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Post by stampmaniac on Feb 11, 2024 12:45:51 GMT
As I was looking for used stamps of the Netherlands issued after 2010 on Ebay, Delcampe and other big stamp sites, I noticed there were hardly any offered. And if offered it's mostly CTO. then I searched for British or Belgian used stamps of the 21rst century and with the same result. Then I was thinking do I get letters with commemorative stamps nowadays and the answer is NONE. So it seems that of the over 1000 commemorative stamps issued last decade, just very few are being used for sending mail.
Am I totally wrong, am I missing something, or does anyone has the same experience? I think this is a subject worth while to talk about.
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Post by martyn on Feb 11, 2024 13:51:36 GMT
Certainly here in the UK the few post offices that have the commemorative issues will not use them unless asked for by the customer, this is due to the fact the individual post offices get paid more for using those great ugly label thingies than they do for using real stamps.
I also find when I get items from other collectors they tend to either use older stamps from breaking up collections etc or the ugly labels. I have to admit this year (in fact from the middle of 2023) I have not bought any new commemoratives as I still have quite a few older issues to use up.
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Post by stampmaniac on Feb 11, 2024 14:09:24 GMT
Well at least you do have post offices, which is not the case anymore for the Netherlands. Most people buy them in the Supermarkets, and they have only the definitives... So you have to order them online but most people don't take the effort to do so.
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Post by Ted Talks Stamps on Feb 11, 2024 16:11:39 GMT
Here in the US, while all the post offices I’ve used carry a binder with a variety of commemorative mini-panes (the standard 20-stamp “sheet”), customers have to explicitly ask for them. Most (I’m guessing) non-collecting postal customers, I’m sure, aren’t even familiar with the term “commemorative,” to be able to ask for them. And if they are, and they do, it is just as likely (speaking from several personal experiences) that the postal clerk won’t know what the heck you’re talking about.
Typical experience for me: I ask the clerk what commemoratives they have in stock. Clerk: Huh? Me: I’d like a pane of stamps (indicating with my hands a square the size of a pane). A sheet of 20. Clerk: (Opens her drawer and pulls out a double-sided booklet pane of 20 flowers.) Me: No, do you have any of these stamps (pointing to the poster on the wall or to the stamp magnets display)? Clerk: (Finally, the penny drops and she trudges over to the drawer where the commemoratives binder is kept, and plops it on the counter and starts turning pages, to show what’s in stock.)
Now, what ordinary everyday customer is going to go through that whole charade, just for a stamp to mail their late credit card payment?
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Post by stampmaniac on Feb 11, 2024 16:48:54 GMT
The number of people who actually put a stamp on a letter has fallen dramatically over the past 15 years. If you then take into account that most of them are standard definitives, I get the idea that very few commemoratives are used. You would expect that really used stamps would then become an interesting collection area, but that doesn't seem to be the case either.
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Feb 11, 2024 16:55:43 GMT
There are still too many to make them of much value. Japan is a little different. Here, there are lots of commemoratives used. And the international rate (¥110 though I think now that's gone up recently) are almost all commemorative stamps. BUT... almost anything brought into the post office for shipping has a label applied, and there are no stamps.
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Post by captphil211 on Feb 18, 2024 18:41:27 GMT
Stamps as we like them are sunsetting. It is our duty to use what we can while we can. In Europe, older stamps are already being demonetized, no longer allowed for various reasons. Germany, Britain, and perhaps others are trying creaky hybrids of stamps and barcodes. Given the nature of efficiency, soon the stamp part will be gone altogether, as it is with packages.
I enjoy using stamps and I have always visualized people down the line looking at them as they handle the mail. But people don't look at them anymore, and those tiny pictures could confuse our machines or distract our postal workers from their jobs. Oh, well...
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Post by fairyfoot on Feb 18, 2024 20:56:35 GMT
Send more letters/post with nice stamps on yourselves!
I occasionally send postcrossing postcards, and then when I receive, there's quite a good range of stamps. Have received some postcards with the Postcrossing stamps (I see that NL is greedy on the number of Postcrossing issues!) I send, therefore I receive. I also write letters (with a fountain pen) and see more stamps on post to me too, although getting a little fed up of the African Daisy global forever from the USPS.
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stulev
Junior Member
Posts: 82
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Post by stulev on Feb 25, 2024 19:56:07 GMT
Your best bet to get modern used stamps from any country is to try and find a charity that sells stamp KILOWARE from various countries. There used to be one in Norway(I do not know if it is still active) but the had WW and 20 - 30 different countries from a couple of ounces to a Kilogram of used stamps on paper. You get duplication but the stamps are mostly modern issues and a mixture of definitive and commemorative issues. I do not know if Linn's lists Kiloware in the Classified area of the paper as I no longer take the paper, But that is a good place to look if you can get a recent issue.
Good Luck
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Post by fairyfoot on Feb 27, 2024 13:00:34 GMT
Seems Tubfrim (the main one in Norway) has closed down...
But again, I stress, use commemoratives yourselves, on almost everything you send - payment for bills, complaints (suggest Mr. Grumpy if sending from the UK), birthday cards, etc. Pick a couple of issues, include one for use on condolence cards... USPS's life magnified has been used on wedding invitations (OK, the bride-to-be wasn't quite impressed though)!
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