My Latest USA Postage Stamp Haul

I bought these stamps a couple months ago, so some of the sheets you can no longer buy, but I finally put together a batch of Postcrossing.com postcards.  25 postcards in one sitting.  I love stamps.  Since I was a child I've been fascinated by them.  Though my collection isn't big, I collect what I like, and these are pretty fun stamps.

Sending postcards internationally requires either a Forever International stamp, which is $1.15, or combine two $.55 Forever stamps with an extra ounce stamp totaling $1.25.  That last option is 10 cents more, but so much more fun, and those who receive the postcards I send are always thankful for the unique stamps.

 I LOVE these dragon stamps.

Though the picture doesn't show it, there's reflective copper.

 I couldn't find the pins on the USPS online store, but they're really neat.

 And I love the different images for the digital color postmark.

 These stamps are a nice size, and I love the images.

 Again, the DCP's are each different, which is cool.

 You can no longer buy a sheet of Mr. Roger stamps.

The DCP and Cachet are still available.

 I have no idea what a cachet is.  I ordered it because it looked cool, but haven't opened it.  At some point I probably will take a look.  But it is nice.

 O Beautiful are incredibly gorgeous stamps.  20 different stamps!

These are no longer available as a single sheet, but you can get them in a package of DCP's, First Day of Issue, etc.

 This set is no longer avaliable, but since I couldn't afford 20 different DCP's, getting a single DCP with a stamp sheet makes the cost breakdown so much easier.

I didn't get a sheet of Turning the Tide, but I had to at least get the DCP.  This last October I visited both Germany and France.  Realizing that last year was the 100 year anniversary of WWI ending, I brought my red poppy umbrella in case it rained.  Silly, probably, but the symbolism was special.

One of my favorite cartoons growing up was "What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?"  It haunted me as a kid, and has stayed with me.  Seeing the landscape 100 years later is humbling, and this DCP is a nice memento.

USA Stamp Price Increase + The Mistaken Postcard

I got someone else's postcard!  I didn't realize it at first, surprised that I got two Russian postcards at the same time, but when I went to register the RU I.D. on postcrossing.com, the postcard pictured above wouldn't register!  It took me a few failed tries until I finally looked at the address.  

The postcard was supposed to go to a gal in Bayside California, a fellow postcrossing junkie.  How did it end up in my mail slot?  I think our postcards got stuck together, coming out of Russia, with the top of her postcard showing my address.  I quickly put her postcard in an envelope, so hopefully she's got it now.  But boy, how trustworthy is the USPS?

On another note, USPS is increasing stamp prices starting January 26, 2014 . . . again.

Regular US letters will go from $0.46 to $0.49 a stamp . . . making a book of 20 $9.80.

Postcard stamps are going from $0.33 to $0.34, a whole penny

And International stamps are going from $1.10 to $1.15 a stamp.

You can view the complete price chart here.

When sending a postcrossing postcard I always put two regular Forever stamps with a George Washington $0.20 stamp, making my International postage $1.12.  Two cents more, but those I send the postcards to love the fun commemorative stamps.  Now the same combo will cost me $1.18, up 6 cents, and 3 cents above the new International forever price.  A few pennies seem small, but when you send a lot of postcards Internationally, it sure adds up fast.

Get those Forever stamps at the cheaper rate while you still can!! 

New USA Harry Potter Forever Stamps 2013

Last week I noticed on the USPS, United States Postal Service, website that the USA issued on November 19, 2013 a new Harry Potter booklet with 20 different stamps spanning all seven films.  Being the stamp collector/Postrossing lover I am, I had to buy them . . . three booklets worth.  One booklet to keep unused for my collection, and the other two for postcards.

One booklet is priced at $9.20, the cost of 20 Forever stamps.

I absolutely love the design and layout of these stamps!

 The back side of the booklet.

 With stamps I really love, I like to get a First Day of Issue canceled envelope.  Usually when you by them you have to get all 20, or whatever is in that set, but I can't afford the $32 price tag.  I always get the DCP covers, Digital Color Postmarks, instead of the black and white cancellations, because I love the designs and art of the colored postmarks.  They're more interesting to look at.

Luckily there is a set where you can buy a single booklet with a randomly placed DCP first day of issue envelope for $10.95.  I couldn't resist.  I'm so lucky to have gotten Ginny Weasley.

I bought my stamps off the USPS website because, with the Holidays, I didn't want to stand in line, and the local post office has a habit of running out of the good/popular forever stamps.  I didn't want to take a chance.

I hope the USPS continues to do more stamp booklets like this with fun themes.

365 Day Photo challenge: Days 37-40

(Day 37 of the 365 day photo challenge 02-08-2012) 

This is the very first Dummies book I've gotten, though I do have to add that I got it with my Mom.  We've had an Etsy shop since November, and not a whole lot of sales sense.  There are those that sale big, those that are well established, but for newcomers it's hard to get noticed.  So we got this book to help us see through the murky waters.  There's a lot of information, good information, though I'm still pouring over it.  Mainly networking is the key, and we're still learning how that works.  No one said it would be easy.

     (Day 38 of the 365 day photo challenge)

There was a former post I made about my postcrossing habit.  A few weeks ago I discovered that the post office raised prices again.  Instead of international postage costing $0.98, it now costs $1.05, and they don't have a stamp yet that matching the change.  So for fun, and because I love getting stamps myself, a $0.20+$0.45+$0.45 stamp=$1.10, only 5 cents over.  Not that bad.  I went to the USPS website and discovered all these amazing stamps, and that first day issue envelopes are not that expensive.  Back in High School I used to collect stamps, and it's something I've missed, so I got a nice little selection of canceled stamps.  This is one of the new Year of the Dragon stamp, which I think is incredibly cool. 

  (Day 39 of the 365 day photo challenge)

Admittedly, my last few pictures haven't been that exciting, so on this day I took my camera everywhere.  Here I was in the Walmart parking lot, not the most thrilling of locations, but then I saw this cute bird on the shopping cart, and had to take the shot.

(Day 40 of the 365 day photo challenge)

When I first took this picture, I totally know why I was taking it, but now it's nothing but torture!!  I'm on a no sugar diet with my sister-in-law, but we've allowed ourselves treats we can have on occasions to help with our cravings.  One of my allowances is frozen yogurt, and nobody makes it better then Red Mango.  The nice thing is that they're constantly getting new flavors to replace old ones.  The bad thing is that they're constantly losing great flavors for new ones.  Right now they have a Caribbean Cocoanut yogurt that's simply Epic.  Okay, I'm driving myself crazy.  You can find out how my sister-in-law is dealing with this goal of ours on her blog at k.stuff.

Hope you guys are having a great day!

Sarah

  

Postcrossings: The Amazingly Addictive Hobby

 (Day 28 of the 365 day photo challenge)

On January 30, 2012 I received my 20th postcrossing postcard.  What is Postcrossing?  It's a website that allows International postcard exchanges with random users on the site, and the amount of users is vast.  Just last week the site reached 10 million sent postcards.  Only 13% of the users are from the USA.  10% are from Russia.  8% from China.  7% from the Netherlands and Taiwan.  6% from Germany.  5% from Poland and so on.

I found out about the site 5 months ago when I was searching through 101 goal ideas from the Day Zero Project website, a website where people list 101 goals they want to achieve in 1001 days.  It seems simple coming up with 101 goals, but after only 30 or so I was stumped, and on the website I saw some users wanted to receive 20 postcards through postcrossing.com from 20 different countries.

The amount of postcards you can send in the beginning is only 5 at a time, and when someone receives your postcard, someone random will then send you one.  In short, only people who send postcards get postcards, and the system has worked really well so far.

The postcards are so popular in the Netherlands that they even have an official postcrossing stamp.  

Thus far I've sent postcards to: 3 Belarus, 1 Belgium, 1 Bulgaria, 2 China, 4 Finland, 3 Germany, 1 Japan, 6 Netherlands, 1 Poland, 1 Romania, 4 Russia, 1 Spain, and 1Tawain.

I've received postcards from: 1 Australia, 1 Belarus, 1 Canada, 1 China, 3 Germany, 4 Netherlands, 2 Poland, 1 Portugal, 1 Russia, 1 Switzerland, 2 Taiwan, 2 Ukraine, and 1 United Kingdom.

I've sent more then received, because I have 4 postcards that were recently registered that I haven't gotten yet, and 3 that are still traveling.  There are a couple postcards that expired because they either got lost, or the user didn't bother to register it, but in most cases that's rare.

I'm really loving this, and it really is quite fun.  It's always a surprise when a postcard arrives in the mail.

Happy Postcrossings!

Sarah