2012 US Stamp - Bonsai

Just got mine at the post office today.

Here is what the booklet looks like:



What do people think is the best way to collect them? As pictured by the USPS or a vertical strip of 5?

The big issue I see here is that a block of 4 is connected, as a proper se-tenant, but the fifth stamp is in another block, so technically it's not connected, like the USPS illustration shows.

They can't make it easy on collectors. can they??

You'd have to collect either a strip of 5 or a block of at least 6 stamps (if you want all five of the designs). I would venture to guess that most collectors would probably prefer a block of 10, as it will show each stamp twice in that format.

If you're anticipating mounting the stamps into an album, I'd venture to guess that a strip of 5 stamps will be the preferred format. However, many collectors may just hold onto a block of 10 of the stamps until it is confirmed with whatever album manufacturer they use.

Block of 10 is a good idea. I want to use up the ones I won't need. That gives me 10 to work with.

Considering Mystic's track record with their 2011 supplement, they're probably going to want you to mount them individually, rather than connected.

I think I'll collect either the book of 12 or a strip of 5 or possibly just 5 singles.

Why not just keep both? At least for a year until Mystic decides how they are going to place them in the album. They are Forever Stamps. Aren't they? So they won't spoil.

Would it kill them to make it a little easier on collectors?

No, it wouldn't "kill" them (the USPS) but it wouldn't be profitable for them either. In case you hadn't noticed, the new sequence of five stamps are happening for several different issues, including the Aloha Shirts, the 45c Weathervanes, the Bonsai Booklet, the Spectrum Presort First Class Eagles, etc. The USPS is hoping that new issue collectors will purchase and "save" more stamps that way (i.e. free revenue for the USPS if they can sell stamps to collectors and not deliver any mail as a result of those purchases.)

Have you also noticed that the USPS is issuing several of these new definitive stamps in both sheet and coil format, but we collectors cannot acquire the coils in quantities less than 100 (even from SFS)? The Aloha Shirts are available in both formats; as are last year's Herbs and George Washington definitives.

It's eventually going to come back to haunt them (the USPS) as it did with the plate number strips of the 1970's that resulted in many collectors abandoning that collecting discipline.

The one that really "chaps my hide" is USPS issuing six different 65 cent stamps - one butterfly, the wedding cake, and four working dogs. I like the working dog stamps, but I would have liked them just as much as a "Forever" issue, and the world wouldn't really have suffered in the absence of one butterfly stamp.

The "world" may not have suffered without a butterfly stamp, but Hallmark and American Greetings would have. I believe there is an intentional "butterfly" logo on oversized greeting card envelopes now so as to point consumers in the direction that the oversized cards requires the surcharged postage ... in this case, 65 cents. So the butterfly stamp does have a use in the greeting card industry.

[edit] I knew I recalled reading somewhere about that Butterfly Stamp and how it related to the greeting card industry. Just found the link:

http://www.greetingcard.org/Aboutth...Default.aspx