Letters help local causes

Dear Editor: It is amazing how time flies – the first month of the year came and is gone already.

Reading the Penticton Herald of Friday, Jan. 27 reminded me how our local newspaper has helped the Penticton and District Stamp Club, and thereby the local charities.

In publishing the daily and/or weekly “letters to the editor” people are responding. The response has been overwhelming and we thank our papers and its readers.

A question often asked is: “how do you make money?” Mostly through volume and generous stamp club members who are willing to bid on auction packages. In the last couple of weeks I have been asked if the stamp club buys collections. The short answer is “no”. As a club we don’t buy collections, however individual members might buy certain collections. Once I have seen the stamps and the donor want to only sell, I may recommend that they see a certain member or dealer and make their own deal.

At times when I listen to the caller I can establish, that we are talking about what we call a “run of the mill collection’, in other words stamps that most of our members have and that will not bring in any amount of money.

Sometimes it is what we call “postage”, nice but could be used for your day to day mail.

Canadian mint stamps are not losing their postage value and as long as one has large envelopes to put these stamps on, they can be used in perpetuity. So how do we make money? All stamps received go through a sorting and are placed in packages – these packages are priced before going to auction and at auction the bidding starts with a reserve bid until it sells or is taken off the table. Those taken off the table didn’t catch the members’ interest and will have to be priced differently or put together in another package and tried again in the future.

Some of the stamps on paper are selected out before they even go to our club’s auctions and given to the ladies of the Eastern Star whose projects include children with cancer (again charity). Nothing we receive goes to waste and one way or another help our charities. If you have stamps to give away, please call me at 250-492-3875 or email me at: gboersma@telus.net or bring it to 2600 Cornwall Drive in Penticton. Thank you!

Gus Boersma Penticton & District

Stamp Club