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#1
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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/ Spanish North Africa: http://www.sna-on.postalstamps.biz/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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#2
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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