Esquire's Marty Beckerman asked Mr. Donald Sundman, president of the Mystic Stamp Company for his take on the stamp with the value that changes with the first class letter rate. Sundman gained fame a few years ago when he bought the US Z-Grill stamp for approximately $1,000,000 and traded it for an Inverted Jenny (aka upside-down airplane) plate block of the error stamp to financier/collector/invester Bill Gross. Gross had just paid $2.97 million for the block of Jennies. So, not a bad deal for Mr. Sundman.
If you've stockpiled the Forever Stamp, take heart because he says "...it wouldn't surprise me if we have a one-dollar stamp in twenty years -- so it's a mistake for the postal service, not the customer."
He believes that collectors aren't thrilled with the stamp. (Perhaps because it is a stamp specifically issued to be used, not collected?) And as for investment potential, he offers the tried and true advice of buying expensive stamps as investments and avoiding the cheap ones. "I wouldn't buy it as an investment because generally inexpensive stamps remain inexpensive," he concludes.
Even while knowledgeable collector/investors might follow Sundman's advice, the facts show a booming market for current postal emmisions: The USPS estimates that new issues are bought and saved by collectors to the tune of $200,000,000 a year.
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