The "Spring Festival Gala" New Year's greeting cover for 10 years has not been seen for 10 years
——Why the circulation of "New Year's Greeting Covers" has plummeted this year
Lu Yun
Recently, we received the commemorative envelope of the "2024 China Central Radio and Television Spring Festival Gala", which is pasted with TS71 postage machine label, commonly known as "CCTV New Year's Greeting Color Postage Label Envelope", and the main picture is the CCTV building we are familiar with.
Some collectors may look at the word "long gone" in my title and wonder:
First, this variety is the first time that China Post has developed this year, how to talk about "long-lost". First of all, we should see that this "attribute" is the "Spring Festival Gala" commemorative cover, from the "Spring Festival Gala" commemorative cover concept, China Philatelic Corporation's "PFBN series New Year's cover" is launched from the name of CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, which is commonly known as the "Spring Festival Gala Commemorative Envelope".
Picture: In 1993, it was issued for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and it was also the first New Year's cover of the head office (numbered PFBN series).
2. Since 1993, China Philatelic Corporation has cooperated with CCTV to issue a New Year's greeting cover for the Spring Festival Gala every year, of which CCTV uses 20,000 pieces as a commemorative award for the audience to participate in the selection of outstanding programs of the Spring Festival Gala, and the other are sold on the first day of the first month in the post office philatelic store. The design of the New Year's cover is exquisite, the appearance is beautiful, the main picture is cheerful and festive, the color is bright, and it integrates the couplet, the Spring Festival New Year's greeting customs, and the zodiac stamps, which are deeply loved by the majority of philatelic enthusiasts.
In 2014, perhaps China Post "couldn't make money" on CCTV and suspended cooperation, but it was unwilling to give up this series and instead greet the people of the whole country, but the head office number PFBN series continued, and the issuance time was also "early".
Since the "CCTV Spring Festival Gala" commemorative cover was last issued in 2013, it will be exactly 10 years this year. That's what this "10 years long" means.
Pictured: Behind the 2014 Year of the Horse (PFBN-22). It began to be changed to New Year's greetings to the people of the whole country.
Originally, there were two varieties, and it was indeed a little "reluctant" for me to contact them like this. After all, the development of the "Spring Festival Gala" New Year's Greeting Cover and the PFBN series of New Year's Greetings are two different things, but I put the "two" together today, mainly based on the fact that China Post has tightly tied the "two" together. If you don't consider the "two" together, you can't explain the "shrinkage" of China Post's PFBN series of New Year's greetings this year.
Looking at the PFBN New Year's Greeting Covers, the number of covers issued from 1993 to 2000 is not indicated. In 2006, the standard issuance volume was 600,000. The number of issues in subsequent years is 500,000, and then the number of issues is marked, and a 6-digit sequential number "NO:×××××× is added in the lower right corner of the cover. Although the circulation has decreased in recent years, one thing is certain, this year's PFBN series New Year's greeting covers have "plummeted" to 20,000, and this reduction in this amount is "greasy".
Pictured: The back of this year's PFBN series New Year's cover
For more than 30 years, stamp collectors and non-stamp collectors have become accustomed to sending New Year's greetings to relatives, friends and postal friends on Chinese New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to express their New Year wishes to each other. Although it has not been issued for the "CCTV Spring Festival Gala" since 2014, there are still many philatelists who send it to CCTV through various channels, and even ask CCTV hosts to sign through various relationships.
But this is a traditional product that everyone likes, why this year (2024) it should be a "short-legged" product, "the drunkard's intention is not in the wine", the traditional PFBN series New Year's greeting covers are sold at a low price and low profits. Although due to the particularity of the postal service, for decades, the National Development and Reform Commission (Price Bureau) has liberalized the "price right" of postal products independently developed, but in the current national economic situation is not optimistic, raising the price may arouse "public anger". But in another form, the launch of this "CCTV New Year's color postage label envelope", the price can reach 20 yuan. Especially this year, we have started to cooperate with CCTV again, and if you make money, you can slaughter your family, why not?
At such a high price, send a "New Year's envelope" to 20 yuan (note: form, the same contents, that is, a postcard, only the postage is different), in the past, 20 yuan can be sent at least 5 friends "fun", now only one friend can be sent at once, stamp collectors will definitely make comparisons, not to mention, this is still a series, it is bound that stamp collectors will not buy "high-priced" varieties. In order to guide collectors to buy, the only way is to "shrink" the low-priced PFBN series of New Year's covers, so that collectors who need them cannot choose.
Of course, this is not a new invention of China Post, "hunger marketing, change tricks, bundled sales", has always been a common means of merchants, "carving insect skills" only. But this kind of money-making method is extremely ugly.
This may be the answer to the fundamental reason for the "shrinkage" of this year's PFBN series New Year's greeting covers.