Andy Pastuszak
Member 
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533 
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Nov 25, 2023 22:45:17 GMT
I'm working on my 2008 supplement for the Community US Stamp Album and, holy crap, are there a lot of stamps.
I've been writing descriptions for about 90 minutes now, and I am only up to July.
I feel like the 2020s are at a more sane level. But the stamp output in the 2000s feels insane to me.
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Post by nick2302 on Nov 26, 2023 0:29:59 GMT
It is not just you. The USPO printed one heck of a lot stamps.
Nick
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brookbam
Member
APS 236261
Posts: 226
What I collect: US...everything until I decide what I don't want to collect! And now thanks to a TSF give-away I'm adding Space topicals!
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Post by brookbam on Nov 26, 2023 0:30:25 GMT
I agree.
When I got back into stamp collecting I was going to stop my collecting at about the late 70s or early 80s as that is when my junior high collection went to. Plus I really didn't like the aspect of a stick on stamp of being a "stamp."
Well...that idea didn't last long until I went past the early 80s AND added stick on stamps to the collection...
I think the only thing that keeps the USPS in business now is junk mail and stamp collectors.
Mike
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Nov 26, 2023 3:37:14 GMT
The USPS makes lots of money from package deliveries. They'd make a lot more money if Congress stopped messing with them.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,355
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Nov 26, 2023 11:38:45 GMT
If you believe DeJoy & Co, they are not making money (losing billions) and you see it evidenced by the constant rate increases. DeJoy wants to price mail as close to other competitors so as not to leave any money on the table.
How is Congress messing with the USPS specifically? Mandating Saturday delivery? Giving them money to purchase more electrical postal vehicles? Not allowing them to privitize? Universal mail mandate? Union restrictions? They have not been limiting cost increases.
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philatelia
Member
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,408
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Nov 26, 2023 13:44:17 GMT
The changes the postal service is enduring reminds me of the auto industry when the energy crisis hit. Long established practices have to be dramatically changed to deal with declines in first class mail and increases in parcels and other challenges. The Economist had a fairly in-depth article about the United States Postal Service and DeJoy a few months back - August I believe. Well worth a read.
In any case, it might be best to avoid discussing Congress and the political aspects of the issue as our forum rules wisely prohibit such divisive topics.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Nov 26, 2023 20:01:30 GMT
If you believe DeJoy & Co, they are not making money (losing billions) and you see it evidenced by the constant rate increases. DeJoy wants to price mail as close to other competitors so as not to leave any money on the table. How is Congress messing with the USPS specifically? Mandating Saturday delivery? Giving them money to purchase more electrical postal vehicles? Not allowing them to privitize? Universal mail mandate? Union restrictions? They have not been limiting cost increases. In lots of ways over the decades.
Do you remember back in the 80s when you could get photocopies for 10ยข at the post office? Well Congress made them pull those machines out because they said the USPS was unfairly competing with private enterprise that offered photocopy services.
How about the Fedex boxes outside of Post Offices? Congress made them get rid of those, because, again, supposed unfair competition, even though the USPS offered any private delivery service that wanted it, the ability to put boxes outside of post offices for a fee. FedEx is the only one that took them up on the offer.
At one point, the USPS wanted to offer banking services like a lot of foreign post offices do. They also wanted to let people pay their bills at the post office. Congress nixed that idea before it even got off the ground.
A lot of foreign post offices offer a service where they will open your mail and scan it in. You login their website and you can see all your mail, and can even pay any bills you get right from the website. I remember reading something from the USPS years ago saying they'd love to do that, but they're not even going to try, because Congress will shut it down.
And then we had the fiasco under Trump where he made OMB investigate USPS' deal with Amazon.
The USPS is completely self-funded. They don't take a dollar or taxpayer money. Nixon set that up when he created the USPS. But somehow the government still gets to tell them what they can and cannot do.
I really haven't heard a peep about DeJoy since Trump left office.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Nov 26, 2023 21:32:45 GMT
These definitives are a HUGE PITA. 5 different varieties of the Flags coil strips? 2 different Tiffany lamps? 2 different Purple Heart? Another variety of American Toleware? 2 Tropical Fruits? 3 different Holiday nutcrackers?
I really like making stamp pages. But having to manually edit each box for definitives in order to identify what they are is a PITA.
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,355
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Nov 27, 2023 11:27:12 GMT
This disclaimer is mentioned in all recent USPS press releases. The EV procurement is subsidized by the US government.
The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
I do not think the USPS issues too many stamps per se but too many stamps due to fixed issue topics (Christmas and other religious types), Chinese New Year, Love, etc) so crowds out less on history. For the price they are charging, I would like to see stamps larger in size.
Too many are colorful labels (flowers, animals, etc) every year. I believe varieties are good. I would like the USPS to having a running program like the Transportation Coils for definitives rather than bland stamps. The most common stamp I see is the bulk rate stamps.
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Andy Pastuszak
Member
Praying for my family and everyone in Ukraine.
Posts: 1,533
What I collect: United States, Ukraine, Ireland
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Post by Andy Pastuszak on Nov 27, 2023 16:45:18 GMT
This disclaimer is mentioned in all recent USPS press releases. The EV procurement is subsidized by the US government. The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.I do not think the USPS issues too many stamps per se but too many stamps due to fixed issue topics (Christmas and other religious types), Chinese New Year, Love, etc) so crowds out less on history. For the price they are charging, I would like to see stamps larger in size. Too many are colorful labels (flowers, animals, etc) every year. I believe varieties are good. I would like the USPS to having a running program like the Transportation Coils for definitives rather than bland stamps. The most common stamp I see is the bulk rate stamps. I worked for 2 years at the National Archives, another quasi-public agency similar to the USPS. NARA is also self-funded. They make their money by charging back various federal agencies for the records they store for them, and the consulting services they provide.
The US government is basically subsidizing EV vehicle purchases for everyone through tax deductions and other incentives. I'm OK with that.
As for the stamp volume, it has dropped off. I think it's was at it's worst in the 2000s and the first half of the 2010s. I'm about done my 2008 supplement for my Community US Stamp album, and I'm at 14 pages. I know part of the issue with this time in USPS history is the transition from WAG to PSA stamps, so a lot of definitives are printed in both varieties for use in commercial machinery.
I don't understand why the USPS issues Express Mail and Priority Mail stamps. I have never seen anyone use one. Every time I send something priority mail, it gets metered at the post office. I woud think probably 90% of the people that buy those stamps are stamp collectors.
And these definitive varieties are kind of mind blowing. Is there some reason 4 different printers can't print the exact same stamp? Why does each one have to have a different die-cut or size?
And I really wonder why we need so many different definitive varieties. They're defintives. One design for the whole year, in coil, sheet, and booklet should be all we need for a definitive stamp.
I am noticing a new trend now with the Holiday stamps. Now for Christmas we get the "Traditional Christmas" stamp which has gone back to "Virgin and Child" paintings, sadly. And now we get 2 different varities of contemporary Christmas stamps, one something holiday themed, and something winter themed.
At least in 2022, the Holiday Elves and Snowy Beauty stamps only had one variety. From a collecting standpoint that was an improvement. Looks like that started with 2012's Holiday stamps. I guess I just need to power through 2012 and I'll get some definitive variety relief.  |
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