Stamp Column Archives

The Glassine Surfer Column Archive

This column originally appeared in the American Philatelic Society's monthly magazine, "The American Philatelist." Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

October 2000

Maybe there was a time when change didn't stalk every horizon, when the hobby's boundries were as familiar as the outline of the lower 48 states, but I don't know when that was nor do I believe that it will come again.  The stamps we choose to seek out, study and preserve are the official ephemera of their time, actually little more than receipts for monies paid and, when used, of services rendered and little more.  Now those services and their ephemra are changing.

In the secondary market stamp dealers now jostle cheek and jowl with collector's dupes and with suspicious characters looking for the same, and though it does seem pleasingly easy to find once-elusive numbers, the marketplace now seems more troubling.  

The 'Net affords us few clues by which we can identify those troublesome buyers and sellers, who traffic at the edges and feign all manner of disguises, but my intent was not to dwell upon the negative.  Many frauds have been calculated over the phone, many sealed with a first-class stamp.

No, don't dwell on the bad news when there is good news.  I anticipate a warm reception for the StampStore not just from long term members, but from those who will join us for the benefit and convenience of the APS guarantee covering stamps and payments.

Spyware on your HD?

If users don't pay for current state-of-the-art software, chances are it's ad-supported, which means that there's either an ad showing within the program, or the program collects marketing information about your PC usage and Internet browsing or both.

Usually, the notification that some free piece of software is ad-supported is buried in the fine print, lost on a complicated web page or tucked into an old ReadMe.txt file in the installation package for full disclosure of the facts may cause you to reconsider downloading and installing the program.

The usual adware program includes a relatively small marketing monitoring program, known as "spyware," which detractors initially named it and by which it's still known simply because it's short and snappy, in the installation program that will automatically install and start to work without any prompting from you.  (Isn't that convenient?)

Typically, spyware simply sends a stream of numbers back to its Internet server that are converted into data on your usage, ads clicked and sites visited.  Generally speaking, the type of PC usage and Internet browsing that these marketing companies gather through ad supported software is fairly benign: browser type, OS version, URLs visited, that sort of thing.  They aren't linked to a specific user (read: you), though they could be matched to a specific machine if someone really wanted to try and collect that information.

If any of this comes as a surprise to you, don't be overly alarmed but be aware that it's time to start looking those gift-horses in the mouth.  The nefarious aspect of spyware is that it lurks anonymously on our hard drives, cloaked in layers of directories and mundane names.

Up until 1999, adware was a very quiet secret.  Now it's known, though not generally so, and not everyone's concerned about the use of it.  Afterall, for a little feedback on advertising effectiveness and web site navigation, users get to use some nifty software for free.  Remember, someone always has to pay: if not with ads then in cash.

On the other hand, because many are concerned about the potential usages of such information and because most people would agree that a company should not sneak some monitoring software onto their private hardware, nearly all adware now is sufficiently labeled, and reputable download sites post notification of spyware's presence in the program's listing.

Do you have anything to fear from spyware?  I personally don't think so, but on the other hand, I don't have any adware-monitoring programs on my PC either.  I don't think the collected data can be turned against me or do me harm, but on the other hand I don't have my telephone number on a bumper sticker next to my license plate.

There is something that you can do about spyware in adware.  You can optout, which is the name of a small program that will scan you hard drive for known spyware.

Optout is the work of Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation.  It's tiny and free.  Download it to your desktop and click on the bull's eye.  It will open and immediately tell you if any spyware was found in your system's registry.

You can also do a deep scan of your hard drive to locate all spyware on your hard drive.

If you have some, follow the directions and dump them.  As far as anyone knows, killing off the spyware does not cripple the free adware program that you may enjoy using, but the 'Net is a culture of stealthy measures and counter-measures.

Besides getting rid of the spies in your midst, you'll also dump a bunch of cluttering software.  It seems that spyware is very sticky.  You may have uninstalled the adware program months ago, but that uninstall doesn't kick out the spyware.

The Gibson web site also has more in depth material regarding spyware and related issues if you're so inclined, and perhaps after you've satisfied your curiosity you'll be able to recline again.

Optout and Gibson Research
http://grc.com/optout.htm

The download area for Optout is about halfway down the page in it's own box.

Collectible Stamps

Here and there you'll hear that stamps are becoming just another  collectible along the lines of commemorative plates, baseball cards and cookie jars.  Indeed, you'll find many ads in the mass circulation magazines stuffed into the Sunday newspapers and plenty of web sites selling Disney-stamps along with collectible metal cars and limited edition plates.

Traditional stamp collectors tend to look down on these stamp collectibles as governmental abuse of the franking privlege, while their admirers and purchasers are totally enthralled by the small colorful pictures.  

For traditional stamp collectors the real problem with stamp collectibles are the somewhat dubious postal origins of these items: They are printed with the intent to have them pasted in albums by collectors and to raise money for the printing-government.  The adjective "postage" does not apply: These stamps are printed to fill sales orders.  

But like it or now many people have their first brush with stamp collecting with these collectibles, and they and their stamps are here to stay.  Remember our USA Elvis stamp?  And don't Forget Marilyn.

New ideas aren't hatched out of thin air.  They migrate over from other endeavors and blend in without our realizing it, in much the same way as a  musician takes a traditional Caribbean song, mixes in jazz and some techno-rock, shakes it up and has a new wave of Top 40 pop.

In the same way, collectors and dealers can snag a few ideas from the collectible dealers, and one of the better stamp collectible web sites around is Stampville.com

Stampville is a distributor of stamps from the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Association, billed as the world's largest postal authority.  This NY company handles the production and sales of stamps of many of the world's smaller countries.

They say their mission is "to bring the hobby of stamp collecting into the 21st Century worldwide, giving collectors of all interest ranges the best in philatelic products and service."  And in doing so I'll bet they sell a few stamps along the way.

Back when the Queen Mum turned 100, they launched a URL to host their stamp issues for sale.  That site joined their Diana site and their space topical sites.  Why shouldn't a mega-dealer have a "Famous Americans" stamp site, along with an "Air USA" stamp site, each with written essays and shopping carts?

Stampville.com
http://www.stampville.com

"Stamp Atlas" online

Sandafayre is a large UK-based stamp company with a good web site.  Their known for their auctions and traditional stamp dealing activites, but rather untraditionally they have added a large amount of freely accessable stamp information to their web site.

In New York there were TV commercials whose kicker was "an educated consumer is our best customer," and I still remember that it was Sy Sims who said it though I haven't seen those ads in over 10 years.

That philosophy holds true here at Sandafayre, and the site hosts an online edition of the "Stamp Atlas" by Stuart Rossiter and John Flower.  The first page in this portion of the Sandafayre site also has a refereence to the APS and APRLS.

The "Stamp Atlas" is divided into eight world regions, each comprising a wide array of countries, with each country description giving pertinent details about the country's vitals and stamps.  It's a convenient and useful item for any stamp collector, and I can't help but think that lending a helpful hand or book, as in this case, is a gesture of goodwill we all can support.

"Stamp Atlas" at Sandafayre
http://www.sandafayre.com/html/Atlas.htm

Not Kilmer's Tree

I like little things that do big jobs elegantly, and in this case I'm talking about Aves Tree Navigator, which is a java applet for web site navigation.  I first ran into it on Victor Manta's site mentioned in the August's under "Art on Stamps."  

If you have a stamp site, you no doubt deal with html links and wrestle with trying to make getting around your site as simple as possible, while at the same time, providing as many options as possible.  Keeping things intuitively easy yet comprehensive is quite a chore, and this navigation tree applet helps do just that.

Aves is from a Danish company of the same name in Cophenhagen.  Private users can download and use the applet for free or make a donation, while commercial users pay a license fee.

This isn't software for everyone, but good software nonetheless.

Aves Tree Navigator
http://sql.aves.dk/index.phtml?show=navtree

Card Carrying Sites

Not every site need be festooned with .jpg's and large collections of data.  The purpose of many stamp web sites is simply to help collectors find each other and stay in touch.  Afterall, if you collect the RR cancels of a certain mountainous province in eastern Europe, from whom are you going to get that rare red #8 other than another obsessed collector, and what easier way to find him or her than on the Web.  

Here are a few sites that bear closer investigation and should be passed around at the next meeting of your stamp club.

The Bosnian Study Group belongs to the Crotian Philatelic Society and through their Web site you can learn more about their speciality, Bosnia and how to join the BSG.

They maintain a list of dealers who sell Bosnian stamps and postal history, a bibliography of articles, catalogs and handbooks and have the 2nd edition of "A Handbook of the Classic Stamps of Bosnia and Herzegovina" for sale.  But my favorite page was "The Punched Hole Philatelic Mystery."

Bosnian Study Group
http://home.earthlink.net/~halhite/

The Croatian Philatelic Society
http://dalmatia.net/cps/index.htm

New York City's Collectors Club was founded in 1896 and is headquartered in a five-story brownstone in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan near the Empire State Building.  Founding members included the names of Scott, Luff, Deats and Mekeel.  The building itself was redesigned by Stanford white in 1902 and thanks to Alfred Lichtenstein has been the home of CC since 1938.

The Web site serves as an information center for members and an entryway for prospective new members.

The Collectors Club of New York
http://www.collectorsclub.org

Half a world away in India the Dakshina Kannada Philatelic Association is promoting philately for young and old on their Web site which is actually on a server in California.  Though focused on Indian philately this is a club for all stamp collectors in this region of India.

They have several very good sections, one being an innovative Indian stamp issue calendar.  There is also a growing sections of general stamp collecting articles and an area for Indian information, a glossary and a section for various downloads.

Even if you don't plan on making the meetings, I think you'll be dropping in on this site just to catch up with what's new.

Dakshina Kannada Philatelic Association
http://www.geocities.com/dakshina_kan_pa/

The Winnipeg Philatelic Society is an amalgam of The Winnipeg Youth Stamp Club, The Creative Retirement Stamp Club, The Scandinavian Collector's Club of Winnipeg and The British North America Philatelic Society Manitoba Regional Group.  The publish the "Buffalo" 10 times a year and run circuit books for their members.

Meetings are twice a month and they maintain a nice member contact list online.

Winnipeg Philatelic Society
http://www.wps.mb.ca/

The Korea Stamp Society's site is the best source for Korean stamp information on the Web and filled with clean, detailed scans of old and recent issues.  It's the sort of site that makes you wish there was one like it for your favorite stamps and could take you quite a while to digest.

KSS has a lot of information not only about stamps but also about the current politics of Korea, both North and South, but still the nicest features are the detailed scans of older issues.

Naturally, should you want, they'd like to welcome you as a new member.

Korea Stamp Society
http://www.pennfamily.org/KSS-USA