First Look At US Harry Potter Stamp Booklet

Here are some images - all these are now available from http://stores.ebay.com/US-Postal-Service-Store


As expected, the uncut press sheet is in the 1x6 format.
Let's hope there will be a press release today that mentions the print quantity for both press sheets. Even the one w/ die-cuts should be of interest to collectors as the booklet will be unfolded.

The images look very nice. I'll have to use images of the movie posters as a cachet. Should be a lot of fun.
Tom

Here's CNN's take on the subject ... with the headline "First Living People on US Postage Stamps are Brits!"

http://crossfire.blogs.cnn.com/2013...s-are-brits/

I inadvertently posted these questions in the wrong thread, so I'm posting them again here:

Maybe I'm making more of it than there is, but does anyone know if there are any plate numbers shown on the booklet of Harry Potter stamps? Is there any microprinting? The USPS specs for this issue hasn't been released yet. All I know for sure is that the printer is Ashton-Potter.

Anyway, given the fact that these stamps are being issued in "waves" (one presently; one in December; and another in January) makes me wonder if there will be different plate numbers or minor varieties that only avid flyspecking collectors (or Harry Potter fans) will find and/or want to acquire.

[NOTE:] Since posting these comments, I have been advised there is microprinting on each of the stamps, but no plate numbers.

So do we have a fixed number of print run for the uncut press sheet yet?

Nothing's in print to confirm this but it's being reported that the initial print run for Press Sheets is 2500 no die cut and 2500 with die cut press sheets for this issue, which is typical for most commemorative issues. However, given the cash cow that the USPS has on Press Sheets, especially this one which is apparently popular with not only the stamp collector, but the Harry Potter collector, there seems to be no provision in place to stop the the USPS from printing more later on, if they felt it to be profitable.

What is unique about this issue is the format, as there are six (6) souvenir booklets, each booklet containing twenty (20) face different stamps per press sheet at a face value of $55.20.

If they wanted to celebrate Harry Potter, why celebrate the movies? Why not the books instead? Put the book covers on stamps along with artists renditions of the characters. Did we really need living actors on these stamps?

No. And that's really the reason for the major objection of the stamp by traditional collectors. Not only does it depict living people, but not even Americans. One would have thought that some great American hero or well respected personality would have been issued first -- and certainly before Harry Potter characters.

Don't get me wrong, some fantasy stamps have been issued in the past for pop culture themes like Looney Tunes, Star Wars, Disney, the Simpsons, etc., but at least they had American origin, which is what the US stamp program should be about.

I received my Harry Potter stamps yesterday. The press sheet (without die cuts) looks marvelous. I can easily see this selling out in no time.

A slight disappointment is that the booklet came folded, which puts a crease mark in the middle of the panoramic picture. In my view the USPS should have packaged it unfolded.

Has anyone read the latest Linn's Stamp News suggesting that there is a "secret message" contained in seven of the stamps? There's also microprinting on all 20 stamps. Have you found the location on every stamp?

I don't currently subscribe to Linn's but this is the headline being reported on their website:

I can't wait for someone to share their photos of the actual stamps so we can try to decode the message. I don't have any of the stamps yet or I would take some photos.

I got my two booklets in the mail today and they do look really great, very different from any other US stamp issue. They will be fun to use on the mail. I brought up the topic at my local stamp meeting last week and one collector lamented that the folder will be hard to put in his album. Another collector went out and ordered 50 sets!

The phrase is:
You/have/a place/at Hogwarts/School of/Witchcraft/and Wizardry

which is scattered across seven different stamps on all five panes.

The resolution restriction on image attachments on this site is preventing me from posting pictures of the stamps with the microprintings showing up clearly.

I recently bought a booklet of these stamps. They look cool but how in the world would one mount these mint within ones stamp pages? When you open it, it becomes quite lengthy. I'd be willing to trade my mint book for a complete set postally used. I don't suspect that will be an easy task since I can't imagine the masses using this stamp on their mailings.

I think that the books should have been supported instead of the movies but does this issue fall into the new policy of stamps as a promoting tool. How do people think about the idea that Hollywood paid for this?
Tom