Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
For those who haven't see all that was released this year, you can see them all at: http://stamps.org/US-New-Issues .
Ones I didn't like or could have done without:
* Wedding Cake (Why did they need to release it again?)
* Weather Vanes (Way to simplistic and plain.)
* Love Ribbons (Just look poorly done to me.)
* Four Flags (Yeesh. In retrospect, did I really want to get every type of these plain looking stamps?)
* Purple Heart (Yet another, "Hey we are lazy and are not coming up with a new design stamp.)
* Wave Of Color (I needed to spend the $18 + shipping to acquire these four stamps for my collection book, and I am really disappointed that for such high dollar stamps, you would think they they would have created something more exciting than swirls or waves of color. That coupled with the fact that I ordered them all together, they were released on the same date, but USPS.com decided to ship each one separately, and over a three day time frame. No wonder they are going broke.)
On the fence about:
* Checkerspot Butterfly (I don't know. There's something about the way it was drawn that just doesn't feel right. Like I'm looking at an illustration from a science text book.)
* Jose Ferrer (I thought there was a lot of wasted "white space" on this stamp. The picture should have been bigger.)
* Lady Bird Johnson (I was thrilled that they decided to honor her and tie this stamp with the 1960's stamps, however, re-releasing those stamps in a forever format just felt like a lazy approach to honoring her. It makes me think, are they going to do this with more and more stamps?)
My Favorite(s):
* Cherry Bloosoms Centennial (I was a fan of the Beautify America stamps from the 1960's. I also liked the US-Japs stamp from then as well. I ended up purchasing a special display for these that looks great next to my wall displays for the others.)
* The Civil War: 1862 and The War of 1812: USS Constitution (I'm grouping these together because I loved the historical information printed on the selvage around the sheet. They also looked good in my opinion.)
* Major League Baseball All-Stars (I thought that these were very well done. The color choices made them eye-catching.)
Bicycling (I really liked how each stamp flowed into the next to created a nice looking se-tenant.)
Honorable Mentions:
* Earthscapes (I liked the color and the scenes from these. I was proud that I recognized the roundhouse from Steamtown USA.)
* Sunshine Skyway Bridge (I really liked the way they had the sunrise/sunset accent the background of this stamp.)
Carmel Mission (As someone who likes architecture, this one very well done.)
So what were everyone else's favorites?
---Pat
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Patrick:
Thank you for your assessment of of the USA stamps issued in 2012. Thank goodness we don't all have the same tastes; how stultifyingly dull life would be.
I have a million favourite stamps and my list grows daily. My most favourite of favourite stamps in my USA album is SCN1324 because of its simplicity, seamless design, colour, layout and beautiful presentation - a small piece of paper that tells a big story and adds a new chapter every time I examine it.
John Derry
P.S According to the politically-correct crowd, "girlfriend" is sexist, "domestic partner" is not and begs the curious listener to ask for more.
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Politically correct, bah humbug. If she's a female friend, she's a girlfriend or even lady friend, possibly elevated to fiancee status buy now. Domestic partner sounds like a gay arrangement and we can be sure that is not the case here.
Patrick, keep up the good work, we have missed you here on SOR, but we all have our own lives to live and families should be the top most priority for each of us. If she likes the boys, you've got it made.
Mike
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08:25:13am
What Mike said.
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I'm glad the Flags of Our Nation series is ending. To me it was one of the most disappointing issues and missed opportunity by the USPS. It was supposed to be the USPS response to the State Quarters, which revitalized Coin Collecting.
It's not that I don't like the design of the stamps but the format is horrendous. You can only purchase the stamps in coil rolls of 50. The strip of 10 does not fit in any standard album. They were not available at every post office, therefore you never see them used on mail (like every other commemorative). How can you get someone interested in collecting this issue if you can't see the stamps? You have to unravel the coil to be able to see all the designs. If it was in a sheet of 10 or 20, it would have been affordable and visually appealing.
I normally don't get on the USPS for their issues as I like most of them, even if obscure. But this one really missed the mark, especially because I had such high hopes when it was announced. I was hoping that it would be marketed to the non-collector like the State Quarters. I remember turning the channel and seeing State Quarters being sold on QVC. Never saw anything like that for this issue. I'll bet most of the public doesn't even know this issue exists.
Bob
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09:06:32am
The State and Territorial Flags had so much potential. I am still looking for a roll of the last set in one of several local post offices. I need a mint strip of ten to send to a fellow collector overseas who has a Flag Topical Album to complete his set.
I have managed to complete about 55 of the stamps in the set with nicely cancelled copies for my postally used set, but even that has been difficult, bordering on the impossible.
The last shipment of used stamps from one of my daughters who has the mail clerk set all stamped envelopes aside for her to send me, a bundle of probably 500, had only two or three of the last six flags used. And they were more than lightly cancelled.
This set had such great potential, as you pointed out, Bob, and seems to have become the gutter ball of USPS efforts.
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I agree with both of you. The first and second group of ten are worthless, because of the tape used by USPS to seal the coil roll. There are only 5 sets of ten per roll, and you lose one to damage, if you split the set of ten into strips of five. Even then, it is very easy to damage the stamps in the middle, because they are attached to each other by the perfs and there isn't enough of the backing paper to keep the edges covered. Over time, those perfs will get stuck down and damaged if removed from their mounts or stock pages, etc.
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12:50:09pm
Fortunately being more interested in postally used the first stamp is, or was usaually able to carry an envelope as designed.
To prepare the strips of ten that I used to send off to some MNH collecting correspondents, I'd start somewhere and count off ten, remove one for local mail, count out the next ten and remove one again.
Most of the rest were used to pay bills or to send parcels off to my sons who were either in Germany, Iraq or the Persian Gulf. Eventually the used stamps made their way back to me for my album. Between those controlled mail" and the ones I got in the bundle from my daughter in Dallas I have managed to get the first fifty and a few of the last ten in nicely cancelled condition. Soon I hope to find the last few in a kilo lot that the local stamp dealer buys and sells for ten cents a stamp.
One other thing I have noticed as I have been removing the current US issues from paper is that the alcohol causes the modern jet-spray ink canceling ink to run very quickly. Now I just dip the stamp quickly into the solution and remove it to where I can separate the stamp from the paper and then rinse the stamp in a jar of clear fresh water.
I suppose that this ink is cheaper and its solubility is a part of their campaign to prevent revenue losses, but once again the USPS is doing what it can to ruin the hobby.
What would they care since the jet-spray cancellations are virtually anyway.
I did read somewhere that USPS has noticed a drop in the sale of commemoratives recently. I wonder if there is a connection between their policies and the amount being collected ?
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Limited distribution will cause even further declines in stamp sales. Not every collector wants to order through Kansas City.
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I can understand the concerns of those who collect USA stamps. For a mundane reason, I closed out my USA stamp album with the last issue of American gummed stamps, never having mastered the knack of separating the self-adhesives from paper.
What I am unable to understand, based on Stamporama discussions, is the apparent insensitivity of the USPS to the needs of all its clientele, not just the stamp collector. Because of competitive forces in an open economy, "marketing" has become a highly-refined discipline and a surgical-steel-sharp business tool. From what I read in Stamporama discussions, the USPS hasn't fully appreciated this fact.
Canada Post is too small an operation to compare with the USPS but seems to understand the vital importance of marketing. Because of the incomprehensively massive indebtedness of the Canadian government, abetted by the conservatism of the political party long in power and likely to remain so, Crown corporations and QUANGOs (quasi non-governmental organizations that feed at the public trough, and of which Canada has thousands) such as Canada Post realize that survival is in their own hands, and that taxpayer bailouts in today's economic world are improbable, if not impossible.
Consequently, Canada Post has redesigned its image and is "marketing" itself at full throttle, trying to keep ahead of that ever-plodding, never-tiring, Grim Reaper. It is exploring and implementing virtually any revenue-generating ploy, even going so far as to selling mail services to new residential developments (pay for a mail-delivery box maybe somewhere near your new home, or collect it yourself at an inconveniently-located depot on the outskirts of the city where warehouse rent is cheap and street lighting non-existent).
Most Canada PO sites have been closed out as too expensive to maintain and the few survivors are usually heritage-protected. Franchise postal operations are now de rigueur and they have surfaced like mushrooms: post your letter and buy more of those beautiful stamps postage stamps at your local designer-coffee shop while spaced out on caffeine. It may sound insignificant, but the savings in flags and flag-pole maintenance alone is recorded in the financial statements!
Canada Post never had to advertise prior to the electronic era, now it's a major, front-line expense. The revenue generated by philatelic sales, however small, is essential to its survival ; our self-adhesive stamps soak off in water, unlike first issues at which stamp collectors rebelled. Our postage stamps and their packaging are intended to appeal to as wide a market as possible - even to the non-stamp collector or non-mail writer. They are designed to be "giftable" in their own right.
Historically, Canada Post has been a follower, not a trail-blazer. Is the USPS this badly out of step and falling further behind, or are US Stamporama members simply miffed and distorting a difficult picture?
John Derry
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John,
I totally agree with most of what you wrote, even some of those Five dollar words that I had to look up in my Webster's. LOL, just kidding of course, about the Five dollar words. I do think that Canada post is doing a much better job of issuing stamps that collector's want to add to their collections, certainly much more than the crap the USPS seems to generate by the boxcar load, for us to buy. I wish that I could use Canadian stamps on my mail instead of this junk we have to offer. I am embarrassed, sometimes, when I send mail, especially to foreign countries with the mundane, boring as hell crap we have to choose from.
I know, that plenty are going to dispute what I just said, but that is MY opinion of what the USPS is doing to the collectors. I have a feeling, but no facts to back it up, that the USPS burns more unused postage than Canada post even sells. Now that is something to be proud of.
Mike
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John, if the USPS were in step with its customers, do you think it would be $15 billion in debt? If a private business, it would have gone bankrupt and shut down a long time ago.
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Very seldom collect modern US (unless I get some legitimately used ones...), but I do use modern US commemoratives on outgoing mail. So, this year:
I liked:
-Civil War
-Earthscapes
-Constitution
Moderate like:
-Baseball stars (mostly because Larry Doby & Ted Williams were my heroes as a kid)
-Mercury
Could care less about:
-just about everything else, especially the Lady Bird Johnson, primarily because politics forced the issuance over the objections of the CSAC (see the Dec 10, 2012 Linn's).
Most of what we are using are favorites from 2011 that have been available from the stamp cave. Almost never get anything at the local po's--even if they get some it's such a small amount that getting a sheet there is unlikely.
I have a friend who occasionally gives me new US and I use them on outgoing mail. I bought sheets of the Doby & Williams baseball sheets (see above), a very unusual action. I am having far more fun with postal history.
Roger
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For USPS, philatellic sales are a small portion. And smaller because of past USPS actions on PNCs, plate blocks, gum, cave surcharges, availability. If you're going to issue stamps anyway ....and frivolously at that .... Why not do it in such a way that retention is highest? Of course, if all of us former new issue savers, PNC specialists, etc returned to the fold, it would barely dent the debt.
Much of USPS debt relates to legislative action on pensions, both prefunding levels and who is covered, but some is the change in the world, which, like melting polar ice caps, is irreversible in our life times.
David
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As a worldwide collector I do not make a special effort to grab each issue of US but just enjoy what comes my way in the mail. I do however, it seems opposed to popular opinion, like the new wave series. But for new issues I love the Scandinavian countries. Iceland especially. They seem to have some good looking work and not overdone with quantity.
I agree though that the postaly used US material is sadly rather dull for the most post. People don't seem to use the commemoratives as much :-(
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Hey Mike! Don't be marrying me off just yet!!! We've only been together a year this coming February. She adores the boys and they worship her. She's one of the people in charge of an amusement park in our area so they naturally think she's a goddess, ha ha. that being said though, I'm taking my time this round.
---Pat
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09:10:06am
Not only do people not bother to use commemorative, they hardly ever take pen or pencil to paper and write anything any longer.
So that, coupled with the general lack of availability of attractive stamps results in fewer stamps needed or used.
I will even admit that lately I have taken to having an open Wordpad page on the screen and jotting notes there as easily as I previously used a physical notepad.
My grand children are not being taught to write in script and as for printing letters uniformly and legibly, that is also becoming a lost art.
I feel as some of our ancestors must have when the youth of the twenties and thirties were more interested in learning how to use a clutch pedal than how to shoe a horse!
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Favorites were the baseball stars set of four (simply because I'm a big baseball guy in general--I had been waiting impatiently for those since they were announced, and wasn't disappointed) and the Earthscapes set (nice color, and appealing to my eyes).
I do want to just leave a thought about one of Pat's choices for issues he could have done without. He mentions the Purple Heart issue as another case of the USPS being a bit lazy. Perhaps that is so, and I do suppose I can see where he's coming from purely from a collector's standpoint, but because of the subject matter itself, and who that award is awarded to, I absolutely love the fact that the USPS has put out a few different Purple Heart issues. As far as I'm concerned, issue that one every year, and if I have an entire stockbook page of them, I'll have it at the very front of the book.
And just a note: That is in no way a way of me saying that Pat is wrong in his picks on his list--they are just his own preferences. I feel the need to say this because it seems to me that all too many collectors are pretentious enough to say someone's collecting habits are "wrong". Since folks here don't know me well, I don't want them thinking that I'm one of the arrogant ones--just wanted to give my own take on that particular beautiful stamp. Nevin
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Hey Nevin,
No offense taken. Everyone has their own tastes.
---Pat
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Wow, I've been away a bit. The collecting bug comes and goes, it's been away for a while. A new girlfriend also affected it a bit too I think. Anyway, besides the "$5 Waves Of Color" stamp, I've now acquired all of the U.S. stuff for the year and figured I'd finish a thread we started earlier on.
For those who haven't see all that was released this year, you can see them all at: http://stamps.org/US-New-Issues .
Ones I didn't like or could have done without:
* Wedding Cake (Why did they need to release it again?)
* Weather Vanes (Way to simplistic and plain.)
* Love Ribbons (Just look poorly done to me.)
* Four Flags (Yeesh. In retrospect, did I really want to get every type of these plain looking stamps?)
* Purple Heart (Yet another, "Hey we are lazy and are not coming up with a new design stamp.)
* Wave Of Color (I needed to spend the $18 + shipping to acquire these four stamps for my collection book, and I am really disappointed that for such high dollar stamps, you would think they they would have created something more exciting than swirls or waves of color. That coupled with the fact that I ordered them all together, they were released on the same date, but USPS.com decided to ship each one separately, and over a three day time frame. No wonder they are going broke.)
On the fence about:
* Checkerspot Butterfly (I don't know. There's something about the way it was drawn that just doesn't feel right. Like I'm looking at an illustration from a science text book.)
* Jose Ferrer (I thought there was a lot of wasted "white space" on this stamp. The picture should have been bigger.)
* Lady Bird Johnson (I was thrilled that they decided to honor her and tie this stamp with the 1960's stamps, however, re-releasing those stamps in a forever format just felt like a lazy approach to honoring her. It makes me think, are they going to do this with more and more stamps?)
My Favorite(s):
* Cherry Bloosoms Centennial (I was a fan of the Beautify America stamps from the 1960's. I also liked the US-Japs stamp from then as well. I ended up purchasing a special display for these that looks great next to my wall displays for the others.)
* The Civil War: 1862 and The War of 1812: USS Constitution (I'm grouping these together because I loved the historical information printed on the selvage around the sheet. They also looked good in my opinion.)
* Major League Baseball All-Stars (I thought that these were very well done. The color choices made them eye-catching.)
Bicycling (I really liked how each stamp flowed into the next to created a nice looking se-tenant.)
Honorable Mentions:
* Earthscapes (I liked the color and the scenes from these. I was proud that I recognized the roundhouse from Steamtown USA.)
* Sunshine Skyway Bridge (I really liked the way they had the sunrise/sunset accent the background of this stamp.)
Carmel Mission (As someone who likes architecture, this one very well done.)
So what were everyone else's favorites?
---Pat
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The past is a foreign country, they do things different there.
07 Dec 2012
08:09:15pm
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Patrick:
Thank you for your assessment of of the USA stamps issued in 2012. Thank goodness we don't all have the same tastes; how stultifyingly dull life would be.
I have a million favourite stamps and my list grows daily. My most favourite of favourite stamps in my USA album is SCN1324 because of its simplicity, seamless design, colour, layout and beautiful presentation - a small piece of paper that tells a big story and adds a new chapter every time I examine it.
John Derry
P.S According to the politically-correct crowd, "girlfriend" is sexist, "domestic partner" is not and begs the curious listener to ask for more.
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Politically correct, bah humbug. If she's a female friend, she's a girlfriend or even lady friend, possibly elevated to fiancee status buy now. Domestic partner sounds like a gay arrangement and we can be sure that is not the case here.
Patrick, keep up the good work, we have missed you here on SOR, but we all have our own lives to live and families should be the top most priority for each of us. If she likes the boys, you've got it made.
Mike
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
09 Dec 2012
08:25:13am
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
What Mike said.
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President - West Essex Philatelic Society www.wepsonline.org
09 Dec 2012
08:38:19am
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
I'm glad the Flags of Our Nation series is ending. To me it was one of the most disappointing issues and missed opportunity by the USPS. It was supposed to be the USPS response to the State Quarters, which revitalized Coin Collecting.
It's not that I don't like the design of the stamps but the format is horrendous. You can only purchase the stamps in coil rolls of 50. The strip of 10 does not fit in any standard album. They were not available at every post office, therefore you never see them used on mail (like every other commemorative). How can you get someone interested in collecting this issue if you can't see the stamps? You have to unravel the coil to be able to see all the designs. If it was in a sheet of 10 or 20, it would have been affordable and visually appealing.
I normally don't get on the USPS for their issues as I like most of them, even if obscure. But this one really missed the mark, especially because I had such high hopes when it was announced. I was hoping that it would be marketed to the non-collector like the State Quarters. I remember turning the channel and seeing State Quarters being sold on QVC. Never saw anything like that for this issue. I'll bet most of the public doesn't even know this issue exists.
Bob
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
09 Dec 2012
09:06:32am
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
The State and Territorial Flags had so much potential. I am still looking for a roll of the last set in one of several local post offices. I need a mint strip of ten to send to a fellow collector overseas who has a Flag Topical Album to complete his set.
I have managed to complete about 55 of the stamps in the set with nicely cancelled copies for my postally used set, but even that has been difficult, bordering on the impossible.
The last shipment of used stamps from one of my daughters who has the mail clerk set all stamped envelopes aside for her to send me, a bundle of probably 500, had only two or three of the last six flags used. And they were more than lightly cancelled.
This set had such great potential, as you pointed out, Bob, and seems to have become the gutter ball of USPS efforts.
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
I agree with both of you. The first and second group of ten are worthless, because of the tape used by USPS to seal the coil roll. There are only 5 sets of ten per roll, and you lose one to damage, if you split the set of ten into strips of five. Even then, it is very easy to damage the stamps in the middle, because they are attached to each other by the perfs and there isn't enough of the backing paper to keep the edges covered. Over time, those perfs will get stuck down and damaged if removed from their mounts or stock pages, etc.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
09 Dec 2012
12:50:09pm
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Fortunately being more interested in postally used the first stamp is, or was usaually able to carry an envelope as designed.
To prepare the strips of ten that I used to send off to some MNH collecting correspondents, I'd start somewhere and count off ten, remove one for local mail, count out the next ten and remove one again.
Most of the rest were used to pay bills or to send parcels off to my sons who were either in Germany, Iraq or the Persian Gulf. Eventually the used stamps made their way back to me for my album. Between those controlled mail" and the ones I got in the bundle from my daughter in Dallas I have managed to get the first fifty and a few of the last ten in nicely cancelled condition. Soon I hope to find the last few in a kilo lot that the local stamp dealer buys and sells for ten cents a stamp.
One other thing I have noticed as I have been removing the current US issues from paper is that the alcohol causes the modern jet-spray ink canceling ink to run very quickly. Now I just dip the stamp quickly into the solution and remove it to where I can separate the stamp from the paper and then rinse the stamp in a jar of clear fresh water.
I suppose that this ink is cheaper and its solubility is a part of their campaign to prevent revenue losses, but once again the USPS is doing what it can to ruin the hobby.
What would they care since the jet-spray cancellations are virtually anyway.
I did read somewhere that USPS has noticed a drop in the sale of commemoratives recently. I wonder if there is a connection between their policies and the amount being collected ?
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Limited distribution will cause even further declines in stamp sales. Not every collector wants to order through Kansas City.
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The past is a foreign country, they do things different there.
09 Dec 2012
02:45:20pm
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
I can understand the concerns of those who collect USA stamps. For a mundane reason, I closed out my USA stamp album with the last issue of American gummed stamps, never having mastered the knack of separating the self-adhesives from paper.
What I am unable to understand, based on Stamporama discussions, is the apparent insensitivity of the USPS to the needs of all its clientele, not just the stamp collector. Because of competitive forces in an open economy, "marketing" has become a highly-refined discipline and a surgical-steel-sharp business tool. From what I read in Stamporama discussions, the USPS hasn't fully appreciated this fact.
Canada Post is too small an operation to compare with the USPS but seems to understand the vital importance of marketing. Because of the incomprehensively massive indebtedness of the Canadian government, abetted by the conservatism of the political party long in power and likely to remain so, Crown corporations and QUANGOs (quasi non-governmental organizations that feed at the public trough, and of which Canada has thousands) such as Canada Post realize that survival is in their own hands, and that taxpayer bailouts in today's economic world are improbable, if not impossible.
Consequently, Canada Post has redesigned its image and is "marketing" itself at full throttle, trying to keep ahead of that ever-plodding, never-tiring, Grim Reaper. It is exploring and implementing virtually any revenue-generating ploy, even going so far as to selling mail services to new residential developments (pay for a mail-delivery box maybe somewhere near your new home, or collect it yourself at an inconveniently-located depot on the outskirts of the city where warehouse rent is cheap and street lighting non-existent).
Most Canada PO sites have been closed out as too expensive to maintain and the few survivors are usually heritage-protected. Franchise postal operations are now de rigueur and they have surfaced like mushrooms: post your letter and buy more of those beautiful stamps postage stamps at your local designer-coffee shop while spaced out on caffeine. It may sound insignificant, but the savings in flags and flag-pole maintenance alone is recorded in the financial statements!
Canada Post never had to advertise prior to the electronic era, now it's a major, front-line expense. The revenue generated by philatelic sales, however small, is essential to its survival ; our self-adhesive stamps soak off in water, unlike first issues at which stamp collectors rebelled. Our postage stamps and their packaging are intended to appeal to as wide a market as possible - even to the non-stamp collector or non-mail writer. They are designed to be "giftable" in their own right.
Historically, Canada Post has been a follower, not a trail-blazer. Is the USPS this badly out of step and falling further behind, or are US Stamporama members simply miffed and distorting a difficult picture?
John Derry
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
John,
I totally agree with most of what you wrote, even some of those Five dollar words that I had to look up in my Webster's. LOL, just kidding of course, about the Five dollar words. I do think that Canada post is doing a much better job of issuing stamps that collector's want to add to their collections, certainly much more than the crap the USPS seems to generate by the boxcar load, for us to buy. I wish that I could use Canadian stamps on my mail instead of this junk we have to offer. I am embarrassed, sometimes, when I send mail, especially to foreign countries with the mundane, boring as hell crap we have to choose from.
I know, that plenty are going to dispute what I just said, but that is MY opinion of what the USPS is doing to the collectors. I have a feeling, but no facts to back it up, that the USPS burns more unused postage than Canada post even sells. Now that is something to be proud of.
Mike
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
John, if the USPS were in step with its customers, do you think it would be $15 billion in debt? If a private business, it would have gone bankrupt and shut down a long time ago.
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Very seldom collect modern US (unless I get some legitimately used ones...), but I do use modern US commemoratives on outgoing mail. So, this year:
I liked:
-Civil War
-Earthscapes
-Constitution
Moderate like:
-Baseball stars (mostly because Larry Doby & Ted Williams were my heroes as a kid)
-Mercury
Could care less about:
-just about everything else, especially the Lady Bird Johnson, primarily because politics forced the issuance over the objections of the CSAC (see the Dec 10, 2012 Linn's).
Most of what we are using are favorites from 2011 that have been available from the stamp cave. Almost never get anything at the local po's--even if they get some it's such a small amount that getting a sheet there is unlikely.
I have a friend who occasionally gives me new US and I use them on outgoing mail. I bought sheets of the Doby & Williams baseball sheets (see above), a very unusual action. I am having far more fun with postal history.
Roger
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
For USPS, philatellic sales are a small portion. And smaller because of past USPS actions on PNCs, plate blocks, gum, cave surcharges, availability. If you're going to issue stamps anyway ....and frivolously at that .... Why not do it in such a way that retention is highest? Of course, if all of us former new issue savers, PNC specialists, etc returned to the fold, it would barely dent the debt.
Much of USPS debt relates to legislative action on pensions, both prefunding levels and who is covered, but some is the change in the world, which, like melting polar ice caps, is irreversible in our life times.
David
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08:50:00am
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
As a worldwide collector I do not make a special effort to grab each issue of US but just enjoy what comes my way in the mail. I do however, it seems opposed to popular opinion, like the new wave series. But for new issues I love the Scandinavian countries. Iceland especially. They seem to have some good looking work and not overdone with quantity.
I agree though that the postaly used US material is sadly rather dull for the most post. People don't seem to use the commemoratives as much :-(
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Hey Mike! Don't be marrying me off just yet!!! We've only been together a year this coming February. She adores the boys and they worship her. She's one of the people in charge of an amusement park in our area so they naturally think she's a goddess, ha ha. that being said though, I'm taking my time this round.
---Pat
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
10 Dec 2012
09:10:06am
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Not only do people not bother to use commemorative, they hardly ever take pen or pencil to paper and write anything any longer.
So that, coupled with the general lack of availability of attractive stamps results in fewer stamps needed or used.
I will even admit that lately I have taken to having an open Wordpad page on the screen and jotting notes there as easily as I previously used a physical notepad.
My grand children are not being taught to write in script and as for printing letters uniformly and legibly, that is also becoming a lost art.
I feel as some of our ancestors must have when the youth of the twenties and thirties were more interested in learning how to use a clutch pedal than how to shoe a horse!
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11:19:19am
re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Favorites were the baseball stars set of four (simply because I'm a big baseball guy in general--I had been waiting impatiently for those since they were announced, and wasn't disappointed) and the Earthscapes set (nice color, and appealing to my eyes).
I do want to just leave a thought about one of Pat's choices for issues he could have done without. He mentions the Purple Heart issue as another case of the USPS being a bit lazy. Perhaps that is so, and I do suppose I can see where he's coming from purely from a collector's standpoint, but because of the subject matter itself, and who that award is awarded to, I absolutely love the fact that the USPS has put out a few different Purple Heart issues. As far as I'm concerned, issue that one every year, and if I have an entire stockbook page of them, I'll have it at the very front of the book.
And just a note: That is in no way a way of me saying that Pat is wrong in his picks on his list--they are just his own preferences. I feel the need to say this because it seems to me that all too many collectors are pretentious enough to say someone's collecting habits are "wrong". Since folks here don't know me well, I don't want them thinking that I'm one of the arrogant ones--just wanted to give my own take on that particular beautiful stamp. Nevin
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re: 2012 U.S. Stamps In Review
Hey Nevin,
No offense taken. Everyone has their own tastes.
---Pat
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