APS Selling Membership Lists?

Today, I received in the mail a Store Purchasing Card for Office Depot/Office Max suggesting that its use might earn discounts up to 80% if I present it when paying for my purchase. The card has the APS logo in the upper right corner on the front and back. It says on the reverse: "Because you are a member of the American Philatelic Society, you can save up to 80% on purchases at Office Depot and Office Max!"

Granted, most people wouldn't recognize the APS logo if their lives depended upon it. Still, I am not very keen about the possibility of being identified by retail store clerks as a stamp collector. The obvious thing to do is not use the card and I don't intent to, but what is going on at the APS?

It appears that the APS is providing its membership list to retail businesses. Surely not! I hope not!

If so, is this just the beginning?


Don

In the past the APS has sold access to their mailing list, but the purchaser could not see the actual list. The APS would do the actual mailing so that they (the APS) would continue to be the only ones to know of your collecting interests. I would suggest that you write the APS and make them aware of your unhappiness.

Might be SPAM.....check it out

This development does not exactly instill confidence in the APS.

I hope our moderators here on SCF aren't getting any ideas!

Jack Kelley

I am not sure but this might be worth looking into to...
Don

I went to the "Exclusive Savings" link shown above. I found hotel rates less than I could find with any other discount (frequent stayer program, AAA, AARP, Senior, etc.).

I have the same issue. I recently joined APS, and within a month, I started receiving 1-2 pieces of unsolicited mail per DAY. This has been going on for a month now. They absolutely distributed member addresses. Going to complain to them tomorrow.

The APS membership application, like most anything you sign up for our join, has a check box to check if you want your address information to not be included on mailing lists given to third parties. This shouldn't surprise anyone. As noted above there is an online process to get yourself off that list if you didn't check the box initially, but I'm sure they can do it for you if you call in as well.

I have been a member of APS since 1981 and have received mailings from philatelic events and dealers regularly. The Office Depot card, however, is the first non-philatelic use of my name and address that I can recall. I'll have to ask the APS about what is happening, and how I can be excluded from this "benefit."

The thought occurred to me that perhaps the APS itself is printing and distributing the cards, but that costs money and I don't see any benefit to the APS in doing the printing and mailing of the cards. I wonder what the APS receives from the sponsors of these cards?

The philatelic-related mailings I get as a result of my APS membership are easily identified by the way my name is presented in the address. My name on the Office Depot card, however, looks like it came right out of the telephone directory.

Maybe this is a good thing for the APS, I don't know. I do know, though, that I don't like this trend, but I'm old, somewhat of a grump, and prefer to choose to whom I disclose my hobbies.

Don

I have always established the home phone account in my wife's maiden name. That way I can always tell if someone has gotten the name and number from the phone book. And of course if I answer the phone and the person asks for 'Mr or Mrs MaidenName' I know I can simply hang up. This basically gets you an 'unlisted number' without incurring the extra charge for one.
Don

As a person who has purchased mailing list over many years ,I can confirm that list of names with your personal interest is sold and resold many times . Your name and demographics is worth money .It is very hard to keep list that contain landmines in them because the firms that resell your name check the APS list with their own master list and any irregular listings are researched before being added to their master files .
What is your name worth ? It was at the time I was buying , for financial and stock market investors we paid $10.00 a name and for list of people who paid their real estate taxes it was 10 cents a name . A good list with active names had a shelve life of 3 months after that prices went down and your list contain dead people or people moved on . So expect a few weeks mailings or cold calls but your name is still in the computer to verify your next entry ,maybe as a ebay buyer if ebay sells your name without your knowledge .

If you show up at Office Depot and present this card, the chance that the cashier or manager would know what APS is, is about 0.1%, and that would be if they are a stamp collector. They should be trained not to offend you, so they're not going to ask.

Are you a prior OD customer? If they bought the APS list, they may have cross checked it against their own records and picked the matches, which would explain the difference in presentation of your name, and may mean that you previously consented to OD mailings. In any case, a quick email to Ken Martin at APS would give you the answers you want. Everyone here is just speculating.

Chris

In 2013, the APS Board of Directors approved a relationship with Affinity Marketing Group to solicit member services and discounts for APS members. One of the first participants in this plan was Office Depot and they offered an 80 percent discount card for members. Since that time, several clubs have indicated they no longer have the discount card, which was quite helpful, so AMG and Office Depot renewed their effort to send the cards to clubs and members.

Since I arrived at the APS, there has been one addition to our partnerships - the USPS Federal Credit Union, which does not do direct marketing to APS members by mail. By tradition, an APS member dealer can purchase a one-time use of the mailing list through already printed address labels and clubs can also purchase the labels to promote meetings and events in their area. Non-members cannot purchase access to our lists unless the APS Board of Directors approves a special partnership, as was the case here.

As a general rule, I'm not fond of this concept. However, I would love an 80% discount at Office Depot!