Post Office All Shook Up by Demand for Elvis Stamp

Fifteen years after his death, Elvis Presley has another No. 1 hit.

Only days after a mass mailing of some 800,000 brochures to people who voted in the “young Elvis/bloated Elvis” popularity contest last April, telephone orders began pouring in for a 29-cent stamp that is well on its way to becoming the best-selling piece of gummed paper in U.S. history.

And now, although the Elvis stamp will not be available until Jan. 8, the 58th anniversary of the rock ‘n’ roller’s birth, postal officials are worrying that the initial printing of 300 million--double the normal commemorative issue--won’t meet demand.

“It’s just phenomenal,” said Carl Burcham, manager of philately for the U.S. Postal Service.

Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon Jr. is insisting there be enough Elvis stamps available to cover the usual 60- to 90-day life span of a commemorative, says Burcham. “We’ll have to decide soon about going back to press,” Burcham added. “We’ve just never experienced anything like this.”

Indeed, the response to the stamp honoring Presley is almost as extraordinary as the fact that an overweight entertainer whose death was reportedly caused by an overdose of prescription drugs is on a postage stamp at all. In a 23-year career, the one-time poor boy from Tupelo, Miss., had 107 Top 40 hits, made 41 million-selling albums and starred in 33 movies before succumbing to a heart attack in Memphis in August, 1977.

When the idea of honoring Elvis with a stamp first came up in 1987, many were opposed. Some critics cited his reported drug abuse. Others claimed he was still alive, and thus ineligible.

After Runyon’s predecessor as postmaster general, Anthony M. Frank, embraced the idea, controversy raged over which Elvis should be remembered: the lean Elvis of “Hound Dog” days or the overstuffed, sequined Elvis of the later, Las Vegas years. More than 1 million people voted, and the young Elvis won in a landslide.

Even Runyon is singing along. “I tell you what, if I could find another one like Elvis, I’d do it in a minute,” Runyon said recently when asked if honoring the controversial singer with a stamp was a mistake. “I’d like to find 20 like that.”

Since the advertising brochure was mailed late last month, telephone operators have not only been swamped with advance orders for stamps but also for four limited-edition Presley philatelic collectibles ranging in price from $5.95 to $19.95. Included are a program from the first day of issue ceremony planned from the singer’s Graceland home in Memphis, a 16-page booklet with pictures and facts about Presley, sheets of 40 stamps that come in a special sleeve designed to look like an album cover and a full-color 12-by-12-inch glossy reproduction of artist Mark Stutzman’s “young Elvis” portrait in a package with a stamp and a Graceland cancellation.

Orders placed before Jan. 1 are guaranteed, and callers who place orders by Thursday receive a holiday gift card. (The telephone number is 800-STAMP-24, extension 885.)

The unprecedented advertising promotion, along with the sale of dozens more products yet to be announced, is expected to raise $20 million for the debt-ridden Postal Service, which has projected a deficit this year of $2 billion. Much of the revenue raised by the first in a planned series of stamps called Legends of American Music is expected to come from Presley paraphernalia--coffee mugs, jewelry, potholders--that will be produced under license between the Postal Service and the Presley estate.

But the Postal Service also plans to collect million of dollars in profits from what is called stamp retention: stamps bought and never used to mail a letter. “We project revenues of $13 million in stamp retention for Elvis, a rate of 15% of all stamps sold,” said Burcham.

“As a comparison, we projected about $10 million in retention revenue from the Winter Olympics strip of five stamps. But this is just one stamp.”

Burcham says interest in the Presley stamp will also serve to introduce thousands of people to stamp collecting, a hobby that annually produces about $150 million in revenues through stamp retention. “We have to look beyond Elvis,” he said.

That won’t be easy. Even though stamps honoring other American musical luminaries--Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Ritchie Valens, Dinah Washington, among others--are coming next year, the hoopla over Elvis has many people . . . well, all shook up.

Neodata Telemedia Services, the Omaha company that contracts with the Postal Service to handle stamps-by-phone orders, has increased staffing by 60% because of the Elvis promotion, according to a company spokesman.

The real crush may come Jan. 8, when the stamp goes on sale in some 40,000 post offices around the United States. Most post office lobbies will display posters and takeout brochures promoting other Elvis products. That promotion is also being handled by Chapman Direct Advertising, a New York agency owned by Young & Rubicam Inc.

Elvis’ fans, as legendary for their loyalty as he was for his music, account for much of the sales volume, of course.

“We worked hard toward getting the stamp for Elvis, and he certainly deserved it,” said Sandy Poalillo, vice president of Eternally Elvis, a fan club based in Pembroke Pines, Fla. “Now lots of people are buying.”

Some speculators seem to be investing as well. According to the Postal Service’s Burcham, one caller ordered 3,000 full sheets, which at $11.60 a sheet, comes to $34,800.

To Kitty Wunderly of the American Philatelic Society in State College, Pa., that doesn’t make sense. “The factors that make a stamp valuable are rarity and scarcity, and anybody who wants the Elvis stamp can buy it locally. I think if speculators are buying, they’re wasting time and money.

“But the Elvis stamp will always be worth 29 cents in postage, so you can still use it to mail your utility bill.”