2025 All Hallows Post

Does 'average' mean I might receive 6 or 7 stamps for my £7.00? Compared to the cost of a Discworld LBE it seems expensive, although the Emporium have never actually provided an estimate of how many stamps their bags contain and I know that can vary.

What have any other buyers found?  And is this the only way I can acquire the many variants?

Welcome back to the UK!  I was wondering why the Etsy brown bags stock had suddenly disappeared...

Steve is correct, I try to put a minimum of 10 random stamps into each bag, take a look at the examples shown on the listing - those are genuine bags I have made up and then randomly selected to open and photograph when I am listing. That gives you a good idea of the mix of content.  Etsy don't like the idea of selling 'a minumum' of mixed content so 'an average' seems to be a fairer description for buyer and seller and this seems to be OK with Etsy.

I cannot compete with the price of bags at the Emporium, they have staff who can do this during quiet times, and the shop creates thousands of stamps that can go into the bags, including the ones returned through the exchange system (though I'm not sure if that is still running, it's been a while since I looked at their site). I am sure that after 20+ years of making LBEs they will have a system set up that is quick and simple to activate, whereas my system remains chaotic!

I have very little clear space here in my office so usually will only produce 50 bags at a time, I physically cannot lay out any more batches than that in the space I have here!  The sheets need to be carefully torn, the stamps counted into piles, which I then usually try to ensure do not carry any duplicates, then packed and sealed - it doesn't sound like much but it can wipe out half a day that I would otherwise be doing 'proper' paying design work or continuing with the Valentine's issues.  If I need the space for anything else during that time then the whole table-load gets swept into an envelope and I have to leave them for another day. The upside of that is that sometimes, months later I find a neglected bag full of stamps I had forgotten about!

My primary objective with the mixed bags is to give Etsy buyers the choice of buying whole sheets of one design or a pack of mixed designs.  Many Etsy buyers use them to decorate Halloween projects - party invitations, gifts etc - and they are not concerned at all with the stamps themselves. I always add a note suggesting that Etsy buyers join the forum to trade their leftover or duplicate stamps but very few join and I don't recall any of them ever publicly trading though I hope that might happen via private messaging. 

I have always added a bit of a premium to the price of mixed bags because of the extra time that goes into producing them compared to the sheets. 

I hope that goes some way to answering your questions, I will make up some more mixed bags as soon as I have time, keep an eye on the page  :-)  You can always PM me here with any questions.

That wasn't me who bought up all the stock of mixed bags so I am very grateful you have added some more.

There are *clearly* other variations not yet found, or if found, not mentioned here, also there are variations on the envelopes too.

I shall wait until after Halloween to reveal all if nobody here spots anything first.

Thank you!

I have the two variant sheets mapped out, also, but frustratingly I'm missing one green Ghostie which I think should look like this. Its definitely green ! and its definitely from row3col3 (so should say POST OFFICE in the bottom selvage)

(There is a similar green stamp on the mixed sheet on sale in the Etsy shop but in this one (in the image below) the ghosts are lower down -the one on the mixed sheet has one of the heads reaching the top of the frame)

Does anyone have a spare one and is looking for a swap ??