Give Out Stamps At Halloween....

A letter in Linn's Stamp News from Archie S. McKee in Apollo Beach, Florida talked about his grandson seeing a cartoon character "lick" a stamp.
I think a lot of kids would be surprised to see someone lick a stamp these days because all they see are the adhesive ones--a few generations from now, only stamp collectors will know about licking stamps.
Archie also suggested stamp collectors give out stamps at Halloween to encourage kids to look into the hobby.
I think giving them a choice of candy or stamps would be a good idea, but by the end of the night the candy bowl would be empty and the stamp bowl would still be filled-IMHO.

Gussyboy1

Giving a choice would be a great idea. But you might be right about which bowl will empty first. Would be interesting to hear how many take the stamps should you do this.

You're rich Gussy - give them both!

BTW - Santa is on the way with an early Christmas package for you!

Can I take more than one? If you really want to give stamps out I would combine the candy with stamps. Who knows you just might spark the interest in a new collector.

The Stamp Collecting Merit Badge was the start of my stamp collecting.

I think a packet of stamps would need some instructions to help get kids started. Maybe we should include a note which directs them to this web site and other beginner stamp collecting sites. That way they have an easy way to find out more about stamp collecting.

Great ideas everyone!

Thanks for the early Christmas package, Laswabbie! I love surprises!

Gussyboy1

i remember when I was a kid a guy down the street used to hand out wheat pennys and buffalo nickles for halloween - he didn't give us an option for candy. my friends didn't collect coins and would give them to me.

i think you would have to package them well or they may not make it after a long night at the bottom of a candy bag.

At one time, my mother would wrap wheat pennies in plastic wrap (wheat pennies were current then) and pass them out at Halloween. Most candy bars were only 5 cents, then, and the kids could buy full-sized candy bars of their choice. It had nothing to do with collecting.

That Archie has a great idea. I think I will do that this year, if we are home to pass out. Having a little one ourselves, may make it difficult. I would suggest putting the stamps in a Halloween treat bag, that way they won't know what they have until they open it. Surprise! That's pretty sneeky though, if they are neighborhood kids, they might come back and TP or egg my house. On the other hand they may come back and ask questions.
This requires further thought....

Also, October is National Stamp Month in the USA.

I pitched an idea to my son today: Would he like to have stamps to give out to his classmates for Halloween? He said yea that is a great idea. Now I just need to start putting together 30 packets of stamps.

I actually thought about doing this last year. My idea was to put the stamps in a ziplock bag and then staple a pack of "Smarties" and a little note that read something like this:

"Be a smartie, collect stamps."

Then I would have included information about our local kids' stamp club.

The funny thing about our neighborhood, though, is that we only get about 10 trick or treaters. Maybe I should be handing out club info to the people giving candy to MY kids! The average age of my neighbors' is about 60.

Thanks for bringing this topic back up. I think I will try it this year!

I like this idea. The proliferation of stamp information available online could help this along. Including some information to a web site with information on the series passed out (even 20th century commons) would be interesting. Even the online Mystic catalog or something. The convenience of being able to look up information online about the stamps you hand out means you don't have to hand out a Scott catalog to each trick-or-treater too!

xquercus, if you're going to be handing these out, I will definitely be stopping by your house.

Now, I just need to come up with a costume.

I'll dress up as a stamp collector: tongs in one hand and checklist in the other.

I guess I'm stuck being a hinge or magnifying glass.