Postage Meter Collecting Question

To those people who collect postage meters and bulk mail permits, what is the preferred size to cut them off the covers? I'm thinking about saving some from my mail in case I find someone who might want them, but I don't want to ruin them in the process.

Thank you

We are all custodians of stamps and covers and should do our best to preserve them as well as possible for future generations. That said, I strongly lean toward preserving items in the largest format I can possibly store. Everything equal, a cover is more valuable than its clipped stamp/cancel and greater than a soaked stamp. If at all possible, DON'T cut up collectible covers and deny future postal historians. The 2x4 and 2xWidth clippings you might make are worth far less than entire covers.

I agree with John Becker totally!

Peter

That being said (and I wholeheartedly agree as you may be missing out on auxiliary or tracking markings) but at the very least preserve not only the meter itself but also the corner card indicating the name of the company that used it.

John,

You say 'DON'T cut up collectible covers and deny future postal historians.'

How to I tell if a metered envelope I received in the mail today or tomorrow as something collectible and valuable? I have just ripping them up and throwing them in with the other recyclables.

I'm not a big stamp collector as everyone else is on these boards. I did collect stamps as a child and my exposure to using discount postage now I run across stamps that I had actually stood in line to buy as a child which has rekindled an interest in stamps again.

With that said, I don't have an interest in meters myself (at least not at this point in time), I just thought I would run into someone who would be. It's not feasible for me to save every envelope I get in the mail. Much of my mail gets damaged, is 9x12 envelopes, has my address hand written on it, and I really don't have the space to pile up envelopes.

Thank you

What are auxiliary and tracking markings?

Realisticly you cant save everything, one side of you says save everything that comes in the mail for the cancels or whatever other reason but you cant be the next person on an episode of hoarders either. If you want to cut them off the real answer is big enough not to be cuting into the printing.

If your only interest is storage 'in case someone else wants them someday' then, yes, entires are the do-no-harm way to go ... in archival boxes, kept in a temperature- & humidity- & vermin-controlled environment, etc.

But you might also consider scanning the entires For The Sake Of Posterity, and then going your merry way, perhaps:

- cutting the corners to fit your favorite size of glassine envelope or stock sheet slot, destroying the resale value they do not have today and will likely never have, but making them easier to arrange, study, re-arrange, and display, or

- cutting such irregular polygons as would work best in a collage or mosaic, and letting your Inner Artiste add some real value to a batch of mostly-blank paper.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

This may come across as rather selfish and small-minded, but I think it is good advice in this case.

Don't collect for anyone but yourself.

If you must save things for others, don't hold on to them for more than a month.

IkeyPikey,

I don't have funds for things like archival boxes, a temperature & humidity controlled environment, glassine envelopes, or stock sheets. I'm struggling just to survive right now. We definitely live in different realities. I can't even afford to buy clothes and my diet consists of rice (sometimes with chicken) as that is all I can afford.

Maybe its best you keep the items whole in that case.

Linns has a nice philatelic glossary. It is by no means exhaustive.

http://www.linns.com/en/insights/gl...c-terms.html

KGB,

I would only hold on them to a limited time. If I had them for more than two months I wouldn't save them. I just thought it would be a way I could participate in the hobby, make some friends, possibly even trade to get some stamps in exchange. But after some of the responses, you might be right it might be better to just continue to throw them out. I was just looking for a way to fit into the hobby.

Smauggie,

I looked at the link you provided to see what auxiliary or tracking markings are, but the glossary doesn't cover either term.

dsmith426,

First of all, welcome to the forum!

Collecting meters is mostly a labor of love for the hobby. The number of collectors of contemporary meters is small. While there are exceptions, most of my exchanges of modern meters have been giveaways or bulk swaps.

The preferred method is to save the covers intact. Of course, from a collector's standpoint strips or 2 X Width cuts are better than tossing them out.

Here are a couple of links you might want to look at.

http://www.meterstampsociety.com/Li...orsGuide.pdf

http://www.postal-markings.org/

http://www.postmarks.org/

Dan

Let's not forget this comprehensive online catalog:

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Inter...tamp_Catalog

I find collecting meters interesting, not that there will be much monetary reward but just to find subtle differences in the various meter imprints that may look similar at first glance. Also, meters come in a variety of denominations depending on which level of service is chosen, which can be a study all in itself.

I agree that retaining the entire cover franked with a meter is preferred but if space does not allow it, at least keep the meter intact with the return address so you can easily identify the user of the meter.

dsmith426, Greetings:

To be fair to me, after I laid-out the perfectionist track - something you'll see a lot of as you re-enter the hobby - I suggested cutting-up these covers to make a collage - which is a practical & economical alternative.

Recently, we had a member thank another member for spotting a creased corner perf - a fault which (I couldn't even spot it) may have comprised about one square millimeter of the blank paper far outside of the printed design - because it lowered the value of the stamp so much that he would not want to buy it. Lots of folks really enjoy that sort of thing.

I, OTOH, scavenger the card'n'cover bargain boxes, and post about stamps these guys wouldn't feed into their shredders.

We all get along fine.

Your urge to preserve (not lose the value of) the covers passing thru your hands is half of our basic equation: [hoarder] + [curator] => [collector].

Find your place on that spectrum, and enjoy it.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey