Computer Vended Stamps (2012)

Kiosk OFDC SOLD OUT

I phoned the National Philatelic Centre today and was advised that the Kiosk OFDC was no longer available. I wonder how many were produced . The quantity has not been announced.

The 2c stamps same as all low value Canadian definitives have no tagging bars therefore I doubt it was the reason the cover got cancelled.

Unless of course the tagging on the 61c kiosk label set off the MLOCR (multi-line optical character reader) machine
which faces it correctly and then the scanner recognizes the
2c from the image database and voila cancels the envelope.

Slightly off the original topic but the last few posts have a cancel theme. Can any one explain or have a theory as to why so many stamps that pass through the postal system never get cancelled? Is the equipment used to position the envelope prior to being cancelled that hit or miss. I would guess that 60 to 70% of my received mail have stamps that missed receiving the cancel. I have received 2 letters that used stamps from the Kiosk and both missed being cancelled. How many times can a stamp be recycled before it actual gets cancelled?

One theory only is that when you charge enough for other services you do indeed racoup your projected loss incurred when not using the probably most expensive part of the sorting and cancelling process, the ink.

So, for whatever technical reason, perhaps some pices of mail do slip through the cancelling devices.


There are different lines or cancelling manufacturing, so to speak, assembly lines that are fed with mail that is pre-sorted at post offices into to-be-cancelled and not-to-be-cancelled groupings.

When the non-machinable mails have missed out on being cancelled by postal emplyees at plants who are off on their vacations or leaves and the machines are left to catch as catch can with all the mails, then again some pieces are missed by speedy processing, mis-sorting, over-laid envelopes on top of one another, or other reasons not thought of yet.

Most envelopes in newer processing plants worldwide do have a fluorescent bar coding sprayed ink-jet-like upon their fronts and also backs at times. Perhaps this suffices to sort and also prove point of processing to the mostly machine-driven sorting process? Backs of a lot of Canada mails have a last sortation plant two-letter month code at the bar code along with a numeric day stated and then a postal district letter, the first character in a postal code.

Someone just paid 175 US$ for the 0.61$, 1.05$ and 1,80$ stamps (no counting marks). That's a lot!

This is probably the high water mark for this issue. The same vendor was unsuccessful on June 1, 2013 with a $140 starting price. ebay lot 161037582924.

Note that for a few of us, Canadian Philatelist offered some set "abso;utely free" in his Jan 8 post on page 1 of this topic. What an amazing forum we have. Thanks again Canadianphilatelist.

Here's the history on ebay (as far as I could find it) for the original set of three basic values:

It appears that on May 4 someone got a good deal and on May 19 someone paid too much. (screws up the chart, though!) The last one had 5 different bidders so there's still a market out there, but not for more than $130 it seems.
Part of the reason I am posting this is to get my number of posts over 50 so that if someone like Canadianphilatelist makes another offer I can get in on the bonanza! The spirit illustrated by Canadianphilatelist is why I have joined this company. The knowledge and expertise represented here is unparalleled.
In retrospect, the $25 I paid for the first basic three back in January seems all right now but at the time...
Notice also that the other six original values have never been offered though some do appear (tantalizingly) in early posts here.

Thank you for your very kind words!

I will certainly second the thanks and offer my respect for Canadianphilatelist who did, in fact, come to the aid of many who could not possibly get to a vending machine in Canada. Thanks so much.

I went to a Kiosk last week and got a few 63c. Out of 30, 3 were printed with the line mark but upon closer look, the line appears to be a series of dots (not continuous line)
This stamp also shows a black ink dot , right of the 63 denomination.
Finally, I notice that the first 20 stamps the machine printed have a visible continuous scoreline running across the picture, I'll try to get a better scan of a strip of 4 and post here.

Here is a close-up of the "dotted" line

Gilles

I'm writing an article for the Corgi Times (newsletter of the Elizabethan Study Group, under BNAPS) and request permission to use your image of the above 63 cent with the dotted line and a dot.

None of my 63's have the dot and none of my 10 stamps with indicator marks have dotted lines, all are solid lines.

Does anyone else have one/any with dots instead of a solid line?

Edited: spelling error

I have tried to enhance contrast to show the scoreline that appears on some of the stamps. Some strips show a continuous one, another strip of 2 only show the scoreline on half the stamp, pretty much in line with where the punch triangles were appearing on the first set of stamps (before they allowed strips of 2, 3 or 4.

I tried to enhance the contrast for scanned image, as it is best seen looking at the face of the stamp under normal light, but the picture here is a bit too dark to my liking...Sorry about that. I have a better resolution, but at 300K it is too large to port here.
I obtained those from the Toronto TD machine on June 7th, at the TD place concourse

I checked all 3 copies that I have with guide lines, none of them have lines made of dots. All my copies are of the old values.