2015 USPS Issues... News? Thoughts? Opinions?

No, the situation is different with the Civil War 1865 and Gifts of Friendship press sheets. At present, they are not available for sale even if one calls up the SFS.

Under normal circumstances, when an item is (really) sold out, the SFS computer system would indicate as such and you would be so informed by the customer representative when you attempt to place an order by phone. With the above press sheets, however, their item numbers (589308 and 589808) have simply been (temporarily) blocked from entry by the SFS computer system. A supervisor at the SFS Kansas city headquarters told me that they had been receiving large orders from some dealers (one of which, I conjecture, must be Mystic's, as they have been heavily promoting stamps without die cuts in their recent marketing literature).




I agree a better way would be to limit the number of sheets one can order per customer (not just dealers). This is commonly done in other countries when dealing with special stamp issues, although such a limitation can easily be circumvented by determined people.

^
If you recall, this is how it used to be - the maximum order quantity was 5 per order. Now, anyone can buy as many as they like.

If it was limited to 1000 sheets with no per-order limit, I wouldn't be surprised if Mystic bought them all, or at least the lion's share of them. The Civil War sheet only has 6 panes of 12, which works out to 6000 imperf complete panes and 36,000 of each stamp. That's not very many. They'll be able to mark them up 4-5x right out of the chute, if not more. With that kind of a markup, they'd only have to sell a small percentage of their total buy before the rest of them become pure profit.

Frankly, if the USPS continues this policy, collectors probably want to keep a close eye on new releases and order them on the first day. To delay longer might mean getting shut out. I was looking forward to buying an imperf Civil War sheet to use as postage.

I don't know how others feel about them but I like the Vintage Rose forever stamps. It tickles my tactile sense unlike the ordinary "slick" stamps.

I didn't order the Vintage Tulip stamp as I don't see myself ever needing that denomination.


-MV

That is exactly why the single use of 70c will be scarce. That is why I've purchased one sheet of imperforated tulips and used for postage to my friends and families. April 25 2015 is the last day of single use of 70c postage.
Regards. Miqstamp

Not quite ... the rate increase is being delayed, presumably due to the request for additional forever tiers. As far as I know, no specific date has been specified in lieu of the April 26 date.
Added: I would have sworn that I read about a delay in the April 26 date, but I simply cannot locate the source right now. Maybe someone else could either confirm or correct this.
omxfl: Thanks!

There you go:
http://www.linns.com/news/postal-ne...ate-increase

The Special Olympics World Games Stamps and philatelic products are now available for pre-order at the Postal Store for anyone interested:

https://store.usps.com/store/browse...d=buy-stamps

Here's an example of the entire pane of 20 stamps with selvage. It appears to me that it carries a lot of "white space" that could have been put to better use. (It is also interesting to note the vertical and horizontal perforation strips between each stamp.):

The horizontal strips remind me of the strips used in the pane of 20 count foldable booklets. Possible convenience attribute for storage??

As I mentioned in another thread, these horizontal and vertical gutters are also present on the wave stamp panes, as well as some (but not all) music icon panes. I've searched around but there seems to be no discussion on why such gutters appear on some panes but not on others.

I am a believer that everything in this world happens for a reason (good or bad), so the purpose of these gutters remain a mystery that I'd love to solve.

I have nothing to prove or deny this thought, but my personal opinion is that the "gutters" are to aid the postal clerks in ease of separating the stamps when sold individually. It also aids the consumer in separating individual stamps when separated from the full pane. (Note that the Special Olympics World Games stamps may be sold individually and we often hear complaints about "scissor disasters" when a postal clerk may try and separate stamps without a "gutter" in-between.)

On the negative side of things, the idea of collecting a block or a plate block in the traditional sense is somewhat diminished as there are no true contiguous stamps to make up that configuration, as the gutters separate the stamps both vertically and horizontally which sort of defeats that purpose. Then again, few really collect those formats much anymore and most postal clerks would be inclined to provide a non-collector with a strip of 4 stamps rather than a block of 4.

You may well be correct, but that does not explain why some panes have them and others don't. Some recent panes that don't have them are Wilt Chamberlain and Year of the Ram.

Another infuriating thing about the gutters is that, on some panes that have them, the stamp image actually spills over into the gutters. For example, on both the Vintage Rose and Vintage Tulip panes, tearing off a single stamp would cut off parts of the rose or tulip.

I placed an order with the SFS today, I am not running low on stamps to use but I decided I'd order some of the designs I like.

I ordered the 2 strips of 10 for the Ferns.

A block of the Vintage Tulip. I decided I'd buy these since 2015 marks the second year for my tulip bed.

Re-ordered the Vintage Rose as I liked them. I went through the block of 4 rather quickly. This time, I went with the block of 10.

I'm still planning on ordering the Summer Harvest stamps in June...the designs just speak to me.

-MV

You'll have to wait a little longer. The stamps have been delayed until the month of July for release.

http://about.usps.com/postal-bullet...info_005.htm

This one -- unveiled this past weekend -- doesn't impress me at all -- especially for a Stamp Show!



Date of issue is supposed to be August 20, 2015.