Posting Stamps To Yourself.

Have been thinking about posting stamps to myself.
It seems to be the only way to get recent Aust dec high denominations at a reasonable price.
With recent kiloware showing up with very low numbers of high denom's it shows that something needs to happen for used stamp collections when it comes to the high denom's of the now and future.

My real question is.
Is it cheating to self address postage, so as, to call the stamps Fine Used?

Happy stamping KGV.

This is probably the best way to get used current stamps of any value, high or low. I have done this many times, being I have given up on used US issued after 2000, I don't do it as much as I used to. If you were to purchase used examples of any stamp how would one know in what manner the stamps were used? To me it does not make any difference, it's either used or not. It's pretty easy to tell if a cover is philatelic or not, which most covers with non mainstream stamps are, but stamps not so easy, unless of course a stamp happens to have a first day cancel, is CTO or a non contemporary cancel on it. So that being said, I agree with the practice 100%

It would be a problem though if the marker monkey ruins the stamp

The idea would be to go to the Post Office where my PO Box is located.
Straight from the postmark to my PO Box.

I do like to get mail. KGV

I think that is perfectly fine. What I do, is put as many of the stamps I need on xmas parcels (or any parcel for that matter) and make certain the person I sent them to saves the stamps and sends them to me. I usually have quite an audience at the Post Office when I'm doing this.

Dianne

I use Dianne's approach - that way the stamps do a useful job and you get them back in the end. However, those darn marker monkeys are always hovering - so I try to get the clerk to cancel the parcel as soon as I hand it in. The jobsworths refuse to, but usually there's someone helpful around.

Of course, the stamps can still get ruined on the journey - so I generally use two of each value, on different parcels.

I know a collector whom regularly sends letters to himself. That way he has all the new issues used, which can be difficult to obtain here in the US. I find nothing wrong with this as he is sending the letters thru the mailstream and not getting a handback cancel.

I am tossing the idea around of buying another Canadian $10.00 Blue Whale and affixing it to a large size envelope to myself and having it cancelled very lightly with a circular cancellation.

The chances of me waiting for an outside source to do this for whatever reason is from remote to zero otherwise.

Chimo

Bujutsu

When I've tried to get a hand-back cancel they do not allow it here. Even at the Philatelic branch of the Post Office downtown they only allow it with their own special cancel, but that one doesn't have ' Canada Post' as part of it so doesn't look right to me.

Perhaps it's just me and the way I'm asking. Otherwise they all seem very friendly.

As for mailing stamps to one's self I think it is OK as it is going through the mails and serving it's purpose. I can ask for a rectangular POCON (usually used for money orders) hand stamp, that they do use to cancel parcels and mail. But if I just post the letter in a box or counter-receptacle at a post office it goes to the sortation plant and through the machines and gets a two or three line spray on ink jet cancel.

This is OK to me know. I do prefer circular cancels but there are none to be found close by. I could mail a bunch (reasonable amount) of letters in a larger envelope off to a post office somewhere, where I know they have a circular cancel and ask for that cancel. That is OK to do here. Just adds to the cost and you hope that the canceller cancels it the way you like, if you are picky that way.

We have a paper label that can be affixed (with tape????) to the mail that says Philatelic Hand Cancelled Mail / Manual Sort Mail , that will not go through the machines and preserve the original cancel.

I do send a lot of Picture Postage stamps I have created myself (requested to be printed) sometimes through the mails to myself as I am trying to leave behind on the sheet of stamps, true mint stamps. I find it hard to cut around stamps too closely.

It is fun to do this as I can play with where the stamps are placed exactly on the envelope so I can try to get the date or postal code or 'canadapost.ca' part of the ink jet cancels on the stamp in a readable area. I have noticed some collectors paying more for these types of cancels already. Not a lot, not everyone, but then, not everyone wants nice SOTN CDS cancels to start with anyway.

But some do prefer just a hint of a cancel on a stamp, leaving most of the design free, and this can't be achieved by placing the stamp in the exact upper right-hand corner. That will get a well and truly cancelled stamp usually. Just move it back a bit to the left or down a touch and it is still OK and serves the purpose and will be machine cancelled but not look like the printer has had a field day on it. Personal preferences rule here also.

The fine art of cancelling a stamp I think of it as. Nothing philatelic about it. Plain asthetics, what is pleasing to the eye.

If only we had that in the UK!

The system in Canada seems much more organised than over here . . .

IMO, there is absolutely no reason to question this. The term "used stamp" is one that has seen legitimate postal use and has gone through the mailstream to the recipient. Whether the receipient is the sender or some stranger, it doesn't matter, it has still gone through the required mailing process and therefore it unquestionably becomes a legitimate postally used stamp.

This same discussion was carried out on a Portuguese forum I am part of a few months ago, and the opinion there was the opposite, funny enough.

If you're doing it for yourself, for your own collection, I see no problems.
If you're doing it to gain a collectors item to be sold right after, it isn't exactly cheating but it is iffy.

You can always find a creative way of doing it like Dianne showed to accomplish the same thing. For example, send Christmas cards by mail instead of handing them in to your family and friends!

For stamps like the Blue Whale, things are a bit more difficult. A 10 dollar postage fee is hard to come by. Unless, of course, you send the stamp on a small envelope!

Philatelists have mailed things to themselves since time immemorial. (Or at least since 1840.) Items posted while traveling, poste restante items that were never intended to be picked up, items sent to Antarctica to be canceled and sent back; the list is endless.

Keep it on cover, and it might get branded "philatelic" (not that there's anything wrong with that), but postally used is postally used, from a stamp's point of view.

My 2d.

Thanks to every one for there comments.
It is good to share a new direction in stamping.

I have just been to our local PO and they will postmark a letter or parcel.
Then they will let me tape a strong piece of plastic over the cancelled stamps.
So long as it is all done at the time of posting.
Aust Post said it is not a problem so long as it is postmarked first.

Learning a great deal. Happy stamping and Happy Birthday SCF. John and Family.

Great thing, that plastic.

I have had that done on two parcels over the years, from Wales and England (United Kingdom both). Saves the stamps.

I'm a bit surprised to find out that people think today's used stamps will ever be worth anything!