Linn's To Return To Printed Issues

The Mystic business model is a mystery to me. Although I have purchased some albums and supplies from them, and a few stamps to fill in random holes, their typical stamp offerings are badly centered and overpriced. But they seem to be thriving, acquiring other companies, and otherwise contributing as a very valuable member of the philatelic community with their contributions such as the reward for the inverted Jenny and efforts to recruit new members for the APS. Are there that many new or inexperienced collectors who patronize their stamp offerings, or folks who appreciate the convenience of buying in quantity at one place, when the same stamps in better condition could easily be found for less on ebay or HipStamps? I guess the answer is yes.

Mystic has been the number one recruiter for APS. They spend a lot of money advertising seeking new customers with their ads and they can apparently find enough to feed their business that includes approvals. These costs reflect in their pricing and their customers initially are unaware that they are very expensive. They are a private company (employee owned) so no vulture capital investors forcing them to think short term. The owners like stamps and want to keep it going. They are an investor in Scott Stamp LLC.

The good old days - on newsprint, usually 1 color (red), and if they did 4 color it was poorly registered, They had a lot of dealer price lists on full page ads.

I remember when they had columns on subjects like running stamp clubs. There is nothing like today/