2019 Transcontinental Railroad Suprise (To Me)

Linn's a few issues ago, mentioned that during the first day issue event of the Transcontinental RR issue (3 stamps), there was a souvenier booklet sold at the Frist Day site!
Not having attended, I researched it further. You can purchse this special commenorative boxed book set through the USPS Philatelic office.
The set consists of a Nice box that it comes in, a book on the RR at that time, one sheet of the stamp issue, and 6 proof color sheets that went to make up the full color issued version, and a Certificate of Authenticity of the proof sets.

Price is up there at $79.95, but for the collector that needs more this is a no brainer purchase. USPS Item number 570429.

I reccomend it (being a train freak and a stamp collector) as a sound purchase. There aren't a lot of these available, so go for it.
If you don't like it, don't blame me, I do.

"There aren't a lot of these available"

Have they said how many? I thought they were supposed to be getting out of the limited edition business.

I don't know. but there is 1 less available now that I have one. I would imagine that in the next USPS quarterly sales booklet, they might list this item. Yes, one can go down to the PO and get a sheet of the stamp, but if you want the whole shabang, call KC.

PoStat4evR,

I'm a train freak too but am going to take a pass on this one. Look at past pricing history on these so called USPS "collectables".

Jack Kelley

I don't wish to step on toes and hijack this thread, but wasn't sure where best to share this FDC card, courtesy a railfan I know who went out to Utah for the Big Boy/Spike activities.

Notice, though, it was not from Promontory Summit (84307) but Ogden UT (84403). I am not familiar with the area and need to ask him why he chose that specific PO.

Nells250: My guess is that Ogden is the closest large PO that could handle this event. There is NOT a lot of stuff out there in the fool Great Salt Lake that could act as a PO! So, Ogden wins "cause it is closest" ! Just my theory.

AHA! Now that we know that, I took a WikiPeek:

"Ogden is the closest sizable city to the Golden Spike location at Promontory Summit, Utah, where the First Transcontinental Railroad was joined in 1869. It was known as a major passenger railroad junction owing to its location along major east–west and north–south routes, prompting the local chamber of commerce to adopt the motto, 'You can't get anywhere without coming to Ogden'."

ALSO: https://web.archive.org/web/20130307014543/http://www.ogdencity.com/en/about_o...history.aspx

Wow, Ogden has STRANGE borders! Military related? Looks like a railfan's dream, too!

While I don't advocate these overpriced collectibles unless you can find them on the third-party market (i.e., don't be the first person to buy it, be the second or third and let someone else take the retail hit), I wholeheartedly recommend the stamps themselves.

I don't buy many new issues, as I always have an overflow of discount postage. Those that I do purchase are of vintage designs that align with my appreciation of collectibles. For example, I love the Classics Forever sheets.

I wasn't planning to buy these train stamps, but when I was at the post office on Friday, the clerk had sheets of these out on the counter for people to look at and I was surprised how they look compared to the USPS renderings. What the stock images fail to convey is the embossed gold file of the frames. They really make the vintage look "pop". They definitely have that old west feel to them.

I took some cellphone pics to try and capture the reflective nature of the foil. Sorry for the glare; comes with the territory:

Those stamps are awfully beautiful compared to most, there is a guy on ebay selling them in sets of 3 for anyone interested, search "best stamps international"