Upcoming Subjects That We'll Be Discussing In The Next Few Days:

1. Postally Used Stamp Collections - More Popular Than Ever, or Falling Into Disfavor?

We've recently read that the number of stamp collectors who focus on postally used stamps is decreasing. We beg to differ. In fact, we disagree quite strongly.

2. Type of Stamp Collections.

Stamp collectors can make their collections be anything they wish. Are you a country collector, a worldwide stamp collector, or a topical or thematic stamp collector? Do you limit your collection to a particular range of dates? Do you only collect mint never hinged stamps, or do you prefer postally used examples?

Theft of Collectible Stamps While Still in the Mailstream.

We've been hearing more and reports of collectible stamps being removed from their covers before the mail has even been delivered.

We've also had this happen to us personally - expensive, collectible US Express Mail and Priority Mail stamps, as well as commemorative stamps from other countries that were used on mail that we've received, have been carefully removed from their covers before the mail was delivered. Most of the time the envelope is cut right around the stamp that's being removed, without damaging the contents of the envelope. Other times the stamp is peeled off the cover.

Our Canadian and British correspondents report that this happens to them as well.

This practice of removing valuable and collectible stamps before the mail is delivered is theft. We don't know who is doing it, only that the mail is still delivered even though the stamp is now gone. Are postal employees doing this? We don't know, but who else has access to undelivered mail?

United States Self-Adhesive Stamps - Pro's and Con's:

Well, they sure are easier to put onto an envelope and they do save us some time tearing them apart from each other from the sheet or coil they came from (not to mention saving us some saliva).

BUT, and it's a big "but" - some of the recent American self-adhesive stamps are almost impossible to soak off their paper. These stamps either just won't come off, no matter what you do, or once off paper, they dry with big "cracks" in their surfaces, or when they come off the paper a layer of the stamp comes off too (leaving either thins or an entirely "thinned" stamp).

These are not good things for stamp collectors that are interested in postally used postage stamps. We wish the USPS would smarten up and use some type of adhesive that allows stamps to more easily be removed from their paper.

Some of the "problem child" stamps that are so very difficult to soak off paper include stamps of the 37 cent Constellations set (Scott No. 3945-3948), the 37 cent Summer Olympic Games stamp (Scott No. 3863), the 41 cent Purple Heart (Scott No. 4164), the 41 cent James Stewart stamp, the beautiful 26 cent Panther coil stamp, stamps from the popular Star Wars set, some of the Forever Stamps (Scott No. 4127) and the nondenominated Flag coil stamps (Scott No. 4133). There are more difficult to soak self-adhesive stamps, these are just some of them.

Are Water-Activated ("Lick and Stick") stamps dying a slow death? Part 2 of 2 Parts.

Let's revisit the issue that there are many more self-adhesive stamps now being used than water-activated, lick-and-stick stamps.

One problem that this issue raises is the fact that many more self-adhesive stamps, and many fewer water-canactivated stamps, will be seen in postally used stamp accumulations and mixtures. This imbalance will cause postally used lick and stick stamps to become much harder to find. But is this truly a problem or not?

Will the imbalance result in increased future values for those postally used water-activated stamps that can be found? Will they have a higher catalogue value than "equivalent" self-adhesive stamps that are much more readily available? No one knows as yet, but we predict that a higher catalogue value for water-activated stamps is a distinct possibility.

For example, we can easily envision a stamp that has two varieties - one self-adhesive and one water-activated - where the future catalogue value of the self-adhesive is 20 cents (or whatever the minimum value of popular stamp catalogues is at the time) while the future value of the much less common water-activated variety is 2 or 3 or even more times as much.

Are Water-Activated ("Lick and Stick") stamps dying a slow death? Part 1 of 2 Parts.

Since the advent of self-adhesive stamps, usage of water-activated stamps has severely declined. In the old days, self-adhesives didn't exist and people were accustomed to licking stamps in order to use them to post mail. Water-activated stamps were the only game in town, and no one minding using them.

Now, however, self-adhesive stamps are in the picture. It seems like there are far more self-adhesives being produced by countries than water-activated stamps. No doubt, this is because of customer feedback indicating their preferences to the USPS and other countries' postal authorities. Even with stamps that are available in both self-adhesive and water-activated varieties, postally used copies of the lick and stick version are drastically under-represented in stamp accumulations.

Self adhesive stamps truly are much easier and much quicker to put on covers, but some of them can be almost impossible to soak of their paper without causing extreme damage. Collectors of postally used stamps are accordingly having a very difficult time in trying to find some of the newer issue self-adhesive stamps that are off-paper but still in collectible condition.
Those stamps will have to be collected still on paper.

We mourn the apparent slow death of lick and stick stamps.

Some thoughts we plan to address in the near future about US stamp collections:


Are water-activated "lick and stick" postage stamps dying a slow death?

In the future, will stamp collectors be able to find recent postally used lick and stick stamps for their collections, or will they be very scarce and have a much higher catalogue value than their self-adhesive contemporaries?

And just what's up with some of those self-adhesive stamps - some (although not all) of the postally used self-adhesives are almost impossible to soak off their paper - and when you do manage to get one off, the surface often "cracks" or a thin spot appears because too much of the stamp backing comes off with the paper. Hey, USPS, please lighten up on the goo you use to make self-adhesive stamps!

Theft of collectible stamps while in the mailstream - the removal of these stamps off their envelopes before mail delivery, by persons unknown.

US Forever Stamps - A Second Look

A few months ago we posted our thoughts on the US "Forever Stamp" - how we thought it would affect collectors of United States stamps.

Well, here is another thought, after giving it a few months:

Based on the percentages of different types of stamps that we see on both household and commercial mail, the Forever stamp appears to be extremely popular with people and businesses that are sending 1 ounce letter-rate first class mail. There are 4 varieties of the Forever Stamp (for now), which means stamp collectors can look for those varieties.

But the downside for stamp collectors is a big one: in addition to businesses, which never used many commemorative stamps for their mailings, now many "regular people" are foregoing the use of commemorative stamps - and even definitive stamps other than the Forever stamp - when posting their mail. Receiving a letter that's been posted with a commemorative stamp is becoming a somewhat scarce event. This apparent reliance of most mailers on just a few different stamps makes it very difficult for collectors to assemble collections of postally used recent stamps.

The percentage of commemorative stamps used on US mailings is probably now down to somewhere between 5 and 10% when commercial mailings and household mailings are both taken into account. The percentage is somewhat higher than that for household mailings, but the overall percentage is dragged down significantly when commercial mailings (probably not even 5% use commemoratives) are factored into the average.

'Tis a sad time for US commemorative stamp collectors who focus on postally used stamps. And we have yet to see whether the Forever stamps will blossom into enough different face-similar varieties to challenge collectors the way that the Flag Over Porch series has.

British Empire and British Commonwealth Stamps - Rising Values

In the last few years we have seen a large upsurge in the value of British Empire and British Commonwealth stamps. This rise in prices seems particularly true for stamps from the King Edward, King George V and King George VI periods but early Queen Elizabeth II period stamps seem to be rising a bit in value as well.

We're not sure why this is occurring, but it definitely is - we've noticed that some British Empire stamps that held only the minimum catalogue value just a few years ago are now worth $10 or even more now.

So a word to the wise - if you're interested in these types of stamps, you might consider buying now, before prices rise even more.