Linn's is reporting the today the USPS has announced:
Oct. 1, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Ten different forever stamps will be issued in a double-sided pane of 20 (a format the U.S. Postal Service describes as a booklet). The stamps will be issued in Santa Rosa, Calif.
And USPS continues down the path of excess! Do we really need TEN Christmas stamps? I don't have a problem commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Charlie Brown Christmas classic, but not with that many stamps.
The same news release lists a set of TWENTY stamps honoring pets?!? Again, do we need stamps with iguanas and gold fish on them in that quantity.
I gave up collecting new issues a long time before it got this excessive. They're killing any chance of kids starting stamp collecting with the cost of buying new issues!
I am a Peanuts fan. Back in the day I sent Charles M Schultz this FDC to autograph. He signed it and returned it to me in the enclosed SASE. I was tickled pink, I was 17 at the time and very interested in pursuing journalism back then.
I agree with BenFranklin. Ten Peanuts is ridiculous, twenty pets is nuts and so on! In another era these would have been called "wallpaper". Of course, if everybody felt this way, with just a bit of luck these stamps are going to be worth a fortune.............
I am fifty years old (eight months older than the debut of the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon.) I collect U.S. stamps. I'll be looking for nice used examples of all ten of those stamps for my collection.
I like them and I think they're great!
David Giles
Ottawa, Canada
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"President, The Society for Costa Rica Collectors"
Yep. I agree (with David... I like them). And further, finally meaningful "Christmas" stamps without that stuff the US government is supposed to be separated from.
I collect used US and enjoy the challenge of obtaining the various varieties. In addition to the 10 face different singles plus the various straight edge varieties, there are also 5 different imperf between pairs, a imperf within block of 4, and all the various combinations of the imperforated versions, the latter varieties from the press sheets. And, it appears that the press sheets are sold out now.
Next, the snowflakes issue.
One can be pretty busy keeping up with all these, not to mention all the stamps being issued by our northern neighbor.
BTW for the other Peanuts enthusiasts here, I have a special note on my SASE cover offer: As a bonus- If the envelope you address/send to me (with the SASE enclosed) is franked with a new US Peanuts (Charlie Brown) stamp, I will enclose 2 random covers in your SASE.
That also means that if you use a Peanuts stamp on your SASE, you will also be getting a Peanuts stamp on cover.
"So Tom, which Peanuts character are YOU supposed to be? ;-)"
I'm Tommy, Charlie's overweight friend who follows Snoopy around with a pooper scooper!
This was set up at our local movie theater as a promo for the movie. My wife was like, "I can't believe you are doing this" I think I was saying, "Take the frickin picture already!" when she snapped this! I think my head needs to be twice it's size to work into the picture.
I really like what the USPS (and others) are doing with postage stamps! They're just FUN!
I think they'd likely be printing the same number of stamps anyway, so to me, the more variety the better. How boring would it be to just have 5,000,000,000 single issues with a pic of Charlie Brown or Bugs Bunny only.
I don't try to keep up with all the different series, these days. But every now and then, they'll hit on a subject that rings a bell for me personally and I "go for it". Then begins the hunt for used versions of the same.
I simply see these as the latest chapter in postal history. If you think about it, even some "Best Sellers" are bound to have a chapter or two that you don't like as well as others, but that doesn't keep them from being great novels in the end. Besides, without those lesser chapters, the story wouldn't likely play out the same anyway.
My approach is to buy the sets I like and leave the rest for others. I know, it's a simple philosophy, for a simple mind, but what can I say?
WB
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-I'll use half and then save a set for my collection. 
