Comments on: Buying Discount Postage Stamps

By: interested

interested — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:38:11 +0000

where Can I go to collector’s shows for the discount on the stamps

By: Linda

Linda — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:58:07 +0000

I see you are a collector. I have a lot of duplicates and a lot of holes in my collection of U.S. stamps. Any interest in trading? Linda

By: Smokey

Smokey — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:10:58 +0000

I’ve done this before, buying stamps at collectors’ shows for 85 – 90% of face value. Take my advice: it’s not worth the trouble.

I still have hundreds of 3¢, 4¢, 5¢, etc. stamps that are a pain to use. You’re not likely to get 29¢ stamps from a dealer by mail. Figure on plenty of very small denomination stamps.

It was fun using the old stamps at first — but that got old real quick. The only exception I’d make is for Christmas stamps, if you want to add a personal touch to your Christmas cards. But you have to go to a collector’s show for them; no dealer will take time to sort out Christmas stamps to fill your mail order.

You only have so many minutes in your life. Don’t waste them sorting thru a box of old stamps, in order to save a few percent. Word up.

By: Paige

Paige — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:46:39 +0000

Wow, what a lazy society we have become. It would only take an extra 2-3 minutes -maybe- to piece together and lick some stamps. My dad collects stamps and I LOVE to get his envelopes. They are so neat, half filled with stamps, I usually save the envelopes. I never thought of doing it myself. Thanks Jim!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:00:08 +0000

I could never see myself buying that many stamps. I do love the idea of Forever Stamps though and I buy them whenever I need stamps. I agree with matthew in that stamps.com is a great way to save time by printing stamps at home.

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:55:09 +0000

I have done this before– I get them at stamp shows (I am a collector).

The nice byproduct of this is it encourages collecting because some of the stamps are older and catch the eyes of young collectors.

By: matthew@illsaveyoumoney

matthew@illsaveyoumoney — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:47:28 +0000

Why not try stamps.com? You would be able to print stamps online. I think they provide free stamps when you first sign up and a free trial too!

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:47:41 +0000

This could be a really cool and cheaper way to get stamps for wedding invitations. Since it normally costs more than what the forever stamp will cover you have to buy specialty $0.58 stamps (or whatever the costs are now) but this way you could get some cool looking stamps and save some money! Cool tip, thanks Jim!

By: thomas

thomas — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:20:54 +0000

Wow, I actually forgot about gummed stamps. For the casual mailer, the forever stamp is probably the path of least resistance to head down. Business owners might take advantage a little more.

By: CK

CK — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:42:11 +0000

But the time involved seems like a waste. You can save so much time and be exact with electronic postage. Plus you don’t have to worry about losing or damaging stamps.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:40:50 +0000

I haven’t seen any official USPS discounts greater than 5%, unless you’re sending bulk mail.

However, there is no way I’d do this as a consumer, piecing together enough stamps to add up to the correct postage would be annoying, and if you’re forced to use incorrect postage – there goes your discount!

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:45:48 +0000

Are the savings from buying discount stamps grater than those offered by places like Endecia or PayPal Shipping or though any small business discounters offered by the post office?

By: Edward @ IllSaveYouMoney

Edward @ IllSaveYouMoney — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:02:52 +0000

Oh interesting avenue towards purchasing stamps. I didn’t even know you could purchase stamps at a discount. I don’t send much mail out but if I ever do this sounds good. Also nice that there is no catch!

By: freeby50

freeby50 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:27:39 +0000

I should say that I do think this is a great tip. It just has to be the right situation for it to work.

By: freeby50

freeby50 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:27:02 +0000

I guess the only problem with this is that the stamps you’d be buying are generally lower denomination. So you’d be dealing with 6, 8, 12, 20, 29, 32 cent stamps. It could be a hassle to mail something with weird number combination like this.

If you’re just mailing regular 1st class letters then that could be pretty hard to get the right 44c postage amount. Say you bought $200 worth of stamps through such a service and you end up with a pile of 29 cent stamps. How do you use those? Or maybe you’re mailing some books via media mail. So you put the book in a 8×10 envelope and its $2.38 to mail it. But all you’ve got are 6 cent stamps. Will 40 x 6c stamps fit on the envelope?