I'm Done With Current Material At Year End

Geoff,

We're saving our pennies and hope to make it next year. Stay tuned!

Jack

I get the feeling the USPS stamp people are driven by artists based upon some of their designs and subject selection. The Coral reef and frogs stamps are too cartoonish.

I'm not sure I follow. Because the Postal Service didn't issue a moon landing stamp you find attractive, you're so upset that you're not going to collect modern U.S. stamps anymore? Maybe instead, you could give new issues a rest for awhile and then resume later?

There are a whole bunch of new issues I think are really stupid -- cartoon characters and other nonsense. But I still buy the stamps. Have you ever tried to collect modern Japan? It's un-be-liev-able how the Japanese postal service manages to issue one un-be-liev-ably nonsensical cartoon or kewpie doll stamp after another. But apparently that's what people want. You just have to persevere - if you want to collect modern stamps.

If you really don't want to, however, then just don't. No one is really going to care, least of all the U.S. Postal Service.

Yep, the dismal moon landing issue was the last straw. Obviously if I've collected this far it did not take many quality issues to keep me buying the drek too, but as of this month the USPS signal-to-noise ratio finally became too poor.

who will miss your business.

Another thing not mentioned on this thread is the question of long term discoloration which can occur due to the self adhesives being used. This could be another reason to avoid collective these stamps. Some advocate removing the adhesive prior to placing the stamp in the album. But this has pitfalls too, given the quantity of stamps involved and the potential damage adhesive removal can cause.

Jack Kelley

Since I started ordering stamps via the USPS website 5 years ago, there are 5 or 6 issues that I have saved for my collection out of the 119 I've ordered.

Whether the above "qualifies" me as a collector or not I don't concern myself with. I simply got bored with only using whichever design the ordering person decided on and took matters into my own hands.

I admit some of the designs this year are lacking design wise. These I may pass on altogether since now it appears anything under a full pane has been eliminated from the website.

Bottom line: I have been extremely selective on the issues I save.

-MV

I have the same feeling about stamps issued here in South Africa, I stopped buying new issues in 1990, I now only buy the issues that are on my topics.

My take on this: I pretty much ground my collecting to a halt when the self adhesive stamps became the norm. Engraved stamps bit the dust and it was all modern stamps. If I were king of the postal service I would issue engraved and non-self adhesive for ever. ButI figured that I would never be the king of the postal dept. so around 2012 I started collecting again and realized that the modern pop culture stamps, the photo images etc were the stamps of the current and future generations and my grandkids will look back at these stamps of today and think about their childhood history and with fond memories that pertain to their generation. Although the history in the current stamps is fairly recent, the colors of the flowers, the birds, the landscapes and the pop culture are something that I may never have had the opportunity to explore to the depths that I do and it is because of todays stamps that I get to see the world I might have missed. In the end I am coming to appreciate the current stamps and releases more and more each day.

I don't understand why the USPS does not choose a small selection of stamps each year to print in limited quantities. I believe that would help maintain the interest in the hobby and bring in new collectors.

Chris

As I mentioned in another thread, 2019 will be my last year for US stamps. USPS began to lose me with the move to self-adhesives, although I have to agree that the subject matter of many if not most contemporary US stamps leaves a lot to be desired. I'll continue my focus on US classics and postal history, using the resources I would have spent on modern US issues to improve my collection. At least that's the goal. I do agree with ccrider that if USPS could concentrate on fewer, better designed issues, there might be more interest. But I doubt very much they care about our opinions on this question.

The USPS has had multiple issues in the past few years that you could only get by mail-order -- at least the post offices in my neighborhood never stocked them, and philatelic counters aren't really a thing anymore. "Limited issues" that you can't find at the post office do not bring in new collectors, since they will never be exposed to them.

The USPS behaves like other companies trying to reduce cost. They reduce inventory and customer service and that can make the problem worse.

My belief is that the more unpopular and limited printings done, the higher the likelihood of future value increases. I believe when folks give up collecting, is exactly the time to start.

I have little interest in most modern U.S. stamps. In general I started losing interest when the move to self-adhesives happened. The "cancellation" of modern stamps via Sharpie also detracts.

As a general worldwide collector my rough cutoff is 1973. I have plenty of stamps from after this time that will find a home in my albums at some point.

Dale