Posted by swistle on 24th August 2011
Categories: At the office
9 comments
My brother is hoping to get a stamp dispenser for his birthday. More specifically, he wants a “totally rad” stamp dispenser for his birthday.
Well. We all know that when we want hip and happening and totally rad, we turn to our mid-to-late-thirties sister who only relatively recently switched from the 1990s glasses still featured in her photo above!
Post office box stamp dispenser (photo from GiftsForProfessionals.com), $29.75 plus shipping. Is this totally rad? I’m thinking no. But it has a certain charm that might be radness. Picture it on my brother’s solid-wood pleasingly vintage Guy Desk.
Hummingbird pewter stamp dispenser (photo from MooseHarborGifts.com), $19.95 plus shipping. Hummingbirds are awesome. But are they RAD? One problem we might be facing here is that many of the people who buy stamp dispensers are also still buying stamps they have to lick (not all, not ALL—there ARE self-adhesive stamps sold on a roll), and that those people might not be on the sharp cutting edge of technology and radness.
Pewter stamp dispenser (photo from USPS.com), $9.95 plus shipping. This would be MY favorite, but I’d be in the market for cute/classic rather than rad.
Pewter fox stamp box (photo from HorseAndHound.com), $43.00 plus shipping. Our family surname is fox-related, so I’ve started thinking of foxes as our family symbol.
Fox Brass Stamp Dispenser (photo from HorseAndHound.com), $39.00 plus shipping. Another fox option, this one in brass. I think I prefer the pewter.
Handcrafted wooden stamp box with inlay (photo from Amazon.com). Is this RAD, or is it SEVENTIES? (Or BOTH?)
Van Gogh Crows Over Wheat stamp holder (photo from FunCollections.com), $24.95 plus shipping. I don’t know. Maybe not quite right. But I don’t usually like the hand-painted look, so the could be skewing my judgment. (That little ES0009 is a product number that’s part of the photo, not a secret code like I thought when I first noticed it while proofreading the post.)
Poplar stamp holder (photo from FunCollections.com), $24.95 plus shipping. Better, but maybe too feminine? It looks like a little trinket/jewelry box, but with a stamp sticking out the side.
Pewter stamp holder (photo from SilverGallery.com), $35.00 plus shipping. This is definitely classy, and I could get it engraved if I wanted to, though I don’t think my brother is the engraved initials type. (But: Is. It. RAD?)
Would your brother think it was funny to get the pewter one with “RAD” engraved on it? I would, but it seems like it could go either way….
Ali | August 24th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Oh, Ali. That is GENIUS.
swistle | August 24th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I was going to say the pewter fox or the wooden one, but then Ali comes along with “Suggestion Perfection”.
Totally do that. And then show us a picture.
Misty | August 24th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
I’d go for either the silver fox option or the last one. Both make strong statements but aren’t something that will feel tired in 10 or even 50 years (except, of course, who even USES stamps anymore, except for thank you notes and holiday cards?)
liz | August 24th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Okay I like the first one, the pewter fox, and the wood seventies box thing best. But I have no idea whether or not they are RAD. Maybe your brother could provide you with some sort of radness SCALE for you to reference.
Also, when you mentioned being “hip and happening and totally rad” I thought of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeS-Xb5u4-U&feature=related
Superjules | August 24th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
I loved the little pewter mailbox too - that’s what I would choose.
The last one is very classy but I can’t help you with whether classy is in any way close to rad!
Kelsey | August 25th, 2011 at 2:26 am
I like the same one you like, the pewter mail box. BUT, I really like the idea of engraving RAD too….but I don’t know that he would really want that…I think he wants a cool looking stamp dispenser. But I think he would appreciate the humor (I say this as if I actually know him)….could you get both? One as a joke and one as the real one?
I sort of think that someone who wants a stamp dispenser as a gift may not really mean RAD in the same way that other people mean RAD, you know? So, I think maybe he means interesting-looking….?
Heather R | August 26th, 2011 at 2:30 am
I was thinking “Stamp dispensers and RAD are mutually exclusive, are they not?” but I really like the blue mailbox one and the fox ones. Might Etsy have anything edgier than hummingbirds and lacquer?
Christy M | August 29th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Christy M.– Oh, what a good idea! I’ll go check!
Swistle | August 29th, 2011 at 9:40 pm