Are Covers Really Hard To Store?

A comment in a recent forum stated:




For many years I have heard this "argument" for not collecting covers and for removing stamps from covers, but I totally disagree that it is a valid reason for removing stamps from covers or for not collecting covers. Thirty years ago there was maybe some validity to stating such, but with all of the storage options available now, it is just not true.

Certainly a devout cover collector such as myself with 10,000+ covers will devote more space for storing the covers, but storing them is certainly not hard, nor is the additional space much more.

I agree. A cover contains so much postal history about the use of any given stamp, that it is usually worth keeping, even with the most common stamps in place.

There is also the thought that modern covers today are not being collected like they used to be and with the reduced volume of mail containing actual stamps (as opposed to meters or labels) the number of covers on the secondary market is a lot smaller than it used to be, which typically means that the demand for them over time will be all that much more desirable.

Stop by and you'll find one of the hall closets hijacked for cover storage, total 28 2-piece POSTCARD storage boxes, each holding 1000 covers give or take. No problemo!

My first big buy of covers was at Newark, Ohio, in the summer of 1971.

Those are foreign, and don't include 14 cut-down photocopy paper boxes full of FDCs I wish I didn't have. But still no problemo!

I don't think they are hard to store as many people can attest to it's the space it requires that presents a challenge for me.
That and easily being able to easily get to a given box and find what your looking for. No such difficulty for me to walk to my book shelf grab a specific album and quickly go to the page I wish to view. For those that collect covers congratulations and enjoy your collection

I agree that Covers are easy to store, and one can buy good used cover books with sleeves ready to go.

I'll go a step earlier and echo the observation about : as I advance in age and my collection, it becomes apparent that covers provide the history, the context of stamps in way that the stamps don't. taking nothing away from the primary of the stamp of course.

to me, in my humble opinion--anyone who takes a stamp off a cover or cuts it and throws away the envelope is heretical, and akin to recording a Beatles vinyl record to digital, then tossing out the record.

I also agree.

About 95% of my buying for the past umpteen years are covers and postcards.

I don't find it a problem to store covers. What can be a problem, for me personally anyway, is space for the albums that I make up pages for in my postal history collections.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I agree. Stamps were designed for a purpose -- to convey a communication from one point to another point for a fee -- the fee in the form (modern) of a "cute design" on a piece of paper. Shoeboxes. Boxes. Shopping Bags. Plastic grocery store bags. I've seen them stored in almost every container you can image. Sloth is the only problem about covers. I make my own pages to hold standard and oversize covers.. its fun.

For the sensory stretched Simpson-Gen, those tongue-challenged and need pressure-sensitive lick & sticks to understand the value of a cover, burn a few brain cells and think 30-40-50 years ahead. Todays USPS, and other issuing postal agencies, are generating tons of "stamps" that will never see postal use. However, those same commemorative stamps, if used on cover during their valid rate period, will be extremely rare and hard to find items in years to come.

Put another way, the advent of e-mail and Internet has meant the demise of the use of the mail systems to convey communications. I'm not discussing the use of stamps on mail by direct mail marketers and fundraisers. Today, we rather Blog, e-mail or be a Twit rather than write a letter to a friend.

Today we want immediate -- demand immediate response and gratification. Today, we'd rather play Halo and Call of Duty (I log-on at 9PM) rather then a send letter. I'm talking about business and individuals sending mail: business-to-business, business-to consumer-to-business, individual-to-individual; using stamps and the first class mail.

Look at your own mail. How many new issue commemorative (solo-use) mailings do to you receive a week-month-quarter. Look at based on New Issues being released. Face it. Stamps are rarely being used. The mail is Bulk Indicia, Meter or the stamps of Bulk Pre-Sort.

In 20-30-40-50 years todays first class New Issues, used correctly ---not philatelically or FDC -- is going to be the postal history of the future. And as for some modern Postal Stationary issues, just look at some of the prices shown in Scott's. If that doesn't convince you to store covers in a shoebox in the back of a closet, well, the Simpsons start at 6PM -- I'll be on-line at 9PM. (and it took me 2 minutes to put away my covers.) :)

I store mine in cover albums. No problems with it.

I started buying lots of covers a couple of years ago. I still don't have a lot but the collection is growing. Most of my treasured covers are stored in Vario 4-pocket pages and intermingled in my country collection albums with the singles and blocks, etc. I find they add a lot of interest and variety to my albums and collections. An area of focus at the moment is my home Province of New Brunswick and I have acquired a few covers recently including several stampless covers addressed to notable personalities as well as a 10 cent New Brunswick bisect on an 1866 cover.

I'm not a big fan of first day covers but have quite a few and keep them in Lighthouse cover albums.

I collect covers, mostly those bearing the 1851/1857 1cent Franklin. I only have a few hundred but they are in albums, vario 3 pocket clear pages. I use the clear so I can see both sides. The main problem I have with storing covers is shelf space. Between my ref books, stamp and cover albums I never seem to have enough space. I'm in the market for another book case.

Art