Something For The USPS To Chew On

Rather than continuing this self-destructive path of issuing uncut press sheets without die cuts, which is something collectors DON'T want, why not give them something they DO want.

What if every 2013 stamp was issued as both a die-cut self-adhesive and a water-activated gummed stamp with perforations?

The USPS issued 2500 sheets of the baseball player se-tenants at $54.00 each. That's $135,000 they made. I think they would make a hell of a lot more money off individual gummed and perforated stamps than they would off limited run press sheets.

Thoughts? Opinions?

If they want to be in the business of making stamps for collectors, they should make products that their market wants to buy. I personally prefer engraved stamps with water-activated gum or (a real shocker here) NGAI (issued ungummed to begin with). Why mess with gum at all? We know that gum will damage stamps in the long run.

Versions of the stamps can also be issued with gum or pressure-sensitive adhesive for public use.

I'd venture to guess the problem is with third party printers that are all geared up (with long-term USPS contracts) for the self stick product.

It would be an entirely new game (at added expense) to go back to the gummed paper stamps and I'd go further to suggest that back in the time when gummed stamps were commonplace, the plastics or whatever that they use in today's self-stick stamps weren't in place. It's much easier for the printers to eliminate die cuts or create press sheets on existing self adhesive stock, as it doesn't change the printing of the issue whether they are cut for consumer use or for philatelic use.

Actually, the marketing of US stamps for philatelic use leaves a lot to be desired. I could see a big market right now if the USPS would take 10 of the face-different stamps from each of the Flags of our Nation coils and put them in a collector pack, so one can get all 60 face different stamps without having to buy 300 stamps to do it (i.e. 6 rolls of 50 stamps each). That would be a money maker right there, but the USPS is either too dumb or too indifferent to collectors needs to realize that there are some collectors that can't afford to buy 6 coil rolls of these stamps just to get a complete set and be stuck with 240 extra stamps they neither want, need, nor can afford.

If you really want to make your feelings known to the USPS, there's an "Ask Steve Kearney" e-mail site that is in the latest issue of Beyond the Perf where you can make your own suggestions. The link is below:

http://www.beyondtheperf.com/conten...teve-kearney

It probably won't get you anywhere, but if you want to make a suggestion that would be the place to do it.

I think eliminating gum would definitely help towards printing now. Look at the press sheets. Mthose things are NEVER going to get stuck to an envelope. Why make it adhesive at all.

Wt1, I love your collectors pack idea. Mind if I include it in my correspondence?

Feel free to include the collector pack idea if you want, but the USPS has had a tradition that any coils of 100 or less must be bought as full rolls or not at all -- I doubt anyone's going to change the USPS mindset on that.

The USPS could, however, use a stamp folio idea for the FOON stamps, that is a booklet with mounts where one could display all 60 face different FOON coils -- and even if it were a few dollars extra, it would still be less of a financial outlay than to purchase all 6 coils of 50 stamps each.

The other thing I think the USPS should provide is a "mail use" packet of one example of each stamp issued in a calendar year. Right now you can get one for last year only; nothing earlier. It would be a lot cheaper for those who desire to collect just one example of every stamp to buy their stamps that way than to have to buy a pane or a coil roll or a booklet of every issue, just to get a set of face different stamps to fill up a collection. In years gone by, the USPS offered year sets in their own little booklet, but that idea fell by the wayside in deference to those expensive bound books that cost $50 or $60+ -- which most people don't want or cannot afford -- as the majority of collectors simply take the stamps out of those books and the books are found at Goodwill or Salvation Army Thrift Stores with the stamps removed, of course.

I will say that I have already responded to the "Ask Steve Kearney" link suggesting that the USPS needs to be more up-to-date in providing a single definitive source for the latest information on new stamp issues. Right now, there is no mention in Beyond the Perf about the upcoming high value stamps, the Lady Bird Johnson stamps, or the ATM pane of 18 of the Flag Stamps, even though they have been announced through other means. There needs to be one primary source that a collector can rely upon with the latest and most up-to-date new issue information. Right now it seems the only way to get accurate information is by constantly going back and forth through a variety of sources (i.e online philatelic web sites, Linn's Stamp News, Beyond the Perf, the Postal Bulletin, etc.) and that's a waste of time when it could easily be compiled all in one place.

Finally, I should mention that discussion on other websites have suggested that for 2013 the US Stamp Program will only be announced 90 days prior to the release of new stamps. In other words, we stamp collectors won't get word of all of the 2013 new stamp issues all at once, but only once every Quarter. Only those with "need to know" credentials (i.e. dealers, etc., who sign a confidentiality agreement) can get information about the entire 2013 stamp program. In my opinion that's discriminatory against the private collector and is once again proof of how disassociated the USPS really is with the needs of the individual collector.

Sorry for the lengthy response.

As a visual learner, I was gobsmacked just a short time ago with a picture that was posted of what amounted to a room full of the Flags of Our Nation stamps that weren't sold. I think it was wt1 that posted it and the thread dealt with the money wasted printing stamps that never sell. I thought about the fact that USPS compells me to purchase a strip of 100 so I just get my ten new stamps. And as wt1 has pointed out, it is times six now with each year's fresh release. How pinheaded and wasteful of USPS to warehouse a mountain of unsold stamps because they are unwilling to sell them in a lesser quantity. I have no doubt that if they were offered as a ten-stamp strip at our local post offices, not only would the collectors buy them but also the mailing public. Everyone would benefit including those dummies in charge of USPS.

I buy all my coil stamps from SCF or ebay. I am not buying rolls of 100 or strips of 25.

When I was a member of standing order subscriptions in the late 90s/early 2000s, they would send individual stamps or se-tenants, as needed. Now you have to buy blocks of 4. If they issue a 10 stamp se-tenant, you will still only get a block of 4, unless you change your subscription to a block of 10 for everything. So, if you want to be in standing order subscriptions and make sure you get everything, you need to subscribe to full sheets, which completely sucks.

Standing order subscriptions used to be awesome. You would get a package every other month from the cave with all the releases since the last package, even the rare stuff. I got all my Looney Tunes imperf sheets through that service.

Why do they make it so hard to be a collector?

Buying coils of 100 or full panes of 20 because some one says so seems counter productive to the post office's revenue flow. If they're worried about the additional labor they could probably charge a special handling fee at post offices just like SFS. Even at SFS, the coil restrictions and nonsense like imperf press sheets when added to the sheer number of issues created by capricious decisions (like using multiple printers for a single issue) is surely causing fewer and fewer collectors to spend money on complete collections.

Cal - even if it drives some collectors nuts, using multiple printers to print issues that they need large quantities of isn't capricious - they do it because of scheduling issues where a single printer could not produce them all in time or in an effort to keep costs low by having the printers have to compete against each other.

Apastuszak said "why not give them something they DO want" - I'd like to see them bring back changing plate numbers on coils when they change plates.

The thing is that plate numbers aren't really needed anymore with computerized printing processes; they just print the V11111 (or something similar) to appease plate block or plate number coil collectors, as it feeds the revenue stream for the USPS as they know most stamps purchased by collectors won't see postal use.

So why even collect plate blocks or plate coils any more?

I remember reading an old issue of Linn's where a guy wrote a letter in complaining there are too many new issues and collecting the stamp, the plate block, the first day of issue cover, and the postally used stamp for each issue was costing him too much money.

At the time I was thinking to myself "well, no one said you HAD TO collect all that." Collectors seem to be creatures of habit. If plate number really aren't used any more, then perhaps they shouldn't be collected any more.

eyeonwall ... I believe any competent contracting shop can provide bid competition without making multiple awards for a single effort which ALWAYS causes unforeseen problems #12540;be it stamps, desks, or B-2 Bombers. As for timing; there was an old saying in the military that went something like "Prior Planning Prevents P#% Poor Performance." While I believe a big, big, big part of the USPS's problem is Congress, no small part includes poor management decisions for decades. ... One man's opinion anyway. ... Cal