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Various surprises...
Jan. 8th, 2014 06:31 pmOn a whim, I stopped by a local Hobby Lobby to see if they had any items for stamp collectors. They did, but the selection of merchandise was not very extensive—which I expected—but the prices were quite impressive (though not, um, in a good way).
This was particularly true of the selection of packages containing stamps, supplied by (to me) a very familiar name, that of the H. E. Harris & Co. (which I had thought had gone out of business long ago). Generally, the envelopes on sale contained about a dozen or so very common U.S. commemoratives, and were being sold at a retail price of $3.95.
I recall buying commemoratives from the 1930s for 5 cents a stamp during my most recent sojourn in a brick-and-mortar philately shop (about 25% of catalog value, which is not unusual), so to my mind, the retail price of the packages on sale represent a pretty hefty markup.
Then again, nobody is forcing me to buy, so: no harm, no foul.
This was particularly true of the selection of packages containing stamps, supplied by (to me) a very familiar name, that of the H. E. Harris & Co. (which I had thought had gone out of business long ago). Generally, the envelopes on sale contained about a dozen or so very common U.S. commemoratives, and were being sold at a retail price of $3.95.
I recall buying commemoratives from the 1930s for 5 cents a stamp during my most recent sojourn in a brick-and-mortar philately shop (about 25% of catalog value, which is not unusual), so to my mind, the retail price of the packages on sale represent a pretty hefty markup.
Then again, nobody is forcing me to buy, so: no harm, no foul.
