Questions On Buying/Using US Stamps

How do you buy stamps from the post office?
I've never even set foot in there besides the
day I went to renew my passport.

I wanna buy https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/st....ac=10006988

Do I just get in line and say, "i want 4 44cent Windlow Homer stamps"

Yes, you go in, and hopefully you might get a friendly clerk. Just ask if they have the 44c Winslow Homer stamps (be prepared to say, no, I said Winslow Homer, not Homer Simpson).

After the usual sales pitch about why not buy the forever stamps, they might try to go find it.

Not all post offices keep a decent stock of recent commemoratives. Hopefully yours does. It's often a hit or miss thing. Visit enough post offices over time, you will figure out which ones have stamps and which ones are just there to keep the grass from growing.

Worst case, you may have to order it off the website or call the Philatelic Fulfillment Service Center and order by phone.

Good luck.

With an Aussie perspective, I often go in and request a special stamp, as you suggested, which is not available, you have to
have a clear description of what you want, because staff sometimes
are really not up to speed, or collectors themselves and lack
knowledge of individual designs.

Often you have to visit head office to get commemoratives, or,
look in display cases, as they are sometimes placed in
"presentation packs".
In the main, I find staff very obliging.

I did write to Australia Post, philatelic department requesting
information on their Perth "Across town" stamps/ labels,
and they emailed me back, requsting explanation, because they had never heard of them before.

Luis,
in future, you might consider changing your thread heading?
"Dumb Question" may be how you feel, but it
does not assist with others who may have a similar query
some time in the future.

"Requesting Counter Stamps" or something similar would be
helpful for text string searching.
People often search SCF database for information.
Cheers

After that "Dumpster Diving" thread, I read this thread title too quickly and thought it was "Dump question..."

I was getting ready to partake in some trash talk!

k

Luis, there is no such thing as a dumb question in this Forum! Therefore, yes, as Rod suggested -- a more informative title does help when we do our searches.

Thanks!

k

Here in Canada I've built a friendship with the store owner who runs the Canada Post branch in his store. He's got a little envelope where he stores new stamps that comes in and you can walk in anything and ask to see it and buy anything you want from it. Its a pretty good system I've got and it keeps me in new Canada items.

Thank you everyone for the responses, I will go this week and see if
my post man/girl is nice and hopefully they have the stamp.

I have another question.

How can you tell when a stamp is no longer usable for postage?
I have some uncancelled stamps from a lot I received from a
member here. I want to know if I can still use them to send
a letter to someone.

Ill post pictures and see if you guys can tell me if I can still
use them or not, and maybe give me a bit of information on why
stamps can't be used anymore after some time.

Thanks.

i believe that any uncanceled stamp of US postage is usable. I don't know, but am not 100% positive that the US has demonetized stamps post civil war.
so if you got a 3 or 4 cent stamp use it!

As long as the POSTAGE stamp is:

1. not issued before 1862
2. not a precancel
3. not a special non-firstclass service inscribed stamp (e.g., bulk rate)
4. not a discontinued class rate stamp (e.g., special delivery)
5. not a non-public use postage stamp (e.g., postage due, official...)

I think that covers most of the restrictions.

You may use stamps of type #2 and #3 if you have a permit on file with the post office.

As for stamps that were not canceled but were used to deliver a piece of mail, the PO considers it to have paid the delivery fee and is not valid for reuse. Although there is no way the PO can determine if an uncanceled used stamp actually "did its job", it is a matter of honesty.

Yes, Marty is correct. The restrictions I listed were under the assumption that the postage stamps had not already been used to pay for any post office services or fees.

Thanks for pointing that out, Marty!

wow, I think that is pretty amazing, being able to use 100 year old stamps. :D
Well im posting some pictures anyways so tell me if I have some of the one's
not permited for normal postage.
The last one looks like it was canceled, but im not sure, Cant determine if
the stripes are part of the stamp or the actual cancel. Precancel?
1

2

3

4

5

6

Luis,

1-2, 4-6 are clearly used and have cancels or cancel remnants.

#3, I don't see any cancel. The surface of the stamp is damaged, consistent with sticking with a mint stamp that may have been on top of it. This stamp MAY have been soaked to make it usable.

In general, in any batch of mostly used stamps that has any uncanceled stamps in it, I usually assume the uncanceled stamps are all still used stamps. Only if I happen to see the oddball gummed (or partially gummed) mint stamps in there, do I make the exception that the uncanceled stamps may in fact never have been used for postage. Sometimes people take out or soak off mint stamps that got stuck to album pages. Then you will see the partially gummed or ungummed unused stamps in noticeable quantities. And they will be all different.

Most of the time, if you see ungummed uncanceled stamps in blocks or with noticeable duplication, then it is more likely that the original owner soaked a bunch of mint stamps that were stuck together. The duplication should also be noticeable.

But 1-2 are not used, they were together and even have the gum in the back of
the stamps, 2 I glued to an envelope before getting the idea of using it for postage.
like I said they were together so maybe thats why they look like they were separated.

So is 3 usable or not?

How does 4 look used? I looked at it and couldn't find any ink, it just looks old. Wow, I just noticed the stripes going from
side to side :P

I wasnt sure about the lats two, so thanks for the info.

If it has gum on the back, then yes, it is unused. I saw traces of black specks on both stamps and assumed they were all coming from the same batch. The black specks are probably just stuff that got onto the stamp, either because of the glue-stick, or just got dirty.