2011 "Forever" Commemorative First Day Covers

I don't know how many bother much with this anymore, but just received the FDOI cancels on these new "Forever" stamps which I serviced myself and sent in to the respective first day cities for cancellation:





I haven't done much of this lately, so I was surprised to find out that each individual cover made it back to me with an oversized cardboard backing and in a nice cellophane wrapper (to avoid other postal markings) with the mark "If undeliverable, return to Stamp Fulfillment Services, Kansas City, MO."

While I have no complaints with the end result of these covers, it occurs to me that with the financial problems the USPS is facing, along with threats of closing thousands of post offices around the country because of financial losses, this must be quite a costly procedure to go through for all of the tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of these cancels that get processed for every new stamp.

Does anyone find it interesting that the USPS goes through all of the effort and expense of printing the cellophane wrappers and enclosing a heavy cardboard backing for each and every cover at no additional cost to the consumer? While it may be a nice touch, it seems a bit hypocritcal on the part of the USPS, particularly when they are constantly in the news complaining about the great financial losses they are encountering and then on the other hand they are highlighting how they are "going green" in terms of using less paper and more recyclable materials.

Doesn't it seem as though this procedure is actually creating more waste to the environment?

Another question on Post Office thinking (intentional loose-use of the word 'thinking') is why does Canada Post, and probably USPS, send out their mail using metered postage while encouraging people to collect stamps?

wt1 maybe you could explain how to go about getting this done from the Stamp Fulfillment Office since some of us (ahem, me) may feel it is too daunting a task to undertake. Is it easier than I imagine?

It's easy. Here are the instructions quoted right from the USPS News Release for the Reagan stamp:




The key is to find a good local post office that carries the new issues as they come out. Then you have 60 days after-the-fact to process the request for the cancellation. I find you can usually submit three or four covers in one #10 envelope for the cost of a 44-cent (Forever) stamp. The rest is in the hands of the USPS to process for you.

Just be aware that in the examples shown above, I sent these the day after the stamps were issued and just received the FDOI cancels on March 3rd, so it can take 4-6 weeks to get them serviced and returned.

After the serviced covers come back to me (and when I feel like I'm in a creative mood) I actually look for some graphics on the internet and make my own "cachet" to perk up the otherwise plain looking covers...or you can always buy the professionally done ones, but the cost is usually prohibitive considering the end "value" of these modern covers is usually only pennies on the dollar.

so you buy a stamp AFTER the first day of issue, then send it in to get a FDI mark?

What's the point? It really isn't a FDC as it WASN'T issued on the first day.
We used to set it up and have friends got to the PO of issue and have them stamp a bunch of them, then he would send them out to us. You get enough people in the club and it makes it worth while.

I have never sent away for an FDC before. I should do that just for fun at some point.

This typically generates a whole lot of discussion with collectors and is quite likely the reason why a number of collectors have disregarded collecting these covers in recent years.

I remember in the "old days" (20+ years ago) one would send in a remittance (by either check, money order or cash) to the USPS at the first day of issue city BEFORE the date of issue and they would, in turn, affix the stamp with FDOI postmark and return it.

As a practical matter, though, the processing of these small remittances for only a few cents became very burdensome and costly to process for the tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of these postmarked covers, and the theory is that few get processed on the precise day of issue anyway, so the thought was to let the consumer take on the responsibility of acquiring the stamps for themselves and send them in after-the-fact for cancellation, which takes much of the burden off of the USPS to handle.

With the current USPS policy that most all stamps are issued nationwide on the actual "first day of issue", if I go to my local post office on the date the stamp gets issued and place one on an envelope and drop it in the mailbox, the "unofficial" local cancel on that piece is actually more of a true "First Day of Issue" cancel than the one from the designated first day of issue city.

This doesn't involve just FDOI cancels, though. If you read the bulletins on special postmarks available for any number of local events across the country, these postmarks are also typically offered for 30 or 60 days after an event.

Canada Post works the same way with 30-60 days to send in your cover(s) to the Philatelic Centre and ask for and possibly pay for (I haven't done it myself yet) the stamp and cancel.

As the FDOI cancels in Canada are now directly related to the stamps (a tiger stamp has a tiger cancel) (yes really and truly we had tigers in Canada. The beavers ate all the grass and trees so the tigers had no where to hide when stalking game (the beavers) so starved or moved to India).

This makes for good marketing and sales as you get a more totally fulfilled tiger experience by having not only the stamp but a special tiger-related cancel and possibly an official FDC with more tigers on it.

The skill and craftsmanship of actually making a first day of issue cover has been laid aside to sell more and more efficiently and cost effectively (craftsmanship costs).

The marketing pushes the idea of a greater fulfillment (thus the name of your stamp center) to be had by having as many tigers as you can handle. More is better rather than the appreciation of individual craftsman's skills (some being better than others of course).

Everybody wants a tiger? Well we will give everybody some tigers then. There's gold in them there hills.

The appreciation of skill or even artistry by a master class craftsman is sadly lacking. Still to be had, rare and hard to find, but worth the effort.

If you hear and see marketing long enough and constantly enough you will start to believe it. people copy what other people are doing, or at least come over for a look see. natural human behavior.

It is up to the individual at all times to make the choice for themselves to choose whether appreciation of a personally owned piece of art or craftsmanship is worth it or whether a mass produced piece is good enough. Both are good in different ways.

What wt1 is doing is taking the mass produced cancels and adding the personalization of his own cover to the mix. I like doing this also but have personal problems with my printer and it's attitude about holding envelopes straight when printing on them. Still working that out.