Compare Mystic And Brookman

Thoughts on Mystic and Brookman stamp companies and their service, inventory and ability to supply US stamps for your want lists. Do you have a preference between the two?

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Both are laughably overpriced.

You'll do much better shopping carefully on ebay or hip.

Beginners want the comfort of purchasing from an established company rather than random unknown personas on eBay or Hipstamp. That's perfectly fine for presence of mind; just be aware that you will likely be drastically overpaying for what you purchase from them.

Mystic often shows stock photos of a stamp, so the one pictured may not be the one you're actually going to get. Additionally, I've seen listings where they offer, say, 6 copies of a particular stamp at different price points, but only provide illustrations and detailed descriptions for 4 of them. Etc.

The Brookman catalog lists many minor suffix varieties. Mystic does not.

Given that Mystic employs up to 150 people in their own 50,000 sq ft facility and markets heavily they have a lot of overhead to service and are expensive. Still, a lot of collectors like them given that a recent local media article stated that they mail 8-10 thousand pieces of mail daily (how many catalogs and advertising pieces is of course not stated).

JFF, may I ask what you are potentially looking to buy? Take it you are new to the hobby?

I will add Mystic has great customer service and you pay for it although the Heirloom album is still a bargain including annual supplement costs. If you are just starting the best approach is to buy a starter collection. I have seen many prior owner Mystic albums with stamps for sale on eba.

Thanks everyone. I've been collecting for many years but getting back now after retirement. I realize both mystic and Brookman can be overpriced. I'm looking to fill in my collection of suffix variations of a, b, c, etc from the 70's, 80's, 90's, etc in specific configurations such as pairs, blocks of 4, etc. The configurations are specific for my Lighthouse albums layout.

I'm finding many individual dealers do not have a lot of these suffix or tagged, etc, variations. I sent both Mystic and Brookman a list of about 100. Mystic said they could look at it, but it might take four to six weeks because they are very busy… Brookman looked at it and said they could fill most of my list in a few days.

Going in with your eyes open, so be it. I'll say this, Don Sundman at Mystic seems to do quite a lot for the promotion of stamp collecting over the years. Yes, probably some cross promotion with his own company.

I had no idea he might employ as many as 150 people. If I was going to pay premium prices for premium-ish service, I'd support that effort.

Welcome (back) to the hobby. Now that we know what you are looking for, some more precise suggestions can be offered.

From your explanation, either Mystic or Brookman should be able to fill your need. It is nice that Mystic was honest that it could take 4-6 weeks to fill the order rather than just taking your money and sitting on it for a while. I've had some supplies dealers do that, take my money for something they know is out of stock and needs to be shipped from Europe (surface) which took many weeks, and they didn't let me know of the delay until I called. Anyway, sorry to digress.

There are also some independent dealers around that may be able to provide you with better selection and/or service and/or prices. Take a look at Bardo Stamps for example. They have nice photos in their web site including zoomed up images of the modern microprint variations. I looked up some tagging variety examples (e.g. 1320a) and found both the normal stamp (.25) and the tagged version (.45) including a picture of what the tagging looks like. (pretty boring on the overall-tagging variety, but more useful with modern variations with block tagging, phosphorized paper, or luminescent ink e.g. 2452Dg).

Others may be able to chime in on the pro's and con's of this dealer and/or suggest some others to help fill in those hard to find spaces.

Enjoy!