philatelia
Member 
Captain Jack - my best kiloware find ever!
Posts: 3,404
What I collect: Ireland, Japan, Scandy, USA, Venezuela, Vatican, Bermuda, Austria
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Post by philatelia on Jun 3, 2022 12:17:34 GMT
OK - let’s talk about stickers, um oh I mean modern self adhesive postage stamps. (Tongue in Cheek). Let’s hear your opinions pro and con, but keep it lighthearted and friendly, eh? Can you say paper dissolving glues? Impossible to collect MNH copies for issues like these …  |
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banknoteguy
Member
Posts: 284
What I collect: 19th Century US, High denomination US (> $1), 19th century covers US, Indian Feudatory States and most recently I acquired a BigBlue [with about 5,000 stamps] and pristine pages.
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Post by banknoteguy on Jun 3, 2022 13:14:20 GMT
I just takem as I get them and mount them. I found it is just too much trouble to try take them off paper. So I will trim and mount. Examples below:
Higher resolution scan of the bottom three -- the MNH is on the original backing paper from USPS. The canceled one is just trimmed. I just make the mount large enough.
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Cephus
Member
Posts: 161 
What I collect: U.S. 1847-1993, Australia, China, New Zealand
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Post by Cephus on Jun 3, 2022 23:01:43 GMT
I have zero interest in collecting them. It's one of the reasons my U.S. collection ends in 1993.
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swvl
Member
Posts: 523
What I collect: FDCs, plus some US modern and new issues. Topical interests include music, art, literature, baseball, space...
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Post by swvl on Jun 4, 2022 1:12:27 GMT
I was just starting to collect stamps when USPS began switching over to self-adhesives in the Nineties, so it’s never bothered me. I just neatly trim used examples on paper and they look fine. As someone who’s mostly interested in modern issues for their artistic and thematic value, the self-adhesive format is no problem for me. But of course everyone’s more than entitled to their own way of viewing these things! (PS - banknoteguy, that’s a nice looking page of high values!) |
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Post by carabop on Jun 11, 2022 1:22:11 GMT
For US it sometimes gets bothersome but I am pretty used to it now. Just trim them and put in the album. It does make the album a lot thicker. What I don’t like is having to buy a whole sheet for just 1 stamp.
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djcmh
Member
Posts: 772
What I collect: Worldwide
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Post by djcmh on Jun 11, 2022 4:21:51 GMT
For US it sometimes gets bothersome but I am pretty used to it now. Just trim them and put in the album. It does make the album a lot thicker. What I don’t like is having to buy a whole sheet for just 1 stamp. With the USPS minimum requirement to purchase full panes I figure it easier to buy 1 single from a dealer and not be stuck with 19 stamps I will not immediately use. There is a dealer in the metro Atlanta area I use who charges ~US$0.80 for a current single stamp face value US$0.58, which is quite reasonable. I've purchased my new issues from him for the past several years now - great service. His website is stampconnections.com |
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Post by michael on Jun 11, 2022 8:26:55 GMT
It was the beginning of the end of Machins for me when the self adhesive labels were introduced. Looking again at my Lighthouse Machin album, I see the first self adhesive on thick card, looked out of place in the mount alongside all the other Machins. For the rest of the pages up to the end of 1999, when I stopped collecting them and GB commemoratives, all the self adhesive spaces are empty. So I hate them in one way but love them in another as they made me undergo a complete change in direction, I fell in love with line engraved stamps.  With apologies to Machin collectors. |
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,346
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jun 11, 2022 9:57:01 GMT
US self-adhesive stamps are thicker than gummed stamps due to the release liner and also may not be trimmed as close so need taller mounts. I like mini-sheet concept but wish the USPS would issue some as gummed and perforated. I do not like them.
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loupy
Member
Back and active, thank you!
Posts: 70
What I collect: US to 2000 with a focus on 720 & 721, WW 1840 - 1930, DDR 5 year workers, Machins, Canada Centennials, Brazil Allegories, Mexico Archiecture & Archaeology 1950 -75, used stamps preffered when possible.
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Post by loupy on Jun 11, 2022 23:59:14 GMT
I only collect postally used, and only those that will soak off in water. So, my US collection stops at 2000 just for rounding it out numerically, and I have zero interest in any self-adhesive past that.
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Post by captphil on Dec 10, 2022 3:52:17 GMT
Pox! Pox! The problems of used US self-adhesives are well documented above. What gets my craw is that other countries do it fine, no problem. What the heck is wrong with our USPS?
And there is an issue that seldom gets mentioned: no connectivity. No multiples, no blocks or strips, and no selvedge. I really miss finding a block of high value stamps on a package. Oh, well. With bar codes there's no need for stamps anyway....
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,346
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Dec 10, 2022 12:23:48 GMT
There have been a couple of articles in the Coil Line (PNC3 journal) discussing degradation noted on some self-adhesives. They likely have a shorter shelf like than the water activated gum stamps.
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Cephus
Member
Posts: 161
What I collect: U.S. 1847-1993, Australia, China, New Zealand
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Post by Cephus on Dec 10, 2022 18:55:25 GMT
It's even worse collecting mint. never hinged. Handling self-adhesives is just a pain in the backside. If whatever backer is in there comes loose, you're screwed. It's impossible to just break up a sheet of self-adhesives for individual mounting or sale, at least not easily. All in all, hard pass. I have a few in my collection predating my cutoff, but never again.
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eggdog
Member
I want a new Harley!
Posts: 464
What I collect: It's complicated....
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Post by eggdog on Dec 11, 2022 1:12:14 GMT
As a collector, I'm getting used to them. I've become competent at PureCitrus, and scraping the adhesive off doesn't take me much more time than peeling the cut corner off a water-activated (or, let's face it, a saliva-activated) stamp and putting it on a bartender's towel to finish drying off enough to go into a Desert Magic book. Admittedly, I can't do 100 self-adhesives at a time, but I don't find them to be as much work as I used to. Disclaimer: for the most part, I collect postally used stamps. I'm not personally experienced with the problems they pose for mint-stamp collectors, though some of the comments in this thread have made me more aware of them.
Plus, the paper is much better. You have to work fairly hard to rip the corner off a contemporary self-adhesive.
As a user of mail services, I like them. I like anything that keeps me away from the danger of intrafacial paper cuts. Like self-seal envelopes. And Scotch tape for dried-out self-seal envelopes. Centuries ago, I worked for a metals distributor that sent out about 100 advertising circulars at a time, and I stuffed the envelopes and applied all the stamps. (I always used commemoratives when I could, first because I believed they did make my envelopes stand out from the crowd, and also because I liked attaching the historical patriotic messages or the interplanetary space probes.) By the end of the day, it was like I had the flag of Maryland on the edge of my tongue. If you asked anybody who is involved in mail and doesn't collect postage stamps if he or she would like to go back to water-activated stamps, I'd bet you an upside-down airplane to your purple 4¢ Lincoln that the answer would be "no" - or, more likely, "no" as part of a vulgar phrase that I wouldn't even dream of repeating here.
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