They can’t be cost effective unless people actually buy them and never use them. Does much of that go on anymore?
I assume that the USPS is forced into it when congress tells them to. Have there been any initiatives to do away with that practice?
Yes, it would cost more than just plain ordinary stamps, but not significantly more. Assuming umpty-ump thousand of them are produced, the cost of designing the stamp should be a tiny fraction of the money that they get from selling stamps.
I’m Canadian, but we have commemorative stamps too
You must have no idea how popular US commemorative stamps are - inside and outside the US. There is a huge retention rate (meaning they’re bought and never used). We’ve been issuing them since 1893.
If anything - we could do away with definitive stamps, and slowly are. This year we are issuing the first ever Forever Air Mail stamps for international mail use.
They are the next thing to printing money for the USPS - there’s a certain cost involved in design and preparation for print, and after that people are paying 50 to 100’s of times cost for them, with very little overhead of any kind. The point of commemoratives is to sell them and never have to deliver any services for the cost.
Most, frankly, are wastepaper, never worth more than face value plus a very small appreciation.
You’re absolutely right… I had no idea. No more complaints.
they are an interesting reflection of our culture on who/what gets commemorated.
Can anyone comment on this? Does Congress really tell the USPS what stamps to print?
I’ve also seen commemoratives made into jewelry (necklaces or tie tacks, mainly). Each of those is a stamp that will never be used, so pure profit for the Post Office.
No – in short coin designs (including commemorative coin programs) must be approved by Congress. Stamp designs need only the approval of the Postmaster General. That’s one of the reasons the USPS has been able to get away with “design the stamp” and “pick the design” contests from time to time and do the “design your own stamp” thing where anyone can design a perfectly legal stamp for their own personal use.
Commems are the best money maker the USPS has but its not like it was; the number of stamp collectors is at a historic low and still falling according the to APS (American Philatelic Society). The huge number of commems and defins issued some years are cited as a reason for this. In the 60s and early 70s you could “stay current” for basically chump change - the cost of all the commems and definatives in any given year would average a good meal at a fast food joint. Now, for some years, with 50 state flowers, 50 flags, high-value overnight and parcel post issues and more, some years cost the same as a fine dining meal for two. Add to that how few people actually mail things and these are not happy days to be with the USPS.
(PS – I work for a rare coin and stamp company. Should you ever inherit an extensive stamp collection, you have my deepest sympathy. Not just for your loss but also for now owning an extensive stamp collection. The values have dropped to the point that 99% of the stamps issued since 1935 are basically “lick em and stick em” - you can just use them for postage. And the time and study it takes to know the exceptions ------- almost not worth it. If they are cancelled/used most sell by the pound.
Stamp catalogs are not really value guides; they are companies trying to sell you stamps. Think of Scotts as “Monkey Wards For Stamp Collectors”. A big part of that “price” is the cost to maintain an inventory, rent to store it, and labor to fill and mail your order. Reality is that on the open market (shows or eBay for example) even rare stamps go for a fraction of their catalog value. In selling off a collection complete from Scott #1 to Scott #715 the best we did was 80% and most were more like 50% or less. And lord have mercy if your stamps have any defect from hinge marks to slightly off-center.)
Bugs Bunny… Daffy Duck… Homer Simpson… :rolleyes:
I don’t know why you’re rolling your eyes. As was said above, the USPS doesn’t issue commemorative stamps because they think the person or character or whatever is pictured on the stamp is worthy of respect or great honor; they do so because they hope that people will buy the stamps, ideally without using them to send mail. It’s purely a commercial decision. So if they issue Homer Simpson instead of Norman Borlaug stamps, they’re not saying that Homer Simpson is more worthy. Just that he’ll make more money.
As a purist and a philatelist the rolling eyes is because the United States thinks Daffy, and Bugs and Homer, etc etc merit commemorative stamp status, which (imo) doesn’t say much about the dignity of this country.
I am not a fan of the USPS but ------ at least Daffy and Homer are “ours”. You do not want to know the number of tiny countries that have issued tons of Disney, W-B and other cartoon stamps; in some cases where their own people have no idea what the subject of the stamp is or means. Same for US space missions, history, politics and more. Poland used to be the major offender on commems - now its more likely Ghana or Marshall Islands or somewhere like that.
You’ve brought back memories of the 3-D stamps issued by Bhutan in the 70s when I was a collector. The 3-D effect was made by the same plastic covering as would sometimes appear on special baseball cards. IIRC, they focused on photos from the American space projects. Even as a child I was angered by the commercialism aspect of it – They were so obviously issued purely as collectors items. After all, how would their post office cancel them?
Believe or not, the Scott catalogue indicates that they did accrue value. I still have a dozen of these somewhere.
I see no reason why a postal clerk in Bhutan couldn’t have hand cancelled thoe stamps; it’s just plastic. The ink would have settled in the grooves.
They’re called lenticular stamps and many countries have issued them.
They are like any other collectible. Some people fall in love with them and start a collection; others wonder why anyone would do that. I have a small collection of lenticulars. They’re just plain fun and as you can see on the eBay page, quite inexpensive for a collectible. Every once in a while I treat myself and buy a few.
So a government does something cheap and fun as a way of raising money. That’s a bad thing?
Nope, not at all. But I side with kopek, that commems ought to have some local patriotism to them. They were one of the original forms of self-promoting advertising, after all. To have a commem that publicizes something that another country is famous for just sounds weird, and that’s what I meant by “commercialism”.
Since Expano and others have touched on the “raising money” aspect of all this ----- part of the proceeds from the original (“government”) sale of most commemorative coins go to a cause or group; the olympics, DAV, various historic sites. The sale of commemorative stamps rarely benefit such a group outside of raising awareness or publicity. One exception was the pink ribbon/breast cancer stamp where some of the cost did go to a specific group. But for the most part the only one who financially benefits is the USPS.
IIRC, in that particular case, the price of the stamp was for more than the postage it provided, and that extra amount is what went to that group.