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The Stamps of Approval

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

For much of the 20th Century, most collectors purchased their stamps as "approvals." Dealers 
sent you a selection of stamps they thought you might want. You kept the ones you wanted, 
returned the ones you didn't, along with payment for the ones you kept. Sometimes there was 
a discount if you kept the entire selection.

The approval dealers usually started customers with cheaper stamps, and as the relationships 
would build, so would the value of the stamps.

There ARE some dealers who still offer approvals, including one of the biggest in the U-S, 
Mystic Stamp Company. The American Philatelic Society's sales circuits are similar.

Times have changed, though, and we're not quite as trusting as we once were. Postal rates 
have increased, and we have eBay and other Internet sites now.

Still, nothing quite beats seeing the stamps before you buy them, without going out.

As a kid, it was a thrill to get mail addressed to me. As an adult, it was nice getting 
something in the mail that wasn't a bill.

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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