The Postage Stamp 1840 To 2020 R.i.p.

GeoffHa ----The wife has learned two things over the years ,how to clean out my Paypal account and how to identify the envelope with payment checks from the stamp auction firms for consignments .

These days, I'm more likely to cast envious eyes at my daughter's bank account!

"Who cares about stamped mail"

Those of us who care about the future of the hobby.

I get a few bulk-mail-stamped envelopes a week. Although stamped mail isn't as prevalent as it used to be, I wouldn't call it rare or scarce. If we start talking about non-machine-affixed non-philatelic commemoratives, then I think 'scarce' may apply. My (virtually) ONLY source of in-mail commemoratives is on stamp auction catalogs and on ebay stamp purchases (and certainly not all of those are stamped). It is a calendar-circling-event when I get a personal stamped letter with a commemorative on it. E-mail, texts, and phone calls have replaced the letters of yore. Sorry, but mail simply isn't as interesting as it used to be. The great majority of it is bills and junk mail, with as many magazines as I dare subscribe to sprinkled in each month (no stamps, of course).

Don't despair. Strike up a friendship with Axel and receive real letters with attractively illustrated envelopes. From The Sunday Times Magazine, 1/11/2020.