Sue H
2008-05-22 16:30:17 UTC
What a harsh reality I found out today for me. While posting to
another group and doing the math (just in my head no on a calculator
so may not be exact) I realized how devastating collecting has become
(mostly because of postage increases and the weak dollar). Here's the
reality of what I sent out this week:
I just mailed off those 27 requests. Those 27 plus one to the LeGarde
brothers (sending them photos for their use) cost me over 47.00 going
OUT. It was more than double that going in. My next batch (of 14 or
15) will be REALLY expensive coming back. Why? Because postage went
up pretty much across the board from when I bought my last batch of
postage from varying countries. For example, a letter to a Lord of
the Rings guy is 3.00 to mail and I have 2.00 stamps only to New
Zealand, so I had to put 4.00 on it wasting a dollar. To Australia, I
mailed a guy and had only 1.80 and 1.95 stamps and I needed 2.00 so I
had to on both of these, put two stamps. One to Canada was 94 I think
I needed and all I had was 89 cents so I needed two on those. meaning
I way overspent by 78 cents about. In addition, UK ones too... I see
they went BACK in price (most things went up except the one I do which
actually went down which is amazing)... I needed before 1.19 but could
no longer see those on the site and then bought 1.24 ones (wasting 5
cents x 50 I bought). Now I see I only need less than a pound to mail
out. So I wasted over 25 stamps there at quite a bit over or
something extra each on them! UGH.
The thing is the postage used to go up every couple years so you had
plenty of time to use the stamps. Now? Well, they go up every few
months!!!! I literally spent close to 125 bucks or more on 27
envelopes. To top that off, my ink is only lasting about 15 photos
before it runs out. I had to replace ink twice these two batches (5
cartridges at 7 dollars each after the 3 dollar discount for turning
in the empties). So that's 70 bucks! That's nearly 200 dollars (will
be over when you include my expensive paper at 50 cents a sheet). Add
the envelopes and paper and time, and now you are at 5.00 a request
literally (some under and some over; averages out).
The good news is my husband's raise was HUGE (combined with the annual
he got just recently, it's about 25% of his salary) so he said "do
whatever you want we can now afford it without a second thought. But
I can see that of those 41- 42 requests, I might get back 10 or so.
That's like 20 bucks a graph! And mine aren't professional and only
5x7's and hence NOT worth 20.00 each. I could BUY 8x10's from them
for that price! Unless more start responding, I may give it all up
and turn to in persons only or rare worthy ttm ones that are more than
likely guaranteed.
I still don't advocate buying though unless you need it to fill a hole
in your collection or something. Because it's not fun when someone
asks you where you got it from and said "Bought it". They aren't
impressed with that. ESPECIALLY if off of Ebay or not sure if it's
legit. They definately don't care about that. So what's the point if
not to have an impressive collection? I still think in persons and
ttm's are the way to go.
another group and doing the math (just in my head no on a calculator
so may not be exact) I realized how devastating collecting has become
(mostly because of postage increases and the weak dollar). Here's the
reality of what I sent out this week:
I just mailed off those 27 requests. Those 27 plus one to the LeGarde
brothers (sending them photos for their use) cost me over 47.00 going
OUT. It was more than double that going in. My next batch (of 14 or
15) will be REALLY expensive coming back. Why? Because postage went
up pretty much across the board from when I bought my last batch of
postage from varying countries. For example, a letter to a Lord of
the Rings guy is 3.00 to mail and I have 2.00 stamps only to New
Zealand, so I had to put 4.00 on it wasting a dollar. To Australia, I
mailed a guy and had only 1.80 and 1.95 stamps and I needed 2.00 so I
had to on both of these, put two stamps. One to Canada was 94 I think
I needed and all I had was 89 cents so I needed two on those. meaning
I way overspent by 78 cents about. In addition, UK ones too... I see
they went BACK in price (most things went up except the one I do which
actually went down which is amazing)... I needed before 1.19 but could
no longer see those on the site and then bought 1.24 ones (wasting 5
cents x 50 I bought). Now I see I only need less than a pound to mail
out. So I wasted over 25 stamps there at quite a bit over or
something extra each on them! UGH.
The thing is the postage used to go up every couple years so you had
plenty of time to use the stamps. Now? Well, they go up every few
months!!!! I literally spent close to 125 bucks or more on 27
envelopes. To top that off, my ink is only lasting about 15 photos
before it runs out. I had to replace ink twice these two batches (5
cartridges at 7 dollars each after the 3 dollar discount for turning
in the empties). So that's 70 bucks! That's nearly 200 dollars (will
be over when you include my expensive paper at 50 cents a sheet). Add
the envelopes and paper and time, and now you are at 5.00 a request
literally (some under and some over; averages out).
The good news is my husband's raise was HUGE (combined with the annual
he got just recently, it's about 25% of his salary) so he said "do
whatever you want we can now afford it without a second thought. But
I can see that of those 41- 42 requests, I might get back 10 or so.
That's like 20 bucks a graph! And mine aren't professional and only
5x7's and hence NOT worth 20.00 each. I could BUY 8x10's from them
for that price! Unless more start responding, I may give it all up
and turn to in persons only or rare worthy ttm ones that are more than
likely guaranteed.
I still don't advocate buying though unless you need it to fill a hole
in your collection or something. Because it's not fun when someone
asks you where you got it from and said "Bought it". They aren't
impressed with that. ESPECIALLY if off of Ebay or not sure if it's
legit. They definately don't care about that. So what's the point if
not to have an impressive collection? I still think in persons and
ttm's are the way to go.