Stamp Circuits were once one of the most popular methods of sale. They began in the late nineteenth century largely as part of club meetings. You see old circuit pages and even circuit books on French and English printed pages going back as early as about 1880. Collectors would hinge duplicates to these pages and sell or trade them to other members during club meetings. Many philatelists of the last fifty years have moaned over the decline of stamp clubs. But, in reality, stamp clubs began largely for trading and sales (the social aspect was secondary), and the decline of clubs has been the result of more efficient sales and trading vehicles that were developed.
One of the great drivers of membership of the national philatelic societies was their sales circuits. The American Philatelic Society’s great growth through the 1940s and 1950s corresponded with their increase in the number of circuit books available for sale. Circuits had benefits for all parties