Do You Prefer Collecting Used Or Unused Ultra-Modern Stamps In 2022?

This number came right off the USPS site, it made no mention of individual production for panes and coils. That is kind of unintentionally misleading in my opinion for USPS to give a production number of 10 million then. Whether it is a stamp off a pane or a coil, its still the same to me. I guess I learned something today, lol.

According to the December 1, 2022 Postal Bulletin, issue quantities for the Red Fox are:

10 million in panes of 20
15 million in coils of 3000
75 million in coils of 10000

The red fox stamp has an interesting background. https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...ed-fox-stamp. Might be hard to find postally used ones. I can't come up a reason for a non bulk mailer to use them (other than they are kinda cute) https://about.usps.com/newsroom/nat...for-2023.htm

I'm getting a few, and I could help with creating a few postally-used examples.

(I'm sorry to have to say) if you're in the U.S., email me through the system and I'll send one to the first five responses who need a postally-used example. (Obviously, you're going to need to share your contact info.)

(I'm sorry to have to say) you need to have fifty quality posts for this operation.

This is subject to USPS fulfilling my pre-order. I don't expect any issues.

Excuse my ignorance - but I have never heard of ultra-modern stamps. Why use the word "ultra?" Please define.

Well, broadly speaking, "classic" ends in 1900 at the latest, "middle" ends with WWII and "modern" is everything after, so sub-division may be helpful.

Agreed. My "modern used US" collection covers 1935 to about 2000. I like the term "ultra-modern" to cover the more recent period of self-adhesives and spray-on cancels. I collect mostly used stamps, it gets too expensive to subsidize the post office with buying sheets of every new issue.
It is also a lot more fun and challenging to find nice-looking cleanly used copies of the 'ultra-moderns'. For the self-adhesives, I collect them on-paper on Hagner stock pages rather than a typical album.

However, there are plenty of folks who use 1914 or 1940 as the end of Classic. I don't actually care that much because I collect all eras, but I admit I was a little perplexed over "ultra," which in my go-to dictionary carries meanings of "extreme," "extremist," "trans" (ulltraviolet), "super" and "beyond what is ordinary, proper or moderate" - I just didn't connect it to stamps. basically. I think you mean "contemporary" or perhaps, "21st century."

But, no matter what or how you collect or what you call it, the main thing is to enjoy.

Just to be trendy, I call very modern "Uber-Modern".

I think that there are no firm definitions of these philatelic time periods, everyone uses whatever they like.
Don

As a baby boomer who started collecting pre high school when introduced by a friend. I prefer used because it reflects the end of a journey, mission accomplished as it were. A few mint examples I would save from now or long ago simply for artistic merit. of course find a used example of many recent U.S. for example is a lot more challenging than in decades past.

mention was made of tens of millions. that is missing the point. it is not the numbers that were issued but the numbers that made it to the mails and what of those mails was recovered. when you had many in US culture in 1950s sitting in lockbox offices clipping tons of stamps off mail, you will get a certain supply, abundantly shall we say. Now jump ahead 70 years and change mail volume drastically down, and shredding envelopes for privacy drastically up. still think 10s of millions starting out is as plentiful as 200 million starting out? the wildcard I will grant is Demand. certainly a lot more collectors wanting some of those 200 million used in 1950s and 1960s versus today. (But us population has more than doubled in same time hasn't it, so maybe will be harder to pin down just what is the Demand dynamic now compared to over half century ago. but I don't think it can be argued the used supply is anywhere comparable.)

Interesting argument. Based on my experience, if you order a decent (recent) used mixture not more than a couple of times a year you will get many multiplies of virtually all commemoratives and booklet singles.

Not very likely that any stamp that is issued in the millions will ever become truly scarce. There could be exceptions, of course. The higher denominated stamps are always tough. But you only need one nice used example for your collection...

John

John - true but finding used commemoratives is good shape can be tougher. And as has been said some of the higher denomination stamps are tougher to find as well as used high denomination even harder to find. My hunch is that those commemoratives which the USPS sold online for a truncated period of time and didn't supply too much to post offices may be come somewhat scarce in very good used condition. Also scarce are used Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps starting in 2008 in very good shape --- especially if off paper. But as you imply nothing astronomical unless there is an error.

Here is a theoretical question from someone who doesn't care too much about keeping new stamps.

I use the newest stamps on my stamp mailings and usually on my office mail (at least those that don't get fractional, discount postage), and if I have occasion to go to the post office, I'll have the clerk hit the mail with our local handstamp. There are only three employees, and two think it's neat, and one makes a face.

I recognize that this handwork is almost by definition "philatelic" even though we're talking about legitimate business usage.

So, to the collectors of the very new stamps, would you like to get the red handstamp on a quarter of the stamp, or would you prefer to get the sprayed cancel, or no cancel at all, being more-correctly reflective of current postal practices?

Thank you Cjd for keeping the fun going! For me the key is to have the date on the stamp, so one can keep track of it being used when it was available. the circular cancels are the best. for modern US I have a bit of paper around the stamp to include the whole cancel. Imperf modern US commemoratives used during the time of availability would be very rare, but is there a demand?

Back in the 1970's when se-tenant issues began to come out, I tried to get them attached and cancelled in the year issued. I got a few, then expanded time to within 1 year of issue and got a few more. But eventually gave up when I could not even buy them from dealers anymore as time frames exceeded my limits.

So Cjd, I agree with Landoquakes, a CDS on the stamp would make many a collector happy.