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An all-star headache.

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

At first I thought it was nice that the Postal Service was offering collectors and customers
a choice on this summer's Baseball All-Stars stamps.

Four players are honored on the stamps - Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, Joe DiMaggio of
the New York Yankees, Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Larry Doby of the
Cleveland Indians. Usually when the Postal Service has a four-subject issue like this, all
four are on one sheet of stamps. If you want one, you have to buy all.

This time, you can buy sheets with all four, or sheets with just one.

That's great for Yankees fans who don't want a Williams stamp in their home, or Red Sox fans
who don't care where DiMaggio has gone.

But then, to borrow a phrase from another sport, the Postal Service began to pile on. We're
also getting five different collectible posters, one for each player and one for all four -
each with 120 stamps.

Then there are the postmarks for collectors - at least 15 different. And a souvenir book.

So far, no Christmas ornaments, keychains or coffee mugs have been announced, but there's
still time.

Some stamp collectors try to collect one of every variety of a country's stamps. Doing that
for this issue is going to cost a few hundred dollars! Ouch!

Luckily, there's no rule that says you have to be complete. You're free to collect only
certain stamps, using your own criteria.

Thank goodness.

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

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