Used Commemoratives

Outside of philatelic mail, does anyone EVER receive mail with a modern US Commemoratives utilized? I receive the mail at work where we receive 10-20 pieces a day and I rarely see a piece of mail with a current US Commemorative. Same with my home mail. This cannot be good for the hobby!

I believe that has been a gripe for a long time now. But what can one do? Even good friends of mine send me a Christmas card this past season with a "label" on it! One thing we can do is just keep using stamps ourselves; maybe that helps?

Peter

It is the same here in Canada - you rarely see non-philatelic mail with commemorative stamps anymore.

On the bright side it will serve to increase value and collectibility of the stamps that are used on postage.

It has been more than 20 years since I have seen a commemorative stamp used as postage, both at home and in business except from some stamp dealers who use them on priority mail envelopes to me and those arrive uncancelled 100 percent of the time.

I agree that WE need to use postage stamps!
I even use stamps on the few bills that we mail.
I also ask everyone I know to save stamps for me, but usually the response is that they don't receive much mail. Darned technology!

Same here in the UK. All the commemoratives seem to end up in the presentation packs and whatever else Royal Mail can dream up to suck cash from collectors' pockets. I only collect the best designed modern GB stamps whenever any come my way, and then only fine used with neat, clear cancels. I too reckon these fine CDS used stamps will be scarcer than all the pre-packaged tat from RM's Philatelic Bureau. And far more desirable.

Terry

I concur with the above comments. The Internet has substantially decreased my first-class mail of any sort. I think, though, that some of the blame can be put on the USPS itself.
Back in the day when I would make a trip to the Post Office to buy stamps for bills and letters, the clerk would actually ask you what stamp you wanted. They would lay their available issues on the counter and let you decide. Now, to buy a particular stamp you have to ask them if they have it. If you just ask for stamps now, you will end up with the first definitive issue at the top of their stamp drawer.
Dan

I make sure to use commemorative (or higher face value) stamps on everything I mail - bills, letters, packages and anything else. The average ebay auction generates $500 to $1000 in postage to be used so I'm trying to do my part in creating used recent stamps. But it's getting tougher...

I found out in the last couple of months that a lot of post offices have lowered their stamp inventories overall. They are being told by their supervisors that stock limits are lowered. As a result many post offices are not carrying any of the stamps higher than the $5.60 priority mail stamps. The $5 and $10 stamps are near impossible to buy at a local post office near me. I had to visit seven different post offices recently to find all the stamps I needed.

My local post office has not stocked any high value stamps ( $1.00 and up ) for I don't know how long. The only ones they have are the International stamps, which I have been using on local packages.
I have asked about the Waves of Color and the Jenny, almost weekly, no luck!
Just the other day I happened to be in another town some 50 miles away and visited the post office. It was not very busy, and a very helpful clerk looked for over 5 minutes trying to find some Waves of Color. He found one $5.00 stamp!
I also got a Jenny sheet there!

Peter

I can't tell you the last time I got a stamp of any kind on any piece of mail, it was probably Christmas. I might receive, in an entire year, a dozen envelopes with stamps. I might use a dozen stamps in a year. Everything is done online, everything is shipped with mailing labels, I don't step foot in a post office and honestly, I don't want to. The clerks are incompetent and rude anyhow.

Let's be honest, the stamps the U.S. puts out today are generally crap. They're ugly, self-adhesive garbage. With more than 150 years of worldwide stamps available, nobody is going to be running out of things to collect any time soon. Propping up a rightfully failing industry, just because you feel you have to be true to your stamp collecting roots is a bit silly, isn't it?

Thank goodness for philatelic stamp mail. There I get commemorative stamps and personalized stamps; and send likewise.

We should have more engraved definitives. Think of the varieties.

I have started to collect metered mail and anything really.

I keep thinking I should take up hand writing latters again, after many years but the idea gets lost in the speed and neatness (practice makes perfect though) of the computer-typed word. Sigh.

I only receive commemorative stamps on the occasional (a few times a year) ebay shipment.

I bought select sheets of US commemorative stamps from the 1970s until 2005, some to use on mail, but most to save for my sheet collection. In 2005 I got fed up with the declining quality and choice of subjects on US stamps. In that year I started breaking up those sheets and using the stamps on all of my mail. I sell about 100 items a year on ebay, and I now have maybe 10 sheets left, which will be gone in about a year. I'm appalled by the amount of make-up postage I have to add to the 37-cent commemoratives from just nine years ago just to pay the 1-ounce rate to ship a stamp to a buyer today.

Another reason I stopped buying new US issues is because of the shift to the self-adhesive format. Collecting self-adhesive singles is unsatisfying to me largely due to the sight of the backing paper on the edge of the stamps.

Cephus: No, we won't run out of stamps, but we might run out of collectors. I'll always use stamps any which way I can to help keep stamps and stamp collecting in the public eye even if it is an in vain attempt as it's better than doing nothing.

Not all clerks are rude nor incompetent either. I have only met a very few that have been difficult, but the vast majority have been extremely helpful and have taken the time to provide the best service possible. In fact, I can easily say the postal service has provided me with the best customer service than any other retail service in existence.

I always use commemoratives, even on the odd bill here and there I actually pay with snail mail. My favorites from the past year was the American Art pane. There's almost no way someone could miss one of those on the envelope.

And it was mentioned that used commems of this era will be more valuable as a result. It's already happening. I'm amazed at what some used lots of recent commems go for on ebay these days - sometimes close to face value, depending on the stamps. I had a lot of about 100 or so recent commems on paper that I put up on ebay, and - not knowing the current market for such things - thought I might get two or three dollars. The lot ended up going for about $25, which was around half face value and included a fair amount of duplication. I don't collect US, so I save every recent commem I get, since I know I'll be able to cash them in for something I really want.