Low Production Amount Planned For Upcoming Floral Geometry $10 Stamps - Consequences?

As I have written on other threads the USPS and Postal Bulletin offer invaluable details about their upcoming and past stamp issues. I discovered at the USPS site that the amount of $10 Floral Geometry stamps planned to be produced is quite low for the USPS - 500,000. This is an amount I would expect for Canada or smaller countries. You can find the info here - https://store.usps.com/store/produc...reinfofooter

I wonder if the USPS plans to discontinue this denomination as the $1 and $2 stamps are being produced at a healthy19 million each.

Also in regard to another topic I posted, does anyone find much postally used $10 stamps? I would think the new $10 will be scarce postally used as more people will hold them than use them and the general public except those who enjoy stamps and send out many packages will not use them.

For myself, I may now get 2 blocks of 4 rather than 1 not sure. But I am definitely getting 1 block of 4.

What are your thoughts?

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

First off, there is nothing that says they can't print more as needed.

In the scheme of things, it won't get used much at all. I would guess that most of the parcels that could use a $10 stamp would get meters or coded labels. The $1s and $2s would be used a lot, so the issue amounts aren't out of bounds for those.

As for used, how many unscraped, non-pen cancelled or non-smudge cancelled copies will exist? The $10s will be used for philatelic mail, perhaps more for international packages. So a lot of people would suspect nice neat cancels off-paper (off-cardboard?) as being favor cancels.

Most post offices I go to are still sitting on too many sheets of Liberty hfv stuff. I went to my local PO and asked for the 40c fox and my trusted clerk said the USPS wasn't sending them anything --basically a lie since other post offices in the area are well stocked. I figure their orderer is just lazy or out of office. People buy what they see so if a post office don't got nothing people don't buy nothing

As others have said, the demand for a US $ stamp for postal use will be low. The design is also so-so in my book.

Many (most?) will go to collectors, including me. I will definitely buy a block.

They'll print more if there's a need, so I wouldn't go crazy buying them as pure speculation.

I use $1 and $2 stamps almost every day on letter-sized international mailings, so there's a real need for those denominations. Even a $5 stamp could see use on letter mail depending on weight and destination, or additional services. As has been mentioned, the $10 rate is most practical for parcels, nearly all of which are going to be mailed using printed labels rather than stamps. If the USPS did discontinue the $10 stamp, I don't think it would be missed all that much.

$5 used on my Philatelic Bulletins San Antonio to Perth Australia

DD/MM/YR
31.8.2020 $4 +additional ounce
4.5.2021 $4 + additional ounce
26.8.2022 $4+ two ounce
17.1.2023 $5

IN regard to the $10 Floral Geometry stamp, it went off-sale in February 2025. Therefore no additional quantities were produced from the planned 500,000. Therefore, the USPS may either sit on it for a few years or discard the unsold items. Nevertheless, it seems that it will be one of the better high value stamps to acquire - especially if used for non-philatelic purposes.

Where did you get the information that the $10 Floral Geometry stamp is off-sale?

It's still listed in the latest USA Philatelic catalog and is still available for purchase on the USPS website.

https://store.usps.com/store/produc...mps-S_122604

Less material to show up on the after market as 30% face discount postage. Now non-philatelic correct usages will be tough to find and in 10-20 years will still carry a premium.

Most of the stock will sell to collectors and speculators, so the low printing rate but high percentage retention rate will temper the costs of a mint copy down the road.

Just an FYI: this issue may just have been withdrawn from local post offices and sent back to the fulfillment center for special order. the high $ dollar value hits against the local
's accountability cap & prevents them from ordering lower value issues for stock.

Okay it is MY fault - I misread the Linn stamp article and the notice from Oneco Post Office --- it is the Gray $10 Waves of Color stamp from 2012 that is going off sale. The production amount that had been planned for this stamp was 10 million which makes the $10 Floral Geometry stamp planned production of 500,000 downright scarce in comparison.

My apologies for the error of mixing up these two stamp series.

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamp...ale-march-31

AS an aside, what IS interesting is how quickly the USPS is going to pull off-sale the Priority and Priority Mail stamps from 2024 - end of March 2025.

Whenever this subject comes up, I think of the Stamp Smarter feature that Don created. The US Zeppelins C13-15 had issue quantities of 93,536, 72,428 and 61,296 respectively. The chart below shows the catalog values through the years adjusted for inflation.

Granted, the first jump from face value may be attractive but these modern dollar value stamps are never going to have the cache and mythical status attached to them that the Zeppelins do along with the Columbians and Trans-Mississippi's. And 500,000 is actually not a small quantity. For the US maybe, but keep in mind that many Countries only print stamps in that range normally.

The following were all MNH sold by afewgoodstamps (<<<ebay ID)

eBay item numbers:

396288426204 #2942 $14.00 -- Sold today at $14.00
405616037226 #2875 $8.00 BEP S/S -- Sold today at $16.65
396288420888 #2542 $9.95 Man on Moon -- Sold today at $9.50
396288430522 #2541 $9.95 Red Olympic Eagle -- Sold today at $12.39
396288408221 #1909 single $9.35 Eagle and Moon -- Sold today at $10.00
405596498671 #5707a Full Sheet $14.60 -- Sold 3-9-25 at $3.25

On the other end of the face value scale:
396263994454 #2966 Full Sheet $6.40 Sold 3-9-25 at $0.01 <<< no typo, it is one cent
396263989763 #1031A Full Sheet $1.25 Sold 3-9-25 at $2.22
396263987197 #1451 Full Sheet $2.00 Sold 3-9-25 at $2.25
396263982362 #1005 Full Sheet (Has a 4 leaf clover) $1.50 Sold 3-9-25 at $3.25

Edited to add: No matter what the listings say, regular repeat customers get free shipping.
So, after eBay's take the only item which realized over face value to the seller was the BEP S/S. The #2541 may hit face after costs but no guarantee. Also to correct the dates from the 10th to the 9th because last Sunday was the 9th.

Appreciate the sobering stats although I think the Stampstarter chart is the most informative to me as it shows the rise to the early1980's bubble in the stamp market.

As for the prices of items sold on ebay, if they were auctions and starting price was set well below face, the seller always runs the risk of being lowballed. If the seller accepts the offer then they are likely just trying to clear out stock. I would never post stamps as an auction unless I absolutely need to clear them out (an urgent move, end of life are examples where I would see this need).
Also, any seller offering stamps so far below face value has me question where they got them and their authenticity. I would rather pay for something close to face value in most cases. If I do buy something well-below face value I will contact the seller. So far only one seller did I do this and the person was in their 80's and selling private post stamps as well as USPS stamps well below face value because he had no one interested in his collection and likely could not get to a dealer.

My closing thought is that if one is willing to hold onto modern stamps since 1990 or 2101 onward, some may do far better than we think today just because so many are being off-loaded cheap, used, or simply discarded. TO me that means good examples of modern stamps may become quite scarce in a few decades. The trick of course is to find a heir or club that would continue to keep them. For now, I think they are some modern series that are undervalued and will remain so for some time.

My closing quesiton is - does anyone have material showing what Zeppelins sold on the collector before 1950?

Seller afewgoodstamps starts everything at $0.01 and only does auctions. He closes 290-425 lots every Sunday and sometimes has auctions close on Tuesday as well. Those Tuesday items are usually always postal card or post cards or related areas.

Why last Sunday the 9th was "off" I don't have a reason for it and I too did not even look at his material nor bid that Sunday. I was up to my eyeballs dealing with two new puppies. Normally most of the mint sheets he lists cost the buyers face or higher with sales taxes (in the states that do such a thing) and shipping.

Only certain wedding invitation mint stamps consistently sell well above face (at times multiples) to wedding planners until the next set is better than the earlier sets they prefer to use.

He, afewgoodstamps, buy the mint material at well below face as part of large collection and holding purchases.

Currently the whole sale market buy price for selling bulk US postage INCLUDING forever stamps is 30% in full panes/sheets and 20-25% for less than full sheets/panes. Does not matter it it is $100, $1000 or $10,000 total face. Now 6-8 months ago that market was running 40% of face. For the few items which trade for more, you need to check the buy prices listed by dealers to issue such. Henry Gitner maintains a buy list for US (an other areas) mint postage.

Pre-1950 collectors could get the four Zep stamps at face value from the USPOD. However those collector are 98% dead now. After they went off sale there was no major premium for them for a number of years. If John Becker see this or is contacted directly her should have old Scoot US Specialized cats to give you the prices as then listed.

What needs to be collected if one is hope to make some small amount of money is proper commercial usages of high (for the period) face value retained on cover or other mail piece. See here: http://goscf.com/t/88963&whichpage=1#823533 for a thread I am slowly building.

Edit: I can understand holding 1990 new issues in hope of seeing appreciation but no read of this forum will be holding the 2101 new issues for any useful period of time if around to purchase them.

Post seen,
The challenge with Don's Zeppelin value chart is that it doesn't reflect the changes in Scott with regard to hinged status or the grade which Scott values during a particular era. I had looked up some additional older data for him, but it did not get incorporated into the chart on the StampSmarter site. To be "valid" across the span of years it needs some footnoting. I don't see that file at the moment.

A agree with Parcelpostguy, the better "investment" is to locate (or captively create) contemporary uses of these higher value stamps.