From: dahoov2@cox.net   
      
   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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)