Our Future Together
The Sales Division has been one of the most identifiable services of the American Philatelic Society since its founding in 1886. Today, it is still the largest approval service of its kind. The variety and volume of philatelic material for sale, backed by the Society’s money-back guarantee and offered by seller-members, is not matched in today’s market.
Our operation is very labor-intensive. Even with our computer programs, the volume of sales books and the detailed records for them and for each user of the Sales Division calls for great attention to those details. Anyone who has visited the American Philatelic Center has seen the stacks of sales books, circuits, and paperwork we handle. With cost reductions in staff (twelve in 1995 to six in 2008), supplies and other expenses in the last fourteen years, we still have a bottom-line deficit.
Many members take advantage of this buying and selling venue as an integral part of their APS membership. We thank those members who have used our services and those who continue to benefit from them. We will be making some adjustments in procedures and charges within the next few months that will give us the stability we need to insure a strong operation that contributes to the Society’s financial health. Some of these adjustments are noted here.
Blank Sales Books and Mounts
Supply orders for StampStore and for the Sales Division now have an additional postage charge. Prices for the supplies have not changed. On a per-order basis, the charges are as follows:
Parcel Post — add $1 for postage
First Class/Priority Mail— add $2 for postage
Orders mailed to Canada or Mexico — add $20
Orders mailed to all other countries — add $30
The USPS no longer offers surface mail for overseas addresses and we must use the International Priority rates to mail the orders. This means that we have been losing money on orders from members outside the United States. The increase in foreign postage fees will offset this.
Please note also that we have added another quantity price for the sales books. In addition to the 1-book, 10-book, and 100-book offerings, we now have a 50-book option:
- Regular books for singles (yellow cover) and for blocks (green cover) are 50 for $37.50
- The 8-page books for singles (lavender cover) are 50 for $30, and for covers (light blue covers) they are 50 for $55.
Changes in 2010
We have been studying various parts of the Sales Division operation with the help of the APS Long-Range Planning Committee. We have identified offerings that have been successful (mini-circuits for new buyers) and those that have been disappointing (E-Circuits). As a result, we will be simplifying some of our offerings. For example, our Direct Circuit offerings of the Busy-Person, Seasonal, and E-Circuit mailings will be discontinued January 1, 2010, in favor of a Direct Circuit that will have an additional charge, since these will be tailored to the individual receiving them. While the choice of categories will not be restricted to a certain well-stocked category list (as it is for the present Busy-Person circuits), there may be a long wait for material that is in short supply.
Those members who now receive Seasonal Circuits at their two addresses during the year will be encouraged to rejoin the regular multiple-name circuits and select the location at which they would like to receive the circuits. The E-Circuits, on the other hand, will be discontinued altogether, until a much more efficient and affordable process is possible. We encourage those members to browse the StampStore site to obtain items for their collections. Meanwhile, we will continue to research ways to offer this buying opportunity to overseas members.
Any member who is sending a circuit to the Sales Division, whether you are the last member on the multiple-name circuit list or are sending Direct or Chapter circuits, may use Delivery Confirmation. All packages with USPS secure service bar codes on them have the scanned bar code numbers listed on a sheet, which we sign upon cross-checking the numbers and packages. (Please do not use Delivery Confirmation when forwarding circuits to other members, since this service does not require a signature upon delivery.) This service is a cheaper option (by about $1.40 in 2009) for returning the circuits, and our mailroom signs for them.
Years ago, we deducted all postage fees from retirement checks for returning sellers’ books to them. We switched to just charging the weight part of the postage, using the least expensive mailing method, and we paid the secure service fee (registered and Signature Confirmation).
In January 2010, we will begin deducting all postage to return the retired sales books. This opens the sellers’ options to give us instructions as to how they want their books mailed to them. If the seller has the APS Insurance Plan, we can follow those instructions and any losses can be settled with the Plan provider. Any loss of retired sales books that are mailed by any method that involves using APS Insurance Fund funds to cover the loss will include the deduction of our commission in the settlement, since the Insurance Fund is actually buying the lost contents of the package. Another option offers sellers the opportunity to make a donation to the APS. This saves on the postage charges and gives the seller a tax deduction based on the value of the unsold material. You can choose to donate specific books or donate all of them upon retirement. A specific program may be designated as beneficiary of the donation. (We currently have members who are taking advantage of this way to help the Society.) We will contact current sellers with more detailed information.
APS members who have not used the Sales Division services in the past or who have returned after a five-year hiatus will have the opportunity to receive a four-book mini-circuit as an introduction to buying through this approval service. We offer this special opportunity from January through March and again from July through September each year. Watch for the circuit request card, no postage necessary, in the January and July issues of The American Philatelist in 2010.
2010 Dues
You will receive your 2010 dues notices this month. We encourage you to send your payment by the end of this year to avoid interruption of your sales circuits and your access to StampStore. As noted in last month’s column, in the past, we have waited until the third dues notices were sent in March to drop names from both services. In 2010 we will be doing this at the end of January. The Sales Division and StampStore will send reminders in mid-January.
Selling? — Presentation!
In real estate, it is location, location, location that sells a house. In the APS sales books, it is presentation, presentation, presentation that sells stamps and covers. Buyers will look at a stamp in a disorganized sales book with its crowded pages, messy mounting methods and illegible entries, and decide to not purchase it. That same stamp, in the very same condition with the same price, but in a well-organized sales book, with much more open-looking pages, neat arrangement of mounts and very readable entries will sell. It is important to make sure buyers will seriously consider buying from your sales books, and presentation makes the first impression of the worth of your material.
Holidays and Circuits
Please be sure the circuits you receive during the upcoming holiday seasons do not become inhabitants of the holiday decoration containers or the trash generated by gift wrappings.
‘5 For 10’ Categories (Needs)
We need U.S. items, except U.S. First Day Covers, U.S. Mint post-1950, U.S. Used post-1950, and U.S. Plate Blocks post-1950. You can earn coupons for free blank books and mounts for every ten completed books containing material from a set list of categories. (Each group of ten or more qualifying books must be received at the same time and must contain at least $50 per book. The coupons are issued when the qualifying books are reviewed soon after arriving.) Each book must be designed to fit one of the categories, exclusively. Details are sent with blank sales book orders. You may also visit www.stamps.org and click Sales Division and How to Sell. [Note: Single-country books usually have better sales.] Below are categories that are in very short supply at this time.
Any U.S. Back-of-the-Book areas
Any Single-Country Books from the British Colonial Period
Any European Colonies
Any Countries of the Far East
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