Reusing Stamps

Hi to all

I agree that to re-use a stamp is ok.
Here in Australia they are very lazy and especially at Christmas. I have saved heaps on re-using stamps. It is not my fault that the Post Office did not cancel the item. I do not feel guilty about it in the least.
Regards
Horamakhet

Here is my issue which stems probably more from the collecting side than mailing side. I have nearly $4000 in MNH stamps that if I choose to sell I will be lucky to get 50-60% of face value . Now do I as a collector say its far better to tear up the sheets and start lickin them or re use the occasional uncancelled one. Supply and demand always dictate but if you look at stamps as actual values they should be always worth at least their original amount. Maybe the postal servie should offer a recycle value on uncancelled , In other words if you have $100 face value of mint no gum they should happily accept them for say 20-25% of face just to have them off the market. When speaking to one of the leading auction houses they quoted a couple large companies that were charged to the full extent but that was mass usage as well. Switch to a UV spray cancel and the issue would be dead. Forget tagging and have a light phosphur spray that their sorting machines could detect and there goes all the cancel studies.

I'm back !

My favourite topic....I cannot resist, sorry Philb !




But why would I sell them back to a Postal Service offering such low rates. I can sell to Philatelic friends for 50% or more and they are delighted...we both are. Or I can give to my family [if GB] for free and they can use on their mail. 25% would be an insult, and after all, it is the fault of the Postal services that I am re-using.

A top GB dealer is openly selling ungummed GB postage for 50% of face value. It is advertised as such. If I phoned Royal Mail this morning and gave them the link, do you think they would do anything about it ? No.
So they don't give a hoot if I sell or give away my miserable pittance of ungummed stamps.
The sad thing is, they ARE losing money, and hand over fist too, but they do not seem to want to do anything about it.

I have written to at least three Postal services about this problem and never had a reply.

Londonbus1...maybe my letters got lost in the post !

Londonbus you can send me those uncancelled stamps and I would be happy to pen cancel them for you

I am on the re-use if you can side.

Drew

Eveytime I receive an auction catalog sent from Regency sent via priority mail the stamps are never canceled. I take the envelopes down to my local post office and ask the postmaster to hand cancel them. It's a win-win for both sides. The post office has their revenue protection and I get canceled stamps that are not "limbo".

Good Day Londonbus..i am starting to believe this is your favorite subject...question..does it really matter if we reuse an uncancelled stamp?..the post office raises the price of mailing every year and the red ink goes on and on...when I send a circuit box back to the APS it costs our club over $9.00 in postage every month...in the time I have been handling the "box" I have seen the price of postage double for shipping it...there will come a time when the club says ..thats it..over a hundred dollars a year is too much...i don't know how the APS does it..sometimes we only purchase 25 dollars or so from the box !!

i think the stamps which are uncanceled should not be reused. Buy new stamps for use.

warm wishes.

I think people are going to do what they want to do and what they feel is OK.

I have used uncancelled stamps but it depends on the recipient of the mail as to whether I use all unused stamps or a few or none at all and try to use newly issued stamps. My feelings towards the reasoning for the mail influence my choice. Sometimes aesthetics, how a stamp looks or a grouping of stamps, and sometimes my dislike of the mail sent (bills) is shown by my choice of stamps used.

Regarding the article referenced to at the beginning I like the author's foray into the realm of what is right depending on the scale of the wrong in the users own mind. Bubble gum or X-Box, which is wrong?

Well, both are when you look at it that way but when you ask is stealing am X-Box wrong (usual answer is yes) and then ask the same question about a slightly less expensive item and move down to a stick of gum (very inexpensive comparatively speaking) the tendency is to say well the stick of gum is not sooo bad.

Somewhere in the list you reach the point of what is right and what makes you right or what is right for you. Everybody's answer is somewhat different if given the chance to add reasons and wheres and why-fors in to the argument. Depending on circumstances things become right for people when certain conditions are met.

To some I think it is like going about and getting bottles to return for a deposit of varying amounts. Its a business. If the business was to acquire these unused stamps and return them to the Post Office for a refund then that would be done instead, to varying degrees, probably combined with reusing the unused stamps.


There is also the question of what is most efficient and cost effective, using a new stamp off of a roll or using a gluestick or other adhesive to messily perhaps at times affix the proper postage.

I think most people that use the mails tend to lean towards just getting a new stamp, no know what the proper postage is really, just wanting their mail to be delived to somewhere and not liking the chance that it wouldn't be delivered at all. That is more important than saving a small or larger sum.

To some of us, including me, who do mail a lot of letters, we would like to feel we are getting our money's worth, and for a collector, non-cancelling is certainly not getting one's money's worth, it is more like losing money. The letter was delivered, well yes, but not getting some kind of cancel or postal marking is robbery of a kind, after having paid for that. This from one who mails letters to himself (I get such nice mail!) to get stamps cancelled nicely.

I mailed six letters to myself last week and none got cancelled. I spent a lot of time placing the stamps correctly on the envelopes so the correct portion (to me) of the cancel would hit it, and the time carrying the mail around and then mailing it. Now it's back to square one. Wait, the phosphorescent bar codes did get printed on front and back, but they are placed to intentionally miss the stamp(s). I'd be OK with them as long as the incorporated the place and year of mailing in the bars.

Perhaps it is a misunderstanding between collectors, businesses trying to save money in everything they do to squeak by and the post offices who think their job is to deliver the mail on time to the right address.

Unrealistic expectations by some or all, to varying degrees.

If a service existed to end your stamps in and have them cancelled nicely, with pleasing cancellations, I think I might avail myself of that service. Actually, I think certain European countries already have that service now. The German speaking nations especially. It is a reconogition of where a portion of their money comes from, the collectors, appreciators and studiers of postage stamps and history.

Try going to small post offices and ask for the mail to be hand canceled. I'm sure the majority of clerks would do it. By making connections with the postal clerks over time you will also get very nice service. If you drop it down the slot then you are at the mercy of the machines. Again, if you receive mail without a cancel and want one, I'm sure the local post office will oblige and add one if asked.

As for reusing uncanceled postage, always remember at least in the U.S. it is illegal and punishable with a fine and/or imprisonment. My aunt once accidentally reused one of those 5 cent Canoe stamps that were once used by non-profit groups. The USPS threatened her with a fine, but she just didn't know better and didn't realize you needed a permit and all. I don't know if a collector has ever been caught, but there's always the risk.

Politics aside, I'll ask... is this considered canceled? or if I use the hair dryer to peel it off my Xmas card, and a gluestick to resend, is it legit?

Ethics are what separate us humans from the animals. Some of us find a little white lie leads to others... Some of us can make up reasonable reasons for the altercation and not fret. In interpersonal relationships, it is a work in progress.

The real definition of Ethics is who gets hurt. The five dollars on the street is, yes, different from the 1500 in a gym bag on the same street.

The cognitive difference is if you question what you do, and do it anyway... is it wrong? That is ETHICS.

Do you prescribe the drug to keep your current level of income, or do you believe it will heal the patient, would be another ethical example.

That stamp above is "precanceled" and doesn't require a postmark. Also, one needs a permit in order to use it. Two, if it's on a White House Cover, it's better than soaked off.

<Thanks Battlestamps> I didn't even know that. >

Guess from the stamping world perspective, it is... what harm does it do to use the paid for stamp? again?

My take would be that it deprives the government which issued it the revenue it should earn. There are jobs lost, local economy suffers? From a .40 cent here, .20 there perspective, not so much. But, I'll ask the diabolical question - have any of you done the math to figure out what that costs your government on an annual basis? What goods and services, what jobs, what life expectation will you lose, eventually, by weight of the trangression? what else happens?

(Yeah, I know, I'm a bleeding heart progressive, and I love being the devils' advocate, who asks the hard questions and never has a real answer.)

Not to change the subject, but that USA stamp pictured above is a notoriously hard stamp to soak off paper. Does anyone have experience with the best way to handle it? I received one on a piece of junk mail the other day and I was able to pull it off the envelope unscathed but with a tacky adhesive back finish that would still stick to anything. If I soak them, the adhesive comes off in big clumps and it is as if the stamp is severely thinned and therefore non-collectible. Is there a happy medium? Or is this one of those issues that one must keep on-paper for collecting purposes?

There have been a couple of threads on hair dryers and talcum powder.