Let’s Talk About Postage

Mail, Personal

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I’m down to my last 5 first-class postage stamps. Don’t get me wrong, I have a TON of low-denominational stamps but it’s annoying to stick five 10 cent stamps on an envelope. Who has room for that nonsense?! Plus, I love using a variety of stamps on envelopes so that is basically out of the question. If we’re being honest, I pretty much use the low-denominational stamps as envelope decoration.

Luckily, it’s almost February. Which means I have $100 at my disposal to use on whatever I want; and that usually means postage. You see, I budget every cent of my money. It’s almost necessary but it’s also just super helpful. I don’t have a lot of money left over once the bills are paid (one day I’ll pay off that credit card!) but that’s okay! I really dislike shopping anyway.

I went online and ordered a selection of stamps that looked the prettiest, to me. The stamps in the image above are on pre-order and I am so excited to get them. Aren’t they beautiful? I think these will be my favorite for 2015. Can I just say, though, that the designs for anything other than first-class rate are seriously lacking. They are just boring. I’m really hoping 2015 throws some cool postcard rate stamps in our face. Or even some new designs for the 1, 5, and 10-centers. How do we just have one design for postcard rate? What is this? I have a lot of feelings about the USPS.

Have you ordered any of the new designs? The other new one I’m aware of is the “Forever Hearts” design. It’s pretty enough but it doesn’t tickle my fancy like these vintage flowers.

24 thoughts on “Let’s Talk About Postage”

  1. I was looking at the upcoming 2015 releases yesterday as I thought there was supposed to be a graphic design series that coordinated with 2013’s modern art… alas, seems to be just a rumor for now. I also found most of this year’s philatelic offerings to be a massive bore… blegh. I do like the simple typographic love ones though as well as these flowers! I only really liked a few of 2014’s anyway, like Harvey Milk and the circus stamps.

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      2. OH YES i forgot about the martin ramirez set, they look amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! at least there are a few standout issues this year… stampnewsnow was where i had heard that design rumor, and i was waiting and waiting for news of it (which never materialized, sob)

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  2. I have a lot of feels about the postcard stamps, too. Last year I realized I could use vintage postage as postcard stamps…I just had to find a good deal on them. Ebay worked a treat!
    And heck YEAH, those flower stamps are lovely.

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    1. I’m glad you have feels too! I totally need to up my vintage stamp game. Hilariously I have hundreds of vintage stamps from my dad’s old collection but I can’t bring myself to use them.

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  3. I agree! I really really need a new 21-cent stamp. Old Abe doesn’t look good on my arty envelopes (even tho he was a good guy) and yes — yes — we need a nice variety of postcard stamps. How about a set of the great USA cities for postcard stamps? people usually send postcards when on a vacation so why not play that up — great cities? national parks? etc????? Come on USPS!

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  4. These are really beautiful! Do we normally get a new postcard stamp every year? Or is it only when they change the prices? There should totally be at least one new one every year.

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    1. I don’t think we get new postcard stamps every year, just when they change the value (which seems to be every year anyway? haha I dunno). They reaaaally need to release new ones yearly. I mean, they do it for the 70 cent ones so why not postcard rate too!

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    2. yeah, i think it is when the value is changed, but i agree there should be new ones yearly and different options available each year -_- but i find that most don’t even realize that it costs less to send a postcard / that postcard stamps exist unless they are frequent corresponders or mail artists

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  5. Like you, I think there needs to be at least one other option for postcard stamps (though would prefer more!), but what I would really love is the option of a regular-shaped international stamp– I’m over the globes and wreaths.

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    1. We should start a petition! Haha. Oh god, I totally feel you on the international ones. I refuse to even buy them anymore. I LOVED the idea of a different shaped stamp but they really didn’t pull it off well.

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  6. I was a little disappointed by how lackluster the USPS selection was when I was getting stamps for holiday cards. But then I printed them from an APC anyway and it didn’t give me a choice so it didn’t turn out to matter anyway… haha. Those flowers are really pretty! 🙂

    ❤ Kelsea | Kels Shark

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    1. In my experience, the physical post offices always have terrrrrible stamp selections. I think they realize that most people who go aren’t looking for cool stamps, they just want stamps.

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  7. Not gonna lie, I kinda like the 3c one – makes me think of Alice in Wonderland. Other than that, it’s looking a little disappointing. Not that I’m too on top of USPS. Royal Mail generally doesn’t impress me too much either – I’m big on getting my pretty stamps the vintage way. I get them on eBay for less than the denominated value! But definitely need current stamps as well – my vintage ones are both larger and of smaller denominations, I can hardly fit enough of them on an envelope if I’m to use only them!

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