Year Of The Dragon Stamps - First Day Of Issue 01/23/2012

Has anyone picked up the Year of the Dragon Stamp st the post office today? I picked them up at a post office (on the first day of issue) but it took a visit to three different post offices to find one who had them available:



Here's a close up of the stamp. As it is considered by the USPS to be a "souvenir sheet" of 12 stamps, no plate numbers appear on the sheet whatsoever, and the USPS cannot sell individuals stamps from the sheet, but that the entire souvenir sheet must be purchased:



Also provided is a copy of the text that appears on the reverse side of the souvenir sheet:

It's a very pretty pane, but...

I complained about this at another place. It's silly for USPS to issue Chinese New Year stamps AFTER the new year has already begun. I could have used these for my mailing of 300+ last week.

To put this into perspective, it's like issuing Christmas stamps on Christmas Day.

USPS issues Christmas stamps 2 months early. Why can't they issue Chinese New Year stamps 1-3 weeks early? They would probably get a lot more sales. I know they lost out on sales of at least 300 stamps from me.

I guess in the "eyes" of the USPS, since the event extends to February 9, 2013, they have issued it within the celebration year and that's all that matters.

I understand your frustration, though. The same thing happens every year when the new Love stamp gets issued on February 14th. If the USPS had been smart, they would have issued it a few days or weeks earlier so the stamps could be put into use by the general public in advance of Valentine's Day.

Are people collecting the individual stamp or the full sheet?

The USPS "hopes" that collectors will collect the full sheet (more profit for them). In that you cannot buy individual stamps from the "souvenir sheet", it would take a collector (such as myself) to take one or two for my stamp album and first day covers, and use the remainders for postage.

As has been the case for the past Lunar New Year stamps, the Scott Catalog provides listings for mint stamps, used stamps and a sheetlet of 12.

In answer to apastuszak's question, I think most of us feel "lashed" to however the producers of our particular album elects to handle it. In my case, it's Mystic's American Heirloom. Since 2008, Mystic has wisely elected to provide a space for one single Lunar New Year stamp. They haven't always been as wise as this - for examples, the Legends of Hollywood, and the Centennial Olympic Games (#3087), but in the case of the Lunar New Year I like what they did. Generally speaking I refuse to purchase a sheet of 20 identical stamps preferring instead to leave an entire page of the Cary Grant sheet empty or make my own modified pages.

I agree with you on just how wasteful it is to purchase a sheetlet of the stamp just to fill an album page. In the case of the Lunar New Year Stamps, though, the USPS has issued them in a reduced format of a "souvenir sheet" of 12 and not 20. Still wasteful to have to purchase all of those duplicate stamps in the first place, but it's not quite as bad as the 20 stamp format that most commemoratives now come in.

Even for the Mystic Album that only requires one stamp, as a consumer you still must purchase the sheetlet of 20 to get that one stamp. Of course, the remainders can always be used as postage no matter how long it takes (as they are "Forever" stamps).

The USPS calls the Lunar New Year stamps a Souvenir Sheet, but most album makers seem to disagree, and only include the one stamp. It's not a full sheet of 20, but only 12.

My personal opinion is, if there is selvege art AND selvege text, then I prefer to collect the whole sheet, such as the Legends of Hollywood and Merchant Marine stamps.

The Lunar New year stamps are kind of an in-between for me, because they have more art than just a header, but don't have any descriptive text on the front worth saving.

I am so OVER the whole lunar new year series. I wish the US (and Canada) would just STOP and move to a new topic.

I know some of them are attractive. I don't collect the current stuff, but last year, I was dying to get my hands on Canada's Tigers.

I mean no disrespect to Chinese New Year as a holiday. I just think there are so many other subjects and topics that should be on stamps.

Kirk

UPDATE: I've been re-reading the thread including my own post. I apologize for being a killjoy. The stamps are nice and I didn't mean to hijack the thread with my carping.

Nice stamps.

Is that a map in the background on the sheet? Looks like an old map where they would draw islands in whatever shape they thought best as they hadn't seen them first hand.

My "unofficial" first day cancel and homemade cachet. Unfortunately, I can't help the quality of the poor spray on cancel:

Mr WT1, you make good FDCs!


As a FDC note, this Canada FDOI piece sold on ebay for $1.50 so someone out there thinks collecting actual first day cancels or covers is the proper thing to do. (and I agree it makes a nice addition to any collection.)

the 2012 lunar year of the dragon 12 pc per sheet should command a good premium in the future. the dragon is much popular than the other 11. only two weeks left before u.s.p.s. stop selling this stamp. today I will buy some more for collection.

The dragon is a really nice looking stamp. I bought a sheet and kept one stamp and used the others for postage. Tempted to buy a sheet and just keep it as a sheet, since I like the selvage.

If any nation has the right to issue Year of the Dragon stamps, it would be China.

I just returned from a trip there, and "Post Office" fresh, here are their Dragon stamps..



Sheet of Dragon stamps



Close-up of Dragon stamp

Nice!

as a collector, can this usps year of the dragon go up in the future?. how much are they selling china year of the dragon sheet?.