On my way home from work this evening, I stopped by the post office and found a couple of nice items awaiting me!
The first item, which is from Bob F., is a cover bearing a “Babe Ruth Local Post” cinderella. This has loads of topical appeal, especially considering the presence on the cover of the U.S. stamp picturing the baseball legend.
Babe Ruth Local Post cover
The second piece of mail that I received is even cooler. Reader Linda W. sent this lovely piece of mail art picturing a couple of babies to congratulate my wife and me on the birth of little Hadassah earlier this fall.
Just a quick entry this evening to let you know about a stamp-related scam. According to an alert distributed today by the American Philatelic Society, someone claiming to be or be connected to former APS president John Hotchner is ripping off individuals by asking for a “deposit” in exchange for helping them sell their collections. Once the crook or crooks have the cash, they disappear, leaving the hapless victim with less money and a collection that’s still not sold.
According to the APS, Mr. Hotchner is not involved in the scheme, and doesn’t even buy or sell collections on a professional basis. The organization is asking anyone who has been contacted by the perpetrator or perpetrators to report it by calling (814) 933-3812.
I’m always amazed at the lengths some people will go to to take advantage of someone else. If they were to put their energy and creativity toward legitimate ventures instead of this sort of thing, they could no doubt be very successful.
I don’t blog about every single stamp perforator I see come on the market, but there’s a real beauty listed on eBay right now that I just have to mention.
The machine is located in Villa Grove, Illinois, and has to be picked up locally, but the starting bid was just $250. As of this writing, there is one bid on it.
I can’t tell from the photos, and the description doesn’t specify, which company (Rosback, Latham, etc.) manufactured the perforator. If it’s in as nice shape as it looks from the pictures, though, this could be a real bargain for an artistamp producer or local post operator in or near Illinois.
I’m still pursuing leads on available perforators, especially tabletop models. Know of one that's up for sale? Let me know so I can share with other readers.
The final major update of the year for The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album is complete and ready to go live! I just finished placing stamps on my freshly-printed pages a little earlier this evening; the pages should be online and available for you to print early next month.
During my lunch break at work today, I saw a USPS delivery truck roll past the office. I wouldn’t usually think much of that, but today was a federal holiday, and a USPS holiday. Did someone have to deliver Priority Mail Express packages today, or what’s going on?
Back in April, I shared a post about one messed-up APC label picturing Spider-Man. In that case, the machine was apparently not properly reprogrammed after the Spider-Man paper was loaded, which resulted in an apparent “invert” with the then-current USPS design on it.
John Ryskamp writes that he recently ran across a machine that had been reprogrammed, but where the paper was still loaded incorrectly. That gave rise to this label with bar code and insignia appropriate for the preprinted Spider-Man paper, but as with the April label, Spider-Man is upside down.
Spider-Man APC error label
My thanks to John for sharing this scan. Do you know of any other Spider-Man label varieties? Let us know!
