Online Sources For US Mint Stamps

I've been unrelentingly completing my 1940s through1970s US mint stamp collection these past few weeks. I've been purchasing stamps from three online sources --- Mystic, Kenmore, and APS. So far, the experience with these web sites has been uneventful except for APS. APS seems to have lost my last order of stamps in the mail and was told that I have to wait for 60 days before they can claim insurance.

Are there other online sources of U.S. mint stamps? I just want to make sure I am not missing on any good source. (P.S. I don't like buying stamps from e-Bay.)

I'm a big fan of Stamps2Go. I've bought well over a hundred 1840-1940 non-US stamps through them and no lost orders (so far). Prices are good, too. The downside is that you will likely be receiving stamps from multiple vendors and so you have to keep track of minimum orders, etc. Since I am largely looking for less expensive stamps not easily available elsewhere, it is worth the hassle. Your mileage may vary.

I'm surprised about the APS--I have yet to lose anything from either their Store or Circuits (so far!), but then it probably isn't the APS who lost the stamps.

1840to1940,

Thank you for the information. I'll check out Stamps2Go when purchasing my next batch of stamps.

Depending on your budget & how many empty spaces you need to fill, you might consider contacting trusted dealers and asking them to just pull all those pages from the next collection they buy.

Many of the mint US collections I pick up have 1940-1970 complete mint (& usually VF NH.) If I knew someone was looking for those, I'd be happy to pull the whole chunk out & sell them below face value. Unfortunately, I don't stock individual numbers like those (too much time & effort to sell <50c stamps...many other dealers feel the same way & take the same approach.)

So...if you need a bunch of stamps from that era, don't mind getting some that you already have (but can use as postage,) and have the budget to spend maybe $75-$100 at once to finish 1940-1970 off (minus Scott 1053 and a few others,) put out some feelers to dealers and see who gets back to you first. That will certainly be the most economical way to do it...

For most of the 40s through 70s, you should be paying face value of the stamps and very little more than that.

Try Murphy -- I bought a TON of stuff from him when I was building my Modern US collection. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND him.

You can just send him a wishlist of scott numbers and he'll fill it.

Kirk

---from the current Linn's---


P.S. the website is a bit "awkward" -- it has tabs along the bottom like Excel, but he's a good guy.

Thank you, srailkb and KirkS, for the great suggestions and information. I never thought of going to dealers. I always assumed they dealt with high-end buyers only. I learn something every day.

I noticfed you mentioned mystic stamps...my experiences with them is that usually everything they send me is damaged and/or terribly off center not to even mention straight up out-of-line prices!

I even been with them for years and they are comfortable sending me high dollar stamps but usually they are deplorable. I just send them a notation about the faults and ask for better material in the future. Why am I still getting their approval cards/stamps? Well it's just fun to look through stamps...what can I say I'm a hopeless stamp addict!

I_Love_Stamps,

Thank you for your reply. After reading your post, I scrutinized the stamps that I bought from Mystic, so far, and thankfully, I did not see any damage in any of them. As for the centering, I would rate the centering of the stamps I purchased from Mystic a seven (on a scale from one to ten.)

I also scrutinized the stamps I bought from Kenmore, so far, and I did not find any damage in the stamps as well but I would rate the centering of the stamps a six.

Frankly, I am not sure how online buyers get the best centering from stamps since the selection of the actual stamps is left to the staff packaging their orders. But you are right, online buyers should be given high quality stamps, e.g., no damage, good centering, etc., regardless, whether they are just starting a collection or are technically adept in evaluating the quality of stamps.

If you subscribe to the Linn's publication go through the advertisements for mail order vendors. Some purchase larger ads. Most have web based stamp stores which have pictures of their sale items and welcome calls to customer services. I have done business with stamp parlor and not yet disappointed.