First Day Issue USPS

[gonefishin]

I have recently picked up a few First Day Issue envelopes, many autographed, and was curious if anyone out there collects them. I seem to find them very interesting, affordable and don't see a big collecting interest in them. Any thoughts why they aren't as popular as cards, baseballs, programs, tickets, etc.? I've attached a couple of pictures of some of the ones I have.

[SyrNy1960]

like the Arod

[gonefishin]

Thanks Tony! There doesn't seem to be a shortage of high quality autographed FDI's. I know nothing about stamps, but some people probably collect the stamps, others the envelopes, and still others the autographed version. I prefer the autographed version. Here is a nice Valvano.

[steve B]

Those are really neat.

From the stamp side, first day covers used to be a big thing, but they aren't anywhere near as widely collected anymore unless they're from about the 1930's or older. I passed up a batch of maybe 25,000 of them for $200.

But the signed ones are much more interesting!

The pages for the basketball ones I've never seen before, but the art style is familiar.
It looks like they were done as a set of sorts including the additional stamps matching a particular team. Probably done by the same place that did the pages.(except the one not on a page)

The baseball ones are made by Gateway, and have a following. They did some that were like the McCovey usually both autographed and not. And usually something like 500 or 1000 autographed ones.

Then they did ones for more immediate and less plannable events, like the Arod. They had people in every league city with post office connections, so they could get "some" envelopes cancelled on the right day and city for events like that or no hitters etc. Sometimes as few as 500. Sometimes more. For Arod they would have anticipated it and would have arranged to have more done.

Gateway and their competitors do still have a decent following even with stamp collectors.

[gonefishin]

Thanks for the information Steve. When I bought a collection of the envelopes, they were really organized. There were 3 or 4 binders broken down by sport. One of the most impressive was the college basketball coach's collection. The names were impressive and several of them have unfortunately passed away. I've attached a few pictures from the binder (there are several others not pictured). I'm assuming the collector also focused on specific stamps to match the theme and autograph.

[skooter]

I have some 1939 Baseball Centennial covers. This is the only one signed.