Press Sheets

Ordering lots of stamps? Buy a press sheet! It's totally fun to pull stamps off of a giant sheet of stamps, trust me. We use a lot of stamps here at the L.W.A. Clubhouse. We've started using so many stamps that, while the three thousand dollar coil of a thousand stamps is still out of our reach, we do order a lot at once. An easy way of doing that is to order a "press sheet." A press sheet is called a "press sheet" because it's how stamps come off of the press AKA printer. They print them in great big sheets and cut them down from there. In the old days, they would print them and then perforate them. Now they print them and then die-cut them into the crenelated stamp shape we all know and love.

Stamp collectors are big on the uncut press sheets, but me, I just need a lot of stamps. I have to make certain when I order them that I'm getting my sheets with die-cuts. As pointed out by commentors in earlier posts about ordering stamps from the U.S.P.S. website, when you order sheets from there, there's a lot of extra packaging involved. Each sheet is typically backed with cardboard in a cellophane covering. So, if you order six sheets of stamps, you get six individually packaged sheets. When you order a press sheet, it's like ordering six individual sheets, but they all come in one tube without anything extra other than a protective piece of paper. Also, it's a pretty nice tube. 

 

Comments

[Jennifer]

I appreciate your mentioning the quality of the tube!! You know us reusers, always looking out for good tubes!

[Mike Szwarc]

The last time I ordered stamps from the USPS (end of April), the sheets came without the cardboard and cellophane packing. I don't know if this a new policy, or was just a one-time thing.

Also, for the reusers out there, I use the cardboard that (used to?) come with the stamps as book-binders board. The cardboard is thin, but you can use spray-glue to laminate two or three pieces together to get the thickness you want.

[FinnBadger]

I use the cardboard for collaged mail art. Although I still have way too much of it.

And if you order press sheets, don't try and remove the caps off the tubes to get to your stamps - just cut in the groove where the tube is taped together. I know this sounds simple, but I am not the only one who was confused by this.

[Scribbling Sarah]

I bought press sheets for the first time around the first of the year because I'd bought Christmas cards on clearance for this year that matched the Wise Men stamps released for last year, but they were out of stock when I went to buy the stamps! Found Press Sheets and it worked out pretty well, although as they were press sheets of booklets I had to cut them apart/down even though I bout die-cut ones!