Does Anyone Really Buy Anything From The Big Stamp Companies

I think that our forum leader said it well. Mystic will charge more because they have to pay for overhead. As I've said earlier I ran a business and what would really get my goat is someone who buys online and then brings the camera into the store to have me explain how to use it. I realize of course this doesn't happen with stamps, the explaining part but you all get the picture.
You'll have a difficult time getting the best service and the best price.
Tom

Last time I purchased from a large stamp company it was H.E.Harris, Boston, Mass. No other address needed.

Well, Mystic is advertising that they want to spend $18 million this year just buying stamps, so you can bet their total sales are a multiple of that number. That means someone is definitely buying from them and other large companies. I buy supplies there once in awhile, but that's about it. I know they have better customer service, but given the prices they charge, I'll take my chances on the stamps, particularly common ones.

Oddly enough, however, I'd be more than happy to order foreign (i.e. non-US) stamps from them if they sold them online individually or in sets. I like to be able to order online with a credit card and a shopping cart, and good stamp ordering sites like that are hard to find. Mystic apparently only sells foreign collections and packets, which I'm not real interested in, at least not from them. No, I wouldn't build the bulk of my collection with them, but I'd happily go through and order items here and there just to fill in those last empty spaces on a page. For that type of thing, I'm much less picky about price and will pay close to full catalog if it's something I really need. Given the time and effort it would take to list a comprehensive list of just a few countries, I can understand why they don't do it.

Like I posted earlier, I don't buy stamps from the big houses but I do buy my supplies from Amos https://www.amosadvantage.com . With the Amos membership discouts, it works OK for me.

Art

The big stamp companies must be doing very well or else there wouldn't still be big stamp companies anymore.

ARTFUL------In regard to Mystic ,I believe that $18 million is their reserves plus their line of credit from a bank . That's not what they are actually spending .

I will admit that I've purchased many stamps from Mystic over the years. For years I was traveling for work and found their "Stamp Clubs" worked great with my lifestyle at the time. I didn't have much time at home to devote to collecting so monthly shipments of stamps, pages, and mounts all in a single shipment allowed me to expand my collection with a minimal time investment. I do know I paid a premium, but the convenience was worth the cost. In addition, there were a few shipments that arrived either wet or damaged that were replaced with no questions asked!

do you think Mystic will still honor some 'old' coupons issued when you made purchases.???

I buy most of my supplies and some random stamps from Mystic. Their website makes it very easy and they have always been good in terms of accuracy and speed in processing my orders.

I do buy supplies from the big companies.

Although this news article is quite dated now (2011) it seems Mystic Stamp Company does a fair amount of business, especially if they can offer their employees a quarter of a million dollars in bonuses in the midst of a slow economy:

http://romesentinel.com/news?newsid...11214-142539

I have made exactly one purchase from Mystic. I don't recall what US stamps I was looking for, but I had been unable to find them at a price I was willing to pay. I mentioned my search to another collector who eventually alerted me to the fact that Mystic had "my" stamps. Knowing that their prices were high, I had never even considered looking for these stamps at Mystic ... but then, to my surprise, their price proved to be well under what I had found elsewhere. So I grabbed them. Just wish I could remember which stamps they were ... think this was about 5 or 6 years ago.

When I extended my USA collection from 1994 to 2000, I got most of the MNH stamps from ebay. But a number were only sold in groups, or not available at all. I ended up getting about 25 stamps from Mystic, spending $34. It was significantly cheaper than ebay (including postage) and what I got was just fine. Obviously these were low value stamps of course.

I buy stamps from several sources; I'll mention names since I'm happy with the services:

1) auction houses (Rogers, Kelleher)
2) dealers (D & P, Farber, Ried, Friedman, in the recent past). D & P handles my favorite Portuguese colonies. I've ordered a couple times from the next two via their ads in Linn's; and from Friedman via his every-other-month flyers.
3) APS Stamp Store
4) MEPSI member circuits

You'll note that ebay is not in my universe. Who needs the hassles, rating systems, return problems, mis-representations, that people keep complaining of, on this and other philatelic forums. I want to collect stamps, not hassles.

It's been a long, long time since I've purchased anything from a printed ad or price list and most of the dealers at the shows I go to are regional or local and not the "big name' dealers. I don't know who their (the biggies) clientele is or how they stay in business, but they keep advertising so they must be making money.

Auction sale commissions may be a large part of the big name dealers profitability. Then, too, high profile, wealthy collectors (which I am not) may be regular buyers. The stock they handle seems higher priced to me and they may need to sell less of it at the higher prices.

Don