U S Postal Service New Output

Many of you know that I have collected coins for over 70 years. I have recently cut back on new issues because there are too many coming out. You may not know that I have been collecting U S Postage Stamps for the same time period. I quit collecting in 2002 because, as I feel the US Mint is issuing ballast, the U S Postal Service is issuing wallpaper. I feel that I have 90% of all U S Postage stamps issued. These are stored in 3 U S Stamp albums.

Album #1 covers from 1847 to 1975
Album #2 covers from 1976 to 1995
Album #3 covers from 1996 to 2002 (when I quit)

Following are photos where I try to show the variations in thickness. You should be able to see that the first album covering 128 years is much thinner than the second which covers 20 years. And, then the third which covers only 6 or 7 years is much thicker than the second.

The US Government services are manufacturing more fodder than I want to deal with. I will keep working with my collections trying to upgrade my content and presentation. But, I will not start any new release after I finish those started.

 

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Wow! A picture really is worth a thousand words, isn't it?

Your assessment of the sins of the US Mint and USPS are spot on. I've never done business with the mint and have zero interest in ever starting. Fortunately, I never got the stamp bug, so no problem there.

Hey, you know who I recently learned was really into stamps? FDR!

 

Yeh, FDR bugged the heck out of the POD to keep issuing new stamps.

 

As a retired postal worker I can assure you that you are correct. People that use postage stamps like the different themes so the more they produce the more they can sell. That's managements theory. Looks like a great collection.

I used to collect postage stamps myself but when they started producing self-stick stamps I stopped. They killed that market very fast. You had to buy a book of 20 in order to get the one you needed.

I managed my office for a number of years and it pained me when customers would come in and weight a small package or a large envelope and ask how much. They didn't want us to add postage as they opened their stamp albums and started licking and sticking postage stamps. I understood why but it was hard to watch.

 

There are a few stamps that show FDR working on his collection.

 

I stay in contact with the stamp collecting community. There are a lot of collectors, me included, that are using their excess for general postage. I use mine mostly for Christmas Cards. I try to pull extras from different themes and may even put more on than is needed. I hate it. But, they are not worth anymore than what they were issued for.

I really did hate to stop but it just got to be impossible to keep up with. It wasn't the budget as much as it was so many stamps and so many variations (self-stick, booklet, full panes, mini-panes, coils).

 

Your last paragraph says it all and that's exactly what I hear from other collectors.

 

There's definitely a lot of new stamps but some of them are very nice too. I use a lot of stamps anyway so I always try to buy different ones and put one of each aside. It's no big deal but also a casual collection for me. And if I want to buy some older ones, they're cheap, so that's nice. It just depends on your perspective and when you're getting into it.

 

I started collecting stamps when I was about 10 years old. I'm 65 now, so I've been doing it almost as long as you. I was a stamp dealer at one time, up until the late 1980s when I got married. I still have some of my old dealer stock. All foreign, nothing high end, mind you. But I've been EXTREMELY disappointed at how much the market has dropped in recent years. I still have my Greek collection in a Scott specialty album. At one time, just a few years ago, it catalogued at between $4000 and $5000. Now I'd be lucky to get a tenth of that. It includes quite a few of the valuable old Hermes Heads, which I specialized in. Maybe I'll get all those old dealer's stock stamps out of my closet someday, go to a flea market, and sell them. Or maybe get back into dealing now that I am nearing retirement age. Who knows? But I agree with you...the post office and post offices of other countries destroyed the hobby by issuing so much wallpaper. Now the mints are trying to do the same, all for the almighty dollar. The sports card hobby has done the same. The average Joe is being pushed out by the sheer volume of new issues and the expense.

 

Amen. I have thousands of mint condition stamps that can't be sold for face value. So, I am finding creative ways to unload them as postage.

 

I gave up stamp collecting in the late 1980's.
I had a good US collection and a good KGVI GB&BC collection.
Sold the older part of the US collection and used part of the money to get my 1907 High Relief Double Eagle.
I gave most of my 1940 and later US stamps to my nephew.
And I'm still using a bunch of the remainder as postage.

Ever try to send a letter these days using 3¢ stamps?
No room on the envelope for the address

Basically any US stamps issued after 1940 are worth more as postage than you can get from a dealer.

 

Very interesting pic. There's nothing saying you HAVE to collect one of everything that's put out now. Why not just purchase what interests you? I've never purchased a special sheet of stamps in my life but the latest Mayflower commemorative sheet this month was such a cool painting that I bought two and will frame one.
There can't be anyone left collecting one of every offering from the mint. I'd be surprised if there's very many who are still collecting one of each ASE. It became cost prohibitive. This year the mint has two offerings I'm interested in. I haven't purchased from them since 2016.

 

I sold a coin on eBay a few years ago and the purchaser stated that he is getting his grandson interested in collecting stamps. He asked if I could put some commemorative stamps on the envelope.
Whew, I could do that and more. I included a few older mint stamps in the envelope with the coin. That's all they are worth, good will and postage.

 

Interesting reply. Thanks. I have all but 2 of the ASE's. I will not get any more after the end of this year. I thought about concentrating on a specific topic with my stamp collection. But, my favorite topic was U S Stamps. I still collect, but, I collect used stamps off envelopes now. I just cut them off carefully and write the Scott number on the back. Then I put them in a generic stock album trying to keep them separated by year.

Funny thing about the Mayflower anniversary. My wife just found out that her ancestors were on the Mayflower. I might have to get one of those sheets for her. I didn't get the Mayflower commemorative silver dollar. Too much money for an ounce of silver.

 

When the pandemic struck and I didn't want to venture out to the post office I started using a bunch of 29c and 32c stamps that I saved back when they were printed in the 1990s. They will last awhile since I don't mail much these days.

 

I quit stamps over 50 years ago. Still have my collection and it's still special to me.

 

I started collecting stamps when I was eight and now I will be 78 on Thanksgiving Day 2020. I still love stamps and enjoy looking at them and my covers.
For non-stamp collectors covers are envelopes that were canceled on the first day of issue for a given stamp or envelopes that have gone through the mails and are special as a cover carried by a Pony Express Rider. The older items and scarce ones have held a fair amount of their value but anything in the last 70 years dealers pay 50 percent of the face value of the stamp and they only want stamps with a face value of 32 cents or higher. I sent a package out recently and put 252 stamps on it to make up the postal rate. A lot were three and four cent stamps. Yes, it hurts to use them like that but it's the only way to recover what I spent for them. You can buy stamps to use as discount postage on ebay for less than face value to use on your items you've sold on Ebay. As to coins I got interested as a hedge against fiat money and have branched out into enjoying the various issues. Same problem on coins as in stamps for those who have invested in the numismatic value of the coins- the new generations don't collect. Anything. By and large.
Are we headed to a time when people will own/treasure nothing and rent everything? Monetary authorites are actively investigating bit coin exchanges, digital currency and shrinking the amount of coins their minting as more and more millenials are going cashless. How can a bum beg unless he has a internet account if people on the street c

 

@Frank bugalski You are absolutely correct about coins being worth less than their numismatic value. It is easy to see in the Red Book. There is a great disparity between the "Issue Price" and the "Current Value". We can spend a stamp and realize the issue price. But, we can't spend or sell a coin and realize the issue price, in most cases.

 

Each month, I go to the post office to mail something. I will ask the postal employee what type of stamps they have. If there is something that I like, I usually buy a book. Now that it's close to Christmas, I buy a couple of books for Christmas cards. A few years ago, the Post Office had Elvis stamps. My wife, being a great Elvis fan, bought a few Elvis stamps. She has only used a half dozen stamps.

 

I also had ancestors on the Mayflower and I wanted to get these stamps as soon as I saw them too. Interesting fact: 30 million Americans are descended from people who were on the Mayflower. And that's especially amazing considering I believe only about 51 people survived the first year.