If You Collected US 2012, Will You Be Collecting 2013?

I think I have given up on collecting any US MNH past 2012. The fact that the uncut press sheet fiasco is continuing through 2013 is really putting me off, and I'm thinking of just stopping at 2012 and filling in my missing stamps.

I'm minimizing my 2013 stamp purchases, though. Unless some issue strikes me as being exceptional, there will be no Press Sheets (cut or uncut); no posters; no digital color postmarks; no ceremony programs; no first day covers or any other philatelic paraphernalia. Essentially, I'm collecting just the unused stamps.

I did a very "unscientific" study of the 2012 Stamp Program and find that there was almost $160 in face different stamps issued that year (not considering those issues that required you to buy complete booklets, panes, or souvenir sheets, etc.), and in overall bulk there was nearly 11.5 BILLION stamps printed in 2012 and most (if not all) are still available from SFS for those who don't bother to collect each new issue as they come out.

I still collect modern stamps -- I'm just not buying into the USPS's sales tactics of trying to get more money out of stamp collectors by offering any number of products that will have dubious value in the secondary market. At least most stamps can be used as postage "Forever" ... or at least until the USPS as we know it ceases to exist.

I always have use for postage in my office so in that regard it is a safe purchase for me if I buy just the stamps. But even then I may go for just selected items.

I will stop buying press sheets in 2013.

Fortunately for my wallet, I collect used stamps. Seems like an awful lot of stamps were issued in 2012, which requires a pretty strong commitment for the Mint crowd. For me, it just means more stamps to search for. Please start using those imperfs on your mail or I'll probably never get them all....

You guys better gear up for 2015, when (no doubt) collectors will endure a barrage of stamps for the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, for the next FOUR YEARS, probably die-cut 58c canteens and 83c Minie balls and $4.25 bayonets, and to be politically correct, a souvenir sheet of Confederate money.

Start saving now, the South will rise again!

Don't forget the souvenir sheet of confederate stamps!

I quit buying US stamps in 1994. Collectors keep buying and the postal service will keep printing them. It's all about the money now.

Umm, er, you can only buy the souvenir sheet of Confederate stamps if you buy ten souvenir sheets of the Confederate money.

Also, the Confederate stamps are valid only in the original eleven States of the Confederacy, sorry Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, and Oklahoma.

With all of the discussion about Civil War issues, does anyone find it rather hypocritical that the USPS's Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee has a specific ruling that states:




I wonder how many Civil War-related stamps have been issued in the past 50 years? Certainly more than one! In particular, for the Civil War Centennial (1961-1965) one stamp was issued for each of those years ... which already violated that rule (although the rule was probably not in place back then.)

The Civil War centennial stamps actually commemorated battles, one per year, and possibly not designated previously: Fort Sumter, Shiloh, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Appomattox, 1961-1965. Weasel-wording will get USPS over the hump every time...

This is why I decided years ago to collect only the classic, pre-1940, used stamps, but do keep any of the newer stamps that happen to arrive in the mail, which limits me to about 20 stamps per year. Too many countries, not only the USA, are printing stamps just to make sales, not to be used. It's not working for the USPS, since they just announced a $16 billion loss!

I agree with wt1's philosophy - buy what interests you. To me, that is the essence of true collecting.

I pretty well quit collecting anything newer than 2000 and I don't collect anything self adhesive. The only stamps I have newer than 2000 are those that just happen to float in from somewhere.

I'll continue to collect the normal issues, but don't plan on continuing with the imperfs. I only hope that the 2012 supplements from Mystic don't include spaces for the them. I contacted Mystic earlier this year to sound them out about their plans on the imperfs, but as expected they were noncommittal. In all likelihood, the Ladybird Johnson souvenir sheet will be the last of the imperfs I'll ever buy.

Mystic bases their album on Scott catalog numbers. Since Scott did not assign catalog numbers, and since there aren't enough of these stamps around for Mystic to stock them, I tend to think that they're not going to make pages for them in the Heirloom album.