I got this in the mail from a charity. This label showed though a clear window on the envelope with a big “This is a real stamp” and an arrow to it, see below. Whether it is or not is a good question. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Stamps. com allows you to download an image and have it printed on their shipping label. The Paralyzed Veterans of America, a charity I do support, hoped that by including a stamp you are more likely to return their request for a donation. Their logo of a wheelchair bound veteran/soldier saluting is included. Interestingly the request included a no postage necessary business reply mail envelope so they wanted you to return the label to them unused. To me this is not a good message from the charity. They will spend any donation I give soliciting more donations rather than on helping the American hero in the wheelchair.
While this has no value to a collector. Remember the old stamp collecting rule, if it is not in the catalog, it is not a real stamp. So we have the basic argument between collector and postal patron. The patron will remind you that this will get your letter mailed, so case closed. I disagree, so will a metering label but people understand that is not a stamp. It does have a value of 55 cents though, and that is more than twice the catalog value of most of the stamps in my collection.
Stamps.com was founded in 1996 in El Segundo California by three Masters of Business Administration candidates at the University of California at Los Angeles. The original name was Stampsmaster but it was the bubble stock market dot com era and the name was quickly changed. Interesting that no stamp dealer had grabbed stamps.com. When I started this site nearly 3 years ago, I had to put the dash in the domain because I couldn’t get thephilatelist.com. The dash probably cuts my views in half. Well enough of my whining, lets get back to the go go big money 90s. In a year and half the company had received 36 million dollars of angel investor funding, including a personal investment from American Postmaster General Marvin Runyon. They then, still within the year and a half, cashed out with an ipo in the public market that raised over 50 million dollars. The postal service was working with them on private but official postage delivered over the internet. The iffy double dealing with the Postmaster saw the law changed to allow advertising on the internet label-stamps.
After the dot com bust, stamps.com realized what the postal service or any stamp dealer could have told them. Stamps are a small margin business with declining volume over time. They still exist as they have diversified by buying shipping companies but are loosing money.
The download your own picture to our label model was spoofed in 2004 by the celebrity mug shot website, thesmokinggun.com. They successfully ordered USA legal stamps with images on them of notorious figures like Slobodan Milosovich and Monica Lewinsky of blue dress fame. Stamps.com refined their rules to ban any vintage image.
Well my drink is empty and I think I will have a few more while I ponder angel investors with big money interested in money losing stamp websites. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.