USA Post Office Visits

[rbridge28570]

When you get new stamps at the USA Post Office or go on the USPS Site? If you go to the post office do you tell the postal person that you are a stamp collector? and do they seem friendly and helpful? Have you gotten connection to other collectors through them? Is there a list somewhere of what future stamps to be released? Sorry for all the question just wanted to get some feed back!!!

[JanetC]

The Post office issues a catalog of sorts called USA Philatelic. It is free and is usually on the counter at my PO. It shows the release dates for new stamps and allows you to order them ahead of time.
I have one teller at my PO who knows me and my collecting. She is very good about using stamps on my outgoing mail instead of printed labels.
It is easier to meet other collectors online or at your local stamp club.

[Admin Bear]

My PO knows i am a collector and i do a lot (at time a real lot) of mailings. one of my clerks is a pain in the butt however the reast of the crew are actually interested and love when the various mailings we put out..

as for making connections that way - not yet - but there is always hope right?

[Gordon Lee]

Greetings Mr. rbridge28570
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I've found postal clerks most helpful when the post office is least busy. (I just haven't figured out when that time is.) But I've found that they are always friendly. As far as stamp collecting goes, they tend to be indifferent. I reckon they are the sort that do not like to take "work" home with them. This is only my observation of a only a small sampling.
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A good source of current stamp issues is the Linn's Stamp News and their U.S. Stamp Program. It is a tad more specific on dates of issue than the USA Philatelic, plus it provides Scott numbers when they are assigned. It is also a good for locating local stamp clubs: www.linns.com/reference/clubs/club_n.aspx#NC
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There is also www.uspsstamps.com/ (Beyond the Perfs).
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Respectfully,

Gordon Lee

[cbavier]

I tell the clerks but their attitudes seems to be Oh....so what? We have a small Post Office so there is never more than one clerk at the counter at a time. That clerk seems to always be busy either at the counter waiting on customers or in the back room behind the counter where I can't see what they are  doing. So they seem indifferent, not friendly. When I ask a question they answer it if they can but don't go out of their way or seem to be very helpful.  I was very disappointed when we first moved up here and I told the clerks I was a collector but now I just accept it for what it is.

[absnut]

Fifteen or so years ago, when I was very active in the Cover Collectors Circuit Club (CCCC), I would usually purchase as much as $30 worth of stamps every two weeks at one of two post offices, one local and one where I worked. Most of the clecks knew what I was doing and were very helpful and friendly. I was friends with the P.M. Where I worked (had his daughter in class) and he split the cost of a nice CDS with me so that I could prepare and cancel my own covers right there in the PO. I put them inside glassine envelopes to avoid machine canceling. I seriously cannot remember a bad post office experience.

[Deleted]

Locally, there are a few who are friendly and conscientious. Then there are the ones who obviously feel secure in their employment...

I will not get started growling about the substitute carrier who leaves our mailboxes open...

[philatelius]

I generally stop by the post office on Thursday. More often than not, if I ask about a particular stamp one week, it's, "We haven't gotten those in yet." If I ask about it the next week, "Those already sold out." If there's something I particularly want, I almost always just call the number in USA Philatelic.

[Fire]

In South Africa it varies from what Post Office you visit, in our town we also wait for weeks on new issues and then get informed they are sold out. When I visit my daughter in another town every second month the clerk keeps new issues on the side for collectors and gladly hands me the box of stamps to sort through and select what I want. Good service from a few clerks.