Use Your Imperfs For Postage

Each time one breaks up a press sheet, put one pane aside for use as postage on all your mail including those for philatelic friends and such. I love finding these stamps on my mail and I see these used imperfs especially on covers as a great collecting specialty. It also would help the editors of Scott to realize that these should be listed with at least a minor letter. It would take up less space than the current paragraphs and would conform to earlier policy such as the listing of 3535 (porky imperf) etc.

Most of the current crop of imperf sheets are not scarce at this time and would be fun to use on mail.

I pre-ordered 4 Circus souvenir sheet press sheets specifically to use for postage. I think years from now, legitimate postal usages of these imperfs will be sought after.

I'm part of a small group of trading friends. We take turns buying the press sheets and then trade with each other. We always mail our trades with imperfs - we call it the imperf imperative LOL. I also sell a few of my duplicates on Stamporama and I always mail with an imperf. Folks just love them!

I have a complete La Florida imperf pane that was used to mail me a package.

It is a timely post as I was thinking the same thing. How do I get some trading friends?

I mail to myself at work but it seems less cool and a more commercial and varied appearance would be nice. I like creating certified, insured, and registered frankings using imdiecuts (earliest usage of the word here?). I also have damaged MLB Setenant sheets that were damaged by usps I intend to use as postage (would like them back).

I also had several panes of the MLB that I used for postage. the shipping quality on the MLB press sheets was atrocious and only 1 in five arrived sound.

So far I've used an entire Civil War 1864 press sheet and an entire Hudson River School as postage and have ordered some Circus sheets to use as postage as well. I use them mostly on ebay mailings and I always hope that the person who receives them will recognize them for what they are. The Civil War sheet usually gave the opportunity to include a chunk of the descriptive selvage, which I tried to do if possible. However, it backfired on me twice when correctly franked letters were sent back to me for postage by some clerk along the way who probably thought I clipped them from a magazine or something.

i had the same problem with one of my shipments being returned, marked that the imperf stamps were not real. It was some clerk along the way and not an official handstamp on the envelope. Plus the stamps was obliterated with scribbles! I will look for it, I think I saved it somewhere.

This has been my concern about using imperfs from press sheets, especially on parcels. The stamps being used are expensive (typically higher denominations than just first class) and if some clueless postal clerk along the trip decides to erroneously suggest that the stamps used are invalid and proceeds to obliterate them, there is no provision for the consumer to get his money back for the valid postage that was used, not to mention the inconvenience of returning the item back to the sender for "valid" postage.

I think you'd have a better chance seeing the first class imperfs used on regular envelopes that is for the most part processed through automation where the stamps go through the canceller after having been identified as being valid, long before the mail carrier delivers the mail to you. The chance of such mail being declared "invalid" under these circumstances is quite low.

even with the risk of a return, I think it is worth it to use these imperfs on mail. If an item is returned you have a great collectable cover. Modern imperfs on commercially used mail may be a new collecting area.

Stampcat7 has a good point. Many collectors belabor the merits of the imdiecuts, and they are printed in extremely limited quantities. Some of these imdiecut panes make bugs bunny imperf and legends of the west error sheet seem plentiful in comparison. Now add on to it usages on first class, priority, certified, registered mail etc and it could be a very fun and potentially lucrative specialization.

On the other hand, I seek out very scarce personally printed CVP issues on cover and occasionally find them in dealer dollar boxes. As scarce, fascinating, and unique as those are, they are not appreciated by many collectors.

cruse27 - I agree on your collecting of the CVPs on commercial mail. I like to think 50 years ahead and try to find areas today that will be scarce in the future. As for the imperfs of today I know that collectors love to find these on their mail and Scott will have to come around eventually and fully list them. If the Post office delivers it than it is a valid stamp and should be listed. It doesn't matter how hard they were to purchase.

I don't let the possiblility of returned mail deter me from using imperfs as postage. Yes, it's annoying, but at the end of the day it's 49 cents, and I waste 10x to 100x that stupidly on other things on a near daily basis.