"Bring Them Home Now!" $.39 cent Stamps Available Now

[kpete]

Mail in your tax returns with a "Bring 'Em Home Now!" stamp

Giving voice to the majority of Americans who now support the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, "Bring Them Home Now!" has created a $.39 cent postage (approved & licensed by the US Postal Service!).

The stamp features the symbol of the growing "Bring 'Em Home Now!" movement – a yellow ribbon transposed over a peace sign – providing millions of Americans with a unique way to show their support for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

more at:
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com/

[stop the bleeding]

1. Nominated! n/t

[stepnw1f]

2. Nominated (nt)

[Me.]

3. Wow!

How did that get through?

[jody]

4. Great idea but selling 39 cent stamps for $1 is a bit much. n/t

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. The profits are for good causes though.....

including Military Families Speak Out , Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Veterans for Peace.

It helps Veterans.

[mike_c]

8. $0.39 goes to the post office, some goes to the peace movement...

...some goes toward the cost of producing the stamps, and some to make everyone involved a little money. I think it sounds perfectly reasonable.

[garybeck]

10. I agree! I was all set to buy a sheet until I saw the price. Why not

just scribble "Bring the troops home" on the envelope instead?

[mike_c]

14. I'll use the stamp AND write on the envelope!

Great idea!

[cascadiance]

15. If these are stamps.com stamps, it costs $17.99 for a sheet of 20...

So that means of the $20.00 only $2.01 goes to other sources. The amount of $17.99 over $7.80 for postage price goes to stamps.com.

As I note below, using this as a strategy to make a lot of political stamps is probably not good, as it is both pricey and restrictive. If they'd have added "Bring them all home", that would have violated their terms of use clause of adding any "Call to Action" statements. Surprised that they got the URL at the top of the postage, which also violates their terms of use too.

Others wanting to do postage stamp stuff might be better off selling Cafe Press's "postage pal" companion stamps that you put other stamps on top of. It's less restrictive and cheaper as I note below. $5.99 base price for a sheet of 20 stamps. That's only about 30 cents on top of the price of a regular stamp (making your total about $.69 per letter instead).

[otohara]

5. Just A Tad Expensive For Me

$20 for 20 stamps! Yikes.

[mike_c]

9. I'll GLADLY pay extra to get this message on all my mail!

eom

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. ME TOO!

GREAT stamp!

[otohara]

20. I Can't

my bumper sticker will have to do, along with my multiple phone calls & e-mails to congress and the media -

[mike_c]

6. done! This is a GREAT IDEA....

I might even start using snail-mail more just to use these stamps.

[in_cog_ni_to]

11. I ordered mine!

I can't wait to use them! They are AWESOME stamps! :bounce:

[cascadiance]

13. Hmm... Are these Stamps.com or Cafepress.com's custom stamps?

Cafe Press is partnering with Stamps.com for their custom stamps. I say that, because it's hard to get past their restrictions to do any kind of political message stamps. I tried earlier without much luck. Here are the restrictions they put up with those highlighted that make it most impossible:

---

The following list are CafePress.com Custom Postage content restrictions as to what is NOT acceptable to upload, order for print, sell or otherwise transmit any material for any unlawful purpose that includes:

Content Restrictions

* Political figures, political controversial or derogatory images/statements/text
* Images that are racist or hate-oriented
* Corporate or non-profit trademarks, logos or product placements
* Sexually explicit or violent images
* Celebrities, political or public figures
* Illegible text
* Foreign language - almost always rejected unless someone can decipher and doesn't break guideline
* Drugs, alcohol or tobacco
* Call-to-action statements/text
* Copyrighted, third party-designed images without contractual permission
* Advertisements or URLS
* Currency, bonds or financial images
* Bar codes
* Foreign flags
* Weapons
* Copyright symbols, logos
* Porn, nudity, or sexually suggestive images
* Religion
* Symbols that you don't know the meaning of
* Unlicensed vintage photos or artwork

It looks like they've tried to carefully avoid any action statements, etc. but they do have that one URL at the top that might violate it. Cafepress.com has looked like they have tried to "solve" this problem for its customers that tend to want to do political stuff by offering "Postage Pal" stamps which are larger "stamps" that you can put anything on using their looser restrictions and put a regular postage stamp on top of it. Here's mine for Sibel Edmonds I did...



http://www.cafepress.com/freesibel.51883983

The stamps.com stuff also looks a bit pricey to be used on a "mass mailing" strategy too. You need to find some other way to "supplement" financially the sales of these so that they're closer to the $.39 apiece cost. The postage pal stuff isn't cheap either though.

[KyndCulture]

21. Right. All my cafepress stamps have been rejected.

They mean NO political statements.

I'm surprised these are actually going through. I'll be curious to see if anyone gets them.

[chill_wind]

16. I do like the message and the concept! And what about rubber stamps, too?

As a side thought, and as one who has also enjoyed the art of decorating my mail and packages from time to time with rubber art stamps, I would love to see someone in the anti-war art community devise a series of similar political art messages in rubber and use the proceeds in a similar cause and donation to worthy political groups.

Think of the possibilities-- all the things you can embellish and stamp, from mail to posters, flyers to fabric (T-shirts, tote bags, bandanas, ball-caps)using the right ink or paint medium...

And you can use them over and over.

[kpete]

17. I like the graphics

It is the first time, in a long time - I could look at a yellow ribbon...

[tokenlib]

18. Must be out of bumper stickers??

I got mine at Northern Sun and it's a bit faded. Need a new one soon. Noticed them missing amidst the buttons and really cool t-shirts.

[derby378]

19. One question - shouldn't the ribbon be blue instead?

Yellow has unfortunately been co-opted by both Bushes to imply support for their cockamamie excursions in the Middle East.

[AuntiBush]

22. No Kidding!?!

What a fantastic idea. Thanks for the FYI. Wow!

[mondo joe]

23. You can use Snapfish to create your own stamps. Anyone can use the

graphic.

Nothing against a good cause but it seems sort of silly to me.