Not much of a keepsake for Hot Wheels stamp issue

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

The United States Postal Service issued its Hot Wheels commemorative forever stamps Sept. 29 in Fort Worth, Texas. I went to the ceremony, and while browsing the different products at the retail booth, the “Hot Wheels Keepsake” jumped out at me.

Why? Because I only saw a stairstep row of four stamps across when a full pane has five stamps across. I picked up the shrink-wrapped package and was startled to find that the pane of stamps had been folded at left.

Apparently the cardboard stock the USPS had been using wasn’t large enough to accommodate the larger size of the Hot Wheels pane, so they decided to fold the pane. Not exactly the most desirable situation, to say the least, considering the pane is now ruined and really only good for use as postage.

The package also included a digital color postmark first-day cover in addition to the stamps.

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Most of the time, collectors are better off purchasing the stamps and FDCs separately. The face value of the stamps plus the cost of a single FDC are typically less than the marked-up price, usually to the closest 95¢ amount of the “keepsake.” Although in the case of the Hot Wheels stamps, you cannot purchase a random single FDC separately.