Perhaps recalling the heady days when Bart Simpson T-shirts sold in the millions and a song like “Do the Bartman†had the power to become a cultural touchstone, the U.S. Postal Service produced 1 billion stamps featuring characters from “The Simpsons†in 2009 to commemorate the program's 20-year-run on Fox.
But according to Bloomberg.com, only 318 million Simpsons stamps have been sold with the remaining 682 million amounting to a waste of $1.2 million in printing costs. The stamps sold for 44 cents and can no longer be used by themselves to mail a letter because of the rise in postal rates. Commemorative stamps are commonly destroyed when the do not sell.
Although the $1.2 million would be a drop in the bucket compared to the $5.2 billion net loss the service reported earlier this month for the quarter that ended on June 30, it points to a larger problem of how the Postal Service determines how many commemora tive stamps to produce.
According to a report from the inspector general, the decision of how many stamps to make is too much of a judgement call from one individual. The Postal Service overproduced 2.1 billion commemorative stamps in 2009 and 2010. The service has since introduced “forever†stamps, which do not have a fixed price, to help avoid overproduction in the future.
Representatives of the Postal Service were not immediately available for comment.
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