WANTED: Unused US Postage Stamps
DAY
denomination. (Normal postage only-- no precancels, bulk rates, etc.)
I pay 75% of face value for mint stamps with full gum,
and 55% for unused stamps without gum.
Collectors: turn your extra or unneeded stamps into cash!
Dealers: turn your excess inventory into cash!
Email a description of what you have to: d...@tribeca.ios.com
Rich Mateles
many small businessmen (like myself) will pay 80-90% of face for it to
use on our correspondence!
Rich Mateles
JackR39035
face so your offer to buy at 75% is too low. Also the USPS will exchange
stamps you bring in for others. For example bring in old .03 sheets to get
.32 stamps. Whenever I have to mail something registered, I take to the
post office $5.00 worth of small denomination stamps and exchange for a
$5.00 stamp. The exchange is at 100% of face value.
Check the Domestic Mail Manual, module P for the exact details.
Jack Rosenstein
SteveSwa
(JackR39035) writes:
>I believe the US Postal Service will buy back postage stamps at 80% of
>face <
Where is your post office? They just laugh at my p.o. when someone
suggests that.
> Also the USPS will exchange
>stamps you bring in for others. For example bring in old .03 sheets to
get
>.32 stamps. Whenever I have to mail something registered, I take to the
>post office $5.00 worth of small denomination stamps and exchange for a
>$5.00 stamp.
Sounds like a great idea, but you must have a friendly clerk, who is
willing to bend the rules. At my office the only stamps are 32c in
booklets; everything else is a meter imprint.
Steve Washburne
David Lee
>I believe the US Postal Service will buy back postage stamps at 80% of
>stamps you bring in for others. For example bring in old .03 sheets to get
>.32 stamps. Whenever I have to mail something registered, I take to the
>post office $5.00 worth of small denomination stamps and exchange for a
It would be interesting to see the postal regs. on this subject.. I
have heard that the postal service will exchange "damaged" postage at
face value if the stamps are unusable. I have never heard that the postal
service buys back stamps at 80% of face..
I would agree that certain post offices are more lenient on the exchange
of mint stamps for their customers..
Does anyone have actual experience with a post office on this subject??
.
.
.
....
michael brinn
would end up with large quantities of unused stamped envelopes. The post
office would take them back, and 80 % sounds right.
--
mike brinn
John Murray
>
>I believe the US Postal Service will buy back postage stamps at 80% of
>face so your offer to buy at 75% is too low. Also the USPS will exchange
>stamps you bring in for others. For example bring in old .03 sheets to get
>.32 stamps. Whenever I have to mail something registered, I take to the
>post office $5.00 worth of small denomination stamps and exchange for a
>$5.00 stamp. The exchange is at 100% of face value.
>
>
>Jack Rosenstein
>
The USPS does not buy back stamps for cash at any percent of face value.
Their current policy is to exchange face for face stamps that have been
sold during the past 12 months. Hovever, personal experience has proven
that local postmasters can play by a different set of rules. Last year
I exchanged 5,000 common 3c commoratives in sheets of 50 for $150 in
$5 Bret Hart stamps. This is an exception, not the rule.
I have made a request to the Postmaster General and my congressman that
this policy be changed to permit redemption of unused stamps over 10
years old for cash. I received a sympathetic reply from my rep, but
a ridiculous bureaucratic reply from the USPS:
*************************************************************************
"August 21, 1995
Dear Mr. Murray,"
"This is in response to your suggestion the Postal Service modify
our stamp redemption policy. Presently, unusable stamps may be exchanged
only for an equal amount of stamps of the same denomination and they
must be on sale at post offices within 12 months before transaction.
Your suggestion is any stamp over 10 years old be exchanged for cash
regardless of the quantity, denomination or condition of the stamps".
"After thoroughly looking into your suggestion I must deny your request
but as a valued customer you deserve an explanation of the reasons for my
decision. The Postal Service established the 12 month transaction
standard because, unfortunatly, there is a black market of stolen stamps
and we are attempting to control the potential of lost postal revenue.
Also, stamps that are over 10 years old, if redeemed, would be of little
value to the Postal Service. The market value decreases because there is
no significant demand for postal customers to purchase stamps over-the-
counter that are over 10 years old."
"I regret this decision is not favorable to you and hope you understand
our position".
"Sincerely
(signed)
Anita J. Bizzotto
Manager
Business Mail Acceptance
Marketing Systems"
"USPS
475 L'Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, DC 20260-2400"
************************************************************************
Didn't the "black market" bit make you laugh? And why would we want to
sell the darn things back to the USPS if there was "significant demand"
for the stuff. Obviously, they set their policy, then delegated some
idiot to dream up reasons for it.
As a group we *can* get this policy changed, not by writting to the USPS,
they are deaf, but our congressmen. The USPS is cranking out stamps
like a banana republic and, perhaps unfortunatly, we are buying them.
The *very* least they can do, after having interest free use of our
money for 10 years or more, is to give us a refund for the stamps that
we overstocked.
My representative's reply to their position, which I can't quote because
it's burried on my desk somewhere, was in essence "If the treasury can
exchange old currency, then it seemed reasonable that the USPS should
exchange old stamps". So there may be hope in Congress.
Obviously, a cash refund policy would benefit some and harm some. People
make a living buying and selling discount postage. Stamp dealers love to
buy mint sheets of 40, 50, and 60 year old stamps for face or less. But,
as a dealer, I could sleep better at night if I could at least offer face
value to an elderly collector/investor who wanted to sell his life long
accumulation.
Comments Please! (And letters to Congress!)
Dan Moran
In my experience, certain friendly clerks will accept FULL SHEETS
in exchange for current higher denominated stamps, but they might
be bending the rules a bit. It would certainly be extraordinary if
someone was willing to count out dozens of individual stamps to
add up to, say, the amount required for mailing a parcel.
-Dan Moran
Aps ken
had rules that permitted mailers to sell back unused or spoiled postage at
a discount from face value, and some "friendly" postal employees have
continued the practices for favored friends or customers even after the
rules have changed.
Buyers of postal cards, stamped envelopes, and wrappers often could return
items that were spoiled in printing corner cards or advertisements, and
sometimes when rates changed. Users of bulk and nonprofit rate coils could
sometimes return remainders from their mailings, and full rolls of
obsolete values, in exchange for other postage. Stamps spoiled by water
damage could be turned in for fresh postage with a signed statement
describing the accident that ruined the stamps.
First-day cover manufacturers, when registered as such, could turn in
their scrap stamps for a 90 percent refund.
All these have been abused. In the early days of PNC collecting, and in
some post offices more recently, collectors and dealers would strip out
plate strips and exchange the scrap (at 90 percent of face) for fresh
rolls. FDC makers purchased far more stamps than they needed, sold the
plate blocks to new-issue dealers, and recovered 90 percent on the scrap.
These rules change frequently, and do not always appear in the Postal
Bulletin or the DMM, so it is often not possible to know the current
practice, and the current practice often is not uniform.
Ken Lawrence
David Lee
..etc..
>The USPS does not buy back stamps for cash at any percent of face value.
>Their current policy is to exchange face for face stamps that have been
>sold during the past 12 months. Hovever, personal experience has proven
>that local postmasters can play by a different set of rules. Last year
>I exchanged 5,000 common 3c commoratives in sheets of 50 for $150 in
>$5 Bret Hart stamps. This is an exception, not the rule.
>I have made a request to the Postmaster General and my congressman that
>this policy be changed to permit redemption of unused stamps over 10
>years old for cash. I received a sympathetic reply from my rep, but
>a ridiculous bureaucratic reply from the USPS:
..etc..
As a matter of fact, if the postal service would redeem older stamps
for face value, the service actually makes money. The reason is that
people who have been holding these stamps and not using them for postage
have actually lost money (interest) while the postal service has had
the use of your money that you paid for the stamps and not had to do
anything for it (mail your letters,..etc.).. However, if they didn't
redeem all those 3, 4 and 5 cent mint stamps from the 1940's to 60's,
then most people wouldn't use them on mail and the service would get
to keep all the face value of those stamps.. It is difficult for most
collectors to use up low denomination stamps when first class postage
is 32 cents.. You run out of room on the envelope using 3, 4 and 5 cent
stamps unless you combine them with 29 centers...
.
.
..