Download this report as an MP3 sound file.

Maximum Effect

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

One of the areas of stamp collecting often overlooked is the maximum card.

"A maximum card, short and sweet, is a postcard with the stamp on the picture side with a
cancellation, and all of them are concordant." RUNS :10

U-S maximum card collector Terry Watson says that means they're all related.

"You get a postcard of Lou Gehrig, a stamp of Lou Gehrig, and get a Bronx cancellation, you've
got a maximum card." RUNS :07

While there ARE maximum card collectors in North America…

"It is very popular in Europe. It is growing in popularity in Asia. In the United States, not
so much." RUNS :08

Maximum card collecting is pretty much do-it-yourself, not something you buy from a subscription
service. Most U-S collectors use the special postmarks for the first day the stamp is on sale,
but Watson says that's not necessary.

"It can be a special pictorial cancellation. It can be an ordinary city cancel, as long as it
has something to do with the postcard and the stamp." RUNS :11

There are rules for maximum cards, but U-S collectors are not anywhere as strict as Europeans.

"I think the strict rules that have come out of the European F-I-P kind of are a deterrent for
collecting maximum cards. People get confused as to what are the rules and people want to follow
the rules, and then they just give up." RUNS :13

U-S maximum card collectors are more laid back.

"To us, hey, collect what you want to collect. If it's something you really like and it kind of
follows the rules, do it. Collecting it." RUNS :08

There's a new 21st century challenge for maximum card collectors.

"With the internet and e-mail, Facebook, people are not writing postcards, so that means people
aren't buying postcards, and if people aren't buying postcards, people aren't making postcards,
so the postcards are getting a little more difficult to find." RUNS :11

But that isn't the hardest part of the three components to find.

"Find the stamps is the easy part usually. Finding the postcard, a little more challenging, but a
lot of times the postmarks is the most difficult." RUNS :07


Watson heads the group for North American maximum card collectors, the Maximum Card Study Unit,
or "MACSU." You can contact him for more information, at Terry-W-7-6-3-3 at Comcast-dot-com,
or find the link at virtual-stamp-club-dot-com

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


----------------------------------------------------------
Go to Previous Report
Go to Next Report 

Go to Report Index