With the US postal system in financial distress, and closing offices, reducing personnel and services, do you think it's just a matter of time before everything goes automated? The small town we live in seems to sell the same stamp (US flag) with no variety whatsoever. I know from shopping online that there is a bigger selection, but I don't think our Post Office has any intention of offering any other choices. What is your opinion?
The Internet is responsible !! But it is the same here in NZ. It will soon be all automated. Like a parking ticket, you slide the envelope into a slot of the Vending machine, pay your postage and you just need to post. So there go another trillion jobs to Couriers making a packet from 'progress'
The little town I live in has an advertisement as "... home to 1000 happy souls..." but it is an agrarian community covering many farms over a number of square miles. Even so, I managed to go in and pick up 3 sets of the Jenny stamps as early as two years ago, meaning they had set on the shelf for some time. But... THEY WERE THERE!! I think there will always be a small need for rural posts but not sure where that final end would be. In my neck of the woods, you can still mail live chickens!
>>In my neck of the woods, you can still mail live chickens!<< I assume they stick a stamp at back as it sure would get smelly -LOL
Hello all, here in Thailand it is unlikely that the use of stamps will dissapear in the near future. My wife says that you can still post livestock (chickens, geese, small animals?) and I have seen the rates for postage of fruit etc. Also the intercity bus services will accept parcels for delivery between bus stations (buyer collects) I believe postage stamps are available at every post office but the boring postal labels are usually used if you do not affix stamps. See below, no two are the same. Regards, James.
Gees - I hope they don't eliminate the acceptance of postally stamped mail. I've got too many US postage stamps that have no real value other than for mailing 'stuff'. Sheets / plate blocks / se-tenants / coils. At the frequency of my mailings, I've probably got about 400 years worth of usable postage on hand, even if they increase the rates.
James: I've got to disagree that the postage label shown is boring. While many meter strips or labels can be boring this one is neat. It would be most welcome to topical collectors of elephants on stamps. Does Thailand Post use other figures, animals, etc on it's postage labels? Regarding the subject of the initial post, I think that electronic communication and internet purchased metered postage are so easy and widely used that stamps are becoming superfluous. So many people don't write letters anymore (me included) so who needs stamps. Never-the-less, stamp collecting will be around for some time. There are lots of earlier stamps (pre-1960) to collect and many can be purchased at low cost. Don P. S. $166.00 baht! That's one heck of a postage charge. Must have been mailing something heavy or registered.
Hello Larry, I assume that the forever stamps will last forever, as for the low face value stamps you may need dozens of them for local mail. When I'm in the UK I am still using the orange 1st class (forever type stamps) that sold for 19p in 1988. I'm not sure of the current rates but I believe it is more that 62p. Maybe someone can update this? Regards, James
Hello Don, the current national postal rate for a 2kg (4.4lbs) parcel is 30 baht ($0.85). EMS is extra. as is the Express service. not sure of the rates. Airmail to the USA would be about 170gms (6 oz) weight. The labels are all the same, just different post zone (20260 Pattaya) and date etc. Regards, James.
The discussion of the Thailand label reminded me that the U.S. prints these items too. They can be purchased in post office lobbies from a vending machine. I don't make any effort to keep up with them, but have noticed a flag design and the Spider Man label below. I got the one pictured on a letter my wife received and she asked me if I wanted it. Yes, indeed, I did -- a non-philatelic cover with a Spidey label for postage. Don
I must admit that I have purchased similar stamps for bill-paying... flags, hearts seem to be the norm at my local PO. I wonder if the 2D bar code prevents the stamp from being reused? Maybe they cut your letter in half if you try...
With these labels philately by definition - collecting postage stamps is somewhat distorted. Although we would always have a stamp collecting fraternity I would rather call these postal receipt labels. Of course these may also be collected but is different to the forever stamps which are still stamps. Of course for the purists all stamps are receipts. I tend not to put anything postally sent linked to a postage stamp but rather a postal receipt like buyer of a train ticket.
SATX: I wonder if the bar code number is different for each Spider Man label or is it the same for all? Mine was canceled. There is just a touch of cancellation ink to the right of the post office logo and again right above Spider Man's head. It was a spray on cancel, but the killer portion didn't print well. Don
Philatelica: These labels are definitely in a class by themselves from a collecting standpoint. The post office, however, considers them a stamp in that they are a receipt (as you correctly note) for prepayment of postage. Given that they have lower usage than common definitive stamps and meter imprints, I suspect that they will have a premium when found postally used on cover at some future point. A predecessor was the vended stamps issued in the 80's & 90's that the purchaser could key in the amount wanted for postage and it would be printed on the stamp. To my knowledge, they were issued only in coil format. They, however were not popular with the public and soon went by the way side. While I'm sure they exist, I have never seen a non-philatelic cover using these earlier vended stamps as postage. Does anyone have one? If so, I would love to see it. Don
Got a few of those in my collection... actually used a couple when I sent some stamps out to one of my trade partners.
As I said, I have used them but not received them so can't answer the cancellation comment. As for different codes: my vending machine prints in groups of 10 and I can verify that the codes are all different (at least appearance-wise). I keep meaning to bring a couple into the place I work as we use 2D printers and scanners daily on our production floors to track work in process... never thought long and hard about it though. I will do so next week and respond again to this thread...
Generally I think this to be the new collecting fad. Some Countries like Sweden have stamp for only inland mail. I have seen an increase in demand of same probably mainly you hardly find the outside the Country of origin. As for the machine prints, there seems to be mixed demand from one Country to another, either mint or the used is short and some on cover are hard to come by. The early Customised Advertising Labels or CALS here have fetched good prices on an auction on cover it gets exceptional but because of the low printage. It is all about the rediscovery of collecting area and labels are an alternative to the good old postage stamp.
Hi Don! I have a bunch of these stamps that I purchased in Monterey Park, CA when it was a test location of this trial stamp. I even sent away for some of them, so I have a pretty good collection of them. I have a few postcards and letters that have this stamp cancelled as postage. They are correspondences from stamp dealers. A couple of them don't look philatelic unless a person were to know the dealer. I'll try to take a photo and post it. I don't remember if I have a non-philatelic usage or not I'll have to look at the covers.
Thanks, Hochstrasse. I would like to see whatever you have. I know I bought a few of them from the machines when they were first available. Even put in some uncommon values, i.e. .27, .07 cents, etc., but I don't remember ever receiving a letter using one of these coils, or seeing covers franked with them at stamp shows. Probably too mundane for cover dealers to carry to a show. Don
I'm sorry this picture isn't more clear Don. I had quite a few covers when I started looking for them. These 3 came from Michael Lipton, a dealer who specialized in coil number strips. I'll post some of the stamps later.
