USPS Issues An Insane Amount Of Stamps In 2012

No. It has a spot for the full Lady Bird Johnson sheet. All other issues are just singles, strips or blocks.

Since the title of this thread is "USPS Issues an insane amount of stamps in 2012", I thought I would point out that for 2013 we've already passed the century mark of more than 100 face different stamps and the annual list of all issues isn't even out yet. That's got to surpass the number of issues in 2011 and 2012 by a long shot!

Expensive days to be a stamp collector...

But only if he/she collects modern issues...

... in unused condition...

I'm only out the cost of the supplement pages, some hinges, and a portion of a can of Orange air freshener to remove the stamps from envelopes. Although I am paying for some of the imperforated varieties (stamps cut from press sheets without die cuts), that's entirely self-inflicted.

Which is why I never understand people who keep beating themselves over the head to collect hundreds upon hundreds of new stamps every year that are designed, specifically and purposely, to screw collectors. It's even worse when collectors recognize what's going on and do it anyhow. It's like nailing a spike into your eye and complaining that it hurts. Well stop!

try investing the same amount into nice quality classics...

At the cost of probably $250,000 to produce one stamp. It's costing the U.SS.P.S. a fortune to produce all the stamps for one year. It's obvious the P.O. is going after the collectors to help shore up their enormous financial woes. What they obviously are in the dfark about is that there are fewer collectors now than there has been in the last fifty or more years. Partly due to the poor economy. Partly due to the expense of being a collector. Lack of interest and of course the age of Computer technology and people not mailing like they uised to do. So many factors that the P.O. has not kept up with. I hope and think that although with the internet. Mainly ebay stamp sales. Although the value of stamps has flattened out or even gone down. The value of stamps will not only flatten out as they seemed to have now. But actually will begin to increase. I think perhaps in the next ten to twenty years the increase will be significant. I don't expect to see it in my lifetime since I am 67 almost 68 years old but I think my Son who is 42 will see it. I have told him to hang onto my collection after I am gone because it may just be worth something by the time he gets to be my age.

I don't think modern stamps will ever be worth anything, we certainly haven't seen stamps from the 40s on go up significantly in value, most are worth face and nothing more, but in the numbers that modern stamps are released, why should they ever go up in value? Value is based on rarity and demand. Lots of collectors are dropping new issues in droves (honestly, I think everyone should) and the number of collectors are falling every single year.

I wouldn't mind seeing the USPS fail entirely, based on stupid decisions like they've been making. While there are plenty of external factors, they are still making really asinine financial decisions, I think whatever happens to them, they've earned.

Peter said:

Quote:
"And what burns me up is that you can not get them at the Post Office. I would love to use the Wave dollar stamps on my APS and AHPS circuits, but no post office in my area has them!"

Peter- If they are at my local P.O. (and I have seen them there before)would you like me to see about getting you the Wave dollar stamps? -Jeff

What makes you think they go through the trouble of putting out all of these stamps for collectors versus postage? Was the story of a postage stamp being invented so as to having the money paid up front versus pay as you go at the window?
it's a large country, there's a lot of commemorate, I'd hate to have the job of denying commemoratives. Do we get rid of the war of 1812, 500 years of Florida, or the like.
Seems like general marketing to me to get more people into buying stamps than the select few.

I keep hearing, and seeing that no one uses money anymore, yet the price and amount of coins to collect in a year has gone up since 2000.

Like Peter and I'm sure many others, I was unable to get either the round global forever stamp or the $1 wave stamp at my local post office for use on a package I was sending to stampgal. It is probably well-worth the $1.25 postage cost of ordering them from usps.com in saving both time and gas to/from the P.O., and also frustration avoidance.

A lot of coins are being released for the collector market too, it's not just stamps. And yes, there is no conceivable reason to release 100+ different stamps, almost all of them at the same rate, per year. These things are intended to move mail from point A to point B, nothing more, nothing less. It pre-pays transport. Most Americans don't give a damn what the picture on the stamp is, with the very rare exception like Christmas stamps or holiday stamps. Otherwise, it's all aimed at small special interest groups and collectors.

It's time the collectors rose up and said enough is enough, at least IMO.