New, at a Post Office near you

[Greg Myers]

USPS Hotwheel stamps 

[High octane]

Oh boy, oh joy! I may just have to get some.

[cobraman]

Cool but not a Cobra in the bunch.

[JollySipper]

I recognize "Rodger Dodger" from a video game!  

I have a "Bone Shaker" done up as a Joker car in a set.................. 

Cool stuff!

[mikemodeler]

guess which stamps will be on my Christmas cards this year.

[NYLIBUD]

No don't use them,save them.One day,years from now,they'll be worth money.

[espo]

When I was a child and a stamp collector of sorts, the most collectable would be a "block" of stamps with the serial number on the border. I don't remember why but that was the way it was. Still if I was just buying stamps I would request these just for the fun of it. 

[misterNNL]

Very neat stuff I must say! I will of course buy them for keeping and will display the purple passion with my collection of the purple passions HW's that I display on one wall of my model room. Thanks form posting this.

[Tom Geiger]

8 hours ago, espo said:

When I was a child and a stamp collector of sorts, the most collectable would be a "block" of stamps with the serial number on the border. I don't remember why but that was the way it was. Still if I was just buying stamps I would request these just for the fun of it. 

That's called a "plate block".  That's the serial number of the plate that the stamp was printed from, and it's collected since there is only one per sheet of 50 or 100 stamps.

As a life long stamp collector, I'm dismayed with the direction USPS has taken.  During my life there were strict rules to what subjects could be depicted on a stamp.  It had to be of national historic value and not of a commercial product.  During reasonable years, there would be a dozen commemorative stamps issued during a year.

In the past 20 years, that's all been tossed out the window.  Large sets of meaningless subjects and they've killed the collector's market with things like this 20 different stamps featuring Hot Wheels cars (a commercial product).  Each year USPS puts out 100 different commemorative stamps and people have tired of trying to collect it all.  Kids cannot afford to collect.   Many collectors I know have cut off their collections at a certain date.  Some at 1999,  mine only goes up to 1980. No reason to collect the newer stuff.

And don't buy these for future appreciation.  The collectors market is so saturated with stamps that they aren't even worth face value.  The last two large lots I bought were at 60% and 50% off face value to use as postage.

[peteski]

1 hour ago, Tom Geiger said:

And don't buy these for future appreciation.  The collectors market is so saturated with stamps that they aren't even worth face value.  The last two large lots I bought were at 60% and 50% off face value to use as postage.

All those "forever" stamps will always be worth their face value (and since the cost of postage is always going up, the value will actually increase).   Well, for as long as the USPS is in business and the snail-mail is being sent.

[espo]

14 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

That's called a "plate block".  That's the serial number of the plate that the stamp was printed from, and it's collected since there is only one per sheet of 50 or 100 stamps.

As a life long stamp collector, I'm dismayed with the direction USPS has taken.  During my life there were strict rules to what subjects could be depicted on a stamp.  It had to be of national historic value and not of a commercial product.  During reasonable years, there would be a dozen commemorative stamps issued during a year.

In the past 20 years, that's all been tossed out the window.  Large sets of meaningless subjects and they've killed the collector's market with things like this 20 different stamps featuring Hot Wheels cars (a commercial product).  Each year USPS puts out 100 different commemorative stamps and people have tired of trying to collect it all.  Kids cannot afford to collect.   Many collectors I know have cut off their collections at a certain date.  Some at 1999,  mine only goes up to 1980. No reason to collect the newer stuff.

And don't buy these for future appreciation.  The collectors market is so saturated with stamps that they aren't even worth face value.  The last two large lots I bought were at 60% and 50% off face value to use as postage.

My father would bring me these "plate blocks" when I was a child. I didn't realize their significance at the time. I was 8 or 9 as I recall. I stopped the stamp collecting at around 12 as modeling had become my main interest by then. 

[Tom Geiger]

22 hours ago, peteski said:

All those "forever" stamps will always be worth their face value (and since the cost of postage is always going up, the value will actually increase).   Well, for as long as the USPS is in business and the snail-mail is being sent.

Actually not,   they will always be useful as a first class stamp, but you can buy them discounted already.  There are tons of stamps out there!  Here you go, 39 cents apiece.....

 

[peteski]

On 9/13/2018 at 8:18 PM, Tom Geiger said:

Actually not,   they will always be useful as a first class stamp, but you can buy them discounted already.  There are tons of stamps out there!  Here you go, 39 cents apiece.....

Tom I didn't meal literally that the older forever stamps will increase their value (like antique or rare items do).  But if you think about it, if you bought some forever stamps back when they cost 39 cents and use them now to mail out your letters now (the postage now costs 50 cents) then you saved yourself 11 cents on every letter you sent out.  That 11 cents is that increase in their value I mentioned.

[peteski]

On 9/12/2018 at 7:30 PM, Tom Geiger said:

As a life long stamp collector, I'm dismayed with the direction USPS has taken.  During my life there were strict rules to what subjects could be depicted on a stamp.  It had to be of national historic value and not of a commercial product.  During reasonable years, there would be a dozen commemorative stamps issued during a year.

In the past 20 years, that's all been tossed out the window.  Large sets of meaningless subjects and they've killed the collector's market with things like this 20 different stamps featuring Hot Wheels cars (a commercial product).  Each year USPS puts out 100 different commemorative stamps and people have tired of trying to collect it all.  Kids cannot afford to collect.   Many collectors I know have cut off their collections at a certain date.  Some at 1999,  mine only goes up to 1980. No reason to collect the newer stuff.

And don't buy these for future appreciation.  The collectors market is so saturated with stamps that they aren't even worth face value.  The last two large lots I bought were at 60% and 50% off face value to use as postage.

You know Tom, as I see it, something similar is happening with other things.  Companies are trying to come up with a largest possible variety of products to attracts the widest possible number of consumers.  For many past decades there were basic products which did not change.  A perfect example is an Oreo Cookie. There was only one type and, one flavor.  Then they came out with double stuffed version, but at least it was the same cookie and filling.  Then things exploded with all those special limited editions and seasonal versions.  Now if you look at your grocer's shelf there is a dozen of different flavors, thin and thick cookies, and even mini-versions!  There are caramel, mint, pumpkin spice, birthday cake, and many other varieties. There are now also chocolate and vanilla versions of the cookies. I could go on and on . . .  Or a Milky Way Bar: There are several flavor varieties and sizes (including the fun-size).  I think that similar thing happened with postage stamps - they just opened up the subject depicted to appeal to the widest group of buyers.  I'm not sure if this is good or bad. To me sometimes it seems that we have too much variety in our lives.

[Oldcarfan27]

On 9/11/2018 at 6:35 PM, NYLIBUD said:

No don't use them,save them.One day,years from now,they'll be worth money.

To quote the model builders - They were designed to be used!

[Greg Myers]

19 hours ago, peteski said:

something similar is happening with other things

 

[Tom Geiger]

20 hours ago, peteski said:

Tom I didn't meal literally that the older forever stamps will increase their value (like antique or rare items do).  But if you think about it, if you bought some forever stamps back when they cost 39 cents and use them now to mail out your letters now (the postage now costs 50 cents) then you saved yourself 11 cents on every letter you sent out.  That 11 cents is that increase in their value I mentioned.

And if you buy stamps today from my eBay source, they are still 39 cents each!  

And what you say is true.  I have loads of 3 Cent, 4 Cent, 5 Cent etc stamps that once were the first class rate.  Today you need to put ten of those 5 Centers on a single letter.  

[peteski]

1 hour ago, Greg Myers said:

 

And of course:

[RancheroSteve]

My post office doesn't have them yet (boo!), but I was able to tell the woman at the counter to watch for them.