January 2012 US Stamp Issues

As of this date, the following is suggested to be the January 2012 list of US Stamps and Postal Stationery Items scheduled for issue, with most items not yet having announced a specific day of issue:

(LIST UPDATED: SEE LATER POST)

Does anyone else find it interesting that there are 19 face-different stamps being issued in January 2012 and to purchase only one example of each face different stamp, you'd have to pay out $26.50?

I know several issues directly relate to the postal rate increase, but even still, the Priority and Express Mail rates are not changing, yet high value stamps for each of these services are also being issued.

It's going to be a real budget breaker for some collectors.

It is for that reason that I stopped buying 2011 issues about halfway through the year. I tried to get each new issue in 2010 as they came out and know that I spent a considerable amount of money.

I talked with the postmaster yesterday when I bought two booklets of the Christmas stamps to use on Christmas cards. She asked where I had been, and I told her the truth about the costs. Haven't there been over 100 different US stamps up to now for this year? Who can keep up and who wants to plunk out that amount of money for modern issues?

Disregard the previous posted list. It has already gone up with the change in shipping rates for Express Mail ($18.95) and Priority Mail ($5.15) and now I see where a new Butterfly stamp may be issued for the 2nd Ounce Domestic Rate increase ($0.65), so the new total for January 2012 is $32.90 ... and that's for only one face different stamp! When you start adding in blocks or sheetlets, the cost can go far beyond that very quickly: