Vintage Postage Stamps Series: Halloween + a Giveaway!

February is the perfect time to write about Halloween-y postage stamps. At least it is for someone who loves all things creepy and eerie. I recently started reaching out to my pen pals to see who might want to get Halloween-themed envelopes (or letters) year 'round and immediately started in on decorating envelopes. My one (small) fear is that I'm going to run out of ideas and have to send plain envelopes come October. (I'll share some of those images in a follow-up post; this one is going to be long enough.)

As per usual with my vintage postage series, there's a giveaway (my best yet)! I hope you stay long enough to at least scan the post, but definitely check out the end for contest details.

As mentioned earlier, vintage Edgar Allan Poe stamps were the philately equivalent of a gateway drug and led me to start gathering/collecting postage stamps. I don't believe I've exhausted the theme, but I'm pretty ecstatic with what I've managed to gather. I have started spreading them out a bit, so I'll mix a couple of my spooky postage stamps with some modern ones, so I can make my "supplies" last longer. If you're interested in growing your own collection, check out my tips at the end of the first vintage postage post.

There are actually two Poe stamps: a 3¢ from 1949 and a 42¢ from 2009. The latter is pressure-sensitive (sticker-style), so it may not truly count as "vintage," but in my book, anything I can't buy at the PO right now qualifies. I like to use these together, with a modern, lower denomination stamp to round out the current rate.

If I was excited about the Poe stamps, I was over the moon when I discovered the brightly-colored 10¢ The Legend of Sleepy Hollow stamp (1974). I have a love/hate relationship with the original story by Washington Irving, but I love the imagery! It also has a sentimental significance, not to mention all of the works it has inspired. In addition to the stamp featuring Ichabod on the run from a headless horseman, there is a 1¢ stamp from 1940 featuring the author. This stamp has a little-known dual purpose: Mr. Irving sort of invented Christmas as we know it (in the US anyway), so you could use them on holiday cards in December.

The 32¢ pocket in my stamp notebook is the fattest because it has both Alfred Hitchcock (1998) & Classic Movie Monsters (1997), among others.

In addition to being a fan of such classics as The Birds, Psycho, The Lady Vanishes, etc., I introduced my goddaughter to Hitchcock movies when she was nine (Rear Window was her favorite for a long time). I put one of these stamps on almost every letter I send her (along with a Sleepy Hollow one), so I tend to hoard them. Note the sweet laser-cut profile in the upper left corner of the stamp.

The Movie Monster stamps are just so...well, they're the perfect Halloween stamp. I have done a Frankenstein's monster-themed envelope and am contemplating what I might do for the other three monsters in the set. I have a candelabra rubber stamp that might do for the Phantom; the Mummy & Dracula would probably be easier.

The Night Friends sheet (37¢, 2002) features four different American bats. These are just fun.

Honorable Mentions

• Harry Potter series
• Circus stamps (current Circus Posters (forever) or vintage (29¢,1993)): at least the damn clowns (I am actually not afraid of clowns*, but I recognize their potential as scary creatures and have totally used at least one clown stamp as part of a postage collage.) 
• Carnivorous Plants (34¢, 2004).
• Coming sometime in 2016, the USPS is releasing a Jack-o-lantern stamp, so there will be one more to add to the collection. 
• You can always make your own! 

Outside the US? Canada still wins for its Haunted Canada series. I'm not sure what else is available - some countries have more fun than others with their stamps, but you might have to get creative when it comes to stretching the theme. 

Giveaway Time

One lucky commenter will win the 18 stamps pictured in the "giveaway" image, left. Anyone is eligible - even if you've won before - and I'll ship anywhere. There is at least one of each stamp mentioned in the main part of the story (plus one from the honorable mentions category (Carnivorous Plants)). Bonus: one of my custom (ghost) postage stamps that you cannot get anywhere else. All of the stamps are unused and unhinged (cannot guarantee mint condition), and can therefore be applied and included as part of any US postal rate.

To enter, simply comment here and tell me which of the above is your favorite OR suggest a themed stamp not included in the post. That is it!! I'll pick a winner on March 5th or 6th. Shares are not required, but will be rewarded if I'm aware that a winner shared the link. Important: make sure I have a way to reach you if you win!!

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*Clown dolls are a whole 'nother story.

January 2016 Updates

A couple of quick updates:

Letter Folders
One of my penpals posted a little video showing one of my folder letters/flip cards that I posted about earlier this month. @theritzymailbox is her snailmail Instagram account (a lot of people do this, but I can't keep multiples straight, so all of my stuff goes in together). Since I cannot get IG embeds to work for me, I had to download the video and repost, but here's the link to @theritzymailbox's original on IG. It is 100% her work.

Fun with Fountain Pens
I've had a bit of mixed luck with the pens I wrote about here. The free eyedropper pen that came with the large bottle (that got the whole obsession started for me), turned out to be a dud. I had a major ink leak all over my case, hands and desk. The pen was prettier than the ones you can buy from the sites I shared, but I couldn't fix it, so it's gone, gone, gone. I've had no troubles with the conversions that I did.

I did learn that taking fountain pens - at least this variety - on planes isn't the best idea. I had seven or eight  pens with me on a short flight and four of them leaked - through the nib, not the conversion point (that held solid). Cleaning that up was kind of a nightmare! And the worst of it was that I didn't need them with me. I never opened the case until I got home and unpacked my bag. :-( So, the rule for me is, no fountain pens on planes. (Maybe nicer pens would hold up better, but I wouldn't want to risk an expensive pen!)

Resources
I've added a page for Resources (always available via tabs at top of page). It's a little sparse now, but I'll be adding to it as time goes by and I continue to find cool things.

Giveaways
I had one commenter for the first giveaway, and doubled that for the second!! Both winners were reached and the first prize was sent some time ago. The latest contents winner was just notified yesterday, and I'll be mailing the stamps out this week.

Vintage Stamps Series: Space part 1, & another Giveaway!

Happy New Year! The closest I'm coming to making a resolution is a desire to post here more regularly and continue to learn new stuff. Maybe get off my ass some. But resolutions seem designed to make people feel bad about themselves and go buy gym memberships, so I avoid them.

I'm continuing the vintage stamp show-off series, and, to celebrate making it to 2016, giving away some stamps, too. Before we dig in, make sure you read to the end for giveaway details, and check out my first vintage stamps post for some tips for getting started.

Update: The Giveaway is over - the winner has been notified. 

I love myself some themes when it comes to stamps (wait until I share my Halloween-theme collection), and lately have been getting all the space-themed ones I could find (and justify the cost of). I've been wanting to show off my collection as it stands but have optimistically called this part 1 of the Space miniseries, because I hope there will be a part 2 (I'm missing several!).

I can never travel in space (claustrophobic, so the idea of being trapped in a small enclosure for any length of time...shudder), but I have been fascinated with it since my early days of watching Star Trek re-runs. One of my favorite books is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and I love old sci-fi movies, so fantastical/fictional imagery is fun, too. Here are the space-themed stamps I currently have, in no real order. I just re-read that and realized it sounds like I only care about fictional space. Not true. Not at all.

The 1981 Space Achievements (18¢) stamps were the first I acquired, starting with a pane of 8 tucked into a lot of loose stamps ordered from an eBay seller. They led me to start looking for other space-themed stamps.

I didn't think that these 1997 Space Discovery (32¢) stamps were real when I first saw them. I haven't done any reading on them, but the location is obviously Mars, so this fits in with my love of the fantastical and fictional, do you grok?

These 2000 Hubble (33¢) stamps are breathtaking. There are 5, with each row having a different order.

Here are a few random, loose examples:

• 1948 3¢ Palomar Mountain Observatory
• 1962 4¢ Project Mercury, honoring the John Glenn-piloted Mercury-Atlas 6 flight)
• 1971 8¢ Space Achievement Decade (pictured here in reverse order)
  
  Below:
• 1975 10¢ Mariner 10 (launched Nov. 1973 for a 2-yr mission to explore Venus & Mercury)
• 1975 10¢ Pioneer (10 was launched in March 1972; 11 in April 1973)

Giveaway

Thanks for reading! I can't promise to always give away stamps when I do a vintage post, but I am this time! Winner will get the stamps in the image at top of this post (or to the right). All stamps are unused and unhinged, but not necessarily mint.

How to Enter: It's easy! Just comment here and share your favorite scientific or sci-fi work (any medium). Sharing is appreciated, but not required. I'd like to grow my readership, but I don't think that forcing people to repost and tag friends is a way to do it for real. The contest will end on January 15th. Make sure I can find you!!

Last time, only one person commented :-( , so this time, I'm hoping to DOUBLE that :-)

Vintage Stamps Series: Girl Power part 1

This is what I hope to be the first in a series of posts sharing my vintage postage stamp collection. Up first are some of the stamps I'm classifying under "girl power" - stamps featuring strong female role models, both real and fictional. (Gee, I hope I'm not setting myself up by announcing a series, and multi-part topics!) On to the pictures! See accompanying text for more details. Read to the end for a mini giveaway!!

I think it was the Amelia Earhart stamp (1963) that got me going on the girl power category. I've seen them going for $1 each, but since I buy stamps to use, I searched until I found a full sheet at a more reasonable price per stamp.

I had a pretty shitty education, especially when it came to history, so I only learned about Sybil Ludington (1975) in the last few years. (You should definitely go read up on her, but in brief, at 16, she performed a ride similar to that of Paul Revere, only twice the distance.) Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across postage stamps in her honor! I had to buy them!!

I enjoy combining several stamps on an envelope, but am not always able to keep with a theme as wonderfully as shown on this page. This is a birthday card sent to a friend who participated in the Rosie the Riveter Guinness World Record a few weeks ago. Yes, I bought an entire sheet of stamps (Celebrating the Century, 1940s (1998)) for the Rosie stamp, but there were some other goodies on the sheet.

One thing you need to be prepared for when sending stamp collages is that the recipient won't notice. (Happened for the Rosie card, but then the recipient was inundated with birthday cards because she is beloved.) Update: birthday gal did notice. My bad.

This card hasn't been mailed yet, but I have already written a note on the back of the envelope ("check out the stamps!") and informed the recipient's father (my brother) to tell his kids (my niece & nephew to look at the stamps. I think niece will love the Prinecess Leia stamp (2007). Since the value is 41¢, an 8¢ Sybil stamp put it at the current 49¢ rate and continued the theme! (Nephew's card has a Luke stamp (they dressed as Leia & Luke when they were little and are still fans).)

This might be the best or the worst time to buy the 2007 Star Wars stamps. I had to be patient to find some that were reasonably priced (I have 1 sheet to save and 1 to use) - some sellers are charging exorbitant rates - but I'm so glad I got them.

Quick notes about gathering stamps for mailing (a little different from regular stamp collecting)

• It's fun, but can be a little addictive. I recommend getting a 3-ring binder and a bunch of sheet protectors to help sort and protect your growing collection. In a future post, I'll share images of my set-up.
• If you're shopping online (e.g. eBay), make doubly sure the listing says "unused" or something similar. MNH means "mint, never hinged," and that's usually what I go for, just to be safe. Hinged stamps are mailable but have to be separated from their hinges and I'm not up for that.
• You can use any non-postmarked stamp issued by the USPS (can't tell you about other countries). I recommend a good glue stick in case the gummed ones don't want to stick to your envelope. (You cannot tape down stamps, except perhaps along an edge, but don't quote me there.)
• A great way to start is with a "lot" like this one, which gives you enough stamps to mail 20 1-oz. letters for less than face value (FV). The challenge here, of course, is that you have no control over what you get, but the price is hard to beat and you have to start somewhere. I have no affiliation, except as a satisfied customer.
• Don't feel like you must have a theme, or even use all vintage stamps. I have a sheet each of all the stamps currently available at the USPS in denominations up to 20¢, plus a few of some of the other values. Many people use one "spotlight" stamp and finish up with new stamps.
• Use a calculator before you buy. I recently put together a spreadsheet to see what I paid per stamp v. the FV. I did pretty well a lot of the time, but my first few purchases were rather tragic. I was so excited to get Edgar Allen Poe stamps, for example, that I paid over $1 each (42¢ FV). I think I paid 20¢ each for some not-great quality 1¢ stamps (Washington Irving). 

What's this about a giveaway? [Update: we have a winner!]
To celebrate my second-ever commenter (LOL), I'm giving away some Girl Power stamps. There will be several of the Sybil stamps, some Amelias, and maybe some others, all unused (sadly, the Leia and Rosie stamps are not included). While I love and am slightly addicted to Instagram, I'm not requiring shares or tagging of unsuspecting friends. All I ask is that you comment, either here or on the IG post that brought you here, and tell me what you'd put on a postage stamp if you were in charge of the post office for a day. 

Open to anyone, anywhere, until Tuesday, 24 November, 2015. Please feel free to share, repost or tag, but it's not required. Make sure I have a way to contact you to get your snail mail addy if you win.