It is now close to twenty years since any United States stamp issue of this century became even semi-scarce. In most cases the stamps of this time period are available from dealers for little more than face value. Dealers have the continual problem of liquidating huge amounts of the material to business houses for use as postage. Of course, this must be done at a discount from face value which can range as high as twenty percent off for some items.

Despite these facts, there are still many people laying away sheets of current issues hopeful that in the future they will return a profit. Such a profit is extremely unlikely in our lifetime. How much better off these people would be if they only purchased the single, block or plate block their collection requires and then spent the difference for a variety of stamps from bygone years that have already achieved a premium value.

They then would be buying real philatelic worth that would not be likely to decrease because such stamps are in ever diminishing supply for an ever expanding market. Instead of money tied up in duplication they would have a collection of broader scope and certainly of more interest to any prospective buyer at some future date.