Natl Geo: New Farmers Markets Stamps A USPS Blunder?

An interesting read, with focus on the seemingly outrageous prices shown on the recently issued Farmers Markets Stamps:

http://theplate.nationalgeographic....sps-blunder/

Great article. Has anyone ever found out where the USPS ( or the artist ) came up with these prices? Maybe they are the same folks that come up with some of the idiotic ebay prices?

Peter

Its what you think prices are if you work downtown and only buy food on your lunch break.

A tempest in a teapot

I would think that greengrocers/bakers etc would be delighted at those inflated prices - they make "real" prices look like "real" bargains

Linn's Stamp News did an article on this (referring to the NatGeo article) and this is the response of the artist:



It seems to me the phrase "we had to guess" isn't an acceptable response. If the artist didn't know Farmers Markets prices when the stamp was in the design phase, she could have researched it a bit, but instead she just admitted that she guessed at it. An artist out of touch with reality, I suppose.

http://linns.com/news/us-stamps/730...price-debate

At first I thought the prices seemed a little high, I figured maybe they're the prices "up north". But then I took a closer look, and realized I pay more for eggs and peppers at my own markets, one being named one of the souths best this year. A thing of peppers sets me back 3 bucks, which is more than the stamp. I don't believe we do apples, but peaches are 5 bucks, or even 6 bucks(I don't remember which) for the larger tray, 3 dollars for the small pepper sized tray. Eggs, always free range(not cage free), which isn't usually done at 3.50 even in a supermarket.
As for the article mentioning "the poor" and other firestorms, two answers. After hooking up gas stations and some quick serve restaurants, now they do food stamps at farmers markets. Also, Harry Potter aside, we are a large country which a lot to commemorate, but maybe if they didn't keep doing every political whim on a stamp instead, there wouldn't be a firestorm.

I wish I didn't post at the same time as wt1's quote. "We had to guess" from Lakeland Minnesota? Been through there a few times, lived almost next to it. Minnesota doesn't have a shortage of farmers markets. I regret never seeing the one in St Paul, not at all far...

Talk about flyspecking..........

On the other hand, ten years from now, when we look at these stamps, we will reminisce at how low the prices used to be...

Perhaps. On the other hand, many stamp prices are much lower today than they were in the 90's so there is more money for less important items like food.

The artist shops at the farmers market in my town. Maybe she guessed at the prices but they are not far off if you buy at a non-chain grocer, especially if you're buying organic. I don't care about organic but I really appreciate the freshness you get a farmers markets.
http://www.twincities.com/News/ci_2...stage-stamps

There is $7 bread at our market but they are specialty breads, not baguettes. The "normal" breads cost about what Brownberry costs at the grocery store. And this baker's bread are really fantastic!

I do agree that it would have been better if she just didn't include price signs or maybe had some "Organic" signs as many of the booths do at farmers markets.

The interesting part of the whole concept of using signage with prices on the stamps for Farmers Markets goods seems as though it was an afterthought, especially since these preliminary designs were rejected as being "too busy" ... yet you will note they didn't include many prices ... at least not as being prominent to the stamp design:




My guess is the artist and/or designer when working on the final designs were under a time constraint and just didn't bother to check pricing details.

More here:

http://uspsstamps.com/stories/growing-season

In fact, if you look closely at the actual stamps, the final one in the strip shows a sign "Herbs, $4.50 ea." but is colored in such a way that it looks like the sign is standing in midair and not really on a piece of paper. It's not an error, but just that the colors used in the final printing gave it that effect.

too busy? I thought the issue seemed somewhat lacking, the one with the town in the background would've been perfect. I've been wondering why there's no onions and such in their market!

I like the town background, it was all the market offerings that made it too busy.