Like many collectors, I long ago gave up on the idea of purchasing new US stamps each year as they are released. This was doable for a time, but with the ridiculous increase in the number of stamp releases each year, it became too expensive a proposition. It has been many years since I even bothered purchasing from the post office a selective subset of the available stamps for collection purposes because there are just too damn many.
I estimated the number of different stamps released each year by looking at the number of fillable spaces for individual stamps in my stamp book. Note that this may not reflect what most people think of as being "different stamps" because a single stamp design may be issued in multiple ways, all of which a person needs to collect in order for their collection to be complete. In recent years, one normal-looking flag stamp may come in nearly a dozen different flavors based on the number of perforations on the side of the stamp, booklet versus sheet versus single stamp, etc.
I was rather pissed when I realized that the 2002 "Greetings from [State]" series came out that year in both 34 and 37 cent versions. So that was 100 stamps right there.
I know the Internet has been hard on the postal service revenues, and it's natural that they would turn toward the idea of making more money off collectors, who will not, after all, even be requiring them to make good on the promise to ship stuff across the country. But we're bordering on Duchy of Grand Fenwick territory here.
All this being said, I really do wish I had the Star Wars stamps. That souvenir sheet is pretty cool-looking.
1 comment:
I always try to buy commemorative stamps since they are so much more interesting than the flag stamps. I never did see the Star wars stamps. They are very cool.
On a different note, I found a book of forever stamps in a book I checked out of the library. At today's rates those stamps are worth around $8.00. Someone out there is wondering what happened to their stamps.
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