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

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