Huh. That’s interesting. My local post office usually doesn’t get all the stamps in the first place so I usually order mine online. I recently ordered more of the Mayflower ones and also a sheet of the USS Missouri so I could put both of those together on some postcards.
3 Likes
Yeah I had no idea! The clerk said people had been coming in for weeks asking for them! That is a nice combo with the Missouri
The Mayflower stamps are 
.
The USS Missouri ones are back on the USPS site now. They had been taken off before, but sadly, Sally Ride is no longer on the site. I used her for my San Diego cards. After retiring from NASA, she became a physics professor at University of California San Diego. She lived in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego.
1 Like
I know Edelweiss. I haven’t bought from him or her? (I have no idea of the person). Mostly because Edelweiss sells at a very high mark up. I know he or she is a stamp dealer. But yeah the markup is way high.
Stamps dealers are one of the few options for people who don’t live in the USA wanting to acquire US stamps. USPS does not ship philatelic products outside the country
The local post office where I go to has been running out of these called Holiday Delights. Those are the popular ones that people ask for and they keep running out and they don’t even have the Mayflowers. Lol
4 Likes
I am also a Costco member and I get my stamps there. Usually its the 5 books of 20 stamps each totalling 100 stamps total which Costco for $54.75, which normally retails for $55 at the post office. (By removing a quarter, Costco gives you the impression you’re getting a deal, because they will make up for that quarter because people are buying other stuff anyway). Anyways, the design is usually the current flag stamps. However, at some point, I saw them sell the Wild Orchids books and they also sell the books of holiday stamps starting around October. They had advertised they were selling holiday stamps and the designs had both the Holiday Delights and Sparkling Holidays designs (the official name of the Santa Claus stamps issued in 2018). I bought the 100 holiday stamps at Costco and had to go pick them up at a special window and semi disappointed. All they had was Sparkling Holidays. The Holiday Delights were already out at the time. However, my Costco had a buttload stock of Sparkling Holidays.
3 Likes
A little off topic but:
Square Cash App’s been running a promo for 20% off USPS purchases for the past few weeks. I’ve used it online and in person at the post office. There’s a max discount per single purchase, but it basically means you can buy ~$37 worth of stamps for $30. (If you want to sign up, lemme know! It’s just a debit card. I didn’t want to post a referral link and seem spammy)
For me: I do the 2 forever + 10c combo because I love stamps and sticking on stamps (thinking about getting some pre-Forever stamps on eBay soon). I’ve been getting the Hanukkah stamps now since we’re going into the holidays (and to spice it up from all the Christmas stamps). I also loooove the Ellsworth Kelly stamps. I thought they’d gone out of stock but…guess not. Just ordered another sheet. They’re also huge.
3 Likes
Honestly thank you for this post so much. Reading this thread i feel like an utter nincompoop for not knowing the air mail stickers existed and then I had trouble understanding why they were needed.
Bit nervous reading this thread as someone who only sends forever stamps due to the ease of access at the time. But now I live in a more stable environment in a city so maybe I could invest in some interesting stamps and do some math now and then! (I like to draw all over my cards though so maybe i wont usually have all that much room). I’ll try and be better. It really never occurred to me that people were so invested in the stamps. I guess I was rather aware, but I didn’t understand.
I also just learned about pen cancellations (after watching this video). I’ve been so focused on postcards my whole time at Postcrossing that I never really got into the ins and outs of the stamp world!
1 Like
Please do remember that you are never obligated to acquiesce to anyone’s desire for a Pinterest-worthy variety of highly sought-after stamps in Postcrossing (please correct me if I’m wrong). Don’t put any undue pressure on yourself. If you already have a variety of stamp designs, and love to use them, great! If you only have Global Forever stamps at the moment, great! The only “requirement” is that you use sufficient postage for your card. Everything else is a bonus. 
6 Likes
LOL! They’re being electrocuted, poor fish!
2 Likes
I use the global forever stamps for convenience, and honestly I’d rather put my resources into getting a wider variety of cards than stamps. I do wish the USPS had more options for international, as I was into stamp collecting as a kid, but I understand that it’s probably a smart move on the their part to offer the most variety with the domestic letter rate stamps as that’s probably what they sell the most of.
3 Likes
Fresh from eBay today: New old stamps I’m adding to the rotation
For a stretch there, every new profile I pulled mentioned loving sunflowers. Now that I have matching stamps, nada, zilch. 
12 Likes
Thanks for the tip! I had the Cash app but hadn’t opened in a while, so I didn’t know about the USPS promo. I’ve used it twice already with the max discount.
1 Like
[Gasp] I NEED THOSE MUPPETS RIGHT NOW.
1 Like
Isn’t that how it always goes?
1 Like
Most fortunately,my brother is a stamp and coin dealer. I get all his “junk” stamps, those that previous collectors have had and he bought, and these stamps never went to the “collectable” state, and they just want them out of their inventory. Stamps that got damp and have stuck to the glassene stamp holder, (these are free and almost free, dealers do not want to take their time to soak these off the glassene envelop they are stored in), and other such “orphans”. I get they less than half price. As a result of that, I pile on quite a few smaller demonation of stamps on all my cards, foreign / international and domestic as well. My fellow Postcrossers love them, as quite a eclectic variety often appears as I count up to $1.20 USA funds or to .35 Cents USA funds, in one cent stamps to 60 cent stamps in small demonation stamp increments! Its fun to see a card go out almost covered in stamps. This often leaves little room to write, so I make the most of it. I always print out the address and the Postcard ID number and paste this on, my handwriting is not the best, so I feel this gets the cards to their destination the quickest. NOTE: shop and befriend your local brick and mortar coin and stamp dealer, you may be nicely surprised at what they can do for you on stamps!
4 Likes
Here in the UK we have two international postage rates that are valid for postcards: International Standard and International Economy. Until the end of the year, International Economy costs £1.26 and International Standard £1.45, and after 1 January the rates increase to £1.45 and £1.70 respectively. International Standard can be used to anywhere in the world and International Economy can be used to anywhere except Europe.
As I understand it, all international mail goes by air, so I’m not sure what the actual difference is between the two rates or why International Economy should be cheaper given that we don’t in fact send mail by sea. But you’re not supposed to attach an airmail sticker if you send International Economy, only if you send International Standard.
Someone pointed out to me that the global Chryanthemum stamp:
Looks somewhat like Covid:
Can’t really unsee it…
5 Likes