Linn's: No More Artist Signed Duck Panes

Linn's just reported that the USPS has announced the end of Artists Signed Duck Panes. I have a complete collection except for the first very expensive one RW72b. maybe they will go up in value now that there will be no more.

I confirmed with the Federal Duck Stamp office only the regular traditional water-activated and PSA are the only two products which will be available. The signed artist pane of one is out. The director said the cost was far more than the income and it was not profitable. I am sure as in the past a collector will be able to get the artist to sign any of the above two remaing products. Personally to me the engraved RW72b and RW73b were the only two that warranted being signed -sadly an engraved stamp is very rare in our country these last few decades. I do not think they sold any where near 10,000 of each of the suceeding issues.

Here's the link to the Linn's Stamp News report that provides a little more information as to the poor sales of these artist-signed panes that led to their discontinuance:

http://linns.com/news/us-stamps/222...signed-panes

Can anyone explain to me how the artist-signed duck panes are different from the press sheets without die-cuts? Scott assigns minor catalogue numbers to the duck panes and relegates the "imperf" varieties to footnotes. Don't get me wrong ... I think they are correct with regard to the "imperfs". I question their handling of the duck stamps.

Wt1, thank you for link. I miss it. I always thought 2-3000 would be enough. When RW72b was issued to test the market with 1000, a handful of dealers received them-everone complained, I didn't, instead I was gratfull to purchase mine for $125 and was able to get the engraver to also sign. When RW73b was issued with 10k to please the public-most that were actually sold were purchased by non collectors thinking they would make a lot of money off collectors;also many collectors purchased a few extra for same reason. That drove the #s up. Also, since the engraver was also included on the signatures certainly helped. The following year reality set in and adjusted the market and Rw74b and forward never reach more than couple thousand which is about all the collectors could absorb of this product. I think they have made the right decision about this product and electing to issue them only on special occasions.

With their ever expanding estamp program will all stamps be discontinued in the future? More and more States joining.

"With their ever expanding estamp program will all stamps be discontinued in the future?"

Not in the near future - the regular duck stamps still make money. The reason these artist signed panes were money losers is they cost more to produce and they only soold small numbers of them.

Odd she reported 5K printed when we have been led to believe 10k were printed. Also the fact they keep selling signed artist panes as long as they last -this has a damping effect on sales and affects
the value.