An Open Letter To The US Post Service

Dear USPS,

The buying habits of the public have changed. A lot of consumer stamp purchases now happen in ATM machines, vending machines and grocery stores. Because of that, the market for commemorative stamps has dwindled down to just collectors at the point. That being said, I humbly request the following:

1. Please stop issuing sheets that are bigger than an US Letter size sheet of paper. Collectors wants to get setenants together, and preferably in the same binder. The fact that the Greeting from America sheets sit in a separate book in my collection annoys me.

2. Knock it off with the 2 sided crap. Really. Do you know how annoying it is to fit a TWO SIDED sheet into a stamp album? And, NO, I am not buying two of them, so I can see both sides when I mount it to a piece of paper.

3. Keep the definitives self-adhesive. Make the commemoratives gummed. All these commemoratives are bought by collectors, and the majority of collectors want gummed and perforated stamps. Make 'em happy.

4. Larger quantities and less stamps per year. You are in a budget crisis (caused by government robbery and email, I understand that), so why not cut the number of stamps you make in half, but double the quantity of each stamp, so there still enough around to fill the need.

On the plus side, thanks for getting my mail to me on time every day, and thanks for being rated the best post office in the world.

Kind Regards,

A Collector and a Customer.

I suppose many stamp collectors may agree with your sentiments, but as to point #4, "larger quantities and less stamps per year" would be counter-productive.

The USPS wants to issue more stamps per year, because there is a high profit margin in doing so. Collectors seek to obtain every new stamp and every variety of every new stamp that gets issued. It's clear profit for the USPS, so they are unlikely to change it.

Larger quantities are not the answer. Stamps are issued in tens of millions, hundreds of millions or, in a few cases, billions of stamps. Way, way too many for the US population. If they cut production and issued stamps with smaller print quantities, it could result in more collector demand, as the stamps should (in theory anyway) appreciate a bit in value, not like the modern stamps issued today that are barely worth face value. Furthermore, this would be a boom to the USPS "Go Green" initiatives. If the USPS issues less quantities of stamps, they don't have to recall and destroy all of the unsold inventory that commonly occurs today.

All of this leads me to a question I've often pondered but never quite got a clear answer to: If the USPS announces a new issue of say 30 million stamps, but only sells 20 million and the final 10 million are recalled and destroyed after a year or so on sale, do we collectors have anyway to know what is the "real" production figures of that stamp? In other words, is there a way a consumer or collector can know how many stamps are actually on the market for a given issue as in:

[# stamps printed] minus [# stamps destroyed as unsold] equals [number of stamps actually on the market and available to collectors]

I'm sure the USPS keeps careful tabs on that inventory, but I don't know if the data is available to the general public. Maybe the USPS doesn't want us to know of the "waste" in this part of USPS operations, but it seems to me it would be valuable information for the average stamp collector to have.

Dear "A Collector and a Customer",

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Rest assured that USPS carefully reads and takes into consideration every correspondence received, just as if we were delivering your mail.



Our extensive research has also observed the same phenomena. As a result, we began closing down many under-utilitized post offices to save money. But because of public outcry over the closure of favorite local post offices, we revised our approach and now keep all post offices open. However, we have cut down on post office hours so you can take a break from your job. We have also cut down the number of on-hand window clerks; but don't worry about the wait -- remember you will be spending the time enjoying your favorite local post office!


Our extensive market research has also revealed this. We completely understand and have worked rapidly to incorporate your suggestion into the 2012 Stamp Program. We will re-issue all the older 50 stamp setenants into ATM subset booklets of 10, making them into 45c stamps for the sake of tradition. In addition, we will implement a novel "setenant rotation" in which exactly one stamp will be duplicated in each booklet of 10. To get the missing 10th stamp, you will have a thrilling time buying more booklets to see if you can collect the entire subset of 10; and, do the same for the remaining 4 subsets of 10. It will be like playing the lottery! What fun!


Agreed! No need for extensive market research. I, too, find that personally annoying. So all those two-sided booklets, we will combine them all into a giant over-sized sheet of 50 setenant stamps. You will have great fun showcasing your oversized sheet in your collection!


Our extensive market research shows that the general public doesn't know what's good for them. But we do want to make everybody happy. So from now on, all stamps will be issued in both self-adhesive and water-activated gum formats. We will also introduce a new 3rd format -- water-activated self-adhesive stamps! Just add water, and the stamp becomes self-adhesive!


Understood. You want us to double the number of issues each year, but cut the number we print by half. Will do!


U R 2 kind! We work hard to make sure every piece of advertisement and every bill gets to you on time, every day.

We encourage the public support USPS by maximizing the use of traditional mail delivery! Thank you!

Taking mail delivery into the 21st Century!
Your USPS!!

Don T. Care
Public Relations Specialist

Electronic Mail sent at 1634 EST on Jan 22, 2012. USPS goes green by maximizing use of non-traditional mail delivery systems!

I don't, I stopped collecting new U.S. stamps specifically because of the number they produce. They're making absolutely no money off of me at all and so long as they produce more than 100 designs per year, I'm never going to collect new stamps again.

Dear "Edited by wt1 - Today 1 Hr 14 Min ago",

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Rest assured that USPS carefully reads and takes into consideration every correspondence received, just as if we were delivering your mail.




Yes, this information is available. File under the Freedom of Information Act. File in triplicate. Send 3 copies of each triplicate by registered mail to each of the following: GAO, USPS Washington DC, USPS post office for your zip code, and BEP. In addition, send 3 copies of the triplicate by registered mail to yourself, to convince yourself that you submitted the necessary paperwork. Also, put one unopened can of Dr. Pepper in your mailbox each day until you receive the information.

By the way, I noticed in our records that we actually mailed you this information in 2009. Didn't you receive it? Did you forget to put the Dr. Pepper in your mailbox daily? That is a common mistake.

We encourage the public support USPS by maximizing the use of traditional mail delivery! Thank you!

Taking mail delivery into the 21st Century!
Your USPS!

Don T. Care
Public Relations Specialist

Electronic Mail sent at 1646 EST on Jan 22, 2012. USPS goes green by maximizing use of non-traditional mail delivery systems!

I don't agree with making less new issues of stamps. Maybe as far as varieties of the same design, but I like them to do a lot of different commemoratives, so there will be at least some I'm interested in. Maybe they could get rid of definitives, and only do commemoratives. Most people don't care what stamps they buy to use for mailing, so I'm sure they won't mind if they get a nice one, instead of a flag or liberty bell. Who knows, maybe when they realize that stamps aren't that boring, they might start collecting themselves!
As far as two sided sheets, I keep them in clear pages, so that I can see both sides. I wouldn't mind if they did away with that though, so I wouldn't need so many pages.
I agree 100% with the water activated commemoratives. Don't they realize that collectors are the only ones keeping them in business? they should make it easier for us to collect, especially because we need to actually mail envelopes to get the stamps cancelled.

ConnieR, your novise status is alive and well.. Put yourself into the shoes of collectors that do buy every issue mint...singles or Blk's of 4.

For YEARS collectors around the world have asked for less new issues from their Postal Authority

A solution to print more issues for Connie - overprint 'SPECIMEN' on every value of new stamp destined strictly for the genuine collectors who have 'standing philatelic orders' - at genuine printing and handling costs or approx'10% of face value.