Postage buying service
If you have leftover postage stamps that haven’t been used yet, you can turn them into cash through a postage buying service. These services exist since the Post Office doesn’t provide refunds for stamps. Their process is fairly simple, and they have lots of positive reviews online.
How it works
Postage buying services offer an easy way for you to get cash for your stamps. You simply view their rates on their website, fill out a packing slip, and ship your stamps off to them. They are a great solution if you have leftover postage from mailings, or are closing a business.
You can sell them any quantity of stamps. Whether it’s a few remaining stamps from your wedding invitations, all the way to thousands of stamps from a stamp collection.
What types of stamps will they buy?
They will buy virtually any unused United States postage stamp issued after 1930. The significance of this date is based off of a couple of factors.
First, the Post Office began printing surplus postage to cater to stamp collectors after this date. Stamp collecting was the most popular hobby in the world, all the way up to the 1980’s. This means that the scarcity of each stamp issue after this date was basically wiped out.
The Post Office literally printed hundreds of millions of each stamp design issued after 1930. There are generally no rare stamps issued after that date.
Secondly, unused postage stamps never expire. So they can still be used to mail items through the Postal Service today. Even the ones issued in the 1930’s, 1940’s, and so on. Simply add them up to whatever the mail rate is to ship out your package. These stamps still hold value, but nothing more than their face value.
How much do they pay?
The amount a postage buying service will pay for your stamps is dependent on their face value. In other words, the denomination printed on the stamp’s design (or in the case of Forever Stamps, the current First-Class rate). Check out our other article to learn more about face value.
They will pay a percentage of the face value depending on the type of stamp it is. One may think that they will pay more for older stamps because of their age, but in fact the opposite is true.
Forever Stamps are always worth the First-Class rate, so as postage hikes increase, so do the value of the stamps. Therefore, they demand a premium from postage buyers, up to 70% face value.
Vintage stamps can still be used as postage to mail packages, but you’ll need to include several in order to make the mail rate. A laborious task that not everyone is up for. So postage buyers will pay less for old stamps. Generally up to 50% face value.
Submitting your postage
When you’re ready to submit your unused stamps to a postage buyer, simply package them up and ship them out. Once received, they will issue you an offer to purchase your stamps. You can either accept or decline their offer. Make sure you ship your stamps with a mailing service that provides tracking so that you can confirm they received your stamps.
You’ll also want to package your stamps in a secure way in order to prevent water damage from rain or snow. Be sure to tightly package your stamps as well, so that they don’t bend or fold during transit.
Receiving payment
You can opt to receive payment for you stamps through one of three different payment methods. Check by mail, PayPal, or bank wire. Payment by check has no additional costs, but will take longer for you to receive it through snail mail. Typically 7-10 business days.
If you want your payment sooner, you can request it via PayPal (2.9% transaction fee), or bank wire ($20 transaction fee). The latter is typically chosen for very large postage submissions where the payment justifies the fee.
Postage Buying Services
Currently, there are 3 postage buying services available to choose from. All 3 have excellent customer reviews that can be found on Google or Facebook.
They all offer the same buying rates for your stamps, and their processes are nearly similar. The only difference is who their services are positioned to. For example, Sell Unused Stamps promotes buying vintage stamps, all the way back to 1930.
Return My Stamps caters to people looking to get a refund for their postage from the Post Office. Sell Forever Stamps mainly buys modern day Forever stamps.
Getting started
Once you decide that a postage buying service fits your needs, it’s fairly simple to get started. Just select one of services listed above and follow their easy steps. Each one will require you to print out a packing slip to include with your shipment. The packing slip includes their terms of service, and allows you to provide your personal information to them so that they can issue you payment for your stamps.
What about selling older stamps?
If your stamps were issued before 1930, they may have some premium value over the face value. In that case, you’ll want to check with a collectible stamp dealer. Many stamp collections are made up of stamps from before and after 1930. You’ll want to separate out the postage issued after 1930. A postage buying service is more likely to provide a better offer than a collectible stamp dealer will.
Sell Your Unused Postage
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