Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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03:58:04pm
Good thing I collect STAMPS and not SELVAGE. Of course, as I cut off my mint US collection at 2005 due to the proliferation of new issues (many quite pointless), it really doesn't affect me. And since I am now using all my post 1980 purchases for postage, I do not even need to buy them to mail a letter! I have enough good, valid US postal issues to last me FOREVER. That is assuming we still have physical mail delivery in our future.
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Yesterday I bought a sheet of commeratives and asked for a single stamp of the same and was told my post office only sells full sheets of the commeratives. This was odd because the day before I purchased a sheet plus one of the Global Forever stamps no problem. Any one have the same issue?
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I also bought a sheet of the Global Forever and the clerk offered to split it in half, without me even suggesting it. I don't collect them, but use them for postage "Globally" as per their intention, even though I also have tons of regular issues.
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It's going to depend on the clerk and/or post office. Clerks don't like counting up the stamps from broken sheets at the end of the day as they balance out their work station. Some post offices won't allow their clerks to sell anything less than a sheet.
Earlier today, I asked to purchase the new Express Mail stamp. My post office had it, but didn't put it out on the floor. They called the inventory manager who asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted the new Express Mail stamp. He said they come in sheets of 10. I told him I only wanted one, because 1 - I have no use for them for postage, and 2 - I didn't have $195.00 to buy a sheet. He went and got me a sheet, and the clerk let me tear out the one I wanted. The inventory manager, after the total sale was rung up (I bought several other sheets of stamps), he grumbled that it should have been $200 higher, and that I could have sold the other 9 stamps to collectors. I thanked the clerk and left.
Where I rarely have any trouble buying single stamps, even a 1 cent stamp, is at the real small post offices. If you have a small town nearby where the post office does $100 of business a day maximum, you should have no trouble. You could probably even befriend the clerk there to get you one of every stamp that comes out and hold it for you for the next time you come in say once a month. They'll sell them out from under you if you don't show up or they hold it too long. They have to count your stamps every day for inventory until you pay for them.
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02:29:07am
Let me add to Bobby's comment " .... Good thing I collect STAMPS and not SELVAGE. ...."
It is a good thing I collect fine examples of postally used stamps and abhor the glutinous mixture that passes for stamp stick-um.
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The proliferation of new issues arguably targeting stamp collectors could backfire on the USPS as more collectors decide to establish end dates for their mint U.S. collections due to economic reasons.
I stopped collecting new U.S. issues in 1981 -- since then there have been well over 2000 U.S. stamps issued.
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I get the "kid at Christmas feeling" every time I go to the post office to purchase a new stamp. Unfortunately I can't kick the habit. And as my wife pointed out it is my cheap thrill 
The USPS managers and clerks just need to quit being year round Grinches.
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All of this talk about USPS greed in issuing pointless stamps primarily for collectors, reminds me of late Uncle Richard Logan in St. Petersburg. He was a philatelist and described to me his struggles in 1940 to buy the Famous American issues as they came out at the rate of two issues a week. If you look through the 1940 section of a Scott Catalogue you will notice that there many more issues in 1940 besides the Famous Americans. The most interesting is the prices of the 10c issues are always significantly more than the 4 lesser issues. Especially the 893 Alexander Graham Bell which is almost 5 times the other 10c issues. Dealers and collectors must have really become tired of buying stamps by then.
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06:15:42pm
A 10¢ stamp was comparatively expensive in 1940 and essentially the equivalent of about $2.00 today. A single letter could be mailed for 3¢ and while jobs were becoming more plentiful as the nation geared up for the coming war, many people were still just barely surviving. The 10¢ was not needed for mail as much as the lower values so obviously that had an effect.
In the early 1940s 10¢ was enough of a stumbling block to cause collectors to hold back and many dealers did not see any reason to stockpile multiple sheets of the 10¢ Famous Americans.
My mom and dad rented an apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn for $35.00 a month and he considered himself as doing well making about $150 a month, less than $2000 a year from both US census records and old income tax returns. I was a year old and a year later my younger brother was born. So while we were not poor, the bitter memories of the Great Depression created what we sometimes refer to as a depression mentality, that is the need to somehow get a fully stocked pantry, just in case. I doubt the need for expensive stamps was high on that list.
I have a set of postally used Famous Americans in blocks of four and the 10¢ issues are all with parcel post oval cancellations. That seems to have been their primary usage.
A comparison can be made with the high value Express Mail stamps today. Not very many people or dealers are investing in blocks or sheets of $10 or $15 stamps although were someone to do so and hang on it might very well be a worthwhile investment, assuming they lived long enough.
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"The USPS managers and clerks just need to quit being year round Grinches."
That's a fact, Jack. Just yesterday I was at the large regional post office near me to mail a 2 ounce envelope to Scotland. As the clerk was weighing it, I told her I wanted to use stamps, and asked if they had any Waves of Color stamps; I wanted to use the $2 value on this cover. She scrunched up her face and looked at me as if I had just cursed her in Chinese (and, believe me, you haven't been cursed out until you've been called a turtle egg in Chinese).
I had to settle for a ($1.10) Globe stamp, and then looked on as scrunchy face tried to figure out how to make up the other 95c postage required.
Whatever happened to the days of printing stamps in denominations according to postal rates?
Tedski
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09:28:32am
I usually try to get a look at the binder they all have with different sets of stamps that they keep on the shelf a few feet away.
If they have anything interesting I buy a sheet or two and if the inventory is of only older stamps,I will buy whatever is colorful and appears to be usable on stamps to fellow collectors.
Then I will present the first, usually of several envelopes some of which are definitely over the one ounce weight to have them tell me the needed postage.
With the only exceptions being a few clerks whom I have dealt with before what follows is a serious face that is trying to read the indicator on the scale and a quick move to the keyboard to create one of the stickers.
But I am usually fast myself and I tell the clerk not-to print a postage sticker.
That is where Mr. Scrunchy face looks and says something that to me sounds very stupid, opening the opportunity for me to respond, " I just bought $12.00 or $17.00 worth of postage (Accent on POSTAGE.) stamps, didn't I ? They are for the mail, not to decorate my bedroom."
And scrunchy face gets even scrunchier, enough to scare away any lurking witches or hobgoblins.
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Sounds like going to the PO is getting to be like going to the DMV for a new driver's license. I don't seem to have any of the issues with Mrs Scrunchy or getting partial sheets or even single stamps here in SW Florida. There are a couple sour pusses around, but generally all PO clerks are very friendly and helpful here. Maybe it is from too much time in the Sun, they are just too happy to complain.
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03:43:43pm
Later this year, the USPS will issue a block of 12 stamps called "Building America", or something like that. Okay, 12 stamps x 46 cents $5.52. No biggie....Ah, but there's a catch. There will be 5 different sheets for the block of 12 stamps. Each sheet will have a different picture in the selvage. Each sheet will have the same block of 12 stamps. So, that's 5 x $5.52.....
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They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin
08 Mar 2013
03:58:04pm
re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
Good thing I collect STAMPS and not SELVAGE. Of course, as I cut off my mint US collection at 2005 due to the proliferation of new issues (many quite pointless), it really doesn't affect me. And since I am now using all my post 1980 purchases for postage, I do not even need to buy them to mail a letter! I have enough good, valid US postal issues to last me FOREVER. That is assuming we still have physical mail delivery in our future.
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re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
Yesterday I bought a sheet of commeratives and asked for a single stamp of the same and was told my post office only sells full sheets of the commeratives. This was odd because the day before I purchased a sheet plus one of the Global Forever stamps no problem. Any one have the same issue?
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re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
I also bought a sheet of the Global Forever and the clerk offered to split it in half, without me even suggesting it. I don't collect them, but use them for postage "Globally" as per their intention, even though I also have tons of regular issues.
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05:12:46pm
re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
It's going to depend on the clerk and/or post office. Clerks don't like counting up the stamps from broken sheets at the end of the day as they balance out their work station. Some post offices won't allow their clerks to sell anything less than a sheet.
Earlier today, I asked to purchase the new Express Mail stamp. My post office had it, but didn't put it out on the floor. They called the inventory manager who asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted the new Express Mail stamp. He said they come in sheets of 10. I told him I only wanted one, because 1 - I have no use for them for postage, and 2 - I didn't have $195.00 to buy a sheet. He went and got me a sheet, and the clerk let me tear out the one I wanted. The inventory manager, after the total sale was rung up (I bought several other sheets of stamps), he grumbled that it should have been $200 higher, and that I could have sold the other 9 stamps to collectors. I thanked the clerk and left.
Where I rarely have any trouble buying single stamps, even a 1 cent stamp, is at the real small post offices. If you have a small town nearby where the post office does $100 of business a day maximum, you should have no trouble. You could probably even befriend the clerk there to get you one of every stamp that comes out and hold it for you for the next time you come in say once a month. They'll sell them out from under you if you don't show up or they hold it too long. They have to count your stamps every day for inventory until you pay for them.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
09 Mar 2013
02:29:07am
re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
Let me add to Bobby's comment " .... Good thing I collect STAMPS and not SELVAGE. ...."
It is a good thing I collect fine examples of postally used stamps and abhor the glutinous mixture that passes for stamp stick-um.
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re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
The proliferation of new issues arguably targeting stamp collectors could backfire on the USPS as more collectors decide to establish end dates for their mint U.S. collections due to economic reasons.
I stopped collecting new U.S. issues in 1981 -- since then there have been well over 2000 U.S. stamps issued.
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re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
I get the "kid at Christmas feeling" every time I go to the post office to purchase a new stamp. Unfortunately I can't kick the habit. And as my wife pointed out it is my cheap thrill
The USPS managers and clerks just need to quit being year round Grinches.
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re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
All of this talk about USPS greed in issuing pointless stamps primarily for collectors, reminds me of late Uncle Richard Logan in St. Petersburg. He was a philatelist and described to me his struggles in 1940 to buy the Famous American issues as they came out at the rate of two issues a week. If you look through the 1940 section of a Scott Catalogue you will notice that there many more issues in 1940 besides the Famous Americans. The most interesting is the prices of the 10c issues are always significantly more than the 4 lesser issues. Especially the 893 Alexander Graham Bell which is almost 5 times the other 10c issues. Dealers and collectors must have really become tired of buying stamps by then.
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
15 Jun 2013
06:15:42pm
re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
A 10¢ stamp was comparatively expensive in 1940 and essentially the equivalent of about $2.00 today. A single letter could be mailed for 3¢ and while jobs were becoming more plentiful as the nation geared up for the coming war, many people were still just barely surviving. The 10¢ was not needed for mail as much as the lower values so obviously that had an effect.
In the early 1940s 10¢ was enough of a stumbling block to cause collectors to hold back and many dealers did not see any reason to stockpile multiple sheets of the 10¢ Famous Americans.
My mom and dad rented an apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn for $35.00 a month and he considered himself as doing well making about $150 a month, less than $2000 a year from both US census records and old income tax returns. I was a year old and a year later my younger brother was born. So while we were not poor, the bitter memories of the Great Depression created what we sometimes refer to as a depression mentality, that is the need to somehow get a fully stocked pantry, just in case. I doubt the need for expensive stamps was high on that list.
I have a set of postally used Famous Americans in blocks of four and the 10¢ issues are all with parcel post oval cancellations. That seems to have been their primary usage.
A comparison can be made with the high value Express Mail stamps today. Not very many people or dealers are investing in blocks or sheets of $10 or $15 stamps although were someone to do so and hang on it might very well be a worthwhile investment, assuming they lived long enough.
Login to Like
this post
re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
"The USPS managers and clerks just need to quit being year round Grinches."
That's a fact, Jack. Just yesterday I was at the large regional post office near me to mail a 2 ounce envelope to Scotland. As the clerk was weighing it, I told her I wanted to use stamps, and asked if they had any Waves of Color stamps; I wanted to use the $2 value on this cover. She scrunched up her face and looked at me as if I had just cursed her in Chinese (and, believe me, you haven't been cursed out until you've been called a turtle egg in Chinese).
I had to settle for a ($1.10) Globe stamp, and then looked on as scrunchy face tried to figure out how to make up the other 95c postage required.
Whatever happened to the days of printing stamps in denominations according to postal rates?
Tedski
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this post
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
16 Jun 2013
09:28:32am
re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
I usually try to get a look at the binder they all have with different sets of stamps that they keep on the shelf a few feet away.
If they have anything interesting I buy a sheet or two and if the inventory is of only older stamps,I will buy whatever is colorful and appears to be usable on stamps to fellow collectors.
Then I will present the first, usually of several envelopes some of which are definitely over the one ounce weight to have them tell me the needed postage.
With the only exceptions being a few clerks whom I have dealt with before what follows is a serious face that is trying to read the indicator on the scale and a quick move to the keyboard to create one of the stickers.
But I am usually fast myself and I tell the clerk not-to print a postage sticker.
That is where Mr. Scrunchy face looks and says something that to me sounds very stupid, opening the opportunity for me to respond, " I just bought $12.00 or $17.00 worth of postage (Accent on POSTAGE.) stamps, didn't I ? They are for the mail, not to decorate my bedroom."
And scrunchy face gets even scrunchier, enough to scare away any lurking witches or hobgoblins.
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re: Get Your Wallet - Here Comes USPS!
Sounds like going to the PO is getting to be like going to the DMV for a new driver's license. I don't seem to have any of the issues with Mrs Scrunchy or getting partial sheets or even single stamps here in SW Florida. There are a couple sour pusses around, but generally all PO clerks are very friendly and helpful here. Maybe it is from too much time in the Sun, they are just too happy to complain.
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