Worse Than The Marker Monkey

I have my virtual battles with US postal employees rather often. One of their favorites is to use Scotch tape (or similar) to fix stamps to parcels with lots of really nice stamps on them.

I experimented some with that and found that a hair dryer does at least half the trick - you can pull the Scotch tape off while you heat it with the dryer (watch your fingers). However, some sticky residue remains. You could get that off with acetone - but that usually destroys the stamps own color - so that is not a good idea. I still have not found the solution to that - someone suggested window cleaner - I'll try that out when I have the time.

It is always a good idea to keep cheap mistreated stamps for experimenting.

Regards,

George

George:

The best solution to remove scotch tape is to use watermark fluid. The best results come from the watermark fluid sold by Subway Stamp supplies in the United States. I've used it on a few items and it works the best. If the scotch tape has been there a few years and the glue from the tape has discoloured the stamp... forget it... it's gone.

David

All those sad stories makes a stamping gal wanna cry
The markers,ink pens, and tape,etc
are taught to all USPS employees (well,at least it seems like it is!)
to dampen our true mission of collecting those beautiful stamps!
Thanks!
Gussyboy1

Well, they are not all marker monkeys.

On Friday I went to the PO to pick up a registered letter from Switzerland. There's CHF10.70 in postage on the cover and I don't think any of us would complain about the cancels. The Swiss hit it lightly in the center and the Americans didn't touch the thing.

As you can see, sometimes they can get it right.





-Larry

Nice one, Lucky Larry

Hi David and everyone,

David wrote:


Well, here in Germany we use benzine a lot - e.g. for removing self-adhesive stamps that won't come off otherwise. Watermark fluid and lighter fluid are chemically the same, AFAIK. However, watermark fluid and benzine are usually cleaner and better than lighter fluid for this reason.

Still, the sticky stuff does not really come off - the tape itself does. I usually prefer the hair dryer method for the tape itself but I might try the benzine once more. Now - possibly the watermark fluid you guys buy from Subway has another secret ingredient, which works better than pure benzine. I might try to find some on the internet to try it out.

Regards,

George

I just got this Picture Postage item yesterday, which was a nice piece before the Black Bar Barbarian at Canada Post abused it.

Rest assured that we in Australia have the same morons working for Australia Post.

I'm pretty sure that they're taught at postie school how to desecrate stamps with textas (that's magic markers to our North American cousins). I have binned so many covers over the years because these imbeciles show no respect for the service they're meant to represent. I've had stamps beautifully hand-cancelled, then sprayed with what we call tank tracks, then pen-cancelled, just to be triply sure.

You may be able to tell that this is one of my bugbears??

Bee See:

You have an official Canada Post Cancel. It is a non-descript 5-bar cancel. The canceller is attached to the sorting boxes. Canada Post employees are to use that to cancel a stamp they fell has not been properly cancelled, or not cancelled at all. None-the-less, it sure ruined your cover, eh?

David

Great Caesars Ghost!

THAT thing should put an end to all those gluestick threads about Canadian stamps that don't get canceled!

Kirk, the rule of thumb is that if there are no cancels on nice commemoratives, leave them be; if there is a very fine light cancel, pound the stamps with everything within hands and feets reach that fits on the stamp pad.

OK, BeeSee, now I understand. Thanks - KS