Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
02:56:12pm
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My "all stamps per year" cut-off is 1985 or so with Canada. After that, it is pick and choose. CP issues so much these days. But not nearly the same as New Zealand. With only 5,000,000 or so for a population, they bombard collectors with so much tripe! Sets of 15, 21 and even 26, and far too many souvenir sheets. Not to mention the rare offering to big buyers of their stamps! I cut them off at 1992, and pick and choose thereafter. But I didn't pick many, and stopped with the 150th anniversary souvenir sheets of NZ stamps!
There's just too many with higher and higher prices. How can anyone keep up with everything? The world? I gave up on trying that back in the 70's! There's just too many, but now?
Peter
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I just had a look at my 2017 Scott catalogue, and it has over 5,000 numbers for the USA until October 2015, not taking into account all the a,b,c etc. for the many, many sheets and panes that have been issued. Just 20 years earlier, October 1995 they had reached number 3,000, so that's 2,000 entries in 20 years and I suppose it is safe to say more than 3,000 stamps. Scott 3000 for instance is a pane of 20 different stamps...
I have a similar approach as Pete, I do not even attempt to strive for completion with the countries I collect. I am far from a worldwide collector and more than half of the areas I do collect are "dead" countries, i.e. countries that stopped issuing stamps.
A friend of mine collects worldwide with 1990 as cut-off year. He has his collection in Lighthouse stockbooks, 32 black pages and last time I was there, he had over 600 books. That's huge, and we talked about this a bit and came to the conclusion that after 1990 most countries, or at least their postal services, went bonkers and started to issue hundreds of stamps per year. It makes that you choose your priorities. I used to collect USA, but I stopped around 2000. Especially now that their stamps are unsoakable unless you are a mad scientist, there is no fun anymore. I agree with you on NZ. Australia is pretty awful as well. I like the stamps of both countries, there are just too many. Japan: same story - I don't want hundreds of hello kitty or pikachu stamps, so I gave up on that as well. My own country, the Netherlands is undoable as well. Too many stamps, issued only in sheets of 10 - suppose you collect mint, you'd have to buy each stamp you need ten times?? Apart from that, commemorative stamps are hardly available at shops anymore. If I want special stamps to use on the letters I send abroad, I have to buy them online.
In a special, warped kind of way it is okay, because all those greedy postal authorities have made me selective and more focused. No longer do I have to worry about the latest issues. I will just collect whatever I like and that's fine.
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I had stopped collecting stamps around 1980. So when I got back and worked on my USA collection in the past decade, I had a lot of stuff especially of the 1970s since that's when I was most prolific. My organized binders go through 1976, but I do have stock books where I've stashed later stamps as I've come into them.
Just this past week I got a big lot of discount postage. There were a lot of stamps I had never seen before! As I went through I kept a sample of each one and into the stock books they went. One of these days I need to inventory it all and see just how much I've got!
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04:11:47pm
One more thought, or question: It really sounds like all of this new stuff is not appealing to collectors and that makes me wonder where all these stamps are ending up. If people are not collecting them are they just sitting in a warehouse somewhere? With the large numbers of each stamp being issued they must do something with them. It certainly isn't for postal use since they never show up on envelopes. When I buy my Canada year book I realize that most of the stamps are ones I have never seen before. What is going on with the rest of the stamps after the collectors have picked up what they want. I am very confused.
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As of the December 2021 Scott Update, the US has 5,651 major numbers, but there are skips, so the alpha suffixes probably balance out.
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It's probably been 35 years since I looked at the mostly empty pages for modern postage-due stamps in my Canada album and said (to myself): Why should I spend money on ugly stamps? The answer? I shouldn't! So I stopped. I removed all of the stamps from the album and started using stock books for the stamps I liked while I designed custom album pages for them. The lasted for a few years, long enough to learn that it was a lot of work, but my then my son had written some software for my wife and me so we could publish our own web sites. Ephemeral Treasures is the result.
I "collect worldwide," which means that if a stamp (as well as postcards and covers) somehow fits into my collecting interests (20th century wars, mid-20th century commercial aviation and airmail history, astronomy, and Southwestern New Mexico history), and if I like the stamps (or postcards, or covers), I'll buy it if I can afford it. One outcome: I never go to a stamp show or browse the internet without finding something that I want to buy. Just today I bought three Korean War covers, one posted by a member of the U.S. Marines' 1st Marine Regiment (my regiment in Vietnam) three days after it withdrew from the battle of the Chosin Reservoir; one posted by a member of a helicopter squadron that was involved in the first "routine" medical evacuations, and one from a member of John Glenn's fighter squadron, at a time when they were flying F-84 Thunderjets and F9F Panther jets.
Bob
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Bob, good for you..we should not be restricted by a printed album page...i have seen beautiful unique items CREATED by fellow collectors...and there is no need to have the most expensive stamp in the set. Phil from the f104 starfighter era.
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Harvey included a comment that essentially asks: who will want all this stuff, what with the immense volume and lack of soakability?
The answer is probably "a lot fewer than who is collecting now."
Many stamp areas are either dead or dying: PNCs, PBs, to name just too, both killed by change in production process. Granted the former was a small percentage of collectors, but it's an ever dwindling percentage of an ever dwindling number. Both can now be had for discounts off face (except for a few rarities). Ditto most FDCs and most UN material.
Like Bob, I've mostly given up stamps for covers (but without the fabulous website and stories to show for it). And, in my own specialty, Christmas seals, I watch ALA consistently shoot itself in the feet, making many of the same mistakes USPS makes.
David Downer
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10:03:50am
I should think it won't be very many more years before post offices quit throwing all this crap at us, it really seems that very few people actually want it!
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Harvey
we already hear from the Brits that they can't get the crap at the POs, apparently it's available only in the craporeum, at special rates.
In the states, my local PO has only a small smattering of the huge selection (and they genuinely try); i can tell you that I will likely see less than a quarter of all first class issues in any given year, the other three quarters not ever. Hi value stuff is even more elusive.
I am amazed that the marketing divisions are either as clueless or as impotent as they apparently are.
David
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I guess the postal administrations sell the "stuff" mostly on order, preferably to people who have standing orders. As long as there are enough customers who order new issues, "stuff" will continue to be printed and sold.
There is no operational need to stock all new issues at the outlets, as long as they have enough stamps of the necessary values.
In this light, I have decided to concentrate on the "workhorse stamps", the definitives.
Martin
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The USPS is a large corporation with lots of bureaucratic rules. As I understand it, the USPS has rules on stamp handling (maintaining inventory, accounting, etc.) at a post office and this includes excess inventory and scrap. They treat it like cash and these policies work against keeping a lot of stamps on hand, etc. This is to deal with stamp thefts. Unsold stamps have to be accounted for. Someone has likely shown it is more cost effective (labor, accounting) to sell from a central location. Of course, this works against finding a decent selection locally. The other aspect is self-adhesives. They used to break down sheets into singles, blocks. Now it is impossible.
I recall back in 1970 we drove around the northern Alabama country side going to post offices looking for stamps. Some still had lots of 1938 Prexie stamps.
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all correct, Al, and all the more pity
my local actually has hi values, but keeps them in a safe for the local college's part-time PO where students send packages. since i go there mostly on saturdays.....
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At my local post office, as was said, there aren't any loose stamps to add to mail at the counter. If you bring them an envelope with one stamp on it, and it registers as requiring 2 ounces worth of postage, they'll just print out a meter and affix it to your envelope.
All the self adhesive stamps are in smaller sheets than before too. Not long ago I wanted 100 1 cent stamps... they didn't have it on hand!
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That is why I quit active collecting at the end of 1999. Too much stuff that amounts to wallpaper. Here is a breakdown of the stamp issues from 1847 and on. The first two periods are about 50 years each. The rest are at 10 years each.
USPS Stamp Issues
1847 to 1899 293
1900 to 1949 693
1950 to 1959 152
1960 to 1969 247
1970 to 1979 408
1980 to 1989 643
1990 to 1999 931
2000 to 2009 1065
Too much stuff as it was said.
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Don't you miss those days when for 8-10 bucks you could get a year set?
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Dec 2021
02:56:12pm
I just got an order from one of the SOR sellers who included a few newer US stamps as a gift. It made me curious how many stamps are being produced by the USPS per year. I hauled out my US Scott's specialized (2016) and had a look. Beautiful stuff, but the sheer amount is incredible. My US cut off is 1977 so I had no idea what is happening now. Is there anyone out there who actually collect current US and actually manages to keep up? I "sort of " collect newer Canada, even though my official cut off is 1988, since I buy the postal year books every year. I thought Canada issued a lot of newer material, but the US amount is totally mind boggling!! I read somewhere about someone who collects THE WORLD as stamps as issued and he/she needs a new Scott album every year. I thought it was an exaggeration, but now I don't think so!!! How many albums are needed if someone collects US to the present day?
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
My "all stamps per year" cut-off is 1985 or so with Canada. After that, it is pick and choose. CP issues so much these days. But not nearly the same as New Zealand. With only 5,000,000 or so for a population, they bombard collectors with so much tripe! Sets of 15, 21 and even 26, and far too many souvenir sheets. Not to mention the rare offering to big buyers of their stamps! I cut them off at 1992, and pick and choose thereafter. But I didn't pick many, and stopped with the 150th anniversary souvenir sheets of NZ stamps!
There's just too many with higher and higher prices. How can anyone keep up with everything? The world? I gave up on trying that back in the 70's! There's just too many, but now?
Peter
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
I just had a look at my 2017 Scott catalogue, and it has over 5,000 numbers for the USA until October 2015, not taking into account all the a,b,c etc. for the many, many sheets and panes that have been issued. Just 20 years earlier, October 1995 they had reached number 3,000, so that's 2,000 entries in 20 years and I suppose it is safe to say more than 3,000 stamps. Scott 3000 for instance is a pane of 20 different stamps...
I have a similar approach as Pete, I do not even attempt to strive for completion with the countries I collect. I am far from a worldwide collector and more than half of the areas I do collect are "dead" countries, i.e. countries that stopped issuing stamps.
A friend of mine collects worldwide with 1990 as cut-off year. He has his collection in Lighthouse stockbooks, 32 black pages and last time I was there, he had over 600 books. That's huge, and we talked about this a bit and came to the conclusion that after 1990 most countries, or at least their postal services, went bonkers and started to issue hundreds of stamps per year. It makes that you choose your priorities. I used to collect USA, but I stopped around 2000. Especially now that their stamps are unsoakable unless you are a mad scientist, there is no fun anymore. I agree with you on NZ. Australia is pretty awful as well. I like the stamps of both countries, there are just too many. Japan: same story - I don't want hundreds of hello kitty or pikachu stamps, so I gave up on that as well. My own country, the Netherlands is undoable as well. Too many stamps, issued only in sheets of 10 - suppose you collect mint, you'd have to buy each stamp you need ten times?? Apart from that, commemorative stamps are hardly available at shops anymore. If I want special stamps to use on the letters I send abroad, I have to buy them online.
In a special, warped kind of way it is okay, because all those greedy postal authorities have made me selective and more focused. No longer do I have to worry about the latest issues. I will just collect whatever I like and that's fine.
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
I had stopped collecting stamps around 1980. So when I got back and worked on my USA collection in the past decade, I had a lot of stuff especially of the 1970s since that's when I was most prolific. My organized binders go through 1976, but I do have stock books where I've stashed later stamps as I've come into them.
Just this past week I got a big lot of discount postage. There were a lot of stamps I had never seen before! As I went through I kept a sample of each one and into the stock books they went. One of these days I need to inventory it all and see just how much I've got!
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
14 Dec 2021
04:11:47pm
re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
One more thought, or question: It really sounds like all of this new stuff is not appealing to collectors and that makes me wonder where all these stamps are ending up. If people are not collecting them are they just sitting in a warehouse somewhere? With the large numbers of each stamp being issued they must do something with them. It certainly isn't for postal use since they never show up on envelopes. When I buy my Canada year book I realize that most of the stamps are ones I have never seen before. What is going on with the rest of the stamps after the collectors have picked up what they want. I am very confused.
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04:23:55pm
re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
As of the December 2021 Scott Update, the US has 5,651 major numbers, but there are skips, so the alpha suffixes probably balance out.
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
It's probably been 35 years since I looked at the mostly empty pages for modern postage-due stamps in my Canada album and said (to myself): Why should I spend money on ugly stamps? The answer? I shouldn't! So I stopped. I removed all of the stamps from the album and started using stock books for the stamps I liked while I designed custom album pages for them. The lasted for a few years, long enough to learn that it was a lot of work, but my then my son had written some software for my wife and me so we could publish our own web sites. Ephemeral Treasures is the result.
I "collect worldwide," which means that if a stamp (as well as postcards and covers) somehow fits into my collecting interests (20th century wars, mid-20th century commercial aviation and airmail history, astronomy, and Southwestern New Mexico history), and if I like the stamps (or postcards, or covers), I'll buy it if I can afford it. One outcome: I never go to a stamp show or browse the internet without finding something that I want to buy. Just today I bought three Korean War covers, one posted by a member of the U.S. Marines' 1st Marine Regiment (my regiment in Vietnam) three days after it withdrew from the battle of the Chosin Reservoir; one posted by a member of a helicopter squadron that was involved in the first "routine" medical evacuations, and one from a member of John Glenn's fighter squadron, at a time when they were flying F-84 Thunderjets and F9F Panther jets.
Bob
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
Bob, good for you..we should not be restricted by a printed album page...i have seen beautiful unique items CREATED by fellow collectors...and there is no need to have the most expensive stamp in the set. Phil from the f104 starfighter era.
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
Harvey included a comment that essentially asks: who will want all this stuff, what with the immense volume and lack of soakability?
The answer is probably "a lot fewer than who is collecting now."
Many stamp areas are either dead or dying: PNCs, PBs, to name just too, both killed by change in production process. Granted the former was a small percentage of collectors, but it's an ever dwindling percentage of an ever dwindling number. Both can now be had for discounts off face (except for a few rarities). Ditto most FDCs and most UN material.
Like Bob, I've mostly given up stamps for covers (but without the fabulous website and stories to show for it). And, in my own specialty, Christmas seals, I watch ALA consistently shoot itself in the feet, making many of the same mistakes USPS makes.
David Downer
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This is my diabetic cat OBI! I think, therefore I am - I think! Descartes, sort of!
15 Dec 2021
10:03:50am
re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
I should think it won't be very many more years before post offices quit throwing all this crap at us, it really seems that very few people actually want it!
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
Harvey
we already hear from the Brits that they can't get the crap at the POs, apparently it's available only in the craporeum, at special rates.
In the states, my local PO has only a small smattering of the huge selection (and they genuinely try); i can tell you that I will likely see less than a quarter of all first class issues in any given year, the other three quarters not ever. Hi value stuff is even more elusive.
I am amazed that the marketing divisions are either as clueless or as impotent as they apparently are.
David
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01:40:18am
re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
I guess the postal administrations sell the "stuff" mostly on order, preferably to people who have standing orders. As long as there are enough customers who order new issues, "stuff" will continue to be printed and sold.
There is no operational need to stock all new issues at the outlets, as long as they have enough stamps of the necessary values.
In this light, I have decided to concentrate on the "workhorse stamps", the definitives.
Martin
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this post
re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
The USPS is a large corporation with lots of bureaucratic rules. As I understand it, the USPS has rules on stamp handling (maintaining inventory, accounting, etc.) at a post office and this includes excess inventory and scrap. They treat it like cash and these policies work against keeping a lot of stamps on hand, etc. This is to deal with stamp thefts. Unsold stamps have to be accounted for. Someone has likely shown it is more cost effective (labor, accounting) to sell from a central location. Of course, this works against finding a decent selection locally. The other aspect is self-adhesives. They used to break down sheets into singles, blocks. Now it is impossible.
I recall back in 1970 we drove around the northern Alabama country side going to post offices looking for stamps. Some still had lots of 1938 Prexie stamps.
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
all correct, Al, and all the more pity
my local actually has hi values, but keeps them in a safe for the local college's part-time PO where students send packages. since i go there mostly on saturdays.....
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
At my local post office, as was said, there aren't any loose stamps to add to mail at the counter. If you bring them an envelope with one stamp on it, and it registers as requiring 2 ounces worth of postage, they'll just print out a meter and affix it to your envelope.
All the self adhesive stamps are in smaller sheets than before too. Not long ago I wanted 100 1 cent stamps... they didn't have it on hand!
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10:11:36pm
re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
That is why I quit active collecting at the end of 1999. Too much stuff that amounts to wallpaper. Here is a breakdown of the stamp issues from 1847 and on. The first two periods are about 50 years each. The rest are at 10 years each.
USPS Stamp Issues
1847 to 1899 293
1900 to 1949 693
1950 to 1959 152
1960 to 1969 247
1970 to 1979 408
1980 to 1989 643
1990 to 1999 931
2000 to 2009 1065
Too much stuff as it was said.
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re: There is such a huge amount of "stuff"!!
Don't you miss those days when for 8-10 bucks you could get a year set?
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