Informal Poll: 2 Quick Questions For Everyone

Only a couple of first class mail in the average month, but 40 or so at the holidays and various packages throughout the year. I only use old stamps, 5c to 39c. I have enough postage from my mother to last a few lifetimes. She liked to buy plate blocks and sheets of the commeratives as they were issued.

I usually mail about a dozen pieces per month. Sometimes I use FOREVER stamps, at other times I use a mix of older stamps, and still other times a postcard rate stamp with some smaller denominations (both recent & old) ... probably in a ratio of about 7 to 5 in favor of the FOREVERs.

1. On average, about two per month.

2. Sometimes older stamps, sometimes Forever stamps that interest me topically. I haven't even dipped into my stock of John Lennons yet.

Interestingly, although I have a ton of old postage going back to the 1930's in the form of old sheets and plate blocks, when I have a letter to mail, which might be 3 or 4 times a month, I use forever stamps even understanding that the old unused postage, like the 1944 3 cent violet transcontinental RR stamp is only worth face value or less. These were beautiful stamps regardless to value and somehow breaking up a block or sheet seems somehow sacrilegious to me given that they are still intact 75 years later. Silly I recognize but those emotions are part of what drew me to the hobby originally in the early 1960's.

#1 3-10 letters/bills, 2-4 packages

#2 Always use older stamps, unless someone gifts me current stuff

I use almost no stamps. Being in Japan, I can't use my US postage, so I tend to sell off postal lots. When I ship international these days, they put a printed frank on, and that's that...
I can request them to use "stamps", but sometimes $75 in stamps on a small box won't fit... so I just take what the Yubinkyoku (that's Japanese for "post office") gives me.

1. Use 2 to 4 per month.
2. Try to use older stamps, but it's getting harder to do so as the postage rate increases -- sometimes it takes too many older stamps to get up to the postage rate. But I will combine older ones with Forevers for international mail.

This thread has been very telling as far as how the volume of first class mail has decreased with the advent of online just about everything.

1 - I Like most mail about 5-8 items/month. I recent months I've tried to make more of an effort to mail more bills than pay online.

2 - I use almost exclusively new commemoratives. Mostly because I don't have many older stamps to use, but more importantly, I feel using current stamps creates the postal history of tomorrow.

About 20 a month and we only use new commemorative's, hopefully someone will get them for a collection. Just yesterday a colleague gave me an envelope with a John Lennon stamp on it!

1. Average 5 per month

2. U.S. Stamped Envelopes with occasional small denom. postage stamps.

1 I only pay major bills by mail...probably the only one is paying the rates bill (property taxes). I prefer the flexability of three or four random payments than 10 x monthly payments.
2 In North of Ireland very few post offices stock commemorative stamps. And even "regional stamps" are difficult to find. THey have basic value stamps which are supplemented by computerised labels.

1. 4- 6 per month
2. older stamps with denominations on them. They keep loosing value so I try to use them up.

"They keep loosing value so I try to use them up."

Good point and strategy billresh! It is a lot easier to do with the 10c to 32c stamps than it is with those 3 centers.

1. 4-8 per month.
2. When I can, I like to provide stamps for the occasion. My distant cousin in UK recently passed, and he (when very young) ran an LCM ashore at Normandy on D-Day. So I got some stamps with that topic. I send Republican pres stamps on the Democratic 'surveys', and Lyndon Johnson on the Republican. One hard and fast rule, is I musn't overfrank, have to hit the number.
Cheers. Great Question.