In 1939, the post office at Cooperstown (home of the Baseball Hall of Fame) was swamped with requests from young baseball fans eager to collect a first day cover and the year’s newly issued baseball stamp. Unfortunately, the requests for the special issue frequently arrived without the required self-addressed envelope plus three cents for the stamp.
 
Local postmaster Melvin Bundy honored thousands of those requests out of his own pocket, and US baseball stamp collecting was born, thanks to what were affectionately known as “small boy orders.”