My pocket money was usually spent on approvals and stamps that I could find in local shops. I kept me occupied and I learnt a tremendous amount of geography and currencies through stamps. Thanks Dennis
Thanks for visiting my blog and for your comment. There were recent questions on the University Challenge TV programme relating to country self-descriptions (e.g. Magyar) which both my wife and I could answer because we once collected stamps.
I loved the approval booklets. I liked the diamond shaped and triangular stamps best and gave no consideration to rarity or value. I seem to remember paying by postal order?
Postal Orders! I'd forgotten about those, but yes I used them for lots of things. I've just had to look them up to remind myself what lovely documents they used to be - much nicer than cheques.
Hi I have one of these special approval booklets with some stamps in. It has no. 10 on front of book. The stamps are wild animals, ruanda flowers,moluccas 1954 flowers amd lundy island 1954 silver jubilees. Looking at selling this. Where would you advise please
I have no special knowledge about selling and buying stamps but personally I would try ebay. If they were rare then perhaps Stanley Gibbons auctions would be the place to try, but I doubt the ones you describe have any great value at all (e.g. see https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/apr/13/stamp-collectors-catalogues-philately-clubs). In fact, they may be of more interest because they are in what may now be a rare Dennis Hanson booklet.
Thanks for your blog. I was watching a programme on stamps on BBC2 last night and my mind went back to my childhood and triangular stamps in packs through the post from Bridgenorth and as is the way these days, Google led me to your site and I relived the memories. Good times and in another "world". Thanks - Terry
I used to buy by post from D J Hanson. I always worried after posting them back whether they got there or not. I have a large collection. When I started 40 years ago I was under the impression that was where to put your money for your future but alas no one is interested these days
They did, yes, but I guess it's always good advice to spread out savings and investments in case one goes wrong. Sorry you had trouble posting, it got filtered out as spam.
Collecting stamps was a big part of my pre teens during the 70s and was always excited in receiving approvals from D J Hanson. I gleaned hours of fun sorting stamps for my selection but found the hobby useless in my teens and sold the lot. But things come around and over the last decade have started to collect again (only GB).
I've no doubt I could get enthusiastic about collecting stamps again. I think I would go for the British Commonwealth and read up about the history and geography of the countries, e.g. the Bechuanaland/Botswana story told in the recent film United Kingdom really caught my imagination, and in a recent post I wrote about Southern Rhodesia. But it does take up time to do these things properly. Perhaps I should do less blogging and more stamp collecting.
An excellent article, that reminded me of the pleasures of life as a 9 year old in the early 1960s. I was particularly intrigued by the page of Maluku Selatan stamps; I too "invested" in these, and spent hours in the local reference library trying to find the country in various atlases... somehow it always eluded me! Only recently did I realise that my plans for my stamp collection to be an appreciating asset were groundless; much better if I had invested in a dozen James Bond Aston Martin Corgi cars, and left them unopened in their boxes to auction on e-bay some 55 years later.
Same with coins. Someone bought me a set of 1953 QEII new coinage sealed in a plastic packet. Still unopened they're worth nothing. Toys would indeed have been the thing if I could have resisted wanting to play with them.
...and look what turned up at Kempton market today, a box with over 200 'Philatelic Services Stamp Club' 'Special Approvals', most valued at £10 'but the complete book may be purchased in full at HALF-PRICE, for only £5'. Books full of attractive if virtually worthless stamps. so Mr Hanson was still going in the early 1990's (judging by dates of some of the stamps) in what must have been a shrinking market as the young moved away from stamps and towards all things electronic....
Does that mean someone received the approval books and didn't bother either to pay or send them back? I wonder how long you could get away with that before they asked for them back. I believe that Dennis Hanson continued in business up to a few months before he died in 2015, although I doubt he had much to do by then.
Don't think so. Looks like a stock given there are several duplicated books, the guy selling them muttered something about 'the business going under'. No idea where he got them from; maybe all the stock was sold off after Dennis Hansen died..
Enjoyed the read and brought back memories of my childhood in the 60's when I too "invested" in the stamps of the Molucca Republic. I discovered your blog whilst looking for information on the Philatelic Services Stamp Club. My curiosity was driven by the fact that I've just seen a box of Dennis's approval books (approx 200 priced to sell at £10 each, the same as seen in Kempton market?) on E-bay. Auction is due to close in 2 days time and currently stands at £46!
Finally sold for £227, so just over £1/book. Stamps appeared to be priced at high percentage of catalogue value (collectors/dealers would likely retail at 30-50% of the prices sought by Dennis), so buyer may see a small profit if they can resell most of it.
Hi there, I really enjoyed reading your blog about DJ Hanson. I just googled the name & postcode there now as I'd come across one if the above mentioned ads in an old magazine and my memories of collecting them are much the same as yours. I thought it was quite a big operation and was surprised to see the smallish wooden building where the enterprise must have been based. I often wondered what they did if people didn't return the stamps or money!! I was so delighted I remember to receive my free gift of a stamp collecting kit, complete with facsimile British Guiana 1c magenta😀
I just had a hunt around in the 'room of junk' and found the remnants of my stamp collection including an approvals book still full of stamps. I must take a few scans and post a link 😀
I remember these approval sheets well! After sending off the competition questions and receiving 200 mixed stamps, the approval sheets used to turn up every month or so. At first they were low value brightly coloured stamps from random countries, or tourist stamps, nothing more than curiosity value. The advantage I had was that my dad had also collected stamps as a kid, and he gave his old album. He also said, "These stamps they are sending you are worthless, write and ask him to send you proper stamps". He also suggested I focus either on world stamps, trying to collect random stamps from all over the world, or Royal Mail stamps. D.J.Hanson then only sent me GB stamps as requested, usually a mix from penny blacks up to 1980's sets. He must have been a patient man, as often these approval sheets sat in a pile on my bedroom floor for months on end! My interest waned in mid teens and I remember writing to him to stop the approvals sheets coming. I still carry 3 of the first stamps he sent me in my wallet. A triangle Lundy stamp, a 1966 world cup stamp, and the free penny red.
Thanks for your comment. Going by the number of commments this blog post has clearly attracted a lot of interest, which I'm pleased about. A lot of us still seem to have fond memories of our stamp collecting days. I suspect many of us would have returned to it if there weren't so many other distractions these days.
Thanks for that - it's a very attractive book of approvals, although I would guess that the St. Kilda set might not be regarded as proper stamps by some (note: I've disabled active links in my blog comments because of problems with spam, but this link works if you copy and paste it into your browser address box, and it's safe).
Those are the little approval books. He used to send sheets out with a Gibbons value of many hundreds of pounds, usually by recorded delivery, but in the latter years of my collecting he didn't bother. I've no idea why he sent them to me as I only spent £5 at most! I remember buying stamps from them just to put on the envelope to send them back once.
A curious piece of childhood consigned to the history bin. I wonder how much of the decline was down to the dwindling readership of the comics they advertised in? The world changed and they carried on as if it was 1955.
I never saw those. He must have valued your custom more highly than mine, either that or he thought you were a bigger sucker. Yes it is now all mainly in the history bin, but the feeling of sitting quietly at a table, no distractions, undisturbed, trying to imagine the countries where the stamps came from, or the people or events they commemorated, growing your knowledge, self-contained satisfaction, would be a rare experience for today's kids. Invaluable.
I wonder if anyone here ever received a missive from the Approval Dealers' Protection Society? I did about 55 years ago, and was very worried about their threats if I did not return some approvals..... so they were soon in the post.
I've just found it mentioned in an online directory, but the ADPS web site address it references now seems to have been taken over by a shoe merchant. I'd love to see one of their warnings, but I bet they were a bark worse than bite outfit.
I know that active links are disabled but here is an archived version of the ADPS site from 2002: https://web.archive.org/web/20030207120832/http://www.adps.org.uk:80/
I was just going through some old boxes and found 2 complete blue booklets, £2.00 of stamps inside or buy the complete book for £1.25, i never paid for these, i used to get them each month i think it was monthly, and take which stamps i wanted and then send the book back with the money for the stamps taken, but i'm sure these last two books i just kept and sent no money, i felt quit bad seen them after all these years and thought i'd type in the companies name and offer to pay for them now, 30 odd years too late but better late then never, i still collect although the stamps in these two books aren't up to my standard now.
This blog post really brought back memories. I'm moving house soon so have been going through old boxes in the attic - today I came across my old stamp collecting paraphernalia. My interest in stamp collecting began when I filled in and sent off (probably without telling my parents!) a slip cut from a Beano comic, I couldn’t be sure exactly when but probably around the early/mid 1990s when I was aged about 9 or 10. As described by others above, the approvals I initially received were the cheque-book sized ones priced at (I think) £2 for the book, or maybe it was £1 if you bought the whole book… anyway they were filled with very colourful stamps from all sorts of exotic sounding countries. Supportive of my new hobby, my parents bought me a beginner’s book on stamp collecting (which I still have) and from reading it I realised that what I was being sent were mass produced stamps, purely for the gullible young collectors’ market. However, as well as the approvals, Hanson’s also sent various letters and catalogues (curiously printed on American letter sized paper with a tiny type-written font which I remember even at the time thinking looked very old fashioned!) which included wording to the effect that better quality (and hence higher value) approvals were also available on request. So I duly requested, and started being sent larger booklets (roughly A5 size I think) of real stamps from all over the world, priced at £5 per book. I soon decided that my interest lay in UK stamps, so I duly wrote and requested to be sent UK only approvals. To my amazement, I started being sent selections of stamps with catalogue values well into the hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds… ok some stamps were quite rough and priced accordingly, but they included many Victorian stamps right back to penny blacks and 2d blues. I didn’t buy many (after all I was only in my early teens!) but it was genuinely exciting to receive them each month. On one occasion I forgot to send a set back, and after about six months received a hand typed and personally signed letter from Mr Hanson expressing genuine concern and very politely asking if I still had the stamps, or if they may have been lost in the post. I returned them with apologies and received another hand typed letter back expressing his immense relief and thanks. Soon after that I requested that they stop sending them, as my interest in the hobby was waning somewhat. Ever since, I often wondered whether the little company was still going. As well as the approvals, they also had their own catalogue (printed on the same American letter sized paper in tiny typeface) of UK stamps, essentially a version of the Gibbons catalogue, from which you could order stamps. I still have a typed and signed note from Mr Hanson apologising that a particular stamp I had ordered was not in stock, and explaining that he believed I would have great difficulty in finding one due to its rarity. To me, the children’s approval books of essentially worthless stamps were a door into a hobby which I kept for several years and which, at the time, brought a great deal of pleasure. It is with fondness that I think back of Philatelic Services, The Stamp Club, DJ Hanson Ltd, of “Eastrington nr Goole”, and it is with great sadness that I read just now of Mr Hanson’s death in 2015. RIP Dennis and thank you.
Sometime in the '90s I sent away for the free stamp collecting kit from Dennis and, if I recall correctly, subsequently ordered some stamps from him. I wrote a blog post in May 2012 about my reasons for sending for this kit, and thought you and your readers might be interested in reading it. I called it "This sure takes some lickin'..."
It was back in the late '60s, in Room 7 of my primary school one day, that I espied the magnifying glass. It was in the hands of one of my classmates who was using it for the purpose for which it was designed. (No surprise there, really - what else is a magnifying glass for?) I was fascinated - it was such a small magnifying glass, and I immediately wanted one for myself. "Where did you get it?" I enquired of him. "I got it as part of a free stamp collecting kit I sent away for" was his response. That was the magic word for me - "free". I had seen the ad for such stamp kits in the comics I bought, but had never paid them too much attention before. I decided there and then that I would send away for such a kit the first chance I got. Nothing would deter me, my mind was made up. I wanted a mini-magnifying glass of my very own and, by thunder, I would have one.
Close to 30 odd years later, when I eventually got around to sending for it (quite a few years ago now), it could well have been from the very same stamp dealer as my long-ago classmate had acquired his - D. J. Hanson Ltd., Eastrington, Goole, East Yorks, England, DN14 7QG, who advertised extensively in British comics of the time (and is still going strong today).
The much-coveted magnifying glass wasn't exactly the same as the one I remembered, but it was good enough for me. I felt the satisfaction that comes from finally fulfilling some long-held purpose or ambition that should have been accomplished years before. In fact, I wish I could sit in that classroom now, at my old desk, and employ my magnifying glass in the way I would've done back when I was a kid. No, not to read tiny print in one of my school books, but to capture an errant sunbeam and direct it towards a patch of skin on someone's bare thigh (short trousers in my day, remember) and wait to see them jump.
Sadistic little bleeder, eh?
I do sort of collect stamps actually, but on an extremely limited scale: Christmas stamps, TV, movie, and comic characters, etc. I couldn't fill a whole album, but I've got enough to keep me occupied for an hour or so, on cold, rainy nights when the wind is howling outside my window, bearing aloft familiar childhood voices and visions from so very long ago.
Thanks for reading, and for your comment. I don't remember the free magnifying glasses, perhaps they were after my time. I had to find your blog by searching for the title you mention - your user name provides no link to your blog or profile. Interesting stuff about comics. There was a chap at school who later became well known in the comic world as Dez Skinn, which makes him sound a bit like a comic character himself, although we then knew him as Derek.
Yeah, I know Dez slightly. Never met him in person, but I've spoken to him on the 'phone once or twice, and we've exchanged a few emails. He's even left comments on the blog from time to time. I've added your blog to my bloglist, so you may receive a few visits via Crivens!
I loved this company - they sent out such good stamps. I replied to an offer of the world's largest stamp which was a space stamp - I cannot remember which country it was from. The company will be sadly missed.
The company was very successful in its day because just about every boy and girl I knew at school collected stamps. I'm not so sure I'd agree about the quality of some of their stuff, as mentioned in the blog post.
Hello - Info, please. I'm looking at an ancient Hanson / Universal newsletter of the 1980s, and the circulation list includes "Britisch-Deutschen Briefmarken Club". Does it still exist and, if so, how can I contact it? Thanks - Alistair Lawson
Following on from my 2017 comment, I see that Dennis's stock is still finding it's way onto the philatelic market. There is currently a heavily duplicated lot of 300+ "Special Approval" booklets being sold by an auction house on E-bay. Two days to go and only one bid of 99p so far!
Enjoyed your blog, brought back good memories of my stamp collecting bug as an avid member of the Bridgnorth Stamp Club. None of my family or friends were into stamps, just me. The stamps were so varied and colourful and I remember sticking to collecting stamps with creatures and stamps with flowers, as well as the odd 'old' one. I remember the plastic magnifying glass and folding the stamp hinges to attach my beautiful stamps into my album. I have no idea what happened to my album and my family home has long been cleared and sold. But I do have good memories of sitting at the big table in the front room, oohing and aahing over the latest approvals, making my selections before heading to the Post Office to buy my postal order. A satisfying hobby for me in the late 60s, early 70s before I became a teen.
Thank you for commenting. That's how I remember it too, and I would contend it shaped our skills and our approach to the world. It's a pity now that even 9 and 10 year olds seem to spend most of their spare time staring into phones.
Thanks for bringing back happy memories from my youth. I waited excitedly for each new delivery of approvalshrrts from Eastrington, Goole. It gave me a great start into a lifelong hobby. Later, as i began to specialise in British Commemoratives and Definitives, I found that I could send for better approvals by simply looking in my Stanley Gibbons Monthly magazine. I will always be grateful to Dennis, for the colourful and varied themed sheets that helped me grasp a useful knowledge of world geography, and set me up for a hobby I have undertaken for the last 50 odd years.
Pleased you enjoyed my piece. I am impressed that you have kept up the hobby. I saw on the news the other day that because of covid lockdown, young people have been rediscovering traditional pastimes and stamp collecting is one of the resurgent ones.
Well there I was wondering if D.J.Hanson LTD still existed. Thank you for the memories Dennis ... please note I never got round to actually mounting my approvals into albums so still as good as the day they arrived :-)
Thanks for visiting. This is one of the most visited posts on my blog, so it seems it stirred a lot of memories. Stamps were certainly important for a time in my childhood.
Great post which has brought back many memories. My dealings with DJ Hanson were in the 1980s answering approval advertisements in Victor and Warlord comics. Being from Ireland and given the buying power of the Irish punt at that time it was surprising that Mr. Hanson wished to do business with me at all! Yet he did. Whilst the value of the stamps may have been questionable in some cases, the information on the approval sheets led to my becoming interested in the history and politics of far flung places like Danzig or Sharjah. Wherever you are Mr. Hanson, thank you!
My wife was doing a cleanup today and stumbled across the remnants of my philately period from some 60 years ago. Summer of 62 to be exact. Among them was some bumph from Dennis Hansons company including the 25th anniversary sheet displayed in one of your posts. Did my sums and estimated he'd been on the go since the 30s. Googled him and couldn't believe he was still in business up to 2015. Also came across your fascinating site. I was getting approvals sent to deepest rural Ireland in the early sixties courtesy of postal orders . Pre euro and pre punt - so at least no currency complications. A true entrepreneur was Dennis!
I welcome comments and hope to respond within a day or two, but my condition is making this increasingly difficult. Some days I might not look here at all. Also please note that comments on posts over 7 days old will not appear until they have been moderated.
My pocket money was usually spent on approvals and stamps that I could find in local shops. I kept me occupied and I learnt a tremendous amount of geography and currencies through stamps. Thanks Dennis
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog and for your comment. There were recent questions on the University Challenge TV programme relating to country self-descriptions (e.g. Magyar) which both my wife and I could answer because we once collected stamps.
DeleteI have fond memories of receiving the approvals sheets, choosing my favourite stamps, totting up the total and sending off payment. Happy days!
ReplyDeleteHappy days indeed, although I still think some stamps were a bit of a con.
DeleteWe are all so proud of Dennis. He worked til the day he died doing a job he loved , well done grandad , you were amazing ,
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog.
DeleteI loved the approval booklets. I liked the diamond shaped and triangular stamps best and gave no consideration to rarity or value. I seem to remember paying by postal order?
ReplyDeletePostal Orders! I'd forgotten about those, but yes I used them for lots of things. I've just had to look them up to remind myself what lovely documents they used to be - much nicer than cheques.
Delete... even the ones you used to get in toy Post Office sets were attractive.
DeleteHi I have one of these special approval booklets with some stamps in. It has no. 10 on front of book. The stamps are wild animals, ruanda flowers,moluccas 1954 flowers amd lundy island 1954 silver jubilees. Looking at selling this. Where would you advise please
ReplyDeleteI have no special knowledge about selling and buying stamps but personally I would try ebay. If they were rare then perhaps Stanley Gibbons auctions would be the place to try, but I doubt the ones you describe have any great value at all (e.g. see https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/apr/13/stamp-collectors-catalogues-philately-clubs). In fact, they may be of more interest because they are in what may now be a rare Dennis Hanson booklet.
DeleteThanks for your blog. I was watching a programme on stamps on BBC2 last night and my mind went back to my childhood and triangular stamps in packs through the post from Bridgenorth and as is the way these days, Google led me to your site and I relived the memories. Good times and in another "world". Thanks - Terry
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. I saw the programme was scheduled but forgot to watch it. Thanks for the reminder. I'll be on iPlayer this morning.
DeleteSmiled all through it.
DeleteI used to buy by post from D J Hanson. I always worried after posting them back whether they got there or not. I have a large collection. When I started 40 years ago I was under the impression that was where to put your money for your future but alas no one is interested these days
ReplyDeleteThey did, yes, but I guess it's always good advice to spread out savings and investments in case one goes wrong. Sorry you had trouble posting, it got filtered out as spam.
DeleteCollecting stamps was a big part of my pre teens during the 70s and was always excited in receiving approvals from D J Hanson. I gleaned hours of fun sorting stamps for my selection but found the hobby useless in my teens and sold the lot. But things come around and over the last decade have started to collect again (only GB).
ReplyDeleteI've no doubt I could get enthusiastic about collecting stamps again. I think I would go for the British Commonwealth and read up about the history and geography of the countries, e.g. the Bechuanaland/Botswana story told in the recent film United Kingdom really caught my imagination, and in a recent post I wrote about Southern Rhodesia. But it does take up time to do these things properly. Perhaps I should do less blogging and more stamp collecting.
DeleteAn excellent article, that reminded me of the pleasures of life as a 9 year old in the early 1960s. I was particularly intrigued by the page of Maluku Selatan stamps; I too "invested" in these, and spent hours in the local reference library trying to find the country in various atlases... somehow it always eluded me! Only recently did I realise that my plans for my stamp collection to be an appreciating asset were groundless; much better if I had invested in a dozen James Bond Aston Martin Corgi cars, and left them unopened in their boxes to auction on e-bay some 55 years later.
ReplyDeleteSame with coins. Someone bought me a set of 1953 QEII new coinage sealed in a plastic packet. Still unopened they're worth nothing. Toys would indeed have been the thing if I could have resisted wanting to play with them.
Delete...and look what turned up at Kempton market today, a box with over 200 'Philatelic Services Stamp Club' 'Special Approvals', most valued at £10 'but the complete book may be purchased in full at HALF-PRICE, for only £5'. Books full of attractive if virtually worthless stamps. so Mr Hanson was still going in the early 1990's (judging by dates of some of the stamps) in what must have been a shrinking market as the young moved away from stamps and towards all things electronic....
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean someone received the approval books and didn't bother either to pay or send them back? I wonder how long you could get away with that before they asked for them back. I believe that Dennis Hanson continued in business up to a few months before he died in 2015, although I doubt he had much to do by then.
DeleteDon't think so. Looks like a stock given there are several duplicated books, the guy selling them muttered something about 'the business going under'. No idea where he got them from; maybe all the stock was sold off after Dennis Hansen died..
DeleteI too have around 200 of these complete approval books that I bought around 35 to 40 years ago. Can anyone say what they are actually worth? approx.?
ReplyDeleteIf complete I would guess they are worth a few pounds each on eBay, unless they contain rare stamps which seems unlikely.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the read and brought back memories of my childhood in the 60's when I too "invested" in the stamps of the Molucca Republic. I discovered your blog whilst looking for information on the Philatelic Services Stamp Club. My curiosity was driven by the fact that I've just seen a box of Dennis's approval books (approx 200 priced to sell at £10 each, the same as seen in Kempton market?) on E-bay. Auction is due to close in 2 days time and currently stands at £46!
ReplyDeleteFinally sold for £227, so just over £1/book. Stamps appeared to be priced at high percentage of catalogue value (collectors/dealers would likely retail at 30-50% of the prices sought by Dennis), so buyer may see a small profit if they can resell most of it.
DeleteIt's going to take one heck of a lot of time to sell them off in ones and twos. I would guess the buyer is likely to be a dealer.
DeleteHi there, I really enjoyed reading your blog about DJ Hanson. I just googled the name & postcode there now as I'd come across one if the above mentioned ads in an old magazine and my memories of collecting them are much the same as yours. I thought it was quite a big operation and was surprised to see the smallish wooden building where the enterprise must have been based. I often wondered what they did if people didn't return the stamps or money!! I was so delighted I remember to receive my free gift of a stamp collecting kit, complete with facsimile British Guiana 1c magenta😀
ReplyDeleteI think I had one of these facsimile magentas too. You can't fault the guy's propensity for making money.
DeleteI just had a hunt around in the 'room of junk' and found the remnants of my stamp collection including an approvals book still full of stamps. I must take a few scans and post a link 😀
ReplyDeleteI remember these approval sheets well!
ReplyDeleteAfter sending off the competition questions and receiving 200 mixed stamps, the approval sheets used to turn up every month or so. At first they were low value brightly coloured stamps from random countries, or tourist stamps, nothing more than curiosity value.
The advantage I had was that my dad had also collected stamps as a kid, and he gave his old album. He also said, "These stamps they are sending you are worthless, write and ask him to send you proper stamps". He also suggested I focus either on world stamps, trying to collect random stamps from all over the world, or Royal Mail stamps.
D.J.Hanson then only sent me GB stamps as requested, usually a mix from penny blacks up to 1980's sets.
He must have been a patient man, as often these approval sheets sat in a pile on my bedroom floor for months on end!
My interest waned in mid teens and I remember writing to him to stop the approvals sheets coming.
I still carry 3 of the first stamps he sent me in my wallet. A triangle Lundy stamp, a 1966 world cup stamp, and the free penny red.
Thanks for your comment. Going by the number of commments this blog post has clearly attracted a lot of interest, which I'm pleased about. A lot of us still seem to have fond memories of our stamp collecting days. I suspect many of us would have returned to it if there weren't so many other distractions these days.
DeleteAt last I got around to scanning my old approvals book! Here it is:
ReplyDeletehttps://photos.app.goo.gl/YCuWZ5AqFj6TYVPf1
Thanks for that - it's a very attractive book of approvals, although I would guess that the St. Kilda set might not be regarded as proper stamps by some (note: I've disabled active links in my blog comments because of problems with spam, but this link works if you copy and paste it into your browser address box, and it's safe).
DeleteThose are the little approval books. He used to send sheets out with a Gibbons value of many hundreds of pounds, usually by recorded delivery, but in the latter years of my collecting he didn't bother. I've no idea why he sent them to me as I only spent £5 at most! I remember buying stamps from them just to put on the envelope to send them back once.
DeleteA curious piece of childhood consigned to the history bin. I wonder how much of the decline was down to the dwindling readership of the comics they advertised in? The world changed and they carried on as if it was 1955.
I never saw those. He must have valued your custom more highly than mine, either that or he thought you were a bigger sucker. Yes it is now all mainly in the history bin, but the feeling of sitting quietly at a table, no distractions, undisturbed, trying to imagine the countries where the stamps came from, or the people or events they commemorated, growing your knowledge, self-contained satisfaction, would be a rare experience for today's kids. Invaluable.
DeleteI wonder if anyone here ever received a missive from the Approval Dealers' Protection Society? I did about 55 years ago, and was very worried about their threats if I did not return some approvals..... so they were soon in the post.
ReplyDeleteI've just found it mentioned in an online directory, but the ADPS web site address it references now seems to have been taken over by a shoe merchant. I'd love to see one of their warnings, but I bet they were a bark worse than bite outfit.
DeleteI know that active links are disabled but here is an archived version of the ADPS site from 2002:
ReplyDeletehttps://web.archive.org/web/20030207120832/http://www.adps.org.uk:80/
The site seems to have relocated to:
ReplyDeleteadpsstampdealers.uk
Thanks for the links. Just had a look. I wonder how long the confidential list of problem clients was.
DeleteQuite long I'd say 😀
ReplyDeleteI was just going through some old boxes and found 2 complete blue booklets, £2.00 of stamps inside or buy the complete book for £1.25, i never paid for these, i used to get them each month i think it was monthly, and take which stamps i wanted and then send the book back with the money for the stamps taken, but i'm sure these last two books i just kept and sent no money, i felt quit bad seen them after all these years and thought i'd type in the companies name and offer to pay for them now, 30 odd years too late but better late then never, i still collect although the stamps in these two books aren't up to my standard now.
ReplyDeleteI guess you've got away with those then. It's good to hear you still collect stamps and that you are now more discerning.
DeleteI worked at the Bridgenorth stamp company in 1967,licking and sticking the approvals books.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. I believe that quite a lot of Dennis Hanson's staff at Eastrington worked from home.
DeleteHi Barbara, lovely to hear ftom you!, if you don't mind me asking, about how many books would you get done in a week?
DeleteThis blog post really brought back memories. I'm moving house soon so have been going through old boxes in the attic - today I came across my old stamp collecting paraphernalia. My interest in stamp collecting began when I filled in and sent off (probably without telling my parents!) a slip cut from a Beano comic, I couldn’t be sure exactly when but probably around the early/mid 1990s when I was aged about 9 or 10. As described by others above, the approvals I initially received were the cheque-book sized ones priced at (I think) £2 for the book, or maybe it was £1 if you bought the whole book… anyway they were filled with very colourful stamps from all sorts of exotic sounding countries. Supportive of my new hobby, my parents bought me a beginner’s book on stamp collecting (which I still have) and from reading it I realised that what I was being sent were mass produced stamps, purely for the gullible young collectors’ market. However, as well as the approvals, Hanson’s also sent various letters and catalogues (curiously printed on American letter sized paper with a tiny type-written font which I remember even at the time thinking looked very old fashioned!) which included wording to the effect that better quality (and hence higher value) approvals were also available on request. So I duly requested, and started being sent larger booklets (roughly A5 size I think) of real stamps from all over the world, priced at £5 per book. I soon decided that my interest lay in UK stamps, so I duly wrote and requested to be sent UK only approvals. To my amazement, I started being sent selections of stamps with catalogue values well into the hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds… ok some stamps were quite rough and priced accordingly, but they included many Victorian stamps right back to penny blacks and 2d blues. I didn’t buy many (after all I was only in my early teens!) but it was genuinely exciting to receive them each month. On one occasion I forgot to send a set back, and after about six months received a hand typed and personally signed letter from Mr Hanson expressing genuine concern and very politely asking if I still had the stamps, or if they may have been lost in the post. I returned them with apologies and received another hand typed letter back expressing his immense relief and thanks. Soon after that I requested that they stop sending them, as my interest in the hobby was waning somewhat. Ever since, I often wondered whether the little company was still going. As well as the approvals, they also had their own catalogue (printed on the same American letter sized paper in tiny typeface) of UK stamps, essentially a version of the Gibbons catalogue, from which you could order stamps. I still have a typed and signed note from Mr Hanson apologising that a particular stamp I had ordered was not in stock, and explaining that he believed I would have great difficulty in finding one due to its rarity. To me, the children’s approval books of essentially worthless stamps were a door into a hobby which I kept for several years and which, at the time, brought a great deal of pleasure. It is with fondness that I think back of Philatelic Services, The Stamp Club, DJ Hanson Ltd, of “Eastrington nr Goole”, and it is with great sadness that I read just now of Mr Hanson’s death in 2015. RIP Dennis and thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your memories. One of those pastimes you could completely lose yourself in.
DeleteSometime in the '90s I sent away for the free stamp collecting kit from Dennis and, if I recall correctly, subsequently ordered some stamps from him. I wrote a blog post in May 2012 about my reasons for sending for this kit, and thought you and your readers might be interested in reading it. I called it "This sure takes some lickin'..."
ReplyDeleteIt was back in the late '60s, in Room 7 of my primary school one day, that I espied the magnifying glass. It was in the hands of one of my classmates who was using it for the purpose for which it was designed. (No surprise there, really - what else is a magnifying glass for?) I was fascinated - it was such a small magnifying glass, and I immediately wanted one for myself. "Where did you get it?" I enquired of him. "I got it as part of a free stamp collecting kit I sent away for" was his response. That was the magic word for me - "free". I had seen the ad for such stamp kits in the comics I bought, but had never paid them too much attention before. I decided there and then that I would send away for such a kit the first chance I got. Nothing would deter me, my mind was made up. I wanted a mini-magnifying glass of my very own and, by thunder, I would have one.
Close to 30 odd years later, when I eventually got around to sending for it (quite a few years ago now), it could well have been from the very same stamp dealer as my long-ago classmate had acquired his - D. J. Hanson Ltd., Eastrington, Goole, East Yorks, England, DN14 7QG, who advertised extensively in British comics of the time (and is still going strong today).
The much-coveted magnifying glass wasn't exactly the same as the one I remembered, but it was good enough for me. I felt the satisfaction that comes from finally fulfilling some long-held purpose or ambition that should have been accomplished years before. In fact, I wish I could sit in that classroom now, at my old desk, and employ my magnifying glass in the way I would've done back when I was a kid. No, not to read tiny print in one of my school books, but to capture an errant sunbeam and direct it towards a patch of skin on someone's bare thigh (short trousers in my day, remember) and wait to see them jump.
Sadistic little bleeder, eh?
I do sort of collect stamps actually, but on an extremely limited scale: Christmas stamps, TV, movie, and comic characters, etc. I couldn't fill a whole album, but I've got enough to keep me occupied for an hour or so, on cold, rainy nights when the wind is howling outside my window, bearing aloft familiar childhood voices and visions from so very long ago.
Thanks for reading, and for your comment. I don't remember the free magnifying glasses, perhaps they were after my time. I had to find your blog by searching for the title you mention - your user name provides no link to your blog or profile. Interesting stuff about comics. There was a chap at school who later became well known in the comic world as Dez Skinn, which makes him sound a bit like a comic character himself, although we then knew him as Derek.
DeleteYeah, I know Dez slightly. Never met him in person, but I've spoken to him on the 'phone once or twice, and we've exchanged a few emails. He's even left comments on the blog from time to time. I've added your blog to my bloglist, so you may receive a few visits via Crivens!
DeleteI loved this company - they sent out such good stamps.
ReplyDeleteI replied to an offer of the world's largest stamp which was a space stamp - I cannot remember which country it was from.
The company will be sadly missed.
The company was very successful in its day because just about every boy and girl I knew at school collected stamps. I'm not so sure I'd agree about the quality of some of their stuff, as mentioned in the blog post.
DeleteHello - Info, please. I'm looking at an ancient Hanson / Universal newsletter of the 1980s, and the circulation list includes "Britisch-Deutschen Briefmarken Club". Does it still exist and, if so, how can I contact it? Thanks - Alistair Lawson
DeleteSorry - I do not have any other information about Derek Hanson or Universal.
DeleteFollowing on from my 2017 comment, I see that Dennis's stock is still finding it's way onto the philatelic market. There is currently a heavily duplicated lot of 300+ "Special Approval" booklets being sold by an auction house on E-bay. Two days to go and only one bid of 99p so far!
ReplyDeleteFascinating. Have just looked. I wonder whether anyone has actually tried to sell them in smaller quantities and given up.
DeleteEnjoyed your blog, brought back good memories of my stamp collecting bug as an avid member of the Bridgnorth Stamp Club. None of my family or friends were into stamps, just me. The stamps were so varied and colourful and I remember sticking to collecting stamps with creatures and stamps with flowers, as well as the odd 'old' one. I remember the plastic magnifying glass and folding the stamp hinges to attach my beautiful stamps into my album. I have no idea what happened to my album and my family home has long been cleared and sold. But I do have good memories of sitting at the big table in the front room, oohing and aahing over the latest approvals, making my selections before heading to the Post Office to buy my postal order. A satisfying hobby for me in the late 60s, early 70s before I became a teen.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting. That's how I remember it too, and I would contend it shaped our skills and our approach to the world. It's a pity now that even 9 and 10 year olds seem to spend most of their spare time staring into phones.
DeleteThanks for bringing back happy memories from my youth. I waited excitedly for each new delivery of approvalshrrts from Eastrington, Goole. It gave me a great start into a lifelong hobby. Later, as i began to specialise in British Commemoratives and Definitives, I found that I could send for better approvals by simply looking in my Stanley Gibbons Monthly magazine.
ReplyDeleteI will always be grateful to Dennis, for the colourful and varied themed sheets that helped me grasp a useful knowledge of world geography, and set me up for a hobby I have undertaken for the last 50 odd years.
Pleased you enjoyed my piece. I am impressed that you have kept up the hobby. I saw on the news the other day that because of covid lockdown, young people have been rediscovering traditional pastimes and stamp collecting is one of the resurgent ones.
DeleteWell there I was wondering if D.J.Hanson LTD still existed. Thank you for the memories Dennis ... please note I never got round to actually mounting my approvals into albums so still as good as the day they arrived :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting. This is one of the most visited posts on my blog, so it seems it stirred a lot of memories. Stamps were certainly important for a time in my childhood.
DeleteGreat post which has brought back many memories. My dealings with DJ Hanson were in the 1980s answering approval advertisements in Victor and Warlord comics. Being from Ireland and given the buying power of the Irish punt at that time it was surprising that Mr. Hanson wished to do business with me at all! Yet he did. Whilst the value of the stamps may have been questionable in some cases, the information on the approval sheets led to my becoming interested in the history and politics of far flung places like Danzig or Sharjah. Wherever you are Mr. Hanson, thank you!
ReplyDeleteI agree, stamp collecting was as much an education as a hobby, and Dennis Hanson understood this. Thank you for reading and commenting.
DeleteMy wife was doing a cleanup today and stumbled across the remnants of my philately period from some 60 years ago. Summer of 62 to be exact. Among them was some bumph from Dennis Hansons company including the 25th anniversary sheet displayed in one of your posts. Did my sums and estimated he'd been on the go since the 30s. Googled him and couldn't believe he was still in business up to 2015. Also came across your fascinating site. I was getting approvals sent to deepest rural Ireland in the early sixties courtesy of postal orders . Pre euro and pre punt - so at least no currency complications. A true entrepreneur was Dennis!
ReplyDeleteI think he would have replied to my letter had he been well enough. Thanks for visiting, reading and commenting.
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