Download this report as an MP3 sound file.


For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations 
April 7-8, 2001:


Heads up!


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


Savvy collectors of U-S stamps are keeping an eye on the 
postal problems.


Why? Because what the U-S Postal Service does, and how well 
it does it, affects collectors.


Each time the agency raises its prices, it issues new stamps 
to cover those rates. To buy one of each new stamp for the 
most recent rate hike cost at least 25 to 30 dollars. You 
have to buy 10 or 20 of the stamps, because your post office 
often won't sell just one.


Several years ago, one Bright Boy decided the Postal Service 
could help balance its books by boosting its sales to 
collectors. We saw a flood of new issues, some of them 
high-priced.


Earlier this year, postal officials promised fewer new stamps 
each year, but that was mostly to cut THEIR costs, not for 
the sake of collectors' wallets.


Of course, if you aren't trying to collect one of each and 
every U-S stamp, you don't have to BUY each and every U-S stamp. 
But there are many people who DO strive for completeness...and 
THEY should be paying attention


And that's stamp collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.


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

Go to Report Index
 
Return to Virtual Stamp Club Home Page