Post Office in St Peter Port from 21
April until 31 August 2017.Normally found at exhibitions around the world, Guernsey Post’s GG01 kiosk will arrive in Guernsey next week and will vend Guernsey flag stamp strips with the unique location identifier “Smith Street” overprint, which are available to Guernsey’s Post and Go collectors as part of the bureau’s Post and Go collection from 21 April.
In addition to the Post and Go stamps available to existing collectors, Guernsey Post’s kiosk will also vend its Bailiwick Lighthouses Post and Go stamps (right) specifically for cruise ship tourists visiting the island, in liaison with Visit Guernsey.
An additional inscription on the stamps will welcome cruise ship passengers to Guernsey’s shores, which will be updated each time a ship arrives into port.
Guernsey Post’s head of philatelic, Bridget Yabsley, said that the stamp bureau was confident that that the temporary addition of the exhibition kiosk would prove popular with existing collectors and holidaymakers visiting the island.
From the IAR website.
My thanks to Chris for drawing attention to this. Chris asked, "How many cruise ships visit Guernsey?".
A quick online search produced the webpage of Clean Cruising, which lists a whopping 58 visits between 24 April and 15 September! Some of these may be return visits, but I doubt that Guernsey Post will avoid a repeat use for a second or later visit. One sample set from the first visit would probably be sufficient for most collectors.
UPDATE 12 April.
See comments on Guernsey Post's reluctance to provide these to collectors. I've made some calls on twitter. If you use Facebook etc you could make similar calls, and see what results.
UPDATE 18 APRIL
Guernsey Post will make these available to collectors - see new post. (Thanks Peter R).
UPDATE on Shakespeare
Thanks to Commonwealth Stamps Blog we can show on the original news post the latest Stratford Post and Go stamps which actually have the inscription Shakespeare Week, not Schools week. Not an error, just misinformation.
Another source for visiting ships
ReplyDeletehttp://www.harbours.gg/article/153967/Schedule
http://www.harbours.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=105643&p=0
My heart sinks but I find it hard to moan about these products. In fact they sound like a very clever idea for increasing Guernsey Post's revenues and providing visiting cruise ship tourists with a great and relatively cheap souvenir of their day visiting Guernsey made all the more special by having the ship on which they themselves are travelling actually named on the stamps.
ReplyDeletePresumably as well there's a chance that if a substantial number of tourists from a cruise ship use these on postcards back home then these are Post and Go stamps which will actually receive real postal usage.
Expensive, I know, if there are 50 cruise ships visiting per year but for someone there's an interesting little collection of the complete set of different ships waiting to be collected.
I'm guessing that some of the 50 ships are repeat visitors so there may not be such a large number of ships actually named on the stamps as it first seems.
I suppose Jersey Post and Gibraltar Post are even now toying with the same idea of increasing income from philatelic sales.And Royal Mail could get in on the act by, say, issuing a new inscription on its Shakespeare Birthplace stamps every time a new Shakespeare play opens at the RSC. The possibilities are infinite.
Wow, 58 visits. However looking more closely at the visits, this is made up of just 18 ships (if that wasn't enough). For those looking to collect an example of each, the ships are :
ReplyDeleteArcadia, Azamara Journey, Azura, Britannia, Caribbean Princess, Celebrity Eclipse, Celebrity Silhouette, Crown Princess, Crystal Sympathy, Le Soleil, Norwegian Jade, Oriana, Prinsendam, Queen Elizabeth, Silver Cloud, Silver Muse, Ventura & Vision of the Seas.
I fear the precedent has been made with the B.P.M.A. having inscriptions for their exhibitions. Now M005 is going to Windsor (Queen Elizabeth II DO) , could we see an inscription for every foreign dignitary visiting the Castle as a guest of the Queen
ReplyDeleteI sent an enquiry to Guernsey Post regarding availability and here is their response. "Thank you for your email. The Post & Go GG01 will be located at our Smith Street Branch from April 21st and is supporting Visit Guernsey to enhance the experience of Cruise Ship Passengers for the Summer Season. The lighthouses Post & Go collector strips will carry an "Underprint" Welcome Message for Certain Cruise Ships however these will not be available on Standing order as we did not want our collectors to feel oblighed to take a large number of underprints throughout the summer. Should we get orders for them we will consider fulfilling these on an adhoc basis for collectors who want them. We do believe that the Gueernsey Flags "Smith Street Overprint" will be of interest to our collectors and we will be running this strip as a Standing order item."
ReplyDeleteIt is going to be difficult to get strips for each visiting liner I suspect, but I will recontact them to see if this will be possible via SO as they hint at.
I gave up being a comprehensive P&G collector 2 years ago when they started on all the military museums and my spreadsheet inventory started becoming ridiculous. That was when they became 'labels'. Saying that I love the 3 yearly basic pictorials. They are lovely! Pictorial Design? Tick! Inscriptions? Mweh...
ReplyDeleteAs follow-up to the above, I queried how to express interest in an order and received this from Dean Le Clerc, Philatelic Customer Service Manager:
ReplyDelete"Further to our emails regarding the Cruise Ship Overprints I have now obtained further clarification that these strips will only be available to anybody who visits the Smith Street Branch on the day the Cruise Ship Overprint is live.
This is being aimed at enhancing the experience of tourists and we have decided not to target our Post & Go Collectors. Therefore we will not fulfil orders through our Philatelic Bureau. As the GG01 machine is normally located at exhibitions we understand that Post & Go collectors who are familiar with this will know how to obtain stamps from this machine.
There will not be a "B" series strip available for this issue for customers who cannot attend the exhibition machine and therefore we will fulfil this by offering our customers the Guernsey flags Smith Street locator overprint.
Please see below a link to the Post & Go website for full details regarding the press release of this issue.
http://www.iarroyalmailpostandgo.com/index.php "
So, anyone recommend a dealer/friend who lives in Guernsey and can nip down to Smith Street every few days?
This is not acceptable and needs to be challenged. A philatelic product not easily available to collectors?!
DeleteMy latest to Guernsey Post "I find this situation very disappointing. A quote from your press release by head of philatelic, Bridget Yabsley '..our Bailiwick Lighthouses Post & Go stamps beautifully illustrated by Robin Carter, which were very popular with our Post & Go collectors.' To produce a philatelic product and then not make it easily available to regular collectors seems to me a poor service to regular purchasers. I have been contacted by a number of avid Post & Go collectors expressing similar sentiments. As far as I am aware, none of them live in Guernsey and consequently have little potential to obtain these items. I am surprised that a potential source of significant income for Guernsey Post (none of the stamps will be used) is not proposed to be realised. I would be grateful if you would forward my comments to appropriate persons and respectfully request a reconsideration of this bewildering decision. Thank you." I will share their reply.
ReplyDeleteI've put a couple of shouts on twitter for anybody who would be willing to help to get in touch.
DeleteIf readers use twitter or Facebook - or any other social media - why not try that?
For those of us that don't have access to Twitter or Facebook, I recommend calling or emailing Guernsey Post if you have concerns with their position. I would suggest you do this sooner rather than later as it's barely a week to go before they start the process and we have two Public Holidays in between.
DeleteLatest response from Guernsey Post: "Following on from your feedback our Head has reconsidered our Post & Go proposition and as a result we will offer the first issue only of the Lighthouses Cruise Ship Underprint. Should collectors wish to obtain any further Cruise Ship Underprints then they will need to obtain these themselves by either visiting the machine at our Smith Street Branch or through the Post & Go network." A step forward, but if each 'Underprint' is different for each cruise liner, then still some way to go I think! Perhaps other blog readers might like to contact them and keep the pressure on. I certainly will. Not sure what they mean by the 'Post & Go network'.
ReplyDeleteYou could try this contact:
ReplyDeleteBridget Yabsley (Mrs)
Head of Philatelic
Direct Dial: 01481 733550
Email: byabsley@guernseypost.com
Also:
DeleteDean Le Clerc
Philatelic Customer Service Manager
Direct Dial: +44 (0) 1481 733520
Email: dleclerc@guernseypost.com
A list of the ships (with arrival times) is at: http://www.harbours.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=105643&p=0
DeleteOn some days, several ships arrive, often within an hour of one another. On Sat 20 May, two dock at 07:00 (Oriana and Ocean Nova) and one at 11:00 (Artania). As Smith St is only open 08:30-12:00 on Saturday, it will be interesting to see how they manage two underprints from 08:30 and three from 11:00?? If sense prevails they'll recognise that both Oriana and Ocean Nova have been before (Fri 12 May and Tue 2 May respectively) and just do Artania. Or will passengers be advised when it is time for their underprint on the kiosk??
Further questions:
1) Several arrivals (eg Crown Princess and La Soleal) are on a Sunday when Smith St is closed. Can't do the underprints on the Monday as there are more new arrivals then ...
2) In addition to "Smith Street", will the text "Welcome Caribbean Princess" (or similar) really fit in the available space? Relevant question as it's that ship which will be the arrival on 21 April ..
Gosh, we seem to have more questions than answers from Guernsey Post at the moment.
Latest from Guernsey Post: "I can issue The guernsey flags with the Smith Locator overprint & the Lighthouse with the Cruise Ship welcome message issue date 21st April 2017. The cruise ship is likely to be the Caribbean Princess. The will be a number of Cruise ships visiting Guernsey however it is likely that a number of them will make repeat visits so it will be just as date change if this happens." Sensible, but it is both odd and extremely irritating that only the first arrival overprint will be available from GP. I will pressure further for an improvement, although clearly time is now running out.
ReplyDeleteJust received from Guernsey post, following letter is going to all known collectors:
ReplyDelete18th April 2017
Dear Mr Roberts
Re: Guernsey to vend Post & Go stamps at Smith Street Post Office
As you may be aware Guernsey Stamps will vend Post & Go stamps from the Smith Street Post Office in St Peter Port from 21 April until 31 August 2017 from our exhibition kiosk GG01.
The kiosk will vend both the Guernsey flag stamps and Bailiwick Lighthouse stamps.
The Flags will have the unique location identifier “Smith Street” overprint and this will be provided as a standing order item. The Bailiwick Lighthouse stamps have been specifically aimed at the Visit Guernsey cruise ship tourists. An underprint message on the stamps will welcome cruise ship passengers to Guernsey’s shores and will be updated each time a ship arrives into port. The first underprint on the Lighthouse stamps on the 21st April will also be provided as a standing order item to customers.
Due to the number of ships visiting we recognised that it would be unreasonable to expect our customers to purchase every underprint which is why we initially stated they would not be available from the bureau.
However after receiving feedback from numerous collectors we are now willing to take orders for the cruise ship underprints. However we would like to stress that these will not be a standing order item and orders will need to be placed for them separately. Please use the form enclosed or contact our customers services team at your earliest convenience on +44(0)1481 716486 or email philatelic@guernseypost.com
These underprints have been set up in conjunction with Visit Guernsey to offer cruise ship passengers something a little more unique and personal on their visit to Guernsey. We would like to point out that there may be as many as 65 underprints, however these are subject to change and are dependent on the cruise ship calendar and weather conditions. Also please note, some of the cruise ships will return a number of times during the summer, each visit will have an underprint for the new passengers.
Please note that due to the large amount of administration required for these orders the dispatch of all cruise ship underprints will be in September after our cruise ship offering has ended. Also each strip will incur a 50p administration fee in line with our current GG02 products.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the bureau.
Yours sincerely
Dean Le Clerc