Collecting New Self-Adhesive Stamps

I apologize in advance for my lack of jargon appropriate to this area of knowledge. Please let me know the right vocabulary when necessary.

I realize that many of the newer stamps, especially permanent ones from Canada Post, come in panes (even rolls) where stamps get peeled off rather than getting cut out of a sheet. Then, when I go to the Scott Catalogue, prices are still listed for individual stamps. Since I find it expensive to get full panes or rolls of these, I do prefer to get the one by one. How do stamp collectors overcome this problem?

Illustrated example: the pane on the right of this image:
https://www.canadapost.ca/assets/im...s_img_lg.jpg

I guess they are buying them from dealers? You can take out a subscription wiht Canada Post or with one of many dealers who run a new issues service.

Peter

I did a bit more reading and I found a procedure called die cutting. Is this process only done by the distributor Canada Post, or do stamp dealers usually also have the means to do it?

I am not sure what you are asking. Die cutting is what the perforation on self-stick stamps are called. Die cutting is part of the manufacture of the stamps and has nothing to do with Canada Post or the stamp dealers.

Peter

Update: Did some more reading. Sorry about the confusion.
The right question is how I should be collecting self-stick stamps, and whether it's at all possible to buy them individually.

If you want one stamp of any particular issue, you can get it by buying the quarterly packs that Canada Post sells. In it you will get one sample of each stamp from the booklet, one each of the coil and one souvenir sheet. Sometimes they also include a pane that is released. A specific stamp that you really want may not be included in the pack, but you should be able to get that at your local post office. Of course, you have to wait until the end of each quarter to get the pack, which could be a bummer if you want stamps as soon as they are released.

I see! The next thing for me to figure out is this:
Some stamps I get from the post office are self-adhesive. I clearly can't mount them conventionally. What are popular ways of storing them?
I did a brief search on this forum and beyond. I saw the mention of talcum powder, but I'm not sure if it affects the value of the stamp? Isn't the substance carcinogenic? I guess this isn't really too big of a problem since self-adhesive stamps aren't worth much nowadays, and I can just stick them onto paper, but I do want to be a bit more creative before using this last resort.

I collect US and if you collect the self-adhesives you will need to get a very sharp knife and learn how to remove. It make some practice to fold it correctly to be sure you get a clean cut. Or, you can remove surrounding stamps and then trim.

In the US, many sheet stamps can be separated into individual stamps since they are die cut through the line. The real challenge is the booklet stamps since they are on both sides of the backing. If it is a multi-design issue, it may just be best to mount the entire booklet. Or you can remove the stamps from the backside and then remove.

As you said in the end most stamps will not be worth much so may not matter that much.

There are die cut perforated stamps sold in booklet and coil formats, meaning that the stamp has a simulated perforation (booklet) or serpentine perforation (coil).

As Canada Post uses the UPC code on a booklet or full coil roll for it's internal inventory system, Canada Post will not allow the sale of a single (or multiple) stamp from the booklet or coil. It has also starting doing this for select panes of stamps. It is the inventory system sales methodology that prevents young collectors from joining or staying with the hobby. They simply can not buy complete booklets, panes or coil rolls to obtain a single mint stamp and are restricted to obtaining used postage stamps.

In the Annual Collectors Pack and the Quarterly Packs, Canada Post will include one stamp if the issue was produced only in booklet or coil form. The stamp is "Die Cut" meaning that the printer pushed the cutting die right through the (Booklet issue) stamp and it's booklet backing paper or (Coil issue) through the stamp and the coil backing strip. This is a different collecting variety apart from a stamp removed from a booklet or coil purchased by a collector and is catalogued at double the value of a single stamp removed by the collector.

If the same stamp comes in Souvenir sheet format, Canada Post generally includes the souvenir sheet instead of die cut stamps, and especially when the souvenir sheet contains two or more different stamps.

Solution for buying a single "Permanent" face value booklet stamp:

Buy an entire booklet. Carefully peel off the paper surrounding the stamps. Move the stamps around so that you safely move a single stamp to a stand-alone location that. Now carefully cut it from the booklet leaving a backing paper border all around the stamp without damaging it or other stamps and use the balance for postage.


Solution for buying a single "Permanent" face value coil stamp:

Ask your local Postmaster or clerk if they will sell you a single face value $1.00 stamp (which they are allowed to remove from a coil roll regardless of the inventory requirement) and exchange it for a "Permanent" stamp on the coil roll which they have in stock. If they agree, they will hand you the coil "Permanent" stamp you require and replace it in the coil roll with the $1.00 coil stamp that you have purchased. You or the Post Office must have either a piece of "booklet" or "coil" backing paper depending on which stamp you are acquiring. In this way, the future purchaser of the full coil roll will have one irregular stamp (face value of $1,00) and may wonder why but care less as it had no effect on his/her cost or usage. You paid $1.00 plus FST/HST/RST (in Ontario $1.13) for a "Permanent" stamp" that would have cost $0.85 plus FST/HST/RST (in Ontario $0.96).

Otherwise, buy a strip of 4 or 10 coil stamps directly from Canada Post.

I have corrected some of the wording in the second last paragraph.

BlackJag,
Thank you for the detailed advice. To me, strips of 4 are pretty reasonable. I use postage quite a lot so it's not a big problem.
From now on I will also make sure that I am getting water-activated gum souvenir sheet instead of self-adhesive stamps whenever possible.

Be very careful of the response given by 'BlackJag' (or else I am not understanding his suggestion).

The Unitrade catalogue states in the introduction that "The prices shown in the NH-VF column for self-adhesive stamps are for stamps on the original backing paper, as issued (i.e. undisturbed)."

If you follow the advice implied by 'BlackJag' ("safely move a single stamp to a stand-alone location") you will be creating a 'disturbed' stamp, which, by definition, is no longer 'mint' (mint is defined as: 'as issued, not disturbed'). Moving a self-adhesive stamp to either a different location of the backing paper or to a completely different backing paper is definitely not a stamp 'as issued'.

The 'disturbed' stamp is still suitable for postage but is now far less collectible.

We probably do not really kno hat the backing paper does to the stamp in the long run. Blackjag's solution is at this point in time very reasonable.

Peter

For the difficult US self-adhesive stamps, as from a booklet, I remove the stamp and stick in on an archival quality bit of cellophane, as in the front of a stamp envelope that many dealers use. Thin I trim the cellophane fairly close to the stamp. When stamp is mounted, you don"t notice the cellophane. I don't like it when dealers sell mint stamps on white paper.

Don

Very interesting discussion here. I thought about the issue of the backing paper a bit and I think that there might be a bit of precedent to follow. Let me know if I'm thinking in the right way.
I find that stamps from Canada Post nowadays get released in both self-adhesive and gum-activated souvenir sheets. As Peter mentioned, we don't know what removing the self-adhesive stamps will do to their long-term values. But to me, isn't this the equivalent of removing single stamps from a gum-activated souvenir sheet? I borrowed a copy of the 2017 Unitrade from the library and it seems that the difference between a full sheet and individual stamps is obvious only when the stamp is scarce or rare. In this logic, cutting out or shifting the self-adhesive stamps as proposed by BlackJag, for the really new stamps, will cause only a small percentage of decrease in potential value, but not a lot. Is this a fair observation?

This is what I do. When the us came out a few years back with stamps of the USA on a coil. I did buy the whole coil. I really only needed on stamp of each and then a strip of 4 if I remember right.

Now I did not want a full roll of coils but I timed it when I needed to buy stamps for postage. Then what I did was the the stamp in front and behind the stamp I needed. This gave me enough room to cut the stamp from the roll. I simply peeled both stamps which left the stamp I needed still on the backing with room on each side. Of course t1h3 peeled stamps were used for postage. Now I do not know if this would work on Candain coil but I think it would. The only down size was buying the full roll up front. But in the end I didn't need to buy stamps for postage for awhile.0

stampquestion - please advise where in Unitrade it discusses the backing paper on self-adhesive booklet stamps. I've read the 18 pages of the 2017 Unitrade "Introduction" and do not see anything dealing with this subject.

Perhaps Robin Harris may offer an opinion on this subject for clarity.

Although I understand the concern, I do not agree that a stamp removed from a booklet and placed either elsewhere on the same booklet's backing paper or another booklet's backing paper can have any effect on the mint condition of the stamp as nothing has been disturbed (colour, image, size or glue). It would be difficult or time consuming to verify that the correct section of the backing paper is attached to any self-adhesive booklet stamp, unless it was a very valuable stamp, which is unlikely for modern era issues.

mkfarm - I do the same thing - remove a stamp before and after the one or ones that I want for my collection.