F. Maynard Sundman; his firm opened world of stamp collecting

F. MAYNARD SUNDMAN

NEW YORK - F. Maynard Sundman, a stamp and coin dealer whose innovative mail-order marketing, using everything from comic books to matchbook covers, introduced millions to the once-exclusive worlds of philately and numismatics, died Oct. 31 in Littleton, N.H.. He was 92.

The cause was heart failure, said his youngest son, Donald.

It was Mr. Sundman's advertising acumen that set his companies apart. Reaching beyond trade publications, he squeezed little ads onto matchbook covers and splashed big ones - "Free! 30 Much-Wanted Foreign Stamps!" - in Sunday supplements, comic books, TV Guide, Parade magazine and National Geographic. As early as the 1950s, his commercials were on late-night radio, coast to coast.

Mr. Sundman's breakthrough came in 1952, when a nationwide ad in Sunday supplements offered a free set of 10 stamps from Bohemia and Moravia depicting Adolf Hitler.

"The mail just flooded in," recalled Mr. Sundman's oldest son, David - a total of half a million orders, exhausting the world's supply of the stamps.

A stamp collector since childhood, Mr. Sundman started his second company, the Littleton Stamp Co., in 1945, after returning from Army service in World War II. Within 10 years the company had branched into collectible coins. Mr .Sundman expanded the practice of shipping items "on approval" - trusting prospective customers either to buy the collectibles or send them back. Over the years he sent hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stamps and coins to a diverse clientele.

"It just shows you that the average person is honest," Mr. Sundman said in a 1992 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"He became a master at mail order," said Q. David Bowers, a co-chairman of Stack's, a New York coin dealer, explaining that Mr. Sundman used a scientific approach to learn which ads increased sales. "His theory was that if this ad showed a 5 percent improvement, and if something else was 4 percent, the next ad would multiply all those factors and be even better."

Bowers likened the Littleton Coin Co. to Wal-Mart, because of its versatility and its huge stock of popular collector coins. "For people in the hinterland, it's easy to order by mail," he said. "Also, there's something very special about receiving a package in the mail. People like to open them."

Mr. Sundman has had "a huge impact in the stamp industry, primarily with the marketing to non-established collectors," said Ken Martin, deputy executive director of the American Philatelic Society. "Most people aren't going to start off paying a thousand dollars for a postage stamp. A collector starting out at $5 a month may become a customer for $50, $100 a month in a year or two."

Frederick Maynard Sundman was born in New Britain, Conn., the only child of Frederick William Sundman and Floy Rae Maynard. He graduated from Bristol High School in 1935; that year, operating out of his parents' house with $400 and a small line of credit from a prominent stamp dealer in Boston, he started the Maynard Sundman Stamp Co.

From 1941 to 1945, he served in North Africa and Italy with the Fifth Army, earning a Bronze Star.

After the war, Mr. Sundman moved to Littleton and started the Littleton Stamp Co. with his first wife, Fannie Kasper of Terryville, Conn., whom he married in 1941. The company started in a one-room office on Main Street in Littleton; the couple lived down the street, over an A&P supermarket. Today the company employs about 350 people.

Mr. Sundman's first wife died in 1993. He leaves his wife, Dorothy; his sons from his first marriage, David and Frederick, both of Littleton, and Donald, of Skaneateles, N.Y.; his stepdaughter, Jeanne Joslin of Canterbury, N.H.; his stepson, Richard Joslin of Littleton; eight grandchildren; and four stepgrandchildren.