Closed Dad's Account With Mystic Finally... Dial-Up Warning!

Dad spent his last couple years getting his stuff from Mystic.
I wish he hadn't, but being invalid, it was easy for him to
just send away for his stamps, even if they were overpriced.

When he passed, I stopped all business with them, but kept his
account open because they still owed him some stuff and he had
accumulated a huge holding of their bonus coupons that can be
traded for free stamps.

Last month I finally felt like I had learned enough about stamps
to trade the coupons in confidently. I researched the list
you could choose off of, long and hard, and came up with choices.

Being free stamps, most are used, and often a bit flawed.
Especially the unused stamps... Off center, slight bends, etc...
Otherwise I guess they wouldn't give them away.

Here are some that I got. Sorry for the poor scans. I didn't
bother to scan each one individually, but rather just stacked
them on the scan bed in their clear stock cards. I have yet to
pick up a set of stamp tongs, so I have left these in the cards
just as received, until I get a set...

Well heck!
The site is giving me an error when I try to load a pic...
I guess I'll just list them now, then return another time and see if pics are working to update.

Scott number: (all used except the Qs)
11
73
76
78A
113
136
146
148
149
213
248
251
252
254
258
271
272
282
282C
309
453
Q2
Q3 (One of the Qs has a tiny stain. The other has poor centering)

Ratio411 Mystic approvals were probably your Dads only source for stamps..the quality of the stuff they sell to kids and new collectors is almost criminal...they are still in business and incredibly $$$$$$$$...they have ads in the stamp papers and magazines ..."Mystic buys everything" anyone know where they sell the better stuff ? I doubt they send it out in approval envelopes !

I think that is a little harsh. Now can you find stamps cheaper the answer is it depends. I buy MNH stamps and yes I have a source much cheaper than Mystic that use for most of my purchases. They are among the cheapest. However while the quality is good for me it may no be for most people.

Now with Mystic I buy what I can't get from my main supplier. However I also moved up into their better stamp grade. This also means I get the better quality stamps. And yes I get them on the same approval basis. I take my 21 days to do both price checks and stamp quality prior to making any purchases. The price for some of the approval packets I get exceeds $500 at a time. No I have never bought the full approval packet. I'm picked when it comes to MNH and the stamps have to have both quality and value for the money spent.

I don't mess with the everyday approvals they send out to most customers and I'm surely not in their high buyer customer list either. I know just tell them what stamps I want sent by providing them a list.

So I'm not going to knock Mystic, and I have dealt with every named big stamp house. They feel a market for stamps I can't find from my number one supplier, stamp wants or any other place. Some of my better suppliers have been small one person operations that may or may not have a store. Though my favorite supplier is IHOB.

Do they sell some stamps with faults? You bet they do which is no different than what I have bought from Stamp Wants and others. The nice thing about this is the price savings over better stamps. The ones I have bought are split for the best value between Mystic and other small sellers.

The profit sharing plan may or may not be a gimmick. I have learned there is nothing free in life so I figure my purchases help fund that program. I have notice that the older stamps generally have faults like most that are out in the market when using the profit sharing.

So generally I buy supplies or newer stamps to use for trades. So this is just my thoughts on Mystic but as I said IHOB is the best of them.

I am not knocking Mystic quality. At least not on
the stamps that Dad added to his collection via
Mystic in the last couple years of his life. He
upgraded his hinge books he started with many years
ago and tranfered everything to nice hinge free
Mystic binders and preprinted pages.

I just think he spent way too much money, but then
like I said, he was invalid and never laid hands
on an internet connected computer, much less ever
looked upon an ebay page! So other than the post
office, his options for getting stamps in the end
was very limited.

He spent enough money to have traded in 150,000
profit shares before he passed, and I just
traded in another 100,000+ profit shares he
had left. Maybe that isn't much,
but it sure sounds like alot.

What I did on picking profit share stamps was:
1: Listed all the stamps he lacked.

2: Highlighted those stamps on my list that
showed up on the profit share list.

3: Made a spread sheet that showed the current
Scott catalog value of each available stamp.

4: Added to that spread sheet the Mystic catalog
asking price for those stamps. (Mystic was over
Scott value on most)

5: Then I added the price in profit shares to the spread sheet.

6: Looked up recent ebay prices realized on each
stamp.

7: Mathematically crunched the numbers to
determine the cash value realized of the
profit shares on each specific stamp.

8: Ordered the stamps that gave me the most cash
value per profit share.

By Scott values, I got about $1000 in stamps.
By Mystic retail prices, I got about $2000...
If I had to put them on ebay right now, going
by recently realized prices, I MIGHT
get $300 on a good day.

I guess I did right. I want to feel like
Dad would approve of my choices. Since I don't
really know enough straight up, I just went
purely by monetary value of stamps needed in
the books.

Wonder if attachments are working today...

Given the circumstances, I think you proceeded very sensibly.

You have to hand it to Mystic for being so large while pricing
so high. But again, maybe that's why they are so large, they
make very big profits.

By the way, I just noticed this because so many images are
so slow to load on dialup. But are those stamps cut off
as shown, or is that just in the scanning?

The stamps are in the clear stock cards...
I just threw them on the scanner bed, rather
than scanning one at a time. So some overlapped
and scanned "cut off" because of stacking.

BTW:
I sent Mystic a written order to cease sending stuff for
approval when Dad passed in April. It took them a while
to stop... We grinned and bear-ed it for a time, then
made a stink because often we had to make postage to
send stuff back, not to mention Mom didn't need to deal
with this on top of everything else.

Anyway, they stopped...
Then in September they started sending stuff again.
This time to my address. I sent them a nasty
note reminding them that I notified them to stop.

I then quoted Federal law that says unsolicited goods
sent to you, then billed, can be kept without recourse
for the sender. They backtracked quick, profusely
apologized, and sent me prepaid envelopes for me to
return the 3 shipments. I told them that even though
I didn't legally need to pay for the stuff, or send
it back to them for that matter, I would send it back
if they sent me the prepaid mailers within 30 days.
After that, I was keeping the stuff, and any other
items they sent. I got the prepaid mailers in 27 days.

I was kinda hoping Mystic didn't respond.
The 3 shipments totalled almost 200 bux.

I was a little concerned they sent you really large defects at first.

Sorry about that.
I noted in my first post that the scans were
'quick and dirty', but of course I didn't get
them to upload in to that post... So no one
noticed. My fault for not making it clear in
the post with the pics.

I am really happy with this group of stamps overall.
There are a couple that are really far off center,
that is about the only flaw that bothers me. That
and stamps with super dark cancels that obliterate
the details.... but there is only one or two of those
in this group. I expected most of them to be obliterated
knowing they were freebies.

So all is good IMO.
I wish they were all mint unused, but that is
asking a lot...

Anyone notice the 'black-jack' is used, but
there is no visible cancel? I guess black
stamps don't show black ink well???

However, look close... It appears to have
a pentagram bleached into it. I know it isn't,
but there is some kind of noticable fading in
that general shape.

Weird... Gives it personality though.

I noticed the pentagram on the Black Jack. I was wondering about that myself, very very interesting. Thanks for sharing with us.

Ratio....

The Black Jack cancel is clearly visable......the white lines you see is where the stamp shows through.

I believe that's a Masonic cancel.