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I don't even understand that. Why was it even such a problem? So they took some stamps to the moon so they could be sold as "stamps that have been on the moon". I don't understand why that should even be such a controversy. I can understand with regards to things like "moon rocks" or "lunar dust", etc, but something that was brought to the moon in the first place? What's the big deal?

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The "big deal", at least according to NASA and congress, was that the crew accepted funds ($7,000 each) to transport the items to the surface of the moon without informing NASA officials.

I don't have a firm opinion on the matter. I just remember feeling a bit sad when I first read the story as a high-school kid, thinking that the Apollo astronauts would need to supplement their NASA salary with the 1971 equivalent of eBay. That may not have been the case, though.

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