APS Selling Membership Lists?

To add a little context, the information provided is names and addresses to market one time. Data thieves are typically after date of birth, social security numbers, or credit card information for generating new identities or committing financial fraud.

In terms of member benefits, hopefully you have noted that we have focused on improving and increasing philatelic benefits for APS members in my time here and adding value to your annual dues by delivering good service and increased service offerings. That is where I hope we continue to focus in the coming years. We did enter a partnership with the USPS Federal Credit Union last year, but both sides agreed that any marketing would be done through the partner, not separate from - so unless someone joined the APS from the Credit Union, we would not have their information.

Specific to the partnership, the APS entered into a five year agreement with AMG which will expire in 2019. Before we would ever proceed with renewing it, I would poll our members to determine if they enjoy the benefits. I have used the hotel discounts on several occasions, which were cheaper than anything I found through discount sites or received through AAA.

On a personal note, my information has been taken five times in the last five years, twice when federal government databases were hacked, once when my alma mater was hacked, and once when the State of South Carolina had 6 million tax records taken. With that last situation, I was COO at the Department of Education and we were a large data holder of personal information. We had already initiated tighter security measures in our first six months before the breach was disclosed and by the time we were audited for security, we were the highest ranked agency by far. One day, we can swap war stories about the daily attempts to intrude our system from foreign countries and fighting off attacks from weaker security in school districts. I am proud to say we were never once breached in my four years.

To provide a quick actual testimonial on the APS discount at Office Max / Office Depot: it works. I ran copies of the palmares for the Garfield-Perry March Party at an Office Max yesterday and used the card. A copy job that would have at normal prices cost over $70 instead cost $15.91 - more than making back the cost of my APS dues for the year in one transaction.

Thanks for that example paperhistory! I discontinued my APS membership shortly after the turn of century. The 80% discount off copying does beat my current discount, and I do submit enough copy jobs so that my annual APS membership cost would be easily covered. I guess I might rejoin APS after all -- and I'm certainly satisfied that APS has made some necessary changes since I quit the APS (I won't go into those reasons and open up a can of old worms). And needless to say, having Scott English posting here is a definite PLUS, as I do realize he has a lot of other stuff to do.

Thanks again paperhistory!

So far, this has mostly been pretty negative about APS' efforts to provide discounts to its members. I do understand the concern over selling lists of members' names and addresses, though it is possible to opt out of that if anyone is concerned. I'm not particularly concerned, myself, but if I had an extremely valuable stamp collection housed at home under little to no security I might be. Of course, the same could be said for people who live in obviously upscale neighborhoods, who own fancy cars, who wear lots of jewelry in public, and so on. All those people are far more likely to be targets of criminals than the rest of us. Just to put this "list worry" in some context. Yet, I haven't seen any big rush by the wealthy to sell off their homes, cars, or jewelry. What they usually do is add security measures, alarms and so on. I'd urge anyone who is worried that someone might see their home address in a list of stamp collectors and attempt to burglarize the home to do just that. But, I'm not convinced that a list with my address on it raises the likelihood of my home being burglarized. Each to their own view of the world and its dangers, I suppose.

And what about the discounts? I find them very nice. In fact, I wish APS would find more such discounts. I suppose they have to be somewhat related to stamp collecting, and Office Depot is because it sells paper and office supplies, hotels are because of stamp shows, and so on. In any case, it's looking a gift horse in the mouth to not appreciate an organization providing you with such savings. I'm very happy about that, and even if I don't use them it's nice to know the APS is making the effort.

I just wanted to follow up. I did rejoin the APS after a hiatus of several years.

I also tried the APS OfficeDepot/OfficeMax store purchasing card this evening. The color copy price is set at 22¢, a 68% discount from the regular price at my local store. That beats my normal discount of 25%. The fixed price copying costs and general print shop service discounts are listed at the APS website, so I won't repeat them all here.

I also bought a ream of cardstock and received a 33% discount, which beats my regular discount of 10%. It looks like the discount varies according to product type, but the discount appears to be as good or better than the current discounts that I receive.

All in all, an A+. Thank you APS!

Thanks for the actual discount details paperhistory and khj.

Can anyone tell me if these discounts are available in Canada?

If you want to give discount to members, you put it on the Web site, journals . We have nice deals at our company with local merchants, they are on the corporate intranet (an intranet is like internet but inside a company network, not available to public) and board in store lunch room . I will never give our employees list to anyone. Is this legal to share personal info without permission????? It's not moral for sure if you ask me,

I am not aware of any companies that openly share their full employee information.

In the US, it is legal to share/sell some customer information (cannot sell Social Security Numbers, Account Numbers... but names, addresses, contact information, purchasing habits... are all fair game). Many are annoyed by it, but for right now we learn to live with the reality.

There are now laws in the US that require certain companies to divulge their information sharing each year. But the law does not apply to all companies. For many (not all) large companies, you have to take the initiative to contact them to opt out of information sharing. As alluded to earlier by another poster, it is not an insignificant revenue stream.

Personally, I don't mind the junk mail -- helps to keep the postal service afloat and I can review offers at my leisure. It's the sales phone calls that I hate.

I was under the impression that the courts blocked the merger in 2016 and it got called off.

So I assume that Office Depot is still Grand & Toy in Canada? I am open to correction on this, as I no longer go to Canada on business anymore.



Some of the discounts do work in Canada according to the APS website (e.g., Motel 6). You may have to look at each offer. If Scott doesn't chime in, you can go to the APS Member Exclusive Savings page for Office Depot. There is a contact listed at Office Depot you can ask.