Don’t Apologize For Precancels

by Herman Herst, Jr.

Time and again, we note the precancel collector actually apologizing for his hobby. We can’t see why.

We have been to precancel meetings and stamp meetings. We’ve never seen a bunch of stamp collectors get the same pleasure out of the hobby that precancel collectors do. How long is it since you saw two stamp collectors sit down at a table and swap stamp for stamp, each giving his duplicate to the other so that two collections are advanced? When the stamp collector gets a duplicate copy, he hikes the price and looks for a customer!

Why don’t you precancel people sell the finest collecting asset that you have: the pleasure to be obtained out of a collection? Why must you ignore the one thing that has just about ceased to exist in every branch of stamp collecting with the exception of precancels? Why must you envy the plate block collector the first day cover collector, the air mail collector? Surely, it should be the other way around!

The best defense is offense. Why not drop the negative salesmanship that precancel people have been using for these many years, and replace it with a positive attitude? How many stamp collectors know that the precancel collector long ago abolished the silly emphasis on gum that the stamp collectors worship? How many stamp collectors realize that those bugaboos of perforations and watermarks are less important to precancel collectors than the marking on the front?

Perhaps what precanceldom needs is a good press agent. Certainly the product is there to be sold, and a good product it is. Why should precancel collectors apologize for their specialty? How often have you seen the sheepish grin that comes over the face of most collectors when they are asked what they collect?

Precancel collecting brings pleasure. Precancel collecting doesn’t cost a fortune. Precancels aren’t printed to mulct collectors. Precancels aren’t inflated to unhealthy levels by greedy speculators. Precancels aren’t the vehicle for easy wealth for fakers. Precancel collecting brings pleasure.