Zazzle.com Stamps? A New Twist To Stamp Collecting?

I think this stamp is one that was custom ordered through Zazzle.com and I am wondering if it, or any like them are of inerest to collectors. Welcome to the 21st century where you can soon get your own picture on a stamp of any value you want, as if there are not enough variations already. LOL

These type of stamps (personalised stamps) have been around for almost 25 years. Initially, you could have your picture applied on a tab, Later, the picture has been incorporated in the stamps themselves.



By the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague.

The problem with these is that anyone can order them as they like, so the number of designs becomes immense. Completion is only possible if you are Elon Musk - before he bought Twitter.

Just as a note: The US doesn't do these custom stamps any longer (through Zazzle, Stampsdotcom, etc). Canada recently stopped doing custom orders as well.

My chihuahua thought he was world famous when I had him on a custom Canadian stamp for my grandkids.

Ken

You can always order stamps with your chihuahua from Spain

https://filatelia.correos.es/es/es/...rsonalizados

I've learned here that anything is collectible: Post office posters, post office uniforms, meat stamps, tobacco stamps (are there tampon stamps?), envelopes, cancelations, mail routes, addresses, and any other ephemera.

So, personalized stamps being a young field, 25 years, maybe it is the right time to start collecting, and it can evolve in many directions, forming its own rules:
PPS (personalized postage stamps) by topic, by design, young Einsteins before they got famous, and so on.

The goal can be different too: Not finding all 15,000 Chinese "Great wall" revenue stamps variations, but rather looking for varieties in these stamps in various ways. PPS might be the first collection category where the goal won't be to get all of them.

Thanks, @NHK! I will look at that... and I like looking through new issues in general. The chihuahua will be pleased as he is convinced this is part of his "branding" campaign to become a social media sensation....

Ken

For example, in Israel there are 16 different sheets, made of 16 regular domestic stamps, where the personalized pic appears on a tab attached horizontally to the stamp.
If you buy all 16 sheets and don't add a picture, you have all of Israel's MNPPPS (Mint never personalized - personalized postage stamps).

Yes. While I don't chase the US versions, I have saved what I have received, especially from friends. Departed friends, for me, makes the item a little more person in interest.

That said I have been known to get most or many of the Judo and martial arts personalized stamps issued from Japan for my topical collection.

The truth is that I am an expert on personalized stamps.
Expert relative to the average philatelist.

The bad news is that Canada, UK and USA no longer offer the program for designing your own personalized stamps, or "tabs of stamps".

The good news is that there still are about 60 OTHER countries who do.

I designed over 150 stamps in 4 countries.

Maxicard with my giant panda personalized stamp from Zazzle, postmarked in 2016.

Wasn't it the Canada program that was generating silly money on ebay five or six years ago?

I don't know anything about them, and I don't have any, except BeeSee sent me a couple stamps several years back, and I'm very happy to have them, now.

I think these fall in the category of "They put a smile on my face, so I like them." I'll be surprised if they're collectable 20 years from now. But if you like them, they don't need to be.

Israel has made similar items, but there is no limit to picture possibilities so its impossible to get a complete collection! Also catalogues may vary but are likely to list only the basic stamp.
Each stamp may only have a few made with a picture... does this make them rare and expensive?

Most personalised stamps issued by PostNL use the frames of 'ordinary' stamps. The NVPH Speciale Catalogus lists the ordinary issues. After each such issue, there is a text box explaining the frame was used for personalised stamps.

NVPH also publishes a catalogue of such stamps that lists all such personalised stamps issued by or in conjunction with or sold by PostNL and its predecessor, TNTPost, as well as those issued by Hallmark.

It does not catalogue other personalised stamps, i.e., those ordered by the public using there own pictures.

TNTPost started issuing personalised stamps in 2006. Before that year, it issued stamps with personalised tabs.

That's why I said that PPS might need to be collected by different guidelines, and those stamps that are based on ordinary stamps with a tab for personalized pictures might be an easy and manageable starting point.
Besides, at least with the Israeli PPS, if I understood right, the tab itself has no specific postage stamp characteristics, besides the perforation, so it will make less than a Cinderella by itself. Unless you are a tab collector.


Here the collector can focus on those frames, rather than seek as many personal pictures as possible.

American Barn Owl personalized stamp that I designed at Zazzle.

Japan also does a great many personalized stamps.



While it would be impossible to get a full set and maddening to try, I think that PPS has the potential to be great fun for topical collectors. Extra super frustrating when you lose an auction for one you really want though, since in all likelihood you will never run across the same one again (no need to ask me how I know this).