Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
I've scanned the approvals page in this issue; some of those ads must have run for years — I still recognize many of them. I've always wondered about that "WORLD'S LARGEST STAMP," which I never ordered:
I've uploaded a hi-res version of the image to my web site. Be sure to click on the image to enlarge it when it appears on your display.
I've written about some my early collecting experiences in my web page, Box 28, and about earning my Boy Scout stamp collecting merit badge in Hiking to Fort Bayard.
Bob
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This is great. It does bring back memories. I used to devour Boy's Life each and every month. Thanks for sharing it
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Thanks Bob, for that memory!
A former boy scout and recipient of Boy's Life Magazine myself, it jogged a lot of memories.
I responded to many of those ads back then - had approvals coming from 3 or 4 companies at a time sometimes.
And a few of those I see on there are still doing business, like Jamestown, for instance.
.....fun stuff!
Randy
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10:28:02am
Man, did I look forward to the arrival of those approvals! Then, of course, I would forget to return the approvals and eventually receive a dun letter; but I eventually either paid or returned the stamps. Garcelon, Jamestown, Kenmore, Harris, Empire, Mystic.... and some survive (and thrive) to this day.
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Very nice article Bob, everyone should read Hiking to Fort Bayard.
Sad to see this historic place fade away as it has!
I'm a bit younger than you but Boys Life had those same ads in the 1960s. I remember them well.
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"Then, of course, I would forget to return the approvals and eventually receive a dun letter;"
And in my house the dun letter usually was intercepted by a parental figure, who would then lecture me about responsibility. Then they'd write a check for the entire lot and mail it off. And I wound up with the stamps. Kinda worked in my favor!
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01:18:16am
I never noticed this thread before but it is quite interesting and perhaps sheds some light on the future of stamping. I also received Boy's Life in the late 1940s but never saved any, or, if I did they were lost when my folks moved around from one palace to another.
I did manage to save, and at times accumulate copies of National Geographics which also had similar classifieds offering the chance to travel vicariously to the places the NatGeo portrayed.
Actually, at home I have a complete run of NatGeos from about 1962 to date, fifty three years and more than 600 issues, missing only a few that have been misplaced, quite a few from 1951 to 1962, and a few earlier years. Before we entered the computer age when my children came home from school with a project, my first stop was the bookcase with the NatGeos and the di-annual hard cover index where I'd pull out four of five issues that had articles pertaining to the subject at hand.
Do any of our grand children read something like NatGeo ?
Do any members ever sit don with the youngest and help them read a similar magazine ?
Sometimes I glance at one of the old issues and am once more lost in space-time reading what I may have read first fifty or so years ago.
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Boy, this brings back memories. As a 10 year old, I bought approvals from Garcelon Stamps, which did mail order approvals from both Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Later, as an adult in the early 1990s I moved to Fredericton and took up curling - and guess who was a senior member of my curling club? Al Garcelon, who no longer sold stamps but was still a going concern. He must have started selling as a pretty young man given this ad was from the early 50's.
Eric
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I never received Boys Life but I remember talking my father into buying the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Every Sunday they had a fairly large classified section that featured (for me anyway) stamp dealers advertising in a similar manner as in Boys Life. I also remember a few magazines (Popular Mechanics?) would have just a few ads towards the back. An odd story I remember- one such ad in the NY Times advertised 5,000 on paper stamps for not much money (I can't remember exactly- maybe $5.00) with the added incentive that you can return duplicates for the same number of stamps back for only $1.00. Being a teenager I thought this was a deal- I'd eventually wind up with 5,000 different stamps for maybe 7-8 dollars. Well......three mailings later I was out $3.00 more plus postage back and had a total of about 900 different stamps- mostly common definitives. I think I still have the other 4100 in a box somewhere!!
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Believe it or not, the first stamp related classified ad I remember seeing was from my Dad's Popular Mechanics magazine in the 1970s. BOB
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I think I must have taped an entire roll of dimes to postcards subscribing to those services in the back of Boys Life. Cancelled the subscriptions to all but Mystic and Kenmore after the first 3 or 4 approvals. I still do a little business with both of those from time to time.
Nice trip down memory lane, thanks for the fuel!
WB
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It makes you wonder how these companies made money under those conditions. I know the big draw for a kid was to get the premium for a dime. Kids weren't so interested in the buying the approvals part. How many 'forgot' to buy or send the approvals back? And was that compensated for by parents who found the long overdue approvals and just sent in a check to cover it?
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Today at a yard sale I bought a November, 1952 copy of Boys' Life magazine. Former Boy Scouts will recognize this as the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, of which I was a member at that time, and an avid stamp collector as well. When my magazine arrived in the mail each month, I always went straight to the stamp collecting approvals at the back of the magazine.
I've scanned the approvals page in this issue; some of those ads must have run for years — I still recognize many of them. I've always wondered about that "WORLD'S LARGEST STAMP," which I never ordered:
I've uploaded a hi-res version of the image to my web site. Be sure to click on the image to enlarge it when it appears on your display.
I've written about some my early collecting experiences in my web page, Box 28, and about earning my Boy Scout stamp collecting merit badge in Hiking to Fort Bayard.
Bob
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re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
This is great. It does bring back memories. I used to devour Boy's Life each and every month. Thanks for sharing it
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re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
Thanks Bob, for that memory!
A former boy scout and recipient of Boy's Life Magazine myself, it jogged a lot of memories.
I responded to many of those ads back then - had approvals coming from 3 or 4 companies at a time sometimes.
And a few of those I see on there are still doing business, like Jamestown, for instance.
.....fun stuff!
Randy
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
19 Jul 2015
10:28:02am
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
Man, did I look forward to the arrival of those approvals! Then, of course, I would forget to return the approvals and eventually receive a dun letter; but I eventually either paid or returned the stamps. Garcelon, Jamestown, Kenmore, Harris, Empire, Mystic.... and some survive (and thrive) to this day.
Login to Like
this post
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
Very nice article Bob, everyone should read Hiking to Fort Bayard.
Sad to see this historic place fade away as it has!
I'm a bit younger than you but Boys Life had those same ads in the 1960s. I remember them well.
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this post
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
"Then, of course, I would forget to return the approvals and eventually receive a dun letter;"
And in my house the dun letter usually was intercepted by a parental figure, who would then lecture me about responsibility. Then they'd write a check for the entire lot and mail it off. And I wound up with the stamps. Kinda worked in my favor!
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
04 Nov 2015
01:18:16am
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
I never noticed this thread before but it is quite interesting and perhaps sheds some light on the future of stamping. I also received Boy's Life in the late 1940s but never saved any, or, if I did they were lost when my folks moved around from one palace to another.
I did manage to save, and at times accumulate copies of National Geographics which also had similar classifieds offering the chance to travel vicariously to the places the NatGeo portrayed.
Actually, at home I have a complete run of NatGeos from about 1962 to date, fifty three years and more than 600 issues, missing only a few that have been misplaced, quite a few from 1951 to 1962, and a few earlier years. Before we entered the computer age when my children came home from school with a project, my first stop was the bookcase with the NatGeos and the di-annual hard cover index where I'd pull out four of five issues that had articles pertaining to the subject at hand.
Do any of our grand children read something like NatGeo ?
Do any members ever sit don with the youngest and help them read a similar magazine ?
Sometimes I glance at one of the old issues and am once more lost in space-time reading what I may have read first fifty or so years ago.
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02:00:05pm
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
Boy, this brings back memories. As a 10 year old, I bought approvals from Garcelon Stamps, which did mail order approvals from both Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Later, as an adult in the early 1990s I moved to Fredericton and took up curling - and guess who was a senior member of my curling club? Al Garcelon, who no longer sold stamps but was still a going concern. He must have started selling as a pretty young man given this ad was from the early 50's.
Eric
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this post
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
I never received Boys Life but I remember talking my father into buying the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Every Sunday they had a fairly large classified section that featured (for me anyway) stamp dealers advertising in a similar manner as in Boys Life. I also remember a few magazines (Popular Mechanics?) would have just a few ads towards the back. An odd story I remember- one such ad in the NY Times advertised 5,000 on paper stamps for not much money (I can't remember exactly- maybe $5.00) with the added incentive that you can return duplicates for the same number of stamps back for only $1.00. Being a teenager I thought this was a deal- I'd eventually wind up with 5,000 different stamps for maybe 7-8 dollars. Well......three mailings later I was out $3.00 more plus postage back and had a total of about 900 different stamps- mostly common definitives. I think I still have the other 4100 in a box somewhere!!
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this post
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
Believe it or not, the first stamp related classified ad I remember seeing was from my Dad's Popular Mechanics magazine in the 1970s. BOB
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this post
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
I think I must have taped an entire roll of dimes to postcards subscribing to those services in the back of Boys Life. Cancelled the subscriptions to all but Mystic and Kenmore after the first 3 or 4 approvals. I still do a little business with both of those from time to time.
Nice trip down memory lane, thanks for the fuel!
WB
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this post
re: Approval classified in old Boy's Life magazine
It makes you wonder how these companies made money under those conditions. I know the big draw for a kid was to get the premium for a dime. Kids weren't so interested in the buying the approvals part. How many 'forgot' to buy or send the approvals back? And was that compensated for by parents who found the long overdue approvals and just sent in a check to cover it?
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this post