I went to the post office today to buy additional postage for postcards headed outside of the US, which for me is almost ⅔ of the postcards I’m sending.
Currently, to send a postcard abroad, it requires either two 56¢ stamps, and then an additional 14¢ postage. After the last price increase, it required a minum of 5 stamps to mail a card outside of the US. (2 58¢ stamps, a 10¢ stamp, a 3¢ stamp and a 1¢ stamp.)
Today when i told the postal clerk i needed 20 each of these denominations, she told me they now have a 4¢ stamp. It only comes in one design, blueberries. (The 10¢ stamp is pears, so they’ll be a fruity theme to the field of stamps.)
Though I will miss the silver coffee service stamp. I’d put it vertically over the Espresso stamp as if it were pouring a cup of espresso got the recipient.)
I do this as well. It’s unfortunate that the USPS doesn’t offer a larger variety of global stamp designs, but there’s only so much space for postage on a postcard. (And why are the global stamps so big!?)
I still have a ton of smaller denomination stamps - once in a while someone will mention their love of postage and I’ll put in the effort to artistically fit 5-6 stamps on a card
But for the most part I put most of my effort into picking the card and writing the message.
The global stamps are rather hated by everyone as their designs are unimaginative. When I receive a card from the US I am really excited if it contains Forever Commemorative stamps as these are much more interesting!
Unless you’re in a large city with a big post office, you’re sometimes limited to which stamp designs you’re able to get.
Timing is an issue, as some days I’ll go a month without mailing anything, and some days I go through 50 pieces of mail in a day or two. The USPS web orders take several weeks to deliver to me, if I’m lucky.
My local post office is literally a single-person stall in the back of a convenience store. They only offer one design of each stamp, and some days don’t even have any stamps in stock. I’m always worried I’ll buy out their stock and leave none for my neighbors
Did you see the post that a new global stamp will be released this year, in the spring I believe-another flower , sunflower.? At least it will be something different. I actually like the global stamps, much easier to use.
I agree 100%. I have never used those uninspired Global Forever stamps. I recently bought (8) Full Lighthouse Stamps sheets from the USPS fulfillment center in Kansas City. I stick two of those + (2) Commemorative $0.08 commemoratives that I have lying around and away we go. Before I used a $0.13 Commem + a $0.01 Commem.
for anyone looking for older unused 4¢ or any unused american stamps, attend a stamp show near you. dealers attending these shows selling american stamps at face and some at a discount price. just ask a dealer if they have any unused american postage at face value. can stock up on them. it been a while but when i go, i buy a lot of 20¢ stamps to use for domestic postcard rate and 15¢ for the international rate (i usually get a discount as buying a lot of postage stamps and it round off to cost about 13¢ each for the 15¢ stamp. here is a link to find your closest stamp show. can not say if all stamp shows will have dealers selling unused american postage stamps at face or below face value.
I bought them online, and I received them today. I’m really glad they released these because I’ve been using a 20 cent stamp to cover the remaining 14 cents.
I got a bunch of 4 cent stamps pretty close to their release date because I had pre-ordered them online. I don’t necessarily use them for everyone, however. If someone’s profile states that they like stamps, I generally go for adding more stamps (so I would break that down into smaller denominations) rather than condensing into as few stamps as possible.
I don’t really get the hate towards the global forever stamps because frankly, there are other stamps that I find more poorly designed, but I then again I rarely use them on official postcards because other people dislike them so much. I do wish, however, that folks would be a little more forgiving towards people who do use the global forever stamp–not everyone has the same accessibility to stamp variety.
I just received the Year of the Tiger and they are actually more colorful than the photos posted of them. I also have the new Love stamps, but frankly I am a bit disappointed as they appear a bit dull in color. I normally use one 2 oz and one forever on international cards for those who mention they like different stamps. I overpay 6 cents but I just run out of room on the card because I just don’t write small enough!
