Don’t Run Out — Don’t Run Low
The holidays are here! The key selling season for holiday stamps began October 10 and continues through mid-December. Service-wide, our goal is to ensure all sales units have an adequate supply of holiday Forever® stamps available for sale, and our customers have a variety of designs to choose from.
This year, the Postal Service™ has three major new designs to choose from: Poinsettia stamp, issued October 10 in booklets of 20 (Item 688600) and ATM (automated teller machine) sheetlets of 18 (Item 586000 for use only in our Automated Postal Units); Gossaert Madonna & Child stamp, issued October 11 in booklets of 20 (Item 688700) and Gingerbread Houses stamps, to be issued November 6 in booklets of 20 (Item 688900).
Other new stamps available this year will be the Holy Family stamp pane of 20, issued October 11 (Item 582000, same image design as last year’s booklet of 20, Item 679900); Global Forever: Evergreen Wreath stamp pane of 10, issued October 24 (Item 587000); Hanukkah stamp, to be issued November 19 (Item 583000) in a pane of 20; Kwanzaa stamp, to be issued in early December (Item 585000) and Eid stamp, issued August 8 (Item 584000) in a pane of 20.
In addition to all these new stamps, there is still remaining inventory in the Stamp Distribution Centers (SDCs) and field offices of previous years’ Forever booklets of 20 featuring Holiday Baubles stamp (Item 679600), Madonna of the Candelabra stamp (Item 679500), and Santa & Sleigh stamp (Item 679800). The previous years’ stamps in panes of 20 for Hanukkah stamp (Item 576400), Kwanzaa stamp (Item 576500), and Eid stamp (Item 576700) also remain available in SDC and field inventory, and may be ordered and used this year.
We strongly urge offices with demand for any of these items to continue to order and sell them, to help the Postal Service “sell through” its older inventory. It helps our business and continues to offer customers choices when making their holiday stamp purchases. Please be aware that orders cannot be fulfilled after inventory at the SDCs is depleted.
For new holiday stamps, an automatic distribution will be made for the Poinsettia, Gingerbread Houses, and Madonna & Child booklets of 20. Offices requiring additional supplies of these stamps and any quantities for other stamps and older issues should place their orders as usual with the SDCs. Offices can get more information regarding their automatic push quantities through http://topkkssgsht/sites/SDCReports/Lists/StampAutomatics/default.aspx.
To make the largest variety of stamps available to all our customers and encourage offices to order appropriately, stamp ordering cycles have been eliminated, and the calculation for stamp stock limits will EXCLUDE holiday stamps through the end of the calendar year. It is intended that these changes will allow offices the flexibility they need to offer all their customers an uninterrupted supply and variety of holiday stamps.
Finally, all offices may direct customers to alternate ordering channels, including the Postal Store® website at http://www.usps.com/shop, eBay at http://www.ebay.com/stamps, or by calling 800-STAMP-24.
— Stamp Services,
Marketing and Sales, 10-31-13
