Postage Stamp Vending Machine Memorabilia

I recently came across a stamp vending machine packet that brought back childhood memories of being sent to the neighborhood store to buy stamps for my mother.

For those of you who are too young to remember such antiquities, the first image shows the front and back of the cardboard sleeve that held the stamps -- it is slightly larger than a U.S. commemorative. The second shows the sleeve's interior and the third the stamps it held.







While I can't say for sure, I believe this packet was distributed from a machine like this:



The stamps in the packet were issued between 1948 and 1956 and the first class rate changed from 3c to 4c on August 1, 1958 so the packet likely was purchased between 1956 and 1958.

Steve

Great piece of memorabilia. Evokes a simpler time.

Not that it really matters, I would think that the packet is from the mid-late 60's or early 70's being the Drake Co. has a Zip code, 5 digit zips started in 1963. The blonde has a late 60's-70's hair style. I do remember similar postage enclosures that were in vending machines at grocery stores etc.. in the early 70's. (When I was a kid)

fredcdobbs, good catch on the zip code -- I hadn't thought to consider that.

As to the dating of the woman's hairstyle, I'll be the first to admit that is well beyond my skill set!

Here's the stamp machine I remember getting those little folders out of ... which would have dated to the late 1960's or early 1970's. In fact, as a youngster I remember a corner convenience store had the machine and one of the selections was "stamps of yesteryear" or something like that. It typically contained a few 3 or 4 cent MNH stamps from the 1940's to 1960's for a quarter, I believe, designed to encourage young collectors. Of course, you could buy traditional postage stamps of current rates from the same machine as well:



An interesting side note to all of this. Has anyone in the US realized that the postage vending machines as we knew them are all but gone from the post offices across the country?

Here's a Postal Reporter report from 2004 that suggests that all are to be decommissioned by the end of 2010 ... I guess consumers are now at the mercy of the postal clerk and/or the Automated Postal Centers (in larger post offices), as the several post offices I have been in during the past several months have all of the locations where these machines had been either boarded up from the wall or removed (if they were free-standing machines).

http://www.postalreporter.com/sspcplans.htm

wt1,

I remember that style of machine as well and your recollection of a "stamps of yesteryear" selection would help explain why the packet was among the materials in my father's collection.

I think elimination of stamp vending machines in post offices was a foregone conclusion as a cost-cutting measure. The following "rationale" was provided in an April 2009 USPS News Release



With the exception of collectors, I imagine the vast majority of Americans don't care about the machines' removal as they probably buy all of their stamps at the supermarket checkout counter.

Steve

With the post offices plans for continuted automation, not using an automated vending machine seems a step backward rather than forward, but I guess their Automated Postal Centers make up for it.

Interesting that some of their reported reasons for decommissioning stamp machines were "aging machines" ... there are new, state-of-the-art ones out there (just look at them all at the local mall) and the newer ones accept plastic, too. It's just that the post office doesn't see the value in purchasing newer, more automated versions of the machines. A cost-cutting measure, I suppose.

For us collectors, the demise of the old vending machines means that we have to now purchase a whole roll of coil stamps from the clerk to get anything collectible, whereas, the older vending machines offered us the option to purchase a few examples at face value without the expense of a whole coil roll.

I remember both those machines. The second one pictured, I remember having a hard time getting the silver levers to pull down. They always seemed stuck. I would have to hold onto the top of the machine to steady it. It didn't have much weight to it and would wobble on it's stand as you tried to push the lever downwards. My mother would send me into the post office to pick some up quick, but rather than fight with the machine I would stand in line....for 1-3 stamps...lol

Donna

I thought it might be interesting to add to this thread a different kind of stamp vending machine I saw for sale on ebay today.

Although the photo is a bit blurred and the machine is in pretty bad shape, it is nevertheless the first example I ever recall seeing in the form of a "gumball" machine.

Presumably, the stamps would have been inserted into a plastic bubble (as many small toys are today in similar type machines) and you would then insert your coin and turn the crank for the item to be dispensed:



Not very state-of-the-art, but the sheer simplicity of the machine should have meant that it would have been reasonably reliable in service. Baesd on the fact that it was dispensing 8-cent stamps, it would have be dated back to the early 1970's.

Does anyone else remember this type of US Postage Vending Machine?

If you want to see the actual ebay listing, it's at this link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Pos...ht_500wt_828

Keep an eye on the History Channel's "American Restoration". They recently restored a stamp vending machine, and they even made up new stamp folders! :-)

I remember the blue and red machine but I would love to have all 3 and have them restored