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Why bother?

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

The U-S Postal Service's Inspector General says on his blog that the agency wastes
 too much money producing stamps that become obsolete and are eventually destroyed,
 and then asks: Is there really a need for any stamps at all?

Now, you can make a good guess what I think. And I understand that part of an inspector 
general's job is to question everything. 

But I think the I-G is barking up the wrong tree here. Postal agencies MAKE money on the 
stamps they issue. There are small countries for which stamps for collectors are the major 
export! Even when you figure in design, printing, distribution and other overhead, a stamp 
costs pennies to produce....and every stamp that is kept -- that is, collected -- turns a 
tidy profit.

If the agency isn't making money on its stamps, then it's doing something wrong. 

I know one mistake: The retailing people aren't helping. Too many post offices don't stock 
new stamps, too many clerks are unaware of what stamps are being issued and unhelpful to 
collectors.

But here's one suggestion in the blog that many collectors agree with: Make ALL stamps, 
even the commemoratives, Forever stamps -- which pay the First Class Rate, whatever it 
is, and never become obsolete.

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


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