US Lunar Press Sheet Question On Print Quantity Of 500

I just started collecting stamps and saw the Press Sheet and fell in love. I saw the Lunar Goat Press Sheets die cut and without die cut and decided to read up on them after I purchased one each.

http://about.usps.com/news/national...pr15_011.htm

588906, Press Sheet with Die cut , $70.56, (print quantity 500).
588908, Press Sheet without Die cut , $70.56 (print quantity 500).

Does this mean a limited of 500 prints each?

I was looking at the previous 2013 press sheet for the lunar snake and didn't see any print quantity listed.. Is this one a good buy to invest like the harry potter one?

Technically, yes -- 500 Press Sheets of each variety (with and without die cuts). However, there is no rule or regulation to stop the USPS from printing more if there is demand for it. They don't "usually" do it; but that doesn't mean they can't change their minds and thereby diminish any potential collector value in doing so.




Generally, no new issues are a good buy for "investment purposes". If you figure that there are 144 stamps to each Press Sheet (12 stamps per pane x 12 panes in a press sheet) a quantity of 500 means there are 72,000 stamps with die cuts and another 72,000 stamps without die cuts when purchased in a Press Sheet.

The very reason why the USPS has been reducing Press Sheet runs is because of poor sales, so one can expect that on the secondary market there is not a high demand for the items that would warrant placing a great premium on them in the immediate future.

Of course, speculators may have different ideas, but that is just speculation and hardly a guarantee of any significant profit.

I'm not sure about the print quantity question. Seems to me it indicates the number printed, but maybe someone else can give a more certain answer.

As for buying this for speculative value, I doubt that it will have the kind of attraction that a pop culture item might have. You cannot lose money on it, because it sells for face value, so you could always use it for the value of the stamps, which in this case does have some appreciation value because the stamps are forever stamps. But I wouldn't expect for the value to rise much more than that.

The 2013 Press Sheets for this series was back when Forever Stamps were valued at 45-cents each. Therefore, a pane of 12 was $5.40. At that time, the Press Sheets were issued in quantities of 2500 (both with and without die cuts) but were in Press Sheets of only 9 panes each, for a total of 108 stamps in each Press Sheet with a face value of $48.60. That figures out to be 270,000 stamps of each variety (with and without die cuts).

Incidentally, the 2014 Press Sheets for the series were also issued in quantities of 2500 (both with and without die cuts) but the Forever stamps at that point were valued at 46-cents each. Therefore, a pane of 12 face value was $5.52 and a Press Sheet face value was $49.68.

It is also worthy to note that the 2014 Press Sheets (both with and without die cuts) are still available today, which means the USPS hasn't sold out of the 2500 quantity of each variety more than a year after it was issued, which just goes to show that the demand is just not there. (Of course, if you buy the 2014 Press Sheets today, you do have to pay 49-cents for each stamp, therefore a Press Sheet will cost $52.92 (108 stamps @ $0.49 each).

Thank you for the info

It's entirely possible these will appreciate in value eventually, but the potential - if any - is longer term. These aren't real popular items among today's collectors, but in another generation or two they may become more sought after. There's really no way to know at this point. As with any other kind of stamp, the best reason to buy it is because you like it, which it sounds like you did.

The ones w/o die-cuts that have appreciated thus far are few and far between, about a handful out of maybe 100 in total. And it's not the press sheet per se as very few collect these, it's usually panes/booklets or pairs. Popular subjects, nice designs AND low print quantities help for sure. Something that only appeals to a small percentage of collectors, usually the politically correct issues, don't. Take the Eid press sheet issued in Aug 2013 for example - 500 printed (back then the norm was 2500) - and it's still available:
https://store.usps.com/store/browse...p-collectors
Harry Potter, Inverted Jenny, Made in America, Modern Art in America, Vintage Circus Posters sold out almost instantaneously because these appeal to a wider audience.
These are the ones worth focusing on imho, but that requires a bit of luck sometimes as you cannot necessarily guess the taste of the masses... But let's say there will be an Elvis Music Legends PS with only 500 available, go for it!
The problem is that there are too many new press sheets being issued and that the average collector just doesn't have the money to collect both perf and imperf issues. And why would you? Most collect because they want one of each design and very few, hardcore collectors want everything.

Just look at ebay what kind of year sets sell - usually the cheap ones with half of the stamps missing, mostly definitives because these are often ugly.

But I thought that the people making these decisions were "market savy!"

Which reminds me: I made a formal request to CSAC in December for a commemorative to be issued in 2018 that was never acknowledged. Maybe the subject didn't appeal to the correct interest groups? I think I will resubmit, certified mail, and see what happens.

Another aspect of press sheet un popularity could be their size, the sheet currently under dicussion is 21.97" x 24.055". I don't know about the rest of you all, but I don't have many bookshelves large enough to store whatever type of storage system it would take to perserve them.