Addresses On Covers....

Hello:
I buy stamp lots, cannibalize them and resell them either in lots or individually, however, I'm stuck on the covers.

In the world today with id theft I wonder about the following:

Should the address of the receiver be removed by covering with a blank label?

Should the address be blackened?

I can understand leaving them alone without any fear for anything before 1930 without any reprisals.

But what about the 40's to the present?

And I wonder about family lawsuits for disseminating such information.

thanks

First of all, welcome to Stamp Collecting Forum!

While I don't have a direct answer to your question, you do raise an interesting point. Personally, I shred anything of personal ID importance that I don't want a stranger to get their hands on. As for collectible covers, postcards, etc., it seems to me the receiver has the option of shredding and/or destroying it, too, but if they don't and it winds up in the trash or in a dumpster, then I believe it's fair game for anyone who obtains it to use and resell if there is philatelic and/or postal history value to the item.

I've not heard of any family lawsuits being lodged against anyone selling such items, mainly because it would be nearly impossible to prove who obtained what from whom as the material could be passed down from collector to collector any number of times.

In fact, for modern material, even if one were to black out the name and address of the recipient, the bar codes now appearing on postally used material and even the nine-digit zip codes now appearing at the bottom of a a mail piece can reveal the address of the recipient even if the name were covered up.

It also seems to me that blackened out addresses would detract from a cover's value, as part of the postal history cover collectors thrive upon is the sender and receiver information attached to the cover and whether it met then-current postal rates and/or if there was a prominent person depicted in the address. Likewise, label coverings would seem even less desirable, as the adhesive would detract from the cover and as a practical matter, there are easy ways to remove the labels that would expose the addressee's name and address if one were intent on pulling up that information.

If a cover were produced as an intended philatelic keepsake (i.e. a first day cover or pictorial cancel) most prefer unaddressed covers anyway and would take the effort to provide either a protected return envelope for an unaddressed piece or at least a removable address label that could be discarded afterwards.

As a practical matter, stamps are becoming so obsolete in deference to labels and/or postage meter imprints, that the number of covers held today by collectors are relatively small compared to those of a generation ago.

Nevertheless, I'm sure some other SCF members will chime in with some other opinions.

Good question!

If selling on the internet and in as you are concerned, you can block out the address when scanning the cover or cut it out after scanning, then post the new image.

Art