The Busiest Day Of The Year In US New Issues

Is it just me, or does it seem quite counter-productive that the USPS takes great pride in announcing all of these new issues in social media and on websites, yet they can't make them available to the general public on the day of issue?

Issued today (January 20, 2012) were:

65c Dogs at Work (Block of 4)
65c Wedding Cake (reprint)
65c Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly
85c Birds of Prey (5 different designs)
$1.05 Lancaster County, PA

...and no post office in my area had any of them. (One reportedly has ordered them, but none have arrived yet.)

Of course, none of these post offices had the 29c Aloha Shirts stamps or 85c Glacier National Park stamps either (that were both issued on January 19th).

I finally had to resort to buying them all through USPS SFS ... and I understand this is the last weekend to get them with only a $1 shipping charge, as of next week the shipping charge increases to $1.25 (under $50) or $1.75 (over $50) for each order.

At least buying these stamps through SFS allowed me to order a few extra pieces I wouldn't ordinarily get at my local post office, including such items as a strip of the new 45c Weathervane stamps and the Bonsai Booklet Stamps (to be issued Monday, January 23rd) and the new postal stationery items, as those, too, are not expected to arrive at local post offices until they place a special order for them.

wt1, same response from my post office. They indicated that all was on order, but the only new one on hand was the New Mexico commemorative. Pretty sad!

I commend you on your perseverance in keeping heart and continuing the search with the Stamp Fulfillment Center and even then (I had read of you doing in previous threads I believe) of being patient and knowledgeable of the way they work there and allowing them to find stock numbers for some they did not eve have numbers for yet.

The one time I dealt with them I had good luck and just clicked on shown items on a web site, did it all online.

I checked my local post office today and he said the same thing, "on order". Usually my local post office has all the recent issues and he's even shown them to me a week before they are issued with some stamps, but the main distribution centers are just really late this time around. He doesn't have a meter machine so he's going to be needing these stamps sooner than later.

Thanks for the updates. At least it's good to know that I'm not the only one that has experienced local post offices not having the stamps for the new rates.

I am given to understand that distribution around the nation is delayed, so SFS is the best place to get them if you want them earlier rather than later. In fact, the only way I was able to get some of these stamps from SFS is to recite catalog numbers off the on-line edition of USA Philatelic, as the USPS web site provides no order numbers for several of these new issues (not yet anyway).

I assume the other January 2012 "commemorative" issues that are about to come out for John H. Johnson and Year of the Dragon will be available at local post offices because they are "automatic distribution" items.

The Bonsai stamps may be another story, as I understand they are NOT automatically being distributed to post offices, but must be manually ordered. I guess it has to do with the fact that the Bonsai stamps are in booklet form and (in theory anyway) post offices are encouraged to use up their existing supply of booklet stamps before ordering new stock.

Does anyone else find it strange that there are still no "first day of issue" announcements for the Priority Mail and Express Mail stamps, even though the rate will have taken place before the stamps go on sale? I can't understand that one, unless there is a delay in the printing of them.

Which lends itself to ask another question: If there is such a delay and such urgency to get stamps into circulation because of this rate increase, will they (the printers and/or USPS) possibly overlook some of the QC checks that stamps typically undergo? In other words, will we collectors find some collectible varieties because of the haste that is being taken to get these stamps into circulation? It will certainly be interesting to find out.

wt is there any reason to be in a big hurry to get the the new issues? I mean there are 11 months left in the year or is it a matter of principle? As long as they have the New Mexico stamp's to cover the rate increase. I don't see a problem. I bought the New Mexico sheets two weeks ago. A week before the rate increase. As far as timing goes. That's the Post Office, Our Govt and bureaucracy all in normal mode.

This is exactly the type of thing I try to avoid by stopping my collection at 1976-ish. I just don't think I could keep up with all these new SA stamps- monetarily at least. I still pick up the panes here and there but usually just stick to pre-70's stuff. Does the new stuff present nice in the album? How do you mount these?

The New Mexico stamps like all the other Forever stamps only cover the 1st class rate. The other new, but missing stamps cover the other rate increases - the 2oz. domestic rate, 1oz. rate to Canada and 1oz. rate overseas.

I checked with the local post office today and was able to get the 65 cent Working Dogs, 85 cent Birds of Prey, 32 cent Aloha Shirts and Forever Bonsai Trees. Postmaster said he got them two days ago. The only ones he didn't get were the new 65 cent Butterfly stamps.

I went to the Post Office on 01/23/2012 and got the first day of release of the Lunar New Year (Year of Dragon) Stamps. I asked about the others and was able to get the 65c Butterfly, the 32c Aloha Shirts and the 85c Birds of Prey. Didn't have the 65c Dogs at Work or $1.05 Lancaster County, PA stamps in yet (on backorder). Also on backorder were 1c stamps.

I didn't bother to ask about the Bonsai Booklets, as I ordered one from SFS, along with the 45c Weathervane Coils, so that will complete the releases to date (for me anyway).

I do find it interesting that the new Priority Mail and Express Mail stamps have not been scheduled for release yet even though the new rates have already taken effect. Isn't that highly unusual? If one were to insist on using stamps for such parcels, you'd have to use odd low value stamps to come up with the right amount.

I suspect the printers haven't yet provided inventory to the USPS which may be accounting for the delay. I suppose (rightly so) the USPS figures that the printer's priority should be for the 29c, 65c and 85c stamps, which will have far higher demand than those for the Priority Mail and Express Mail rates.

I picked up a Year of the Dragon sheet too. He showed me the $1.05 stamps. I'll get those when I have some large amounts of shipments. I didn't know about the 45 cent Weather Vanes. I'll have to check into those.

45c Weathervanes are only available in 3K and 10K coils for high volume mailers. It is unlikley local post offices would have them, and even more unlikely the average consumer would want to buy that many stamps.

But if you order from USPS SFS, you can get strips of 25 (with plate no.) intended for collectors use.

Here's a link to the designs:

http://www.beyondtheperf.com/stamp-...eather-vanes

Well guess I doubt I'll see those as I barely even get a stamp on junk mail these days. I hope to get at least the Spectrum Eagles Presorted in the mail off some sort of charity scam. I haven't ordered from the cave in a decade plus or so.