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Awash in a sea of red ink.

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries

The U-S Postal Service says it lost two billion dollars in the first three months of this
 year.  Worse, it’s about to hit its borrowing limit.

Stamp collectors are concerned because the Postal Service influences so much of our hobby. 
It issues the new stamps, and even if that’s not what you collect, that’s how most new 
collectors start.

We worry that the Postal Service will start flooding us with more new issues, just to 
raise money. The U-S already issues more stamps a year than most major countries.

On the other hand, we worry the Postal Service might issue FEWER stamps, bringing less 
attention to our hobby.

In boom times, the Postal Service helped fund some stamp collecting programs. Now, it not 
only isn’t doing that, it’s cutting some of its own operations that serve collectors.

Stamps are really a very small part of the postal budget, though.  And while some local 
postmasters may panic and cut services, that’s not where the problems are.

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

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