Starting A Stamp Club?

I realize that all members have ideas that they are entitled to have; however, I can't entirely agree with members not being allowed to trade with other fellow members. In our club, this has been done for a number of years now and w/o any repercussions. I realize too that all club vary to some degree with rules and regulations.

On the other hand, how can ANY club police such a ruling?? I would think that some members would privately trade / sell among each other anyway (?) What is the point of a stamp club that does not allow trading / selling among its' own members??

My opinion of course

Chimo

Bujutsu

Buju,
We 'give' each other stamps, and we swap. It is not allowed to profit from another member though. As for policing it, each member has given their word to abide by the rules of the club and in Yorkshire this still means something.
We have lasted 4 years with this policy and everyone agrees it is the fundamental reason for the success of the club.
Yuri-YSC.

Understand,and, in Canada, it still means something here too!

As I stated, to each their own.

I just don't agree with the policy. Again, my opinion.

Chimo

Bujutsu

with Bujutsu.
I cant sell to another member but swapping or trade is OK .
What really is the difference .
KGV do you have any churches on your island I know a lot of small clubs hold meetings in church halls or basements most have meeting room and they seem to have a reasonable rental rates. You might get away with the insurance this way as most of them have insurance for renting the rooms out.
Another route to go is to rent a hotel motel room for a night budget hotels offer rooms here on Canada from $59 so if you have 4 or 6 members it wouldn't be that much. We use to rent a hotel room for playing poker just a ideal.

Hi irishjack

Soon as we move away from the boat "jetty" area we loose the people from the other islands as there is no on-island transport other than a very expensive taxi service. That is why our island is the best for a central meeting area plus we are the biggest island and population in our Southern Morton Bay Island group.

Thanks to everyone we now have a two person stamp club we will meet next week at the coffee shop for our first meeting and decide on which day in the month we will meet. It will most likely be the first or last Tuesday of the month.

Then we can say that the stamp club meets here and have a time and day for others who may be interested to come along too.

A nice simple beginning. First meeting will be on when will we meet and the bricks and mortar auctions and the how of there catalogues (part one).

Thanks Again. KGV

Good Luck KGV with your new venture.
Some good ideas given by all but like others I was curious as to why the YSC have the rule that members cannot buy from each other.
As most of you know, I am a great supporter of buying from, and selling to friends and in our SCF this is a great success. I believe most stamp clubs [that I know of] also support this plus auctions etc.
So I would be interested to know the pitfalls.
Still, I like the rest of the ideas of the YSC, good formula.
I'll be in Yorkshire in September, so if you have a meeting planned, I'd like to pop in !

Londonbus1

KGV Collector,

The club I belong to has been around nearly 50 years now, so we've had many years of experience. Our format is quite simple.
We me twice each month.
*The meeting begins with a short business meeting, minutes from last meeting, report from treasurer, and committees. Old business, new business etc.
*We then have a small auction. Our club purchases large lots at commercial auction, and a small committee creates individual lots that are sold in a live auction ($2.00 opening bid). Several times per year we have an auction where members can bring up to three lots and they are sold at auction all proceeds to the member. This is an excellent way to move around surplus material.
*Finally we have a presentation, usually by a club member, on a topic of their choice.
Our meetings normally last up to 4 hours including lots of social time.
BTW, buying, selling, swapping etc is completely acceptable at our meetings.

A coffee shop is an excellent idea for starting out. I remember the time I met an SCF member here in a Halifax coffee shop and we both had stamps to show one another and people walking by (not many at that time) were all looking and not because they were gawking but because they were interested. At least it seemed to me.

I think it is a good place to have stamps (protected from coffee etc of course) so other people can see them, well the less expensive ones anyway perhaps.

It is hard to get peole interested when the meetings are held seemingly closed away from view. You miss out on interested and interesting visitors and peole who might not feel up to attending a regular formal type meeting.

I Halifax (Nova Scotia) there is the regular stamp club that meets in a room at the Museum. I know nothing about the finances involved or insurance etc. It has elected officials, minutes etc and usually an auction to support the club or alternate private auctions so members can auction their stamps.

Seems like 30-40 members attend regularly but the membership is 120+ and some I have talked to just attend the socials at summer end (2 months taken off during summer) and Christmas. Meets every month on the second Tuesday evening. In central Halifax so buses and parking is no problem.

Has a paper newsletter every month and it is also available online.
http://www.nsstampclub.ca/
These guys and gals have been at it for 80 years and more. My participation is for a much shorter time.

Members can always bring their stock books or other items for sale and exchange and a lot of the fun I found (not usually being of sound business mind!) is the chatting and exchanging / looking / selling that happens before and after the regular meeting and decisions.


There is also another group of stamp collectors that meet at a different place at a different night that just to sell and exchange stamps, usually at a very low price I think. 10c or more a stamp sounds right. I haven't been to this one myself. Everyone brings their own stamps. No regular meeting minutes or anything but a $15 dues per year (same as the regular stamp club) to help pay for the room rental or something in a community centre.

It is really good to hear the differences about this stamp club and that stamp club. I hope more ideas come out as it is very useful.

Some clubs are structured very differently than others and it has given me something to think about and to wonder about the why of it all.

It seems to me that the strengths and knowledge of the members of any given stamp club determines what happens and influences the direction the club takes.

Our two person stamp club is very blessed with the knowledge and contacts we have. We are so different from each other and it makes for great variety for us to build on.

It is very early days but here we go.

Our club has around 40 members - each with their own strengths about this and that topic.

Because of my unpredictable work schedule, I'm not able to attend most meetings but I still contribute by composing and sending out the newsletter each month. Sometimes it's only a page or two and sometimes it 6 or 8 pages depending on how much time I have to assemble it.

As far as sales go, they are allowed and encouraged but the club gets a 10% cut per transaction for the "assist" in the sale. Nobody has ever expressed any dislike with the method - it's usually only about what postage would be for online sales - a few cents or maybe a dollar or two at the most for the average transaction.

Kurt