2013 USPS Issues... News? Thoughts? Opinions?

I am not sure if people nowadays are particular about the size of a stamp on their envelopes. In my experience anything sent that's not the usual stamp is a shock to them.
As for the printing goes, while there's hardly 30million people in the state, and considering I don't believe the 87million tourist will have access to buy the stamps, plus the stamp isn't as representative as the coins, and the stamp is more specific to one geographic state.....it does feel like a lot.
At least I'll get my 4 panes.

For anyone paying attention to the first day of issue details of upcoming stamps, USPS Beyond the Perf has just posted today that there will be dual first day of issue releases of the following stamps:

A Flag for All Seasons
05/03/2013 at Weston, MA and 05/17/2013 at Rochester, NY (presumably a different date of issue for the different formats of coils versus booklets) although specific details have yet to be announced.

http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-rele...-all-seasons

Civil War Souvenir Sheet
05/23/2013 at both Gettysburg, PA and Vicksburg, MS.

http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-rele...vil-war-1863

Finally, there has been a change in the date of issue of the Lydia Mendoza Stamp from that previously announced:

Lydia Mendoza Stamp
Revised date of issue is now 05/15/2013 in San Antonio, TX

http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-rele...ydia-mendoza

It's now being confirmed by Linn's Stamp News that the PSA Coil Version of the stamp will be issued on May 3, 2013 at Weston, MA (Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum) with the booklets being issued on May 17, 2013 at Rochester, NY.

For anyone interested in the upcoming 46-cent Patriotic Star Stamp coil set to be released on March 19, 2013 in San Francisco, the first day of issue ceremony program has now been posted at this link:

http://uspsstampsblogs.files.wordpr...vitation.jpg

The La Florida stamps can now be bought from usps.com:

regular stamp issue:
https://store.usps.com/store/browse...tId=S_470604

uncut press sheets:
https://store.usps.com/store/browse...tPressSheets
https://store.usps.com/store/browse...tPressSheets

At least you can get a block of 4 La Florida stamps without having to buy the whole sheet!

The "Vintage Seed Packets" stamp booklet is now available for pre-order: https://store.usps.com/store/browse..._S_NewStamps
No indication of uncut press sheets yet, but I'm sure they'll be available as well in the next couple of days.

They haven't announced any new stamps for quite some time now...

The Johnny Cash Stamp has just been posted today on Beyond the Perf for issue on June 5, 2013 in Nashville, TN. As some may recall, the original announcement included a June 6th date of issue (which was also reported in Linn's Stamp News), then it was changed to just "June 2013" with no specific date indicated, and now we're seeing the date of issue pushed back a day to June 5th:

http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-rele.../johnny-cash

Apparently Linn's Stamp News is reporting that there will be NO uncut press sheets of any kind for the Vintage Seed Packets booklet. I'm not sure I understand why, but then again the USPS has not been known to always make sense in their decisions.

I suggest you stay tuned ... as that decision could always change!

The 03/21/2013 Postal Bulletin has just been made available on-line and confirms that there will be NO press sheets (with or without die cuts) for the Vintage Seed Packets Booklet issue. Therefore, no imperforate varieties of these stamps will exist.

Further, there will be NO automatic distribution of these stamps to post offices. Local post offices will have to order them on an "as needed" basis.

Finally, the print quantity for this issue will be 400,000,000 (that's 400 million!) stamps. Since it is my understanding that these Vintage Seed Packet booklets will effectively take the place of the 2012 Bonsai booklets, which were also issued in a quantity of 400 million, the same quantity of stamps are being produced for the 2013 Vintage Seed Packet booklets.

... this arrived today on an Easter card mailed by my sister... I was very suprised to see just how LARGE these stamps are!

And a readable spray on cancel, too! That alone makes it collectible.

one thing's for sure, I am leaving it ON paper! I have been trying to soak some recent flag stamps, to see if I can actually get both them and their glue soaked off... no dice!

I saw a sheet at the post office(but didn't get to buy them yet), the sheet did look MASSIVE! Thanks for the scan, I really need to get these.

Pure Citrus air freshener (available from Home Depot) spray on back of envelope. Within 30 seconds, stamp will peel right off. Let dry for about an hour and use talc or baby powder on the back of the stamp and all the sticky stuff absorbs the powder. End result is perfect.