May I Hear About Your Experience With APS "Circuits"?

Hi,
I'm a new APS member and have been looking into what they call "circuits". As I understand, its similar to receiving approval stamps via mail (as I did as a kid in the 60s.

What is your experience with this? Are the prices comparable to ebay? Can you get selections tailored to your needs? What are the "rules"?

Yes, I know I can approach the APS with the same questions, but I want the typical "users" point of view before I decide to jump in.
Thank you!

I recommend the APS circuits. It is a good place to find stamps, especially if you have a lot of easy/common items on your wantlist.

I second chasas comment, the hard part is figuring out what circuits you want.

mobilman44 have no fear with the APS..you are a member...i was out to State College twice and to Bellefonte once and I was really pleasantly surprised how friendly everyone is out there..they are only an e mail or a phone call away if you need them ! Phil APS 070059 (old old number)

Do you still need a sponsor to become a member, or can you just join. I was a member more than 20 years ago but dropped after a few years.

When you say a sponsor I assume it's like somebody philatelic to say "this guy is trustworthy". I joined a few years ago, and didn't have any references or sponsors or anything.


Ben. (APS J-216730)

Centerstage, I am looking at the membership application on the back of a American Philatelist....looks like a "proposer" is optional..but they do require a commercial reference (credit card). phil

When you receive a circuit, you have 7 days to do your "shopping" and mail it to the next person on the list. You must use Signature Confirmation on Priority Mail -- so expect to pay $7 to $10 to ship it to the next collector. Some of the circuits come in the Small Priority Mail box (about $5 to mail, plus the SigConfirm). Other circuits come in larger boxes.

You'll need to purchase a Rubber Stamp with your name and APS number -- you can find them advertised in the back of the monthly journal.

I had a good experience with circuits. I subscribed to 2 of them and added some good material to my collection.

After a while, I started finding lots of duplicates of the things I had and fewer items that I needed, so I withdrew from both.

Kirk

I've received circuits off and on over the past 25 years and currently am receiving a half-a-dozen different. I tend to drop/add a couple every year.

Previous replies have done a good job of summarizing the housekeeping. I would only add that if you subscribe to many circuits, you almost certainly will get a couple within the same week at some point or another. I was blessed (?) once with three at the same time.

One aspect I especially like is the chance to view stamps that I would not otherwise see in person. (Of course, I guess that is the whole idea of approvals--what I mean is more expensive or esoteric material.)

My biggest complaints are the occasional over-priced sales book and sales books where most of the stamps are out-of-order. Fortunately vis-a-vis the former, the average price of my purchases comes out to about 40% of Scott Catalog.

Good point 1840/1940.

Close inspection of the rules says that if you receive two or more circuits at the same time, you can have 1 week for each without paying the $1/day late fee.

I think that's very fair.

KirkS

Speaking of late fees....i receive a box of about 15 circuit books a month ...topics requested by the stamp club members...the chapter can keep the books for 30 days...in 20 years we were never charged a late fee even though I may have mailed the books back a week late. I have several times called the sales division that the books would be late and was told not to worry about it...if you are straight with them the sales division will be straight with you !

For those of us who have never heard of APS Circuits and don't know what a "circuit" is, here's some education to what they are and how it works.

http://scanstamps.blogspot.com/2012...circuit.html


-IBFS

Tons of Circuit Book threads on the search. Here's one I found informative.

https://goscf.com/t/14714


-IBFS

I really enjoy getting the circuts, but you do pay a premium, because the $7.90, just to look is fairly expensive.

My disappointments are when I used to get US Mint, I found that most of the circut books contained newer issues-- and I made very few purchases. The Coils I received were mostly "Transportation Coils" and I stopped both circuts.

So I totally agree with Chasa, that you can find a lot of reasonably priced stamps, if you're looking in that range. I've bought a lot of cheap revenues, and even with the $7.90 to ship, it was worth it.

Enjoy! Ray

Wouldn't they have several "circuits" for what they now call "US Classic Stamps"? I would think it foolish if they didn't. maybe not.


-IBFS