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The Economics of Christmas

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

The religious Christmas stamps in U-S post offices this year may look a little familiar.
That’s because they’re not new.

They may be the Virgin and Child design from 20-13... or the Madonna of the Candelabra
from four years ago.... maybe even last year’s Christmas Magi.

This year’s new U-S Christmas stamps feature Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang... and
Geometric Snowflakes, an art design.

The U-S Postal Service in recent years only issues religious Christmas stamps every other
year or so... but  produces more-secular designs, like Peanuts, Rudolph and Santa Claus,
EVERY year.

The fact is that while the American public wants a religious Christmas stamp AVAILABLE,
they don’t sell that well.... so there are more than enough of new designs for the
following year.

There’s a minimum number of stamps for economical printing and distribution to every one
of the 30-thousand plus post offices in the U-S. And with its financial problems, the
agency can’t afford to print more stamps than it sells and destroy the leftovers.

This year, the U-S Postal Service made a special effort to get some of those earlier
Madonna and Child designs into post offices and onto its website...so there’s actually
have... more choice than usual.

I’m Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting,
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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