Are Stamp Dealers Advertising Always Philatelic Usage

I am going to ad some stamp dealers covers to my France collection and I was wondering if they are always considered philatelic usages or is it a case by case situation?

Thanks,

Ken

The way I've understand it, if I cover was sent through the mail with intent to create a collectible it is a philatelic cover. It the cover was used just to send a price list or merchandise then probably no.

Basic definition from wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philatelic_cover

And a lot of the "collectables" probably never went near a postbox - cancelled by favour and handed back across the counter.

I was thinking about stamp dealers using showy and perhaps out of date stamps on their covers to customers. All the covers I'm looking at went thru the mail but I don't know if the usages are in period.

Well, I suppose you and I use showy stamps when we send out ebay items - but they aren't "philatelic"!

An example of a French stamp club Philatelic cover.The stamps are scarce.
If it was a dealers cover it would be the same thing I would say.

The Types of stamps used on the cover: close too their issued dates would be of importance I think.Plus the fact it really was sent through the post.

https://www.yvert.com/A-226249-n-8-...-cholet.aspx

That includes almost every U.S. first day cover since the 1930's.

I've put my bids in and if I win them I'll post a few pics here and we can discuss.

Thanks,

Ken

Everyone can define terms however they like, but to me and I think to most collectors stamp dealer covers are almost always philatelic. They typically use interesting stamps rather than the common definitive stamps that an ordinary piece of mail would have. They also typically are designed to be attractive, and often have nice cancellations. If a stamp dealer mailed his electric bill payment to the electric company or something like that then I would not call it philatelic, but when he or she mails things to clients then unless the stamp is a simple definitive of the day or a plain meter then I would call them philatelic. I would also call letters and packages that are sent by collectors to other collectors that use interesting or older stamps philatelic.

Per Kimo, I would also say it depends on definitions.

If you're concentrating on postal history, you're looking for proper postal rates. Maybe someone could excuse overpayment by a couple centimes but many collectors would not. As for stamp dealers, if they're sending a pricelist, it's going to probably be the printed matter rate; that fits collecting by postal rates. Orders sent by a dealer would vary depending on rate/weight and if registered or not.

If you mean mail addressed to stamp dealers from themselves, they are generally philatelic in that the stamps applied do not necessarily reflect a real rate. However, such covers might be some of the few choices available to you.

I think US Cover collectors may have to refine their definitions in the next few years because of discount postage. My wife uses older postage on all her personal mail and many packages because I give it to her and she doesn't have to buy it from the PO. There is nothing philatelic in her mailings but the stamps are often 30+ years old.

Do other countries have discount postage?

I use old decimal mint stamps for all postage - our change to Bank of Toytown currency in 1971 means that older stamps can't be used, but that still leaves fifty years'-worth. Some countries that adopted the Euro - eg France - still allow use of older stamps at a set rate, although the calculation is fiddly. Most don't - which means the floor price for, say, pre-Euro German stamps is pretty low.

In the US we can buy older postage at 50% of face value. So if I need to mail a 60c package the stamps only cost me 30c and a lot of people do this to save money.

I agree that the current "discount postage" situation should definitely be given a unique category all by itself but it is a relatively modern phenomenon. Most people use "forever" self stick stamps. Most seem to value their time and effort to buy discount postage and put together the correct combination of old stamps to make the current rate more than the convenience of using one forever stamp. And over time, using forever stamps that were purchased a few years ago gives a built in discount without any inconvenience. Perhaps there might eventually be sub-area of collecting for covers that have older "forever" stamps that originally cost less than the postal rate in effect at the time of mailing.

I use old postage and do not really care about making the exact rate. I have a blast with color and subject matter. Presidents with Elvis with Trucking Industry with.........

My wife likes the 1992 Colombian S/S it makes impressive looking mail, but Kimo is right most people use Forever stamps. Maybe in the future our covers will be know as "philatelists" mail instead of philatelic?