St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 17

W0V 1 1932 (7 6c business ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 1, 1982 Postal Service Goofs Enrich Investors j3 "SETVaM a I InnVtn VJ 4 ft I' TZ In store I 1 1 llf I LTT CVr WOVU 'MawMkMCllVUf I Ik Ttd DarganPot-D(patch By Jerri Stroud 01 th Pott-Dispatch Staff When Peter M. Rexford walked tato the Clayton Post Office recently and bought a $2 souvenir card that was missing a stamp, he knew It might be worth more than he paid for it. But even Rexford, vice president of Newhard, Cook Rare Stamp and Coin Division, was surprised when the-card sold at auction for $850. The card commemorates a philatelic exhibition and normally has one Canadian and one U.S.

stamp imprinted on it. On Rexford's card, the print of the U.S. stamp was missing. The card with the missing stamp is an example of "errors, freaks and oddities," or goofs that often are worth many times their face value because of their rarity. The most famous error was a 1918-issued U.S.

airmail stamp with the airplane printed upside down, said Rexford. Only one sheet of the 24-cent stamps is known to have ever existed. Individual stamps from that sheet can bring up to $250,000 and blocks of them bring much more. The popularity of collecting errors, freaks and oddities has grown in recent years, says Rexford. He also believes the goofs are showing up with a lot more frequency than in the past.

John Hotchner, secretary of the national Errors, Freaks and Oddities Collectors' Club, says the number of errors has increased simply because the U.S. Postal Service is asking the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to come up with so many more stamps these days. More than 33 billion stamps were printed last year, said Hotchner, but only a small percentage of them were errors, freaks and oddities material. Most of that material is what used to be called printer's waste, which somehow got into distribution despite stringent controls. Such waste normally occurs as presses are started up, then adjusted for accurate printing and perforations, said Rexford.

Postal regulations say that such waste must be destroyed. But some waste and some errors inevitably slip through. Thomas Ferguson, manager-production manager for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said the last figures he saw on defective stamps that actually got into circulation indicated the amount was less than .01 percent. Much of that would not even be classified as errors, freaks or oddities because the defects were so slight. Basically, there are three types of goofs that are collectible, said Hotchner.

Errors are legitimate printing errors that may be of several types. They may have no perforations at all where there hard for even the trained eye to detect. Although such rarities have always been of interest to collectors, only recently has there been interest in collecting them as a specialty of their own, both men said. The EFO club was formed in 1978. Until then, there wasn't enough interest for a club, said Hotchner.

Today the club has 300 members and publishes a bi-monthly newsletter that runs about 20 pages and includes listings for an EFO auction. The group is Just starting to work on a catalog, said Hotchner. Rexford attributes the growing interest in errors, freaks and oddities to disillusionment among some collectors with rapid price increases for other collectible stamps. These collectors wanted to find an area that was not overplayed and specialize there. One of the nice things about errors, freaks and oddities is that they often can be bought at the Post Office for the face value of the stamp, said Rexford.

"Here is a specialty which is great fun for anyone who wants to go in on Saturday morning and buy stamps to check for errors," he said. If they do indeed find an error, it could be worth 10 to thousands of times its face value. Another way to check for errors is to look at canceled stamps on envelopes. Rexford noted that a legitimate error stamp tied to an envelope by a cancellation is worth five or 10 times as much as a similar stamp that hasn't been used. To qualify as "tied," the cancellation must overlap both the stamp and the envelope or cover.

There are two schools of thought on wnen to cash in on the value of an error, freak or oddity. Some, such as Rexford, suggest selling as quickly as possible to avoid a drop in price if more errors of the same type appear. But Hotchner says it may be safer to hold on to commemorative stamp errors until their value can be established. Errors on commemoratives are not as common as errors on definitives because they are printed for a limited time only. Rexford suggests that anyone who finds such items should check with several dealers to find out what they would pay for them.

Classified ads in Linn's Stamp News, a trade publication, can sometimes help in determining values. Some errors, freaks and oddities may be worth only a few dollars, but they are almost always worth more than face value, said Rexford. "If you find a legitimate error at the post office, there's no way you can lose." Persons interested in more information about collecting errors, freaks and oddities may write to EFOCC, Attention: John Hotchner, P.O. Box 1125, Falls Church, Va. 22041.

Jv ySA was At storeV 6 oz. 2 liter (iS CT53pvreturn bottle Sprite or rf 0 'Coca Examples of postal printing goofs should be perforations, colors may be missing, part of the design may be inverted or switched with another part. The wrong color or paper may be used In printing the stamp or an overprint or surcharge may be doubled, inverted or missing. Freaks include perforations that cut across a stamp of are off-center. Part of a color or perforation may be missing on a freak stamp, or it may be an error that is not likely to be duplicated should the same malfunction of printing or cutting equipment occur.

Oddities is a catch-all term for whatever does not fall in either the freak or error category, but something that is still unusual. Mistakes resulting from the plate-making process generally are in this category. Freaks are by far the most common, said Rexford. That's because they occur mostly on stamps known as definitives, those that are sold in large quantities over a long period of time. Often these stamps are sold as coils or rolls, which aren't easily inspected by postal clerks.

Improvements in technology and packaging may also lead to errors, said Hotchner. Today's presses can print as many 12 colors at a time, whereas older presses were limited to one-color printing, with multiple impressions for multi-color stamps. When only one color out of 12 is missing, it may be 4 Ik Getting Ahead Bill Bolota i. 2zS im i CLaZJ LA ft vl UbUA inspected farm fresh whote 11 G. J.

Ash T. J. Walsh mfoi UK -d I i 0. P. Reinert S.

J. Johnson M. L. Suthard Arthur Andersen St. Louis, elected O.

Paul Reinert a partner. Steven J. Johnson and Michael L. Suthard were elected participating principals. Lukens General Industries Inc.

promoted Oscar C. Oakley to plant superintendent of its Ludlow-Saylor Divsion. William Paul Gruendler II was promoted to manager of the research and development department of the company's Gruendler Crusher Division. 'jerry Zaage joined Braznell Co. as product manager of heatset and metal decorating inks.

W. Jendsen Jr. F. C. Gardner S.

D. Rush Olin Corp. announced the promotion of W. Dean Jendsen Jr. to the newly created position of director of marketing.

Frederick C. Gardner joined the company as manager of marketing information. Steven D. Rush joined Fox Cole Consulting Engineers Co. as project manager.

William Mercer Inc. announced Ronald D. Dearing joined its staff as a principal and managing consultant. Lynn B. Schenck joined Linclay Corp.

as marketing manager. Horwath announced the promotion of audit supervisor. Ash joined Federal Intermediate Credit Louis as a credit officer. J. Walsh joined McDowell Engineering engineer.

Russell R. Nea joined the structural and architectural engineer. Federal Savings and Loan Association, Heights, promoted Sally A. Kirchoff to auditor, Sandra K. Lough to assistant Mary L.

Spencer to assistant branch its East St. Lous offfice. 1 I USDA DA U.S. Said To Ignore Third World J. Lanius But the report showed that the Netherlands was five times more generous than the United States, in terms of percentage of GNP devoted to aid.

Only Italy was less generous in these terms than the United States. Ironically, deVries said, foreign aid is actually a good Investment even in practical terms. The United States gets back $1.25 for every $1 it puts out in such aid, he said. The return comes about when, after the United States gives away a tractor, for instance, the recipient learns the value of the equipment and buys several. DeVries said U.S.

aid is also handicapped by constraints imposed by the Congress. The aid professionals at the U.S. Agency for International Development have "good intentions, are competent, are well-informed and are hamstrung by politics," he said. Without such limitations, AID could respond faster to emergencies, such as starvation and refugee problems, he said. And It would be less tied to specific countries.

DeVries said that the world hunger Laventhol Joe Lanius to Gary J. Bank of St. Timothy Co. as project firm as civil, Ulini Falrview Internal controller and manager of Choice IIZT' center cut VV 7 rouna steaK a they should try to find other, more creative ways of assisting Third World nations. For example, he said, the DuPont Chemical Co.

established an operation in Costa Rica that, though not a moneymaker, has proved to be popular with DuPont employees because it requires them to make trips to the balmy Central American nation. Foreign aid by the U.S. government has declined over the years in constant dollars and, in terms of percentage of gross national product, is near the bottom among the developed nations whose aid is monitored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, deVries said. A recent OECD report showed that in 1981, U.S. aid was just 0.2 percent of the gross national product ranking 16th of the 17 nations monitored by the OECD.

Because its economy is so huge, U.S. aid was still the world's largest, in absolute dollars, deVries said. The OECD report said the United States disbursed $5.8 billion in aid in 1981. By Paul Wagman Ot the Pot-DIpatch Staff U.S. businessmen are passing up major opportunities in the Third World because they are not export oriented, an authority in international development says.

Egbert deVries, professor emeritus of international development at the University of Pittsburgh, said the Japanese are far more aggressive than Americans in seeking to capitalize on the growth of Third World markets. DeVries, 81, is a former chief of the economic resource division of the World Bank. He is a native of the Netherlands. Opportunities in the Third World exist in road-building, electrification and other infrastructural activities, as well as in many manufacturing fields, deVries said. Besides locating facilities there, U.S.

companies and the U.S. government as well should be more philanthropic toward the Third World, deVries said. U.S. companies should give to International aid organizations as well as for domestic purposes, he said. And Libson Shops li a C) US WO.

I all purpose L. i Business problem has shown some Improvement in the last generation. The number of hungry people is the same, he said an estimated 400,000,000 but the percentage that represents of the world population is smaller. The world's population is about 4.1 billion. Much of the suffering, he noted, is taking place in sub-Saharan Africa, the region known as the Sahel.

Rather than responding to this problem on a regional basis which would be logical the United States has responded on a country by country basis. And the individual programs have been "minute," he said. Deforestation of the Sahel has become so acute that dust blowing out of the area has reduced the amount of sunshine reaching parts of the United States and has shortened the summer in Canada, deVries said. DeVries was in St. Louis recently to speak to the Washington University chapter of AIESEC the French acronym for the International Association of Students in Economics and Business Management.

In Business percent sales Increases when inflation was running at 15 percent. We also kept too many of the unprofitable units open too long. We didn't allocate expenses by Individual store, and we threw too much overhead into the home office." The final straw, Lleberman said, came last February when Cass failed to grant additional extensions on the $1.8 million in outstanding loans. Lleberman said he is unsure of his future plans. "After being in retailing for more than 22 years, I'm not sure what I'll do.

More than 157 employe will lose their jobs when Libson Shops' close. Inc. Closing After 53 Years bulk By Barbara B. Buchholz Of the Port-Dltpatch Staff Libson Shops, Inc. of St.

Louis is closing its doors, company President Barton L. Lleberman says. Lleberman said the 53-year-old chain of women's specialty stores was unable to secure outside financing or to generate Internally the money the store's largest creditor said could be achieved from liquidation. Last February Llbson's management closed seven Of its 29 stores and sought under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Act, 4 In an attempt at remaining open.

of our most profitable stores open," Lleberman said. of them would have been in St. 'Louis. The others would have been In Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff and in Ottumwa, Iowa. This would have allowed us to provide an initial payment of 5 to 10 percent of our outstanding debt, with other payments made later.

"But the creditor, Cass Bank 'and Trust thought they had a better plan. By liquidating the stores, they said they could receive a dividend in the range of 20 to 30 percent. I think they're being overly optimistic, however," Lleberman said. The creditor's plan, he added, includes holding a public auction Nov. 10 on all the leases and then holding some kind of going-out-of-business sale after the judge approves the plan.

A sale of fixtures also will be held at the firm's headquarters at 1209 Washington Avenue about Nov. 18, 19 and 20. "We might be open for as long as one to two months, possibly through the Christmas season," Lleberman said. Lleberman cited both long- and short-term reasons for the chain's failure. "For at least a decade," he said, "we didn't keep uplwlth Inflation.

We were satisfied wiQ 6 and 7 I i "Kecenuy we naa apian to keep nine, md I..