Happy Tom of Finland Stamp Day!

Chris Malford reports on the global release of the eagerly awaited “leather men’s stamps” by Finland Post.

Since April this year, when Finland Post made the surprise announcement that they were to honour Tom of Finland, leather men have been waiting for the day to get their hands on their very own “bit of Tom”.

LeatherWest acted quickly and spotted an opportunity. Could they supply the stamps to leathermen and their friends at a value-for-money rate and raise some funds to invest back into the local leather community in West?

Frantic work ensued over 24 hours when Finland Post enabled pre-orders for the stamps. SBerg was set on the task and spotted that each order for a set of stamps had a delivery charge of 5 Euros. There was the opportunity.

“Bulk buying always works”, says LeatherWest’s S’Berg. “It works when buying anything from toothpaste to electricity. On this occasions stamps.”

“We were able to actually undercut the total purchase price from Finland and offer a modest saving on the stamps plus postage. It meant that LeatherWest to could make some funds to invest back into the community.”

For me, this was the important bit. The ability to make some modest profits and invest back into the leather community. Already, we’ve seen this year the result of the approach LeatherWest has taken (being a mutual non-profit). The pride presence at Bristol Pride and Pride Cymru in Cardiff was certainly fantastic and couldn’t have happened without some serious investment.

LeatherWest went ahead in April and launched their own pre-order service via the website shop. Having by now secured large blocks of the stamps, the challenge now was to get the word spread and get the sales in. And in that endeavour, LeatherWest look set to be more successful then they could have hoped for.

Trying to keep things simple, a simple one flat-rate (inclusive of postage) price was set for delivery to any address in the world. And it seems to have been a winner with leathermen: not just locally, but from much, much further afield. Orders have been taken from around the world: the United States, Canada, China, Germany, Estonia, Australia, Brazil to name a few on a long list of countries - in fact orders have been received from every continent in the world.

LeatherWest calculated correctly that the ‘Tom’ stamps would start selling for several times their face value of 3 Euros once the release date in September arrived: “We did envisage that the stamps would quickly become a collector’s item”, says Tim Black Arrow. “Just this week we’ve seen the stamps go on sale on eBay by stamps dealers at anything up to £20 plus shipping. So, Leatherwest’s price is definately value-for-money and a good, fair price whilst raising much need funds.”

Now the stamps have been released, LeatherWest are expecting their delivery from Finland to arrive in the next few days. So, if you have ordered your ‘Tom Stamps’, LeatherWest say they should be with you soon.

LeatherWest report that with a surge in orders, getting more is going to be possible, however they have been advised the price is likely to go up. “We’ll try to keep the stamps at the same price. Once our current stock is sold out, it is likely you’ll see the price go up”, says S’Berg.

Just today, I did a search of “tom of finland stamps” on eBay. Sure enough, they are starting to appear on-line at £15-£20 each. LeatherWest is at £5.50 until their current stock lasts. With that I’m off the order some for myself. You’d better come and follow me and do the same now!

Notes:

LeatherWest have make bulk orders with Finland post, reducing the shipping charge. This saving is being on to supporters and website readers resulting in a modest saving than by buying direct.
Should for any reason orders not be fulfilled, LeatherWest state that they will, without hesitation, issue an immediate and comprehensive refund on all pre-orders.

Happy Tom of Finland Stamp Day!