Press sheets for $2 Circus souvenir sheet sold out quickly

The press sheet for the $2 Circus souvenir sheet scheduled for release Dec. 10 sold out several days prior to the issue date, and the United States Postal Service is removing it from sale.

The Postal Service had offered 10,000 press sheets for sale.

USPS spokesman Mark Saunders confirmed to Linn’s Stamp News that the press sheet, which could be preordered starting Nov. 10, was being pulled from sale after less than one month.

“When inventories become low, we pull the item from our online, phone, and mail order fulfillment services,” Saunders said. “We are in the process of removing the Circus Press Sheets from phone orders. To cover mail order requests, we hold a limited quantity to accommodate customer orders postmarked prior to the removal date of Dec. 3.”

Saunders suggested that customers who want to receive all stamps, regardless of demand, should subscribe to the Postal Service’s standing-order program to guarantee they get the quantities they request.

The Circus souvenir sheet press sheets consist of 12 $2 souvenir sheets and sold for $24 each. The souvenir sheets each contain one $1 Clown stamp and two 50¢ Circus Wagon stamps.

The stamps within the souvenir sheets in the press sheets are not separated by die cuts, but each souvenir sheet has die cut outer edges, according to the Postal Service.

The mint souvenir sheets and the stamps within them are not sold individually by the Postal Service, a marketing decision that has dismayed many collectors.

A variety of this souvenir sheet with stamps separated by die cuts is being sold as part of The 2014 Stamp Yearbook, a USPS publication going on sale Dec. 10. The hardcover book, which comes with 90 stamps, sells for $64.95.

The Postal Service is also selling a first-day cover of the souvenir sheet without die cuts, postmarked Baraboo, Wis.

The first-day cover and hardcover book were both still available for preorder at the beginning of December.