Stanley Howler Journal

The Cost of Discworld Stamps

With the release of another stamp, I saw the acknowledgement from the Emporium and the cost of my order.
It got me wondering about the total cost to the collector.

It has been a joke from day one that you leave the Emporium with an empty purse. How true is this statement?

Thankfully, I have a tame database which I use to create the Discworld Stamp Catalogue pages, and it has prices.

There are three items that most people will buy; the stamps, the sheets and LBEs.

Before you look down at the results, have a guess at how much one each of the stamps, sheets and LBEs would have cost. I am only including items you could purchase from the Emporium; Sports and variants are ignored.

The information below assumes one of each available stamp, sheet and LBE was purchased.

Stamps

To date there have been 1,216 stamps issued that could be purchased; this ignores sports, variants, and stamps only available on sheets or as prizes.
The total price for these stamps is £189.25.

Sheets

To date there have been 478 sheets issued that could be purchased; this ignores proof sheets and sport sheets.
The total price for these stamps is £4,281.30.

LBEs

To date there have been 190 sLBEs issued that could be purchased; this ignores special prizes and regional meeting LBEs.
The total price for these LBEs is £950.

So the total cost of stamps, sheets and LBEs is £5,420.55
Which works out about £387 per year.

However, I bet we have all spent a lot more on the hunt for the special stamps and sports.

Analysis

	Stamps		Sheets		LBEs		Total
Year	Issued	Value	Issued	Value	Issued	Value	Value
Prawn	84	£8.70	36	£311.40	16	£80.00	£400.10
Signifying Frog	115	£30.65	64	£490.70	16	£80.00	£601.35
Reversed Ptarmigan	103	£17.10	45	£481.90	18	£90.00	£589.00
Three Roses	87	£13.80	27	£306.80	14	£70.00	£390.60
Pensive Hare	90	£11.65	34	£291.75	15	£75.00	£378.40
Happy Goose	108	£11.90	37	£231.15	15	£75.00	£318.05
Complicated Monkey	65	£12.45	30	£297.35	15	£75.00	£384.80
Second Inception	95	£12.70	37	£275.20	13	£65.00	£352.90
Frog Ascendant	99	£9.20	29	£206.80	13	£65.00	£281.00
Reciprocating Llama	94	£12.30	30	£261.90	12	£60.00	£334.20
Spinning Mouse	86	£13.15	32	£307.55	11	£55.00	£375.70
Sneezing Panda	68	£12.20	27	£263.00	12	£60.00	£335.20
Backwards facing Artichoke	71	£12.60	30	£324.25	12	£60.00	£396.85
Justifiably Defensive Lobster	51	£10.85	20	£231.55	8	£40.00	£282.40
Totals	1216	£189.25	478	£4,281.30	190	£950.00	£5,420.55

Welcome to the Journal

The first Stanley Howler Stamp Journal was published in November 2004 and this continued up to Journal 26, published in the spring of 2012.
After a short break two electronic versions of the journal, 27 and 28, were published.

The previous Journals can be found in the Discworld Stamp Catalogue.

The pressure of other work has made it difficult to continue with a formal publication. However, it has been decided to publish an informal blog.

Special Offers

There will be regular special offers available to collectors.

General Offers

These will be available to everyone at the posted price

Subscriber Offers

These offers will only be available to subscribers to the LBE Season Ticket.