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Ya pays your money, ya takes your choice.

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

Britain’s Royal Mail has issued 15 stamps for the H-B-O television series "Game of Thrones,"
which is produced in Northern Ireland. Ten of the stamps show lead characters. Four show
supernatural creatures, and one is the Iron Throne.

Many people greeted the news enthusiastically, and a few even wondered why the U-S doesn’t
issue stamps like this.

But at other times, critics have complained that the U-S issues too many pop-culture stamps
and not enough historical subjects… and there is similar criticism in other countries.
Regarding "Game of Thrones," someone in Britain wondered why a ten-year-old was choosing
Britain’s stamps!

Looking at the stamps announced so far for the U-S… it’s a good mix of subjects. There are
stamps I must have and others I’ll skip. I’m sure that’s true of collectors for other
countries, too.

A generation or two ago, if you collected a country’s stamps, you collected ALL of its
stamps. Then two things happened: Interest groups demanded stamps for THEIR subjects… and
postal agencies discovered there was money to be made in issuing many different stamps for
many different subjects… especially for pop culture.

Today’s stamp collector is free to say “no, thanks, I’m not putting that in my collection” —
whether it’s because you don’t like the subject, the design or the price.

Me? I like “Game of Thrones.” I just think 15 stamps is too much.

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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