Brief Overview

        Merrick Mint, Inc., the leader in the design, marketing, promotion, and distribution of licensed colorized U.S. coins, entered the personalized stamp market with U.S. Postage Stamp Labels during November 2004. The new on-line postage label service at www.merrickmint.com allowed consumers to personalize their mail with licensed images of their favorite baseball teams and players.

        Choices of teams were the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals. Left sheet selvages contained full length portraits of a player in action, printed signatures of the 12 personalities over the player and labels, and the town and Signature Series at the top left corner. Each 10 x 8" sheet featured professionally printed, high-quality images of players on the left half of the labels, and space to affix any denomination of USPS postage stamps on the right portions.

        The stamp labels differed significantly from Stamps.com PhotoStamps that were withdrawn from sale a month earlier at the end of September after being available for less than 10 weeks. Whereas PhotoStamps allowed customers to insert images as part of the stamps, Merrick Mint labels came with no custom design options, and had no franking value. The labels were similar in concept to Avery Fun Stamps, however, with them, customers could upload images onto the design area, and the labels had 37¢ USPS stamps affixed to them, while Merrick sold their labels with pre printed baseball personalities, and no stamps affixed.

        The cost of a pack containing 4 sheets with 12 different individuals per sheet (48 labels total) was $29.95 plus $5.95 for shipping and handling, or just under 75¢/label. Orders of $30 or more qualified for free normal shipping, which reduced the price to 62.5¢/label when 2 packs were purchased at once. When 37¢ stamps were added for 1-ounce First Class Mail, the cost per label was $1.12 and 99.5¢ respectively (33% and 37% of the total price for postage).

        Each label measured 63 x 38 mm, had 18 simulated die cut perforations on the top, 17 on the bottom, and 10 on the left and right sides, a slightly rectangular portrait design area of 28 x 32 mm with a 7:8 image aspect ratio, and Place Stamp Here inscribed in white letters on a gray rectangle at the right of the design area. Merrick Mint's logo was at the top left corner of each image, the player's number and abbreviated position at the top right, the baseball logo at the bottom right, and the player's name and town at the bottom left corner. The offering was completely private with no USPS authorization.

        Similar labels for NFL teams and players (Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, and Philadelphia Eagles) were available during 2006 at www.Teamstamps.com. Due to lackluster sales, no new designs were issued, but remaining stock was still being offered 4 years later at the end of 2010 at which time any suitable design was accepted for purchase with a minimum order of 1,000 sheets (12,000 labels).

        Although Merrick labels were intended to have USPS postage stamps affixed to them if used for mailing, during 2009 some individuals used their Stamps.com or Endicia accounts to print indicia on the areas reserved for adhesives. Each vendor allowed postage to be printed validly on any medium, but strict rules stated indicia intended to be printed on NetStamps or DYMO stamps was only valid on labels sold by the vendor. Therefore, although Merrick labels with printed indicia were a unique curiosity, users paid the postage, the USPS was reimbursed for the amount from Stamps.com and Endicia, and they successfully passed through the postal system, they were invalid franking.

        Indicia designed to be printed on envelopes, shipping labels, or plain paper would have been valid postage if printed on the labels, but were too large for the supplied areas. However, indicia printed on landscape NetStamps or Photo (later Custom) NetStamps was valid postage, and did fit on the label stamp area when removed from the printed left side.

        During 2021, an eBay seller offered packs of 4 St. Louis Cardinals labels for $4.95, and packs of New York Yankees labels for $9.95 with free shipping. Individual sheets of the Miami Dolphins labels were offered at $9.99 with free shipping, and Philadelphia Eagles labels were offered at $14.50 each plus $5.60 S&H.