In Pursuit of Postmarks

[Admin Bear]

Oct 17, 2016 17:22:34 GMT -5 collectpostmarks said:

Oct 17, 2016 13:45:05 GMT -5 Ron said:

CollectPostmarks dot com

USPS List of Pictorial Postmarks

Oh, hey guys!  I run CollectPostmarks.  I'm also a Stamp Bears member from back in "the old days" (I had the username "mcgees.org", but I became inactive and my account was eventually disabled.)

Thanks for the shout-out, Ron.  Glad you find the site useful, and it's good to be back!

Welcome back! I truely hope to see you around.. We have grown a bit since thise days...

Soooooooo haaaappppyyyyyy

[Ron]

If you've never seen the Blue Angels perform you simply must add seeing them to your "Bucket List".

[collectpostmarks]

Ron , different aerobatic team (AeroShell, not Blue Angels), but I did these earlier this year for the "Wings Over Northern Michigan" airshow:

I superimposed their squadron over the Michigan state flag, as you can see.

[Ron]

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[Ron]

[Ron]

[Ron]

[Ron]

[Ron]

[FairyFoot]

In general, I'm jealous. You have to jump through hoops to get specific Royal Mail postmarks, also, their general postmarks or slogans aren't used at all the mail centres. blog.norphil.co.uk/search/label/slogan%20postmark has been good at showing stuff although Norvic is currently on holiday until next month.

[Ron]

The US Postal System's approach is fairly straight forward. First, locate the commemorative postmark and gain the address of the post office as they usually are available at only a single post office location. Create a stamped, self-addressed envelope and mail it in an envelope to the Postmaster of the designated post office then sit back and wait for it to arrive in your post box. Most all commemorative postmarks are available for thirty days though some commemorative postmarks get an extension of 30, 60 or 90 days. The postmark commemorating the 100th anniversary of the launching of the USS Arizona was recently extended for (I think) 60 days by way of example.

These are really easy, inexpensive and cover a dizzying array of subjects. A great collection area I really need to get back to only this time around I'm thinking I'll focus more on naval/nautical and sports covers. But then again if I like it I'll create a cachet and go for it... two stamps, two envelopes and a few minutes is all it takes.

[zepherusbane]

Related to what Ron was just talking about, the the best place I've found to find out about upcoming special postmarks is from the US Postal bulletins. You can get those directly from the US Postal Service website here: about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/welcome.htm They do allow people to purchase subscriptions for a paper version of these, but they post pdf versions for free so I've never done that.

They have the last 15 years of them online. Obviously you'll only want to look at the last two or three to find active special postmarks. There is a site that has all the bulletins since 1880 though if you wanted them. For example, I use the bulletins when making custom album pages for the detailed information they post about every stamp, not just to see what postmarks are available. That site for older ones is here: www.uspostalbulletins.com/pdfsearch.aspx?Group=48&id=48#y1999

[kacyds]

Im surprise that there isnt any Christmas postmarks. I know in the past (2011) I have sent some covers to get the North Pole, AK cancellation but I dont how to do that now.



Also I have a beautiful cover from zepherusbane that I received in 2013. Not sure if that is something that is available now.

[zepherusbane]

kacyds, I looked in the last couple bulletins and the Christmas special postmarks are not out for this year yet, they do new ones every year. The Halloween ones are active along with the usual assortment of special event related ones and new stamp related ones. They are always towards the end of the bulletins behind all the normal USPS business, new stamp announcements also are always towards the end.

[BasSWarwick]

Its very difficult to get special PMs here in NZ. The material has to be sent to a collections centre  'post marking' office in Wanganui. Local post offices do not have the special PMs and are not even obliged to PM your material mail by hand, Our local PO is so stupid that they insist on sellotaping stamps on parcels in case they fall off. 

[Ron]

[Ron]

[Ron]

When you have a good idea but you're a little too late with it

[Ron]

[Ron]