Postage stamps sell all year round, the most common stamps on sale are the 1st class and 2nd class stamp, but there are certain times of year when stamp sales do rise one of them being Christmas time and the other being when there is a general election and all parties are desperately trying to encourage voting.

Politics and real life often have a bearing on how many stamps are sold in a particular month. In America last year stamp sales will have risen due to the fact that there were many different people battling for a place as president of the United States. Millions of dollars were spent on trying to encourage people to vote, and millions of dollars will have been spent sending flyers out to try to entice people into the poling station. In the end Barack Obama got the vote and the key to the Whitehouse will be handed over to him at some point early this year.

It is not just in America though that money is spent on encouraging people to vote for a particular party, in this country in 1997 when there was a general election, millions of pounds were spent on campaigning to promote new Labour and Tony Blair, flyers were sent to all potential voters and millions of pounds were spent by all parties on buying stamps (Briefmarkenankauf). In the end it was Tony Blair and new Labour that made it into power and Tony Blair moved into number 11 Downing Street (it had more room than number 10 and Tony Blair had a large family).

Elections are not the only time that the post office has a surge on selling stamps (Briefmarken schätzen), Christmas time is also a busy time for the post office, relatives wanting to send out special cards and people writing to old friends to keep them up dated with recent news has always been good news for the post office in general. The post office often issues new stamps around the festive season to depict the meaning of Christmas.

There have been competitions launched in the past by programmes such as Blue Peter to encourage children to paint a unique picture that will be featured on Christmas stamps, as these stamps have been featured on television, it usually encourages people to buy the stamps as part of a collection.