You most likely have no idea what I do for work 40hrs per week, because I never post about it on my blog.

With this article you will learn what I do for my main income and how I feel about the job. It is no secret that I anxiously wait the day for #Hive to moon so that I can focus entirely on my work here, but that is not upon us yet.

I started with the United States Postal Service on 4/20/13. At the time I had just dropped out of college and didn’t have much money to my name. In fact I was pretty much broke and living off of my last bit of student loans and some financial assistance from my parents. It was pretty lame and I knew that I could not continue to live this way. I was desperate to find something that could provide me a consistent income, but I had no idea what to do.

I was encouraged to apply for a position with USPS and shortly after doing so I was contacted to take tests for the job. I had no problem at all passing and assuming my new role, but little did I know it was going to change my life dramatically. I was ushered into a night shift job working 6 days a week. I was stuck working manual labor in a processing plant with lots of mandatory overtime.

In the beginning stages I was absolutely thrilled to have such an income for the first time in my life. I of course made unwise decisions and spent it frivolously on things I wanted such as shoes, sound systems, video games, and many more things I didn’t truly need. I was living with my parents at the time and it all made me feel like I had endless amounts of money.

If I had been smart I would have been buying Bitcoin, which would have me sitting on millions of dollars by this time. I of course had no idea what BTC was at the time and didn’t find out until 2017. By then I had grown rather exhausted from my new career path. At least I had made it full time with USPS and was down to only working 40hrs per week.

This made things tolerable for a few more years as I floated from position to position within the same processing center. I eventually came to a position that I felt comfy in and stayed with it for about 3 years or so. I was working until 1am every night and that eventually changed to 2am. This along with the fact that the workload continually grew larger made me start really disliking it all.

In the last couple of months I finally got a new position within USPS. I’m happy to say that it is the best one I’ve had so far! I still yearn for the day I can throw in the towel and live a life without being constrained to the typical work week. Until that comes, I am at least much happier with what I have; something fresh.

This new position is within 5 minutes walking distance from my apartment downtown, which means I can go home for lunch. I have daytime hours so I can go to sleep and get up with the sun, plus I get off at 630pm instead of 2am. I have weekends off and most of all I get to interact with the public and make many people’s days everyday. Sure this also includes some annoying customers as well, but the vast majority of who I deal with are genuinely happy to see me.

Now to the title of this blog. My favorite thing about my new job is selling limited edition stamps.

The United States Postal Service is well known for their stamps that release constantly throughout the years. I never payed any attention to this at all prior to my current position as a sales clerk. The only time I remember anything to do with stamps was a moment in my childhood where I got to look through my grandparents stamp collection. I didn’t care much then, but can still picture the diversity that collection consisted of.

Now that part of my job consists of selling stamps daily, I realize why some people are so obsessed with them. They’re pretty freaking cool!

As a graphic designer I can clearly see what all of the commotion is about. Some of the designs are just so unique, especially the holographic ones; I like shiny things.

Then there is the fact that each stamp is only available for a certain amount of time. This adds a sense of rarity to them all, which reminds me of many other collectibles. For instance my favorite clothing brand Pink Dolphin releases items that go up in value over time, same with Pokemon cards and many more things.

I have attached several images of some of the stamps available at present time. The current options can be found here on USPS.com. I recommend going to your local post office to see them in person. The holographic stamps aren’t shiny online and that is the coolest part to me. Plus you never know what old stamps that office may have in their vault, all you have to do is ask them. If you get lucky and find somebody enthusiastic such as myself, we will be just as excited as you to look through the plethora of stamps on hand.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Are you a stamp collector? I would love to see some photos of your collection if so. Feel free to drop a comment with some photos. I don’t find it likely there are many collectors on #Hive, but you never know.

Bonus!

Stamp collectors are called philatelists. If you are curious to learn more about stamps, order the free USA Philatelic from USPS.com. This is a magazine style showing of all of the seasonal stamps that will be available.