approvals

 

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Do you remember approvals? I think most of us that grew up in the 50s and 60s either received them or were at least aware of them. You'd send off for a free gift, usually a packet of mixed colourful stamps, and you'd be hooked. Every 2 or 4 weeks you'd get a couple of approval books full of sets of stamps at 1 or 2 shillings a set, you got discounts and other teasers. At their peak there must  have been 100,000 books going out every week! Quite a business and really an excellent way of getting people into stamps.

I got thinking about approvals because there was a letter in this month's Stamp and Coin Mart about them.

First of all I was surprised they still existed! The market has changed completely and surely nowadays almost every collector buys from the Internet, auctions or stamp fairs? The closest thing I thought to approvals that were still going were the circulating club books. But it does appear that there are still a few dealers that find it worthwhile to keep going in this much diminished market.

I do think approvals are an excellent idea because it gives collectors the chance to get up close and personal to the stamps they are actually buying. But the economics is all wrong - the cost of secure postage both ways is, realistically, around £5. Okay, a dealer could use good GB commems on the return package and perhaps recoup some of the costs, but there are no guarantees. But realistically it means any sale under about £20 is a loss maker.

The letter in the magazine was from a collector who had been receiving approvals but had them stopped because his average purchase was £9. You can understand why, but it's a shame. High postage costs will almost certainly be the death of approvals.

My own website has a minimum purchase of £5, but this is not usually an economic level when you consider the time to make up a small order etc. But I feel collectors should be able to access stamps as easily as possible, and if they stay with me for years (most do!) then it's worth it.

I bought from my last approval selection in about 1970, I sent out my last selection in around 1995.