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USPS news...



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 5th 11, 09:04 PM posted to rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Victor Manta
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,256
Default USPS news...

"The Postal Service, which does not receive tax revenues for its operations,
is in the process of reducing its administrative staff by 7,500 people and
is reviewing about 3,600 underused post offices across the country for
closing. Over the last four years the Postal Service has cut its staff by
110,000 and reduced costs by $12 billion."

And nevertheless:

"The Postal Service said Friday it lost $3.1 billion in the April through
June period and could be forced to default on payments due to the federal
government when the fiscal year ends in September. Losses for the year come
to $5.7 billion."

Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...est=latestnews

--
Victor Manta, PWO, AIJP

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philatelic Webmasters Organization: http://pwmo.org/
Art on Stamps: http://artonstamps.org/
Romania by Stamps: http://marci-postale.com/
Communism on Stamps: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/
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  #2  
Old August 12th 11, 09:16 AM posted to rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Victor Manta
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,256
Default USPS news...

"Victor Manta" wrote in message
...
"The Postal Service, which does not receive tax revenues for its
operations, is in the process of reducing its administrative staff by
7,500 people and is reviewing about 3,600 underused post offices across
the country for closing. Over the last four years the Postal Service has
cut its staff by 110,000 and reduced costs by $12 billion."

And nevertheless:

"The Postal Service said Friday it lost $3.1 billion in the April through
June period and could be forced to default on payments due to the federal
government when the fiscal year ends in September. Losses for the year
come to $5.7 billion."

Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...est=latestnews


More news:

(AP) WASHINGTON - The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service is
considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs.

Facing a second year of losses totaling $8 billion or more, the agency also
wants to pull its workers out of the retirement and health benefits plans
covering federal workers and set up its own benefit systems.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20091478.shtml

--
Victor Manta, PWO, AIJP

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philatelic Webmasters Organization: http://pwmo.org/
Art on Stamps: http://artonstamps.org/
Romania by Stamps: http://marci-postale.com/
Communism on Stamps: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/
Spanish North Africa: http://www.sna-on.postalstamps.biz/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


  #3  
Old August 12th 11, 01:28 PM posted to rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Don Levey
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default USPS news...

On 8/12/2011 04:16, Victor Manta wrote:


More news:

(AP) WASHINGTON - The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service is
considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs.

Facing a second year of losses totaling $8 billion or more, the agency also
wants to pull its workers out of the retirement and health benefits plans
covering federal workers and set up its own benefit systems.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20091478.shtml

There's something I don't understand, from a philosophical standpoint,
and perhaps folks here could help me with it.

On the one hand, it seems that stamp usage in the US is down. They cite
non-USPS carriers and electronic transmission as two reasons why volume
is down, and metered postage takes a portion of that resulting in even
fewer stamps actually being used.

On the other hand, the USPS seems to be issuing an increasing number of
different issues as the years go on. From 1847 to 1985 (138 years), for
example, the Scott's Catalog goes up to about 2100; from 1985 to now (26
years) we're somewhere near 4500 - more than doubling the number of
issues that have been given a catalog number.

So what I don't understand is this: has modern US philately become a
large sticker-collecting club? It looks like they're producing the
stamps (with all sorts of lovely sets and souvenir sheets, too)
primarily for collection purposes.
  #4  
Old August 12th 11, 02:23 PM posted to rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Victor Manta
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,256
Default Sticker collecting? Was: USPS news...

"Don Levey" wrote in message
...
On 8/12/2011 04:16, Victor Manta wrote:


More news:

(AP) WASHINGTON - The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service is
considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs.

Facing a second year of losses totaling $8 billion or more, the agency
also
wants to pull its workers out of the retirement and health benefits plans
covering federal workers and set up its own benefit systems.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20091478.shtml


There's something I don't understand, from a philosophical standpoint,
and perhaps folks here could help me with it.

On the one hand, it seems that stamp usage in the US is down. They cite
non-USPS carriers and electronic transmission as two reasons why volume
is down, and metered postage takes a portion of that resulting in even
fewer stamps actually being used.

On the other hand, the USPS seems to be issuing an increasing number of
different issues as the years go on. From 1847 to 1985 (138 years), for
example, the Scott's Catalog goes up to about 2100; from 1985 to now (26
years) we're somewhere near 4500 - more than doubling the number of
issues that have been given a catalog number.

So what I don't understand is this: has modern US philately become a
large sticker-collecting club? It looks like they're producing the
stamps (with all sorts of lovely sets and souvenir sheets, too)
primarily for collection purposes.


There is a certain relationship between the loss of profits of postal
administrations and the increase of number of stamps issued for stamp
collectors, that should compensate somehow for these losses.

The main reason of the massive issuing of topical stamps is nevertheless the
increase of interest for the topical stamps that started in the mid '60th of
the last century. The firsts who noticed this new habits were dealers behind
the Dunes, Paraguay, illegals, etc. stamps.

About 10 -15 years ago more serious PAs (like US, Australia, France, GB,
....) have finally noticed the real market demands and started to fill this
profitable gap with their own, actually better production. Because the
printing costs dropped and the commemorative stamps become more and more
"forever" ones (in US), the immediate risks of issuing too many stamps is
relatively reduced for the PAs.

This, of course, doesn't take into account the long time perspective of
stamp collecting. In French they say that too many taxes kill the taxation;
similarly, too many stamps can kill the stamp collecting.

See eventually also my web page:
http://www.pwmo.org/articles/undesirable-stamps.htm

--
Victor Manta, PWO, AIJP

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philatelic Webmasters Organization: http://pwmo.org/
Art on Stamps: http://artonstamps.org/
Romania by Stamps: http://marci-postale.com/
Communism on Stamps: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/
Spanish North Africa: http://www.sna-on.postalstamps.biz/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


  #5  
Old August 12th 11, 02:43 PM posted to rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Don Levey
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default Sticker collecting? Was: USPS news...

On 8/12/2011 09:23, Victor Manta wrote:


This, of course, doesn't take into account the long time perspective of
stamp collecting. In French they say that too many taxes kill the taxation;
similarly, too many stamps can kill the stamp collecting.

Victor - thank you for this. The paragraph I've retained above, I
think, expresses my concern. My children find the idea of stamp
collecting interesting because for them it's a connection to history and
permanence of sorts. They've also done sticker-collecting sorts of
things, but the main attraction there is to complete the set, not
because of any intrinsic value or anything apart from the sticker
itself. It's also something which has, over all, little value for them
because it's "just stickers." Late the other evening, after a beer or
two, I started musing on the possible parallels and got a bit depressed.

See eventually also my web page:
http://www.pwmo.org/articles/undesirable-stamps.htm

I'll check, thanks.
-Don
  #6  
Old August 13th 11, 08:43 AM posted to rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Victor Manta
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,256
Default Sticker collecting? Was: USPS news...

"Don Levey" wrote in message
...
On 8/12/2011 09:23, Victor Manta wrote:


This, of course, doesn't take into account the long time perspective of
stamp collecting. In French they say that too many taxes kill the
taxation;
similarly, too many stamps can kill the stamp collecting.


Victor - thank you for this. The paragraph I've retained above, I
think, expresses my concern. My children find the idea of stamp
collecting interesting because for them it's a connection to history and
permanence of sorts. They've also done sticker-collecting sorts of
things, but the main attraction there is to complete the set, not
because of any intrinsic value or anything apart from the sticker
itself. It's also something which has, over all, little value for them
because it's "just stickers." Late the other evening, after a beer or
two, I started musing on the possible parallels and got a bit depressed.

See eventually also my web page:
http://www.pwmo.org/articles/undesirable-stamps.htm

I'll check, thanks.
-Don


Maybe a third beer had changed your mood.

More seriously, I don't see a problem with children playing with stickers,
in stamp form or not. After about AD 1900 the beautiful stamps were issued
mainly for stamp collectors but this doesn't necessarily make from them
simply stickers.

Anyway, as long as sets like:

http://www.beyondtheperf.com/stamp-r...pt-shelter-pet

with a print run of about 400 millions have found their buyers (AFAIK after
slightly over an year since they were issued they aren't offered anymore
separately by the PO), the topical philately is not dead yet. I confess that
I bought them too just because I liked them.

--
Victor Manta, PWO, AIJP

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philatelic Webmasters Organization: http://pwmo.org/
Art on Stamps: http://artonstamps.org/
Romania by Stamps: http://marci-postale.com/
Communism on Stamps: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/
Spanish North Africa: http://www.sna-on.postalstamps.biz/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


  #7  
Old August 15th 11, 05:58 PM posted to rec.collecting.stamps.discuss
Don Levey
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 34
Default Sticker collecting? Was: USPS news...

On 8/13/2011 03:43, Victor Manta wrote:


Maybe a third beer had changed your mood.

It usually does... :-)


More seriously, I don't see a problem with children playing with stickers,
in stamp form or not.


It's not a problem, really. It does feel like the nature of the hobby
changes when the producers change focus. I don't know how I feel about
this.

After about AD 1900 the beautiful stamps were issued
mainly for stamp collectors but this doesn't necessarily make from them
simply stickers.

That early? I'd think that ordinary postage would still be primary,
though if they're going to produce the stamps they might as well create
a secondary market. The phenomenon I'm looking at is the decline in
normal postage usage coupled with the increase in stamp production;
while the stamps *can* be used on envelopes, it seems that is not the
focus of the issuers anymore.

Anyway, as long as sets like:

http://www.beyondtheperf.com/stamp-r...pt-shelter-pet

with a print run of about 400 millions have found their buyers (AFAIK after
slightly over an year since they were issued they aren't offered anymore
separately by the PO), the topical philately is not dead yet. I confess that
I bought them too just because I liked them.

Good point, though I might suggest that part of the sales were due to
the nature of the issue *on* the stamp, and not just the issue *of* the
stamp.

-Don
 




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