Stamps or Candy at Halloween?
On another site "Bundles of Duplicates" an owner of common stamp bundles was asking if there was any market for them. Probably over 25 years ago at Halloween my wife and I not only gave out candy but also packets of common stamps. One of the groups of kids actually came back and asked "Is this the place that gave us stamps?" They wanted more stamps! Frankly in my current neighbourhood we don't see many kids but I have still given out the odd packet of stamps with the candy. Not sure if this has created any new collectors but I like to think it has. This is not an argument about what is better for kids, many diff. stamps or candy. This does seem like a good way to get rid of a lot of common stamps without doing anyone any harm. What do you think?
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Now you also have to be careful. The children could talk to others about the person who collects stamps. Could put you on the radar if the wrong person hears about it, if you know what I mean.
Lets try to be positive on this and think there is a slim chance that a new young collector may be started on the hobby!
We all know that those of that age today are expected to live another 20 years on average (Due to their peaceful intellectual life stamp collectors may live longer.). Now to get some new stamp collector started. In talking of his start in stamp collecting the author Eugene L. Meyer, states "dealers would advertise in the back pages of comic books. For a few bucks they'd send a package of loose stamps to get you hooked. Stamp collecting could be addictive and for many in my generation it was." This brings me back to my original theme in this thread that should probably have been titled "Stamps and Candy at Halloween". You still have a full month to get ready to hand out some stamps to the kids making the rounds on Halloween. Those of you who still have kids coming to the door at that time might tell us if they received any positive comments from the kids or their parents. Who knows you might even have an impact on the parents who might pick up their old collection and start taking another look. What else can we do to stimulate stamp collecting?