Trading stamps
My nephew was helping me search the attic for a particular box. Naturally, he did more looking around than being of any actual help. He came over with a book of what he called ‘funny-looking postage stamps’. They were not postage stamps, but trading stamps, I told him.
A few of us remember the day of “trading stamps” from Gold Bond, Eagle, Top Value, S&H and others. They were given out by grocers and some department stores with every purchase.
The stamps had to be put into books, which usually meant my sister or I would sit around the kitchen table, licking stamps by the hundreds. Although my mother used a sponge to wet the stamps, my sister and I would resolve to lick the stamps until our mouths went dry.
At the different stores you would get fulfillment books to put your trading stamps in. The pages of each book enabled you to paste your stamps in the proper place.
Each page required a total of fifty stamps. Stamps came in the point system. Singles, tens and fifties. You couldn’t mix the points. If you wanted a page of singles you had to press fifty singles. If you wanted a page of tens you needed to press the tens. With the fifty-point stamp you needed to press only one on a page.
Several books full of stamps could be redeemed for all sorts of merchandise. Small kitchen appliances, sporting goods, swing sets, radios, TV’s you name it.
I remember vividly my family having plans of saving our trading stamps for a blender. Only after mother explained that we could make milkshakes did my sister and I agree with her plan. My father simply went along with the program, always bringing home the stamps. He would stuff what stamps he had collected that day in the glove box of his truck. We only needed 10,000 stamps to get the blender.
Saving up 10,000 stamps seemed like a daunting task.
There was an Osterizer blender at the end of the rainbow, so we patiently filled up stamp books until we reached our goal.
Best of all, it seemed like you were getting something for free. At least it wasn’t money that came out of the household budget. Of course, the stuff wasn’t really free.
Your friendly grocer had to pay for the stamps and simply raised his prices to cover the cost. So, we had paid for the blender on the installment plan without knowing it.
Eventually, a few stores discontinued the stamps and cut their prices accordingly.
The competition had to follow suit and trading stamps vanished from most places.
Yes, I told my nephew, we finally achieved our goal and were able to get the blender.
I do not remember making that many milkshakes with it.
Soon we were back to our old routine of collecting stamps. Now I wonder what happened to that blender.
Interested, my nephew wanted to find out what he might get from the book of stamps he found.
Sorry, but with less than seven pages filled with stamps, the odds are you would not get much, even if he could find a redemption center today.
Nancee Harrison is a past columnist for the Greene County Daily World. Visit www.blondeladywithdarkroots.com or email her at blondeladywithdarkroots@gmail.com or send comments to Nancee, Daily World, box 129 Linton IN 47441.
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